The idea of a general strike seems to be casually thrown around following the re-election of President Trump in 2024, but there’s almost nothing to back it. The harsh reality is that most of the people throwing around that term have no clue what personal and community sacrifices would need to be made to pull off a general strike at all, much less win any demands of the ruling class. We’ve all seen the unproductive “No working or shopping on [Insert Arbitrary Month That Comes Too Quickly To Organize Around] [Insert Arbitrary Day] to force the billionaires to listen to us!” social media campaigns. Let us be clear: these are unproductive and don’t do anything. They don’t reach enough people, and even if they did, people are not going to trust random strangers on the Internet enough to follow through and sacrifice a day’s pay, their pre-scheduled PTO where they intended to spend money on a vacation, or whatever else they may be losing by adhering to the whims of a keyboard warrior who is probably not following through in real life (and again, even if they were, there is no way for the general public to know that). Even if there was follow-through in real-life by everyone who saw those posts, a strike with a defined end date and no demands is not effective. The billionaire class that owns everything knows exactly when to anticipate spending and working starting again. Not only that, but the billionaire class has access to all the data to determine just how many people have seen said posts, and could theoretically estimate exactly how much they’ll lose during the course of this predetermined economic blackout period (this isn’t conspiracy theory as much as it is acknowledging the reality of the surveillance state and that all actions on the Internet can be tracked).

This article, as much as it’s meant to be a criticism of those types of digital economic blackout campaigns, will provide a viable alternative by discussing actions that will be effective in real-life regardless of the existence of the surveillance state.

In this article, we’ll cover the following questions: How do we build the foundation for a general strike? What mechanisms will trigger a general strike? How do we ensure that communities are prepared to be resilient during a general strike, and how do we ensure that the most marginalized among us are protected during such an event? How can you as an individual ensure that you are contributing to this movement and are personally prepared for the impacts of a general strike? What actions will the ruling class take in response to a general strike, and how can you be prepared for them? I’m not a lawyer, but all actions that are discussed in this article are actions that are legal to take right now, and will lead to stronger, healthier communities even if they don’t lead to a general strike. This article will assume that you have a basic grasp of how our political and economic systems work, but if you need direction to further resources, feel free to contact us if searching the Internet fails you.

Building the Foundation: The Importance of Organized Labor

Fortunately for us, there are groups in the United States that are used to the idea of strikes: organized labor groups. First, let’s get clear on the definition of a strike: it is a work stoppage, organized by employees, that is designed to get the employer to meet a set of demands through collective bargaining by the striking employees. It is typically understood from the start that employees may not get everything they’ll ask for, but they’ll generally be in a better position than when they started the strike. To be effective, an action needs to have actionable demands out of a specific entity the action is being taken against (and this is why the silly, one day protests often advertised on social media aren’t effective).

Let’s be clear: the general strike will not happen without organized labor groups being on board. They are the focal point of community infrastructure for a general strike as the body through which demands are made of the ruling class.

One of the reasons why organized labor groups are a focal point for a general strike is because of strike funds. Strike funds are a financial reserve established by organized labor groups to support striking workers during the period of time they’re striking for. (You didn’t seriously expect that your employer would keep paying you while you’re not at work… Right?) Strike funds help ensure that employees will continue making ends meet while they’re not receiving a paycheck from their employer. The dues that are paid to a union or other organized labor group often contribute to strike funds.

If your union doesn’t have a healthy strike fund, you can significantly increase your leverage over your employer and the ruling class as a whole by getting involved in your union and advocating for an increase in contributions to the strike fund. Another way you can contribute to the funding to support striking workers is by switching to a credit union that offers strike loans. (I’ll be hyperlinking my credit union article a few times throughout this one, as credit unions can provide important community-based financial infrastructure for a general strike.)

Additionally, being a part of a labor union gives you insights into your real-life community infrastructure to fall back on during these trying times. As an active participant in your workplace union, you’ll learn firsthand that your fellow employees have your back. There may be certain coworkers that you generally dislike and don’t trust, but they could surprise you when push comes to shove, and on the other hand there could be certain coworkers that you like and trust now who will completely betray you and your fellow workers when the rubber hits the road. Organizing a union in your workplace, or getting involved in the union that you already have, ensures that you know who these people are.

