The last few months have been marked by an intensification of social
mobilizations against the genocide that the State of Israel is
perpetrating against the Palestinian people. In different parts of the
world, the working class has shown constant solidarity, taking to the
streets, organizing dockworkers' strikes, and denouncing the complicity
of Western governments with the Israeli war machine. However, despite
this momentum, the union "initiatives" that have sought to channel this
anger and discontent into a general strike have encountered the inherent
limitations of a political strike.
I believe it is necessary to reflect on what happened in these strikes
for Palestine, especially the one on October 15 (15-O), and more broadly
on the role of trade unionism in international struggles against
imperialism and global capitalism. I do so not from a position of easy
judgment, but from the conviction that the tools of our class-the
strike, solidarity, self-organization-must be used with rigor, strategy,
and genuine commitment. Without that responsibility, at best, we can
simply trail behind social movements and let them dictate the pace of
union political activity. At worst, it can be perceived as opportunism
aimed at luring social movements into the union, with no other aim than
to generate publicity and get their picture taken.
A Necessary Critique of Recent Political Strikes
I want to begin by pointing out, respectfully but clearly, that the
recent strikes called in relation to Palestine have shown a worrying
degree of improvisation. Like the one the previous year, the October
15th strike was organized hastily, without in-depth dialogue with union
sections and without a solid campaign that could have given it political
and union substance. What could have been a genuine expression of
proletarian internationalism ended up seeming largely like an empty
gesture: an exercise in opportunism by certain factions within the
unions more concerned with "not being left behind" than with building a
true balance of power.
This lack of planning has been a direct consequence of the strikes not
stemming from genuine grassroots organizing and, more importantly, from
a lack of dialogue and much-needed debate with union sections. While the
initiative may seem courageous-because every strike is-its execution has
been weak, lacking roots and continuity. The strike has been a failure
in quantitative terms, so we can say that its method of mobilization has
not risen to the political challenge we face. In many sectors, with
honorable exceptions like the metalworkers' union, the strike has not
resonated with the necessary force. It was not uncommon to find members
of the organizing unions on the picket lines who were unaware of the
strike itself, which made me wonder if it had really only been announced
through social media and not even through internal union channels.
Beyond the Urgency: Building from the Ground Up
Within the organizations of organized social anarchism, and especially
in the militant unions that did not call for strikes, there was talk
after the previous strike about the importance of not acting out of
urgency or fear of appearing indifferent, but rather through planning
and patient work in spaces of class self-organization, especially those
that address immediate demands. However, we see how this reflection has
not yet translated into practice. New calls for action-not even
initiated by these unions that did not participate in the previous
strike-have resonated with the same tight deadlines and without
sufficient coordination across different regions.
Meanwhile, the other unions-those that neither called for the first nor
the second strike, and that have merely supported it-have criticized
this very situation, but without any proposals or constructive spirit.
This makes me wonder if we truly care about this issue, beyond the
occasional support-necessary and welcome as it may be-or if we see
potential in the struggle for Palestine.
I believe that within these unions critical of the strike, there's a
sense that this issue deserves support: attending demonstrations,
supporting activists, or amplifying the cause on social media. However,
the sector that believes this issue can be a driving force within the
working class to bring more pressing issues to the forefront is a
minority. This is even more true now, with the gradual erosion of mass
support following the deceitful "peace" agreement promoted by the US to
favor Israel. And I believe this is precisely what gives us clues about
a possible resurgence in the future and, therefore, a responsibility to
apply our critiques in the present.
If we truly believe in the capacity of the working class to intervene in
historical processes, we must recognize that political strikes cannot be
a mere symbolic act. Nor can we simply follow the lead of the most
avant-garde social movements and allow them to dictate the immediate
pace within which their political activity is framed.
The spaces of struggle can and must transcend the confines of the union
or social movements: taking these issues to the neighborhoods, to
housing assemblies, and articulating the demand for freedom for the
Palestinian people as one of their immediate needs.
We should not squander the consciousness-raising potential of this
international solidarity: there is a unifying, all-encompassing capacity
in this matter. The resurgence of Zionist barbarity, and the resulting
solidarity, must become moments of building strength, spaces where
labor, anti-colonial, feminist, and environmental struggles unite
against a common enemy: the global capitalist system.
