Last month, businesses, schools, and workplaces across Minnesota in the USA closed in two general strikes to protest President Donald Trump’s violent immigration crackdown in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, as well as the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Against backgrounds of massive, nonviolent marches in frigid temperatures through central Minneapolis, the strikes marked an extraordinary example of resistance to the authoritarian behavior of the Washington administration. This resistance was an action deeply rooted in the political culture of the Twin Cities and the now largely forgotten history of the general strike as a tactic for social action and protest in the United States.

Although common in Europe, the last general strike in the United States occurred nearly 80 years ago, in 1946, during the period of labour unrest following World War II. During the first half of the 20th century, however, the general strike was a frequent form of social activism, normally centered around the labor movement. The largest general strikes in US history occurred in Seattle in 1919, in support of striking shipyard workers, and in Oakland, California in 1934, after police shot and killed striking longshoremen. Minneapolis also experienced a series of general strikes in 1934, an event that shaped the city’s political identity and tradition that provided a powerful platform for resistance to the Trump administration and its officials. In 1934 the Brotherhood of Teamsters struck for recognition of their union and increased wages. The Teamsters formed an........

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