Locally based groups leading the way also ensures that demands made of the ruling class during a general strike work for everyone, not just national digital organizers. While a general strike leads the way to make larger-scale asks of the entire ruling class (such as to stop subsidizing the bombing of children in the Middle East) rather than simpler things like localized wage increases for employees of specific companies, workers in cattle country may not want to stop striking until the federal government re-institutes mandatory country of origin labeling for beef products, while workers in Phoenix may ask that the ruling class stops pouring money into AI data center development in the city (this could apply to anywhere with a concentration of AI data center development). Ensuring that the context is kept local ensures that no one is left behind and that everyone has something to gain out of a general strike, which ensures greater participation than a national call to action from a single national group with no local stakes.

In 2023, the United Auto Workers demonstrated the power of a small scale general strike in their industry. We’ll discuss their trigger mechanism for this general strike - contract expiration alignment - later on, but for now what you need to know is that the UAW led strikes against Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors (the “Big Three” automakers). The tentative agreements ending the strike were an 11% increase in wages in the first year, a 25% increase in wages over the course of the 4.5 year contract and cost-of-living adjustments for Ford workers. Similar deals were struck with Stellantis and General Motors. If you’d like to look over the finalized agreements, you can do so on the UAW website for Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis using the hyperlinks.

The impact of striking with each company individually at the same time was massive, but was undoubtedly further amplified by the fact that Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors share the same institutional owners. Ford’s top three owners are Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street, and the same is true of General Motors. Stellantis includes Vanguard in its top three owners. The ruling class was attacked on three simultaneous fronts, which led to amazing wins for the working class. Imagine what can happen when the ruling class is faced with that multiplied a thousand times over?

(In case you’re wondering “But who owns Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street?” when it comes down to it, all the asset managers and megacorps own each other. Hyperlinked here are the ramblings of Redditor u/Slyver12, who, despite starting this write-up as part of a research project to contribute to their stock cult and as such makes quite a few reaches, uses wild right-wing coded conspiracy theorist language and themes, and fails to connect the dots in some places, actually did a decent job at pointing out how all the megacorps own each other in an incestuous ouroboros and why that matters. What he failed to discuss is what you can do about it all, but that’s the point of this article.)

Contract Expiration Alignment

In the United States, sympathy/solidarity strikes are generally illegal if your union contract has a no-strike clause. A sympathy strike is a strike action taken on behalf of other striking workers. As an example, if Ford workers with UAW are striking at the end of their contract expiry, it would be illegal for Stellantis workers with UAW to just up and join them in a strike action solely for the hell of it if their union has a no-strike clause. This is actionable against the union under the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. (If you’re unfamiliar with this particularly nasty piece of legislation and its effects, I recommend reading up on it.) So what happened with the 2023 UAW strikes?

The UAW’s contracts with Ford, Stellantis, and GM were at roughly the same time. There was no no-strike clause in the contracts to adhere to, as the contracts were all expired. This is a legal way to conduct a solidarity strike. because it’s technically not a solidarity strike. Following the conclusion of the 2023 UAW strikes, UAW President Shawn Fain put out a call to all unions to align their contract expiries to April 30, 2028 to prepare for a general strike on May 1, 2028. The contract expiration dates can align again every four years following that date, which would be a strategic move as that’s an important election year. The American Federation of Teachers later joined the call, as have other unions. (Will yours be next? Get active within your union to make sure it is!)

The trigger mechanism for the general strike will be a contract expiration alignment. It’s important to understand that not all workers will be striking, as some unions will undoubtedly be focused solely on what they can get for their own members rather than focused on solidarity for the entire working class. (As an example, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, a craft union, has historically supported problematic things like the development of AI data centers and, in partnership with Pacific Gas & Electric, the transition to NEM 3 in California, which harmed opportunities for residential solar. While this supported their own members, it harmed the working class as a whole.) Though the entire working class may not have to strike for this to work - General Strike US cites a political science concept known as the “3.5% rule” stating that historically, no government has withstood consistent, engaged nonviolent action from 3.5% of the population.

