2037 General Strike in the United States (ESF)

The 2037 General Strike in the United States was a mass strike movement that lasted from December 9th, 2036 till May 15th, 2038, and was the spark of a much larger worldwide strike movement. It pitted the IWW against the United States federal government under then president Dan Crenshaw and later president Kristi Noem following the former's assassination. The strike shut down much of the American economy, causing a global recession in the process. The strike began in the cities of Erie and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 9th when nearly 30,000 service workers went on strike following the alleged suppression of voters during the 2036 election cycle and the subsequent repeal of several key protections for collective bargaining.

When Crenshaw won the election but lost the House of Representatives, he was forced to act quickly on the reduction of union power—a key piece of the Republican platform. Acting hastily, as it would later be described, Crenshaw set forth repealing the majority of the framework for US labor law, including the crucial Wagner Act. This greatly disturbed several large unions, such as the AFL-CIO, but none were as disturbed as the Industrial Workers of the World, which the majority of these repeals had been directed towards. The IWW branch in Western Pennsylvania was already striking in favor of increased pay for service workers in Titusville, and with the repeal of these laws, they were able to very quickly expand their ongoing strike into a general strike throughout Western Pennsylvania.

The IWW as a whole quickly latched onto this general strike, with then Secretary-General A.P. Stallsmith calling the strike "paramount in the survival of organized labor within the United States". He then began expanding the strike throughout areas where the IWW had major influence, which included many states outside the sunbelt. Stallsmith also began recruiting members of socialist political parties to join the strike, including left-wing members of the Green Party. By March of 2037, the strike had gone mostly national.

Violent protests were commonplace during the general strike, with federal forces frequently clashing with protestors. This was no more prevalent than in the Great Lakes region, where a large IWW support-base resided. Nearly 1,000 people died alone during the day-long Battle of Erie, where most of the city was leveled during a clash between federal forces and protestors.

With the general strike turning increasingly violent and looking more like an armed insurrection with the beginning of SRA involvement and assassination of Dan Crenshaw in late 2037, the usage of federal forces was greatly increased, and the strike was largely broken up by the middle of 2038.

Background
Throughout the 2020s and 2030s, union membership had been on a sharp incline due to the efforts of organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America and Justice Democrats. Along with the rise in union membership was a rise in leftist sentiment, due mostly to the political endeavors of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and "The Squad". By the late 2020s, union membership had grown to a point not seen since the 1960s, and had cultivated a distinctly militant culture among members. This was partly due to unskilled labor being unable to join the large AFL-CIO, and thus being forced to seek other options, such as the IWW.

By the early 2020s, the IWW had reached its highest membership since the 1940s, but had reached other problems, such as the underground nature of their activites leaving little in the way of recognition to increase their growth.