I think it's worth introducing into global English a word that we Malayans (i use this specifically) picked up from Indian colonial subjects: hartal (as per wiki: 'A hartal is a mass protest, often involving a total shutdown of workplaces, offices, shops, and courts of law, and a form of civil disobedience similar to a labour strike. In addition to being a general strike, it involves the voluntary closure of schools and places of business. It is a mode of appealing to the sympathies of a government to reverse an unpopular or unacceptable decision.'). It's a useful distinction because the current conversations are beholden to the framing of industrial labour action (and thus limiting the thinking that results in users also only seen as labour actors) when it's as much an expression of a populace about governance.
@cendawanita@Chronotope
i think that your own assessment is more correct than the wikipedia article: a hartal is not just a strike (or general strike)
given the term's roots in colonial india, it is more appropriate to define hartal as a type of strike where people with practically no political recognition and representation do claim their very rights under an oppressive regime which outlaws any kind of protest
the wikipedia article could use some serious editing. e.g.
In addition to being a general strike, it involves the voluntary closure of schools and places of business.
there have been quite a few general strikes in the past involving the voluntary closure of schools and places of business, e.g. the finnish general strike of 1905 which grew out of resistance against russian colonial oppression - even civil servants voluntarily joined the strike, or, from another point of view: the hartal #redditmigration#labor#labour#strike#hartal#colonialism#subaltern
Just saying it's labour action, because understandably recent examples in angloverse are about labour issues, to the point people are twisting themselves into ascribing users of a pseudo-public commons into worker roles felt unnecessarily silly.
i wholeheartedly agree ❤️ - redditors are not salaried workers going on strike
thank you for bringing hartal back to my mind > nowadays, i tend to use this word mostly in the sense of strike in general > but first time i read it in some hindi text book, the very hartal described was a gandhi-inspired one in colonial india in bombay province shortly before ww2 #redditmigration#labor#labour#strike#hartal#colonialism#subaltern