Strategically, the most important unions that can sign on to the May Day 2028 movement are those that are in education or childcare. Parents will likely have to stay home from work to watch their kids if the teachers and school employees in their district are on strike, thus contributing to the wider movement - and the 3.5% - withholding our labor from the elites. It doesn’t need to be everybody striking (or even 3.5% - it may need to be more or less) it just needs to be a critical mass in key industries.

The Role of Grassroots Organizations and Community Groups in Supporting Worker Organizing

Perhaps you attend a church. Maybe you’re active within your local Democratic party. (And if you’re active within your local Republican party, I’m happy you’re here… but also what are you even doing?) Or perhaps you’re a part of something as simple and fun as a book club. Whatever organized group you’re a part of, you can encourage each other to organize, and fall back on each other as you organize your workplaces individually. A coordinated effort to organize an entire community of workers is valuable, as it ensures solidarity within the wider community if the ruling class were to retaliate against any one particular workplace. You may want support from the wider community as you organize. For example, if your employer won’t recognize your union, you can use community groups to organize a boycott against your employer until they recognize it.

Additionally, you can agitate others within a community based or grassroots organizations to organize their own workplaces. Find out who in your community is in a strategically important industry, and encourage them to organize and align with the May Day Movement.

Building the Foundation and the Trigger Mechanism: Action Items

So, we’ve gone over how labor unions are the foundation for the general strike. What can you do, as an individual, to build the foundation and the trigger mechanism?

• If you don’t already have a union in your workplace, and you are legally and practically able to organize one, do it. This is not an optional step for those who legally and practically can organize. If you will not do this basic, foundational thing despite having the legal ability to do it, you are not prepared to contribute to a general strike. While you may not want to do this immediately (you may want to talk to your partner first in case your organizing efforts go south and you lose a source of income, or you may want to join a grassroots organization first so that you can have some support as you organize), this is a necessary part of building the foundation and should be a goal if legally and practically possible for your job. There may be excuses - 1. “But I’ll get fired!” 2. “But I like my boss!” 3. “But I work at [insert employer that is well-known as a union-buster, such as Walmart or Amazon, here]!” - and they are excuses that you are telling yourself to prevent yourself from attempting further action. Additionally, in a general strike scenario, understand that not being a part of a union might mean you don’t have access to resources like strike funds that union dues are meant to pay for. If you have to stay home with your kids because the teachers are striking, or if your workplace shuts down because your employer’s supply chain required goods that you can only get from companies whose employees are part of the general strike, wouldn’t you rather have been a part of this from the beginning anyway? As a further rebuttal to the listed arguments against unionizing from earlier 1. In the age of mass layoffs, unions can provide some protection. 2. Your boss can always leave and be replaced with a shitty boss. 3. What better opportunity is there to organize? Remember that no matter what the reason is, it probably has to do with a power imbalance between you and your employer - something a workplace union can help correct. Anyway, to get the ball rolling with organizing your workplace, you can check out a variety of resources on this from the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, the AFL-CIO, or the Teamsters. There are people who have full-time jobs helping workers organize their workplaces (this is also a part of what the union dues pay for). Contact an organizer today!

• If you cannot legally or practically organize your workplace and enter into a collective bargaining agreement under the National Labor Relations Act, find a labor group that you can join. Among those included in that are public sector employees in certain states, agricultural workers, domestic workers, and gig workers. However, each of those groups still has labor groups that are worth joining. For example, while state workers in Tennessee cannot collectively bargain per Tennessee law, they can still join the Tennessee State Employees Association. Farm workers nationwide have the United Farm Workers which enters into collective bargaining agreements.

• If you are already a member of a labor union, get active within it. If you live in a state governed by right-to-work laws or are a member of a public sector union (which is basically nationally right-to-work), encourage non-members in your workplace to join the union. Push for increasing strike funds. Push for a contract expiration alignment with the UAW’s May Day movement. If necessary, run for an office within your union. (If you’d like assistance with this, contact us!) Recognize that you may face resistance from people within the union who are used to doing things a certain way, but this can be overcome.

• Speaking of strike funds, start banking with a credit union that either offers strike loans, or switch to a credit union that doesn’t have strike loans and get active within it by either encouraging their board of directors to offer strike loans or (if they’re unfriendly to the idea) running for its board of directors on a platform of offering strike loans. (If you’re interested in getting elected to a credit union’s board of directors, contact us!)

