Purpose
General strikes have been done in order to seek "democracy, political representation and the provision of basic education and healthcare". In Europe, General Strikes were very common in the 19th and early 20th century.
In Portugal, a general strike has been called by the federation of public labor unions to avert austerity measures.
In Honduras, a general strike has been called by Union workers, farmers and other organizations demanding better education, an increase in the minimum wage and against fuel price hikes.
In Yemen, a general strike has been called by protesters to protest the presidency of that country.
In Algeria, public sector workers have mounted a general strike for higher wages and improved working conditions.
In February, 1947, General Douglas MacArthur, as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Japan, banned a planned general strike of 2,400,000 government workers, stating that "so deadly a social weapon" as the general strike should not be used in the impoverished and emaciated condition of Japan so soon after World War II. Japan's labour leaders complied with his ban.
Read more about this topic: General Strike
Famous quotes containing the word purpose:
“If God bestowed immortality on every man then when he made him, and he made many to whom he never purposed to give his saving grace, what did his Lordship think that God gave any man immortality with purpose only to make him capable of immortal torments? It is a hard saying, and I think cannot piously be believed. I am sure it can never be proved by the canonical Scripture.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“Language, the machine of the poet, is best fitted for his purpose in its rudest state. Nations, like individuals, first perceive, and then abstract. They advance from particular images to general terms. Hence the vocabulary of an enlightened society is philosophical, that of a half-civilised people is poetical.”
—Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859)
“... the word “education” has an evil sound in politics; there is a pretense of education,
when the real purpose is coercion without the use of force.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)