WHAT IS A SOCIAL STRIKE?

“Social strike is a broad term that encompasses a wide range of activities that use the withdrawal of cooperation and mass disruption to affect governments and social structures. While the U.S. has a tradition of social and labor movements using mass action and local general strikes, it does not have a tradition of using people power for the defense of democracy.

However, in other countries where democratic institutions have been so weakened or eliminated that they provide no alternative to tyranny, such methods have been used effectively.

Various kinds of social strikes have occurred in U.S. history...These often involved popular action that went far beyond, though usually included, the withdrawal of labor power that conventionally define a strike. Mass strikes have included general strikes, mass picketing, occupation of workplaces and government buildings, nonviolent direct action, shutdowns of commerce, blocking of traffic and other disruption of everyday activities.”

— Jeremy Becher, Waging Nonviolence