There are moments in a people’s life when day-to-day life becomes too tight to fit the schedules, salaries and expectations of those who work. When the month is longer than the salary, when political dialogue is exhausted and when inequality worsens in the decision-making corridors, all that remains is to resort to taking a collective stance: the general strike.
We witness, every day, desperate situations marked by precariousness: workers with unpaid wages or even no pay. These are mothers who cannot feed their children or pay their rent. And Portugal is not an isolated case: in France, in Italy, we see an identical situation: workers with their lives on hold, on the edge of survival, with their rights threatened and who have taken to the streets to show their strength.
The current labor code has never been an obstacle to the economy and a healthy relationship between work and personal life has proven good results. The “labor package” now proposed by the PSD/CDS government, essentially accompanied by IL and CH, constitutes one of the biggest attacks on the dignity of those who work. It affects fundamental rights such as collective bargaining, freedom of association and the right to strike. It worsens precariousness by extending fixed-term contracts, facilitates dismissals, allowing immediate hiring in outsourcing for the same function and eliminates the obligation for reinstatement after the worker wins a case in court. Particularly serious is the reduction in rest for those who work shifts and the end of the possibility of refusing night or weekend shifts for those with children under 12 years of age. It’s not being aware of the impact of shift work on the life, mental health and family of those who do it. It seems that we have entered a time machine and returned to the liberal and savage 19th century labor system.
To justify all this, the narrative of modernization and balance is sold, but it is the opposite: a vision that reduces development to unlimited economic growth, at the expense of workers and natural resources. It is a political logic that is already widely contested, but it continues to serve the neoliberal economy, widening inequalities and destroying the planet. In fact, the economic model itself is at stake.
The general strike is not a whim of the unions, as the Government and employers imply. Those who go on strike are the workers. It is the recognition that the problem is no longer individual, but structural – and structures only change when they are shaken.
It is often asked: “but does a strike solve anything?”, the Government and some sectors even trying to reduce it to a nuisance, instigating workers against workers. The answer is: “Yes”. Not always immediately, but history shows that almost all labor rights – decent wages, rest, security, social protection – were born because someone had the courage to stop so the world could move forward.
A general strike never ends the day it happens. Its effects can be felt in negotiations, public debate, struggles and collective memory. It shows that a country that works also knows how to demand respect and that rights are not given – they are exercised, claimed and, when necessary, defended on the street.
The importance of the general strike is, deep down, to remember that democracy only breathes when the people speak. And sometimes, to be heard, you need to stop.
Director of the Political Association Citizens for Lisbon