Jeremy Brecher
In 2026, we face a deepening turn toward Barbarization scenarios, the long-anticipated reaction to Conventional Worlds in crisis. As far-right authoritarian forces grow across countries and work to dismantle systems of democratic accountability, the question becomes, what tools become available to steer us away from descent and toward a Great Transition?
Labor scholar Jeremy Brecher’s new essay, “Society on Strike: A Last Defense Against Tyranny?,” explores the possibilities for resistance under worst-case conditions. Drawing on historical antecedents, he probes the possible role of the mass social strike as a way to oust authoritarian regimes at key inflection points. Just as labor strikes withdraw cooperation at the workplace, a social strike does so for society writ large.
Commenters
As effective resistance will be met with repression, our noncooperation must go deeper.
Organization, strategy, and tactics are necessary for any social strike to lead to real change.
Big protests have been inspiring. But how do we turn them into a sustained movement?
We need a mass strike not just against Trumpism, but for a popular agenda against neoliberalism.
Change is not linear, but to achieve it, we need a grassroots that thinks beyond liberal democracy.
Movements need a politics of grievance, a politics of paradise, and a politics of class.
Jeremy Brecher responds to the discussion on his essay “Society on Strike: A Last Defense Against Tyranny?”.