Genocide as an Expression of Contemporary Capitalism
The Palestinian genocide cannot be understood as an isolated event or a
localized tragedy. It is part of a broader structure of domination:
imperialism, extractivism, militarization, and the logic of limitless
accumulation that sustain contemporary capitalism. The colonization of
Palestine is the permanent laboratory for the techniques of control,
repression, and dispossession that are then exported to the rest of the
world.
In this sense, genocide is not an exception, but an extreme
manifestation of the global economic and political order.
From this perspective, the struggle against the Palestinian genocide
must also be a struggle against capitalism, against the states that
uphold it, and against the dynamics that make our lives precarious
everywhere. There is no international solidarity without direct
confrontation with the material conditions that allow and reproduce
barbarity.
A proposal: towards a strike for class self-organization
The strike can be not only a tool of struggle, but also a starting point
for building strength. A strike that is not limited to demanding an end
to genocide, but that positions it as the starting point for a broader
denunciation of the capitalist system of oppression internationally and
also in the Spanish State.
This strike should, in my opinion, be structured around several ideas:
Solidarity with the Palestinian people and the denunciation of imperialism.
The struggle against the precariousness of work and life that affects
the working class.
Resistance to growing state authoritarianism, as demonstrated by recent
cases of political and union repression (the Six in Switzerland).
Frontal opposition to the advance of the far right and its alliance with
capital.
Key action in strategic sectors such as arms manufacturing and freight
transport (especially maritime). Without these, it will be difficult for
the strike to gain momentum and mobilize other sectors.
Because genocide is merely one aspect-perhaps the most brutal and
heartbreaking-of the class system that globally oppresses the working class.
Framing the Palestinian question within the class struggle is not an
exaggeration: it is recognizing that capitalism kills, plunders, and
colonizes. It is breaking with the idea that there are more or less
oppressed sectors that need our help, and understanding that all the
problems of our class, however bearable or terrible they may be, have
the same root.
T(t), activist with Liza Madrid
https://regeneracionlibertaria.org/2025/12/05/la-huelga-general-politica-y-sus-limites/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
mobilizations against the genocide that the State of Israel is
perpetrating against the Palestinian people. In different parts of the
world, the working class has shown constant solidarity, taking to the
streets, organizing dockworkers' strikes, and denouncing the complicity
of Western governments with the Israeli war machine. However, despite
this momentum, the union "initiatives" that have sought to channel this
anger and discontent into a general strike have encountered the inherent
limitations of a political strike.
I believe it is necessary to reflect on what happened in these strikes
for Palestine, especially the one on October 15 (15-O), and more broadly
on the role of trade unionism in international struggles against
imperialism and global capitalism. I do so not from a position of easy
judgment, but from the conviction that the tools of our class-the
strike, solidarity, self-organization-must be used with rigor, strategy,
and genuine commitment. Without that responsibility, at best, we can
simply trail behind social movements and let them dictate the pace of
union political activity. At worst, it can be perceived as opportunism
aimed at luring social movements into the union, with no other aim than
to generate publicity and get their picture taken.
A Necessary Critique of Recent Political Strikes
I want to begin by pointing out, respectfully but clearly, that the
recent strikes called in relation to Palestine have shown a worrying
degree of improvisation. Like the one the previous year, the October
15th strike was organized hastily, without in-depth dialogue with union
sections and without a solid campaign that could have given it political
and union substance. What could have been a genuine expression of
proletarian internationalism ended up seeming largely like an empty
gesture: an exercise in opportunism by certain factions within the
unions more concerned with "not being left behind" than with building a
true balance of power.
This lack of planning has been a direct consequence of the strikes not
stemming from genuine grassroots organizing and, more importantly, from
a lack of dialogue and much-needed debate with union sections. While the
initiative may seem courageous-because every strike is-its execution has
been weak, lacking roots and continuity. The strike has been a failure
in quantitative terms, so we can say that its method of mobilization has
not risen to the political challenge we face. In many sectors, with
honorable exceptions like the metalworkers' union, the strike has not
resonated with the necessary force. It was not uncommon to find members
of the organizing unions on the picket lines who were unaware of the
strike itself, which made me wonder if it had really only been announced
through social media and not even through internal union channels.
