Anyone can strike. That’s part of the whole point. To take power back. The shape and meaning of what a strike can be has expanded throughout history. We often think of workers’ strikes, of mass strikes but the way to strike can be expansive.
The purpose of a strike is to disrupt life as usual. It is often done for economic impact, but also for social impact. It can be an organized one of many people, like the call that Bisan made to the world. But it can also be a single individual. Remember that a strike is a form of protest.
Ask yourself, what can I do that will disrupt life for government and corporations? Because when I disrupt them, they notice. What can I do to encourage others to participate? THAT is a form of organizing.
That will let other people understand that we cannot go about life as usual.
Yes, striking can be not going to work, it can be not attending classes, not shopping. But it can also mean sending 200 emails that day to politicians everywhere. It can mean going into a store and yelling CEASEFIRE and then leaving. Making the work printer print CEASEFIRE until it runs out of ink. Or sending a call to your rep on loop for 24 hours. Like elders in Korea, it can be you bringing a chair and sitting in front of a business with a sign all day. It can mean talking to a friend through not showing up to work. It can mean committing yourself to 5 conversations with 5 people who do not yet understand why we are calling for a ceasefire. Pasting political flyers across an entire fence, posting about how the strike is going, and always amplifying Palestinian documentation and voices.
Remember why we are striking. Bisan called on us to strike for a week for a ceasefire. It is to force those in leadership to ensure there is a final ceasefire.
Whatever you can do in your capacity, and that means so many different things for so many different people, disrupt business and life to send the message of a ceasefire now.
Everyone can do something. Global strike. All of us.
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