• If you’re not already active within a community based or grassroots organization, find one that you can get active in, especially if it has ties to labor groups or is supportive of labor. One of the biggest community-based organizations that will play a role in this movement is the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which has local chapters all over the country. You may also prefer to be a part of an organization that is state-based, region-based, or locally based. For example, farm workers in Idaho may want to get active with the Idaho Organization of Resource Councils. Folks in Arizona may want to join Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA). Depending on if your church aligns with fascists or is filled with normal human beings that care about each other, you may want to talk to your church leaders about your organizing efforts to seek advice and wisdom. You can also get active with your local Democratic Party. (This isn’t meant to exclude people active with their local Republican Party… but again, if you’re active with them, why are you here?) Members of these groups can support you as you organize, and you can agitate other people within these groups. What’s important is making sure that you’re not alone, and have a community space with like minded people in which to find solace outside of your workplace organizing.

• Vote for politicians on a local, state, and federal level that support unions. Your local school board members should ideally be endorsed by your local teachers and/or school employees union. Your local elected officials should prioritize union labor for government contracts. Your state representatives should not support right-to-work laws that harm union membership, and if you live in a state that is right-to-work, they should support repealing that. If you don’t know where your local politician stands regarding unions, reach out to them and to your local labor unions to find out.

• Run for office on a platform of supporting unions and union labor. (If you’re interested in doing this, contact us!)

The important thing to understand about all of these action items is that they are worth doing independently of a general strike. All of these things will make your community stronger against the forces of corporate domination and the power structures that rule our society.

Preparing Yourself and Your Community

Imagine that it is June 20th, 2028, and you live in a rural area. Your pantry is nearly empty - not because you can’t afford the food, but rather because you haven’t been shopping in a while. The only grocery store for an hour in any direction is closed, as the UFCW local that they’re organized with has voted to strike, leaving you with whatever is available at your gas station convenience store that’s been owned and operated by the same guy since 1998 who has no interest in the strike. Reluctantly, you head in to buy another packet of ramen noodles, wishing that you had some fresh veggies to spice it up, but your local convenience store doesn’t offer that. While you could drive a couple hours away to the nearest grocery store whose workers aren’t striking to stop up, fuel deliveries to your local gas stations have become unreliable, and communities in your region have come together and agreed to minimize excessive driving. In a desperate bid to acquire some decent and nutritious food beyond the ramen noodles and powdered potatoes you’ve been eating for the past two weeks, you search the Internet for plane tickets, as at least you have the good fortune to live close to the only regional airport in your area - only to find out that the TSA workers haven’t come back to work yet. Defeated, you resign yourself to a noodle packet and your last egg to provide your evening nourishment. You wonder when this will be over, but you understand that this is necessary to restoring a society that works for working people. At least workers at the natural gas powered plants in your regional grid aren’t striking, so perhaps you’ll hitch a ride with the one person in your community who owns an electric vehicle the next time he makes a long to the nearest open grocery store.

This scenario is not far-fetched. While not every worker will be striking in a general strike scenario, it wouldn’t take a huge percentage to cause some problems. Without the continuous input of workers, supply chains break down fast and you lose access to convenient services. This section of the article will cover a series of actions you can take to prepare for the loss of various services during a general strike scenario, and ensure that the strike works for working people and not against them. Not everyone will be able to take all of these action items, but if you do what you can, you can ensure that you and your community are prepared. Without a prepared working class, there is no leverage, as the ruling class may be able to outlast us.

This section at times loses the political focus that Heeler Political generally works on, but is important to the overall strategy behind a general strike nonetheless. We’ll touch on some themes and topics mentioned earlier at various points throughout this section, and at times discuss policy.

Gardening, Foraging, Hunting/Fishing, and Mutual Aid

No, I’m not kidding. Gardening. Yes, I know I’m about to sound like I’m a regular on
r/PrepperIntel or something, but bear with me. Gardening is accessible to many people. In the example above, veggies were unavailable during a general strike, and the ramen noodle packets at the store could have run out eventually. It’s important to make sure you and your community can immediately meet your collective needs for food during a general strike. While a backyard or balcony vegetable garden is a drop in the bucket, it can help stretch supplies, especially if everyone in your community is doing the same. Consider starting and maintaining a garden at your home.

