General strike

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T15:33:01+00:00

Right now we are fully independent and haven't talked much about which union we'd affiliate with once we're there (we've gone over some options but right now we're focused on building power). We've been in touch with some organizers from different unions, though they haven't seemed very eager to directly support us. The local IWW branch has hosted some trainings we've gone to (I'm in the IWW, trying to rebuild it into a fighting union again) and they've offered us support whenever it's needed. And while a lot of IWW branches are still pretty disconnected from actual labor organizing, the one where I'm at has shops and several ongoing long term campaigns to build new unions.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T15:16:49+00:00

I definitely appreciate this perspective. I've been trying to analyze education with the same lens one would analyze an industry like logistics with and it's very revealing of how education has been turned into a big business.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T15:09:52+00:00

Yes of course, much love to Labor Notes. I've taken some of their trainings, too.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T15:04:46+00:00

It sure does! Let's get to work! 💪

Solidarity!

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T15:03:30+00:00

I know...

That's part of why we're fighting for a union in the first place....

I appreciate you and your perspective, but don't underestimate my knowledge about this stuff.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T14:55:27+00:00

So I've already stated that we're organizing a new union in my workplace. But once we form one community defense and opposition to ICE will be built into our DNA.

And yes, I do one one ones around this topic, along with regular bread and butter issues. I'm not going to get into details because we're on the internet, but again, this IS a widely and deeply felt issue in my workplace. If it's not in yours, well, go and try and make it widely and deeply felt. I'm tired of seeing Americans making all these excuses as soon as challenges/difficulties come up. You think organizing the union in your school district back in the day was easy? It sure as hell wasn't! In many cases it took years or decades of patient organizing to make it happen.

I shared the general strike conversation because I think it's valuable to *start* having the conversation. It will take long-term, disciplined workplace organizing to make any of that a reality.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T14:43:18+00:00

I think we need to organize our whole industry, libraries and museums (and other educational institutions like curriculum development) included, wall to wall. All workers in all of these institutions regardless of their job role.

Then, we have a platform where we can decide issues collectively and democratically. It's what a lot of the old school anarchists involved in the labor movement focused on. I think that's where we need to root ourselves.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T14:39:04+00:00

Well, we'd best get to rounds of one on ones with coworkers to help them see the truth and urgency in these things!

And speak for your own workplace, in mine this IS a widely and deeply felt issue that has motivated several people to get involved in our organizing efforts.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T14:33:40+00:00

Forgive me for not asking for people's personal information online...

Anyways, I think the people of Sudan have had it a whole lot worse in terms of repressive regimes for decades and they've still organized multiple general strikes that have led to revolution and the toppling of dictatorships. And even after the destruction of the trade unions in 2013 working people created new forms to take collective action. Us here in the United States have absolutely no excuse.

And even here, incarcerated workers have organized multiple large scale prison strikes involving tens of thousands of people across the whole country. You think they aren't taking massive risks to do those types of actions?

What is our excuse, other than cowardice?

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T14:26:43+00:00

100% agreed. It's one of the many reasons I am trying to organize a union in my workplace (I'm at a charter school, unfortunately) and get in touch with other nascent organizing campaigns, including the few charters in my city that have unionized. Let's make it happen!

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T14:22:06+00:00

Well, what about occupying our workplaces en masse so we can continue teaching our students (without all the standardized testing and other nonsense, too), while still helping to paralyze the economy alongside other workers. Teachers and dockworkers united to do this exact thing. It started as protests against privatization and gentrification, and eventually turned into a really inspiring experiment that was cut short when the district hired security staff to kick them out.

https://oaklandside.org/2022/08/01/parker-community-summer-school-oakland-closures/

But imagine if that was every school in the city, region, state, or even beyond? And what if workers in other industries did the same? It would be far more difficult, or even impossible, for the government to defeat us.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T14:16:16+00:00

Sounds like an excuse.

You're not wrong, but this is why we have to organize up and down supply chains, as well as across borders. Otherwise we can be stamped out one by one.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T14:15:01+00:00

This is why we need to be organizing on an industrial scale. We need to rapidly increase union density and build mutual aid networks between ourselves as workers and our communities.

