Changing repertoires of collective action: American general strikes 1877–1946

Abstract

General strikes emerged as part of an industrial repertoire of collective action that included singular strikes. While individual strikes continue, the United States has not experienced a general strike since 1946. What conditions facilitated the selection of this tactic by American labor? Why did the general strike disappear from labor's tactical repertoire after 1946? These questions are answered through a sequential analysis of the emergence of four American general strikes beginning in 1877 through 1946. Through a repertoire of collective action lens, I identify general conditions that increased the probability of general strike emergence. These general conditions, however, were also present in cities that did not have general strikes. To move beyond general conditions, I look at how they informed the local histories and historically contingent events that resulted in the “snowball effect” through which general strikes emerged from singular ones. I propose that American general strikes disappeared after 1946 due to changes in conditions that produced the industrial repertoire of collective action, foremost, changes in patterns of state repression through the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act.

Citation

Johnson, V. (2008), "Changing repertoires of collective action: American general strikes 1877–1946", Prechel, H. (Ed.) Politics and Public Policy (Research in Political Sociology, Vol. 17), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 101-134. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0895-9935(08)17005-X