If you live somewhere where you cannot even have a balcony garden, your balcony is small or nonexistent, your backyard is small or nonexistent, or you would just like to generally increase your contribution to this effort, consider getting involved with a community garden or organizing together to start one if it doesn’t exist yet. Earlier in the article, I discussed community based groups and grassroots organizations - this can be a great group of people to start talking about a community garden with. Additionally, because the existence and well-being of community gardens can be dependent on zoning and other policy, it’s important to make sure your local officials are in support of them. If they’re not, and community gardens have widespread support in your community, then consider running against them your local officials. (If you’re interested in doing this, contact us!)

If you’re wondering where you can acquire seeds for this, many communities have seed libraries where you can “check out” seeds, plant them, and return seeds from the plants you grow later. Many public libraries also have seed libraries. You can find some seed libraries near you at the Seed Library Network (please note that their map is not comprehensive, and you may have more options than seen here).

Eating from the wilderness is also an option. Regarding foraging, consider having some books on the subject available (physical or downloaded and available offline, as who knows what Internet access could look like during a general strike scenario). Ideally, these are books with knowledge that is specific to your region. Learning to hunt and fish is something you’d likely want to start sooner rather than later. Alternatively, you can make good friends with hunters and fishermen in your community. Regardless of your path, consider becoming an active member of a grassroots conservation organization in your region, such as a Trout Unlimited chapter or state-based affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation.

If you or your immediate friends and family won’t benefit from sourcing your own food at the moment, consider getting involved with or starting a mutual aid group in your community to ensure that people in need are taken care of. Mutual aid networks can help ensure that no one is left behind during a general strike.

Energy Independence

While things would have to be truly drastic for the power to go out during a general strike, remember that in many cases, local communities don’t have control over their power - it’s controlled by investor owned utilities. We can’t predict how the ruling class will react to a general strike scenario, but we should never assume that any option is off the table, including cutting off power. (This is probably underestimating what the ruling class would do during this hypothetical labor struggle, as during historical labor struggles, the ruling class would just kill strikers en masse. The Ludlow Massacre and the the Battle of Blair Mountain are notable examples of this. Imagine how they might react in a general strike scenario when a significant portion of the working class across the entire country and its industries are striking rather than a group of miners in few scattered parts of the country.) Striking workers may also just not be there to maintain generation if anything goes wrong with the equipment. Regardless, grid destabilization is a possibility.

To prepare for this, energy production should be as decentralized as possible, right down to the home level where possible. Every homeowner who financially can should have a solar system and a battery backup, as the battery backup is what would enable the system to power your home independently of the grid.

To accomplish this, residential solar needs to be financially accessible for homeowners. One option to ensure it’s accessible is that of green loans. You’ll want to make sure that as many financial institutions as possible in your community offer these loan products. One way to do this is by switching to a credit union and reaching out to its board of directors to ask if they can work to ensure that the credit union offers these programs. If they’re unfriendly to it, you can run against them or find someone who will (and if this is something you’re interested in, contact us!)

Additionally, for those whose electric utility is a co-op, publicly owned, or otherwise held accountable to its consumers, its important to ensure that the utility is friendly to homeowners going solar. This can be done through ensuring that the board of directors will back pro-renewable policy at the co-op. If the board of directors at your co-op isn’t friendly to renewable energy and home solar, consider running against them or finding someone who will (if you’re interested in doing this contact us). Though this isn’t directly relevant to home solar, right-wing groups backing fossil fuels and big industry are already getting active in elections for the board of directors at utility co-ops, with Salt River Project in Arizona being a notable example of this happening. If you believe that organizations aligned with fossil fuel interests will accept home solar, then I have a bridge to sell you.

An electric vehicle also pairs well with a residential solar system, and ensures that you are not as affected by fuel shortages.

Regardless of whether or not grid destabilization is something that needs to be prepared for, the act of going solar and reducing grid dependence ensures that less money is flowing to the investor owned utilities, and ensures you’re doing your part to fight climate change.

