The organizers of last month’s Women’s March announced Monday their intention to hold a general strike at a date to be determined.
Posts across the official social media accounts for the Women’s March read: “General Strike: A Day Without A Woman,” with a subhead saying, “Date To Be Announced.”
The Women’s March began with a call for a march on Washington the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. After millions showed up for events across the world, including a massive turnout within the nation’s capital itself, the organizers committed to building the event into an effective movement.
The Women’s March website lists a series of 10 actions to be undertaken within the first 100 days of the Trump presidency. The first three actions listed involved organizing and contacting elected representatives.
But the call for a general strike would be a return to the streets and a physical jab at the economy.
“At a time when our foundational principles of freedom and equality are under threat, The Women’s March is committed to engaging in actions that affirmatively build community, strengthen relationships and support local, women- and minority-owned businesses,” The Women’s March said in a statement praising boycotts of companies that supported Trump and others that “brought the corporate practices of Uber and Nordstrom to light.”
The general strike is a tactic born among labor-oriented political movements where groups of people all leave their places of work to demand political or economic action. The statement from the Women’s March indicated the general strike would also include boycotting certain businesses.
The Women’s March may be the most high-profile announcement of a general strike during the Trump presidency so far, but many others — often on the political left — have also called for strikes.
Writer Francine Prose called for one, writing in the Guardian following Trump’s executive order suspending the refugee program and temporarily restricting travel from seven Muslim-majority countries.
A general strike planned for February 17 by Strike4Democracy currently has over 16,000 people declared on Facebook as participating.
The website for this strike called for people who could to protest nonviolently by striking from work or school and spending the day doing community service.
The February 17 strike called for members of Congress to defend the Constitution.
The Women’s March had yet to issue the date for its strike, but pledged: “The will of the people will stand.”
