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Shut It Down: Why a General Strike is the Only Way to Stop Trump, Musk, and the March Toward Fascism [1]

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Date: 2025-03-16

We are running out of time. The warnings have been flashing red for years. Donald Trump tried to overturn a democratic election. Elon Musk has turned his social media empire into a fascist propaganda machine. The rich have declared war on the working class, gutting labor rights, crushing unions, and hoarding obscene levels of wealth while millions struggle to survive.

They think they’re untouchable. It’s time to prove them wrong.

The ballot box isn’t enough. The courts are stacked. The corporations own Congress. We have one tool left that they truly fear—a general strike. They can dismiss our protests. They can ignore our outrage online. But they cannot function if we refuse to work. They cannot profit if we shut down the economy. They cannot rule if we refuse to be ruled.

If we don’t take action, Trump and Musk will tighten their grip on this country and turn it into a playground for billionaires and a prison for the rest of us. We must fight back.

Enough Is Enough: Trump, Musk, and the War on Workers

Let’s not sugarcoat it—Donald Trump and Elon Musk are enemies of democracy and enemies of working people. They are two sides of the same fascist coin: Trump, a power-hungry demagogue obsessed with revenge and domination; Musk, a billionaire oligarch who dreams of ruling over a techno-feudalist hellscape.

Trump’s entire political career has been an attack on the working class. He’s stacked the courts with anti-labor judges, gutted workplace safety protections, and shredded overtime pay. He let billionaires and corporations off the hook for wage theft and union busting. His administration’s policies robbed over $1 billion per year from workers by rolling back overtime protections. He cut OSHA inspectors to historic lows, leaving workers vulnerable to dangerous conditions. He doesn’t care if you live or die—as long as his billionaire friends get richer.

Musk is no better. He is one of the most notoriously anti-union, anti-worker figures alive today. He has illegally fired Tesla workers for organizing, defied labor laws, and forced brutal, unsafe working conditions onto his employees. He has personally told workers he would rather shut down Tesla than let them unionize. And now, Musk is using his platform—X (formerly Twitter)—to openly spread far-right, fascist propaganda.

You think these men will just stop on their own? Hell no. They will push further, crush harder, and take more—until we stand up and stop them.

A General Strike is the Only Real Weapon We Have Left

Voting didn’t stop Trump. Protests didn’t stop him. Investigations, impeachments, lawsuits—nothing has stopped him. He’s back, and this time, he doesn’t even pretend to care about democracy. And Musk? He’s already working overtime to ensure billionaires like him have total control over information, labor, and politics. He’s systematically dismantling our government with DOGE.

So what do we do? We take the fight to them where it actually hurts: their money, their profits, their power.

A general strike is not a symbolic protest. It’s not a hashtag. It’s economic war—and it’s one that we can win.

• The French did it in 1968, and it nearly toppled the government.

• The Germans did it in 1920, and it crushed a right-wing coup.

• We’ve done it before, in Seattle in 1919, in Oakland in 1946. And we can do it again.

The labor movement is already rising. The United Auto Workers won huge gains in 2023. Hotel workers, nurses, teachers, UPS drivers—they’re all fighting back. And the UAW has already called for a massive, coordinated strike by 2028. The momentum is there. We just have to seize it.

“But a General Strike is Too Hard!”—Bullshit.

Some people will say a general strike is impossible. They’ll say “It’s too hard to organize,” or “Taft-Hartley makes it illegal,” or “People can’t afford to strike.”

Let’s be clear: the only reason we’re even discussing this is because they have ALREADY made life unaffordable. What do you think happens when Trump gets back in power? What happens when Musk buys even more influence? It only gets worse. There is no “waiting for the right moment”—this IS the right moment.

And as for the legal obstacles—so what? The law only matters if people obey it. The Taft-Hartley Act has been on the books since 1947, but strikes have happened anyway. The National Labor Relations Act still protects collective action for “mutual aid and protection.” And if they want to try to break the strike? Let them try. We overwhelm them.

We have the numbers. We have the anger. We have the moral high ground. The only thing missing is courage.

How Do We Win? Organization, Solidarity, Relentless Action.

We don’t just wake up one day and call a general strike. We build toward it. We start organizing right now:

• Workers: Talk to your coworkers. Organize in your workplace. Join a union. If your job won’t let you unionize, start meeting in secret.

• Unions: Stop fighting alone. The 2028 UAW strike plan is a start, but we need EVERYONE. Coordination is the key to success.

• Communities: Mutual aid is critical. If people fear losing their income, we create strike funds, we share resources, we help each other survive.

• Media and Influencers: Use your platforms to spread the word. The mainstream media won’t support this movement—we have to do it ourselves.

• Young People: Get involved. Gen Z and Millennials will inherit this fight. Don’t wait—lead the way.

This isn’t just about labor rights anymore. This is about whether we let a handful of billionaires dictate the future of this country while democracy rots. This is about survival.

A Warning to the Billionaire Class: Your Time is Up.

Musk, Trump, Bezos, and every other billionaire parasite want you to believe you are powerless. They want you to keep working yourself to death for scraps while they buy yachts, bribe politicians, and crush anyone who dares to challenge them.

They think they’re untouchable. They are wrong.

We don’t ask for justice. We demand it.

We don’t beg for fairness. We take it.

We don’t wait for change. We are the change.

The general strike is not some utopian dream. It is a necessity. Either we fight back, or we let these men grind us into the dirt. The choice is ours.

Which side are you on?

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/16/2310574/-Shut-It-Down-Why-a-General-Strike-is-the-Only-Way-to-Stop-Trump-Musk-and-the-March-Toward-Fascism?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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