Beyond the Urgency: Building from the Ground Up
Within the organizations of organized social anarchism, and especially
in the militant unions that did not call for strikes, there was talk
after the previous strike about the importance of not acting out of
urgency or fear of appearing indifferent, but rather through planning
and patient work in spaces of class self-organization, especially those
that address immediate demands. However, we see how this reflection has
not yet translated into practice. New calls for action-not even
initiated by these unions that did not participate in the previous
strike-have resonated with the same tight deadlines and without
sufficient coordination across different regions.
Meanwhile, the other unions-those that neither called for the first nor
the second strike, and that have merely supported it-have criticized
this very situation, but without any proposals or constructive spirit.
This makes me wonder if we truly care about this issue, beyond the
occasional support-necessary and welcome as it may be-or if we see
potential in the struggle for Palestine.
I believe that within these unions critical of the strike, there's a
sense that this issue deserves support: attending demonstrations,
supporting activists, or amplifying the cause on social media. However,
the sector that believes this issue can be a driving force within the
working class to bring more pressing issues to the forefront is a
minority. This is even more true now, with the gradual erosion of mass
support following the deceitful "peace" agreement promoted by the US to
favor Israel. And I believe this is precisely what gives us clues about
a possible resurgence in the future and, therefore, a responsibility to
apply our critiques in the present.
If we truly believe in the capacity of the working class to intervene in
historical processes, we must recognize that political strikes cannot be
a mere symbolic act. Nor can we simply follow the lead of the most
avant-garde social movements and allow them to dictate the immediate
pace within which their political activity is framed.
The spaces of struggle can and must transcend the confines of the union
or social movements: taking these issues to the neighborhoods, to
housing assemblies, and articulating the demand for freedom for the
Palestinian people as one of their immediate needs.
We should not squander the consciousness-raising potential of this
international solidarity: there is a unifying, all-encompassing capacity
in this matter. The resurgence of Zionist barbarity, and the resulting
solidarity, must become moments of building strength, spaces where
labor, anti-colonial, feminist, and environmental struggles unite
against a common enemy: the global capitalist system.
Genocide as an Expression of Contemporary Capitalism
The Palestinian genocide cannot be understood as an isolated event or a
localized tragedy. It is part of a broader structure of domination:
imperialism, extractivism, militarization, and the logic of limitless
accumulation that sustain contemporary capitalism. The colonization of
Palestine is the permanent laboratory for the techniques of control,
repression, and dispossession that are then exported to the rest of the
world.
In this sense, genocide is not an exception, but an extreme
manifestation of the global economic and political order.
From this perspective, the struggle against the Palestinian genocide
must also be a struggle against capitalism, against the states that
uphold it, and against the dynamics that make our lives precarious
everywhere. There is no international solidarity without direct
confrontation with the material conditions that allow and reproduce
barbarity.
A proposal: towards a strike for class self-organization
The strike can be not only a tool of struggle, but also a starting point
for building strength. A strike that is not limited to demanding an end
to genocide, but that positions it as the starting point for a broader
denunciation of the capitalist system of oppression internationally and
also in the Spanish State.
This strike should, in my opinion, be structured around several ideas:
Solidarity with the Palestinian people and the denunciation of imperialism.
The struggle against the precariousness of work and life that affects
the working class.
Resistance to growing state authoritarianism, as demonstrated by recent
cases of political and union repression (the Six in Switzerland).
Frontal opposition to the advance of the far right and its alliance with
capital.
Key action in strategic sectors such as arms manufacturing and freight
transport (especially maritime). Without these, it will be difficult for
the strike to gain momentum and mobilize other sectors.
Because genocide is merely one aspect-perhaps the most brutal and
heartbreaking-of the class system that globally oppresses the working class.
Framing the Palestinian question within the class struggle is not an
exaggeration: it is recognizing that capitalism kills, plunders, and
colonizes. It is breaking with the idea that there are more or less
oppressed sectors that need our help, and understanding that all the
problems of our class, however bearable or terrible they may be, have
the same root.
T(t), activist with Liza Madrid
https://regeneracionlibertaria.org/2025/12/05/la-huelga-general-politica-y-sus-limites/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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