What It Takes to Shut It Down: General Strikes, Movement Strategy, Solidarity

Text the Unruly Hotline HereThis week, we feature a conversation with veteran labor organizer and strategist Bill Fletcher Jr. all about general strikes.  What do people mean when they say general strike? What makes strike power different from other kinds of protest power? And what kind of conditions actually have to exist for this kind of action to succeed, especially in a moment when the repression is this real?In this episode, we also hear from two workers on the ground in Minneapolis: Dr. Robert Mills III is a pediatrician and Nakia Dunbar is a school administrator. They talked about what it's been like to do their jobs while ICE is terrorizing the city, when families are scared, and when employees are scared to come in. And Chenjerai takes us to a Salon 50 event in NYC where he interviewed author Sequoia Patterson about her new book, talked to Dana Rachlin about the event series and learned more about the connections between childcare and public safety. Writer and scholar Leigh Claire La Berge will join Chenjerai on an upcoming episode to discuss the hotline responses. She’s the author of Fake Work (Haymarket Books), a memoir that looks back at her stint as a management consultant in the late 90s. We make Unruly Subjects 100% independently - support the show on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjectsFollow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod Get in touch [email protected] books at Haymarketbooks.com Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Grizzly BeatzUnruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome ProductionsFurther reading & sources from this episodeThe Citywide General Strike has a Rich History in Americahttps://jacobin.com/2026/01/ice-minneapolis-general-strike-historySolidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justicehttps://bookshop.org/p/books/solidarity-divided-the-crisis-in-organized-labor-and-a-new-path-toward-social-justice-bill-fletcher-jr/d53c76836f07a2a5?ean=9780520934740&next=tClaim No Easy Victories: The Legacy of Amílcar Cabralhttps://bookshop.org/p/books/claim-no-easy-victories-the-legacy-of-am-lcar-cabral-bill-fletcher-jr/e7c97ba41b2363da?ean=9781942173847&next=t Support the show