Tenant Unions

During a general strike, it’s likely that many people will not be able to pay their rent, whether or not they’re actively intending to strike or otherwise out of work due to ripples it causes in the economy. Tenant unions can ensure that renters can collectively fight for eviction protections and against rent increases. The ruling class could strike back by encouraging landlords to raise rates for anyone whose lease is up for renewal that is a member of a union participating in the strike. (Again, if this sounds like the ramblings of a conspiracy theorist, let’s remember that the last time there was a mass labor movement in this country, the ruling class just killed masses of people.)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, tenant unions backed eviction moratoriums, ensuring that people who faced financial hardship as a result of the pandemic were still able to stay in their homes. In a general strike scenario (and in times of national crisis) they can continue fighting for renters’ well-being.

The Role of Grassroots Organizations In This

We previously touched on community-based organizations playing a key part in building the foundation for a general strike by encouraging and aiding unionization efforts in their communities, but they can also play a key role in making sure communities are prepared. For example, Indivisible Mesa worked to support a slate of clean energy candidates for Salt River Project’s 2026 elections. While this may not have been done to intentionally ensure that homeowners have better access to home solar for the sake of preparing communities to participate in a general strike, it matters nonetheless, as clean energy advocates won the majority of seats on the SRP board. (If someone from Indivisible Mesa did have this in mind while organizing this, feel free to reach out and I’ll correct this paragraph!)

This can be done intentionally. If you’re active with a grassroots group such as an Indivisible group, local political party, DSA chapter, resource council, etc. get together to discuss the levers of power you can pull on in your community to help prepare yourselves. Is local zoning policy unfavorable towards community gardens? Does your electric co-op fight residential solar customers? Does your city or town need better protections for renters? Do your local credit unions provide green loans?

Preparing Yourself and Your Community Action Items

The important part about this section of the article is understanding that any action items you can take here, if they’re possible for you to do, are worth doing independently of the idea of a general strike because they inherently make your community more resilient and less dependent on mega corporations.

• Join a grassroots organization, or get one going if you don’t have many options in your community or the organizations there are don’t particularly care about your specific issue areas. It could be your local political parties, an Indivisible group, DSA chapter, resource council, tenant union, conservation group - these are all crucial and have their own part to play in preparing communities for a general strike.

• Start a backyard/balcony/community garden. If necessary, get involved with local politics to ensure zoning policy is favorable to it. Consider getting involved with a mutual aid group so that extras from the garden have somewhere to go, and plug yourself into a group of people who will become incredibly important to community care during a general strike.

• If you own your home, consider installing a solar and battery system to ensure that you can have energy independence. Also consider adding an electric vehicle to protect yourself from fuel shortages.

• If your utility is a co-op, get yourself and your organization (if you take the first action item seriously) to be more active members of the co-op. Ensure that it’s held accountable to clean energy interests.

• Get yourself and your organization to become members of the local credit union(s) and ensure that they offer green loans to make home solar and electric vehicle purchases more feasible.

• If you’re a renter, consider getting involved with your local tenants union or forming one.

Final Thoughts

The three or so hours spent at a No Kings protest, holding a sign that may not make specific demands of a given entity, much less one that’s actually listening, are not the end all be all of resistance. A general strike may not even be that, but definitely puts working class people further towards actually accomplishing some material victories. Imagine if everyone who attended a No Kings protest spent time organizing their workplaces, participating in the community garden, trying to find someone to replace a pro fossil fuel incumbent on the board of their electric co-op, or leaving their bank for a credit union, and got people they know to do the same. Our communities would be a lot stronger for it, and we would have a realistic, legal path towards a general strike with the social infrastructure to back it.

If you liked this article and want to see more like it, feel free to contact us and request an article on a specific topic.

What will you do after reading this?

Earlier this year, a lawsuit claiming that Bank of America disregarded information about Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement with sex trafficking was allowed to proceed. A similar lawsuit resulted in a $290 million settlement when Epstein survivors sued JPMorgan Chase. In 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Citigroup to pay millions of dollars in fines and restitutions due to their discrimination against Armenian Americans, using the presence of -ian or -yan at the end of surname as a reason to have potential customers undergo an enhanced screening process when applying for a credit card. Wells Fargo, among many other controversies, had a probe opened against it in 2018 by the Department of Labor for the purpose of finding out whether it was pushing customers into more expensive retirement plans.