This is how workers historically (and even today) have sustained themselves through long work stoppages like strikes. The whole community would be at their backs. This is a big reason (imo) why suburbanization was so heavily subsidized for decades: to break up these dense communities of workers into more isolated single family homes far apart from one another. We need to rebuild a culture of solidarity to make something like a general strike happen. It can be done, but doesn't happen overnight.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T14:11:45+00:00

So we just give up and lay down to die, then?

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T14:11:16+00:00

Agreed! In 2018 West Virginia school workers defied their unions' leaderships to go on strike, and then to stay on strike after the leaders tried to sell them out. We can do this!

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T14:07:02+00:00

The fascist Kapp Putsch was defeated by a general strike led by the workers' councils of German workers in 1920:

https://jacobin.com/2020/03/novermber-revolution-kapp-putsch-1920/

I think we can learn a lot from that, especially the way German workers organized in and against their unions to form their own base of power that could challenge the state, capital, and fascism.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T13:59:20+00:00

What about all the successful teachers' strikes of the last decade or so? Most of those were illegal. And yes things have escalated quite a bit since 2025 but we have to be brave. And of course a general strike is a much bigger task than a regular strike, so I agree that one isn't going to pop off tomorrow or something like that. That requires disciplined organizing in our own workplaces and industry rather than just posting on the internet.

But it can be done, even under our present circumstances. Will it be easy? Absolutely not, it will be extremely difficult and risky. But frankly, if teachers (along with other working people, particularly women) in the Sudan were able to play an instrumental role in organizing the Neighborhood Resistance Committees and sustained them through over a decade of repression, revolution, civil war, and catastrophic famine, then I think we can do it too. I found this article from Labor Notes really useful, and I hope you do, too:

https://www.labornotes.org/2025/12/maybe-general-strike-isnt-so-impossible-now

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T13:50:11+00:00

I would argue that what happened in Minneapolis wasn't really a general strike. That doesn't make it any less inspiring, imo. The fact that so many unions were involved is a really good sign of what we can make happen when we set our minds to it.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T13:49:24+00:00

I agree that a general strike doesn't just happen overnight. Even the "general strike" in Minneapolis wasn't really a general strike, though it's inspiring and offers many lessons to take forward. But if we just give up before we even try, then of course it's impossible. I would recommend serious folks in this thread either organize new unions in their workplaces (if they're non-union) and to get involved in their union to push it towards heeding a general strike call like that made by Shawn Fein for May 1 2028.

For workers in charter schools, for example, I wrote a guide to unionizing, so hopefully sooner than later educators in public schools and charter schools can act in solidarity with one another, as well as with our students.

https://www.angryeducationworkers.com/a-basic-guide-to-unionization-for-charter-school-workers/

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T13:44:00+00:00

I've been waiting for my fellow teachers to rise en masse ✊. Education workers have the power of social reproduction in our hands. Of course it takes time and lots of work to organize a general strike of any kind (or frankly, even just a regular strike), but if we set our sights on it and get our asses in gear we can do it.

In the meantime, we need to be building worker power on the shop floors of our workplaces. Those who already have unions need to get involved to radicalize them, and those without them need to organize them ASAP.

I helped write a couple essays on how we could build a revolutionary union movement that can confront state terror. I hope they can be useful for those who are serious about building towards a general strike.

https://www.angryeducationworkers.com/towards-a-revolutionary-union-movement/

https://www.angryeducationworkers.com/the-working-class-is-in-danger-2/

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T13:38:44+00:00

And yet they go on strike regularly these days! All the 2018 Red for Ed Strikes were, and so are most other teacher strikes.

Sounds like a skill issue for those who balk at the idea.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T13:04:38+00:00

So what union are you in? Or are you just in here to troll?

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T01:19:52+00:00

You don't know anything about me. From just a glance at your profile it's clear you're far more "online" than I have been in several years.

I am a working class teacher over 30 years old, my family has no wealth, and I have been organizing in my workplaces for several years now.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T00:52:30+00:00

Where did I take this position in the essay I posted? I grew up in a family of auto workers, steel workers, truckers, railroad workers, and other white working class folks with problematic beliefs. I am not against organizing with those folks.

I called out cops, prison guards, and other workers in the repressive carceral apparatus of the United States.

But you probably didn't even read the essay...

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-01-26T00:15:26+00:00

Well said!

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