Home

Contact Johnny Peaceseed

Commentaries

Poetry

Daily Archives

Links to Great Web Sites

Johnny's Heroes

Boycott These Products

Quotes for the Revolution

Free Seeds of Peace...

Buttons 1

Buttons 2

Buttons 3

Flyers

Posters

May 16, 2003

A Call for a National General Strike

In 1967, the idea came to me that, if all the peace loving people stood up at the same time, and said, “No More Vietnam War,” the war would have vanished under the weight of our will. I didn’t know then that what I dreamed of was a general strike. I didn’t know what would be needed to successfully strike on a national scale. Since then, I’ve learned about the long tradition of general strikes and what a profound effect they have had on European government and business. The first general strike was in Spain in 1873.* Since then, general strikes have been used effectively by the French, Italian and British trade union movements from the late nineteen century up to this day, with very effective results. The general strike is based on the belief that a concerted and generalized work stoppage on the part of the workers is the surest way to force employers to accept union demands, or to change the social order, or to prevent the slide of nations into war. **

We are in a perilous predicament today and I am of the opinion that we should be looking very closely at this stratagem and determining whether a national general strike would help pull us back from the precipice of fascism and war. I am convinced that, if we stop acting hopeless and helpless, and if we stop thinking that we don’t make a difference, we might just be able to pull it off. I believe the millions of Americans whose minds haven’t been trampled by the media, government and corporate lies, must now act to save our country and our children’s future.

I beg you, men, women, workers, students, retirees, community and union leaders, liberal Democrats and moderate Republicans and all who have been shut out of the democratic process, to join together in taking back our country. I propose we now launch a national examination of the efficacy of a national general strike who’s purpose is wrest America from those who aspire to corrupt it’s ideals.

Our banners shall be: No More War! No More Intolerance! No More Corruption! No More Injustice and Inequality! We shall strike until our government returns to the ideals of liberty, justice and democracy for everyone, the same ideals that are only given lip service today. We will strike until the United States becomes again, a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Until America stops supporting military terrorism abroad. Until America is seen as the hope of the world instead of the scourge. Until America agrees to redress the harm done to millions of citizens whose lives have been trampled by the current onslaught on our civil rights, our environment and our economy. We will not stop until America is, once again, ours.

If the oligarchs try to deny us, all commerce shall cease. The world of greed will collapse. The freeways will be emptied. The cacophony of machines will be silenced. You and I, and all our brothers and sisters will seize what our Constitution promises us. A strike like nothing ever seen in the history of humankind. An event so huge that it would be written of for centuries to come. The day that peace and justice came.

Any takers" Shall we set a date"
--------
*
http://www.marxists.org/history/international/iwma/archive/steklov/history-first-international/ch25.htm

**
http://www.eurofound.eu.int/emire/FRANCE/GENERALSTRIKE-FR.html

Johnny Peaceseed