What do all of these situations have in common? Is it that the banks involved are all members of the “Big Four” banks? Is it that they are all considered “too big to fail?” Is it that they are considered “systemically important financial institutions” by the Financial Stability Board?

If you guessed that it was that leaders of those banks are not directly and democratically held accountable by those that use its services, you would be correct (though the other things are also true). All four of those institutions are publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, where the elites in our society can go and buy ownership in those companies. Those who own shares in the company are the ones who get to vote in corporate elections, such as elections for the board of directors. These are the people to whom the bank is ultimately accountable: not you as the customer, but to its elite shareholders. This concept is known in more academic terms as shareholder primacy, and it is why these banks are able to take such egregious actions with little accountability.

Shareholder Primacy

Shareholder primacy is the idea that a corporation should be primarily concerned with the interests of its owners, or shareholders, rather than those its customers or its workers. This is not just an idea; it has legal backing. The concept first came to prominence in a case decided by the Michigan Supreme Court in 1919 in Dodge v. Ford Motor Co. When Henry Ford, the company’s president, declared that he would end special dividends to shareholders for the purposes of expanding his company and employing more men (as he put it, “to spread the benefits of this industrial system to the greatest possible number, to help them build up their lives and their homes,” other shareholders in Ford Motor Co. like the Dodge brothers disapproved. They sued and won. The court said, “A business corporation is organized and carried on primarily for the profit of the stockholders.”

This concept of shareholder primacy would go on to influence prominent economists in the United States. Milton Friedman, a leader in the Chicago school of economics and a libertarian, would later say “corporations have no higher purpose than maximizing profits for their shareholders.” He would later go on to advise Republican President Ronald Reagan and Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

How You Can Align Your Interests with Your Bank’s Shareholders

Contrary to the title of this section of the article, in most cases you cannot align your interests with those that own your bank. There are effectively two ways to increase the profit of a business: increase revenue and cut expenses. Banks make money off your money, either by loaning it out or using it in investments. They can also make money by charging you fees on your account. Regardless of how they generate revenue, the bank’s primary responsibility is to its shareholders that own it, not to you as a customer. This is why banks take actions that most with a moral compass would define as immoral or even evil.

The Solution: A Credit Union

Credit unions are the solution to this problem. A credit union is a consumer co-op – a business that is owned and democratically controlled by its customers via a “one member, one vote” principle, rather than external shareholders – and replaces the function of a bank. A consumer co-op’s interests will usually be aligned with its customers because it is owned by its customers if it follows the “one member, one vote” concept, where each member has equal voting rights. Additionally, credit unions are considered non-profits. After expenses and reserves, earnings are returned to members via better rates and higher dividends. There is no profit to go to an external shareholder or billionaire that will take that profit and make the world a worse place.

As a member of a credit union, you will usually have the right to run for and vote in elections for board of director positions if you meet certain requirements (such as being over 18 and not having been convicted of certain types of crimes). As a member of the board of directors, you may have the chance to shape the credit union, including hiring and firing the CEO who executes the mission and vision of the credit union. Chances are that most people reading this will not have the financial experience needed to be an effective board member, but odds are you know someone that does. While credit unions generally have a better reputation than banks, if the credit union in your town isn’t great or is going downhill, you have the chance to turn that around by participating in the board of directors elections and finding a candidate to replace them – or just talk to your board and hold them accountable!

This is a power you do not have with a bank, even if your bank is fine to work with at the moment you’re reading this. If you are a customer of a bank that is going downhill, you do not have the authority to replace its board of directors. With a bank, your only way to hold them accountable is to stop being a customer. On the other hand, if your local credit union isn’t great, you have a chance to improve it by replacing its leadership.

Because of the nature of the ownership of the entities, no matter how good or bad a credit union appears on paper compared to a bank, it is always the better option if you care about holding power accountable. Maybe your local PNC branch offers a better interest rate on a savings account than with your local credit union, but through being involved in your credit union and encouraging your community to do the same, you can change that status quo.

The Political Power of Banks

The money made off of your money by the banks can be used to make campaign contributions to the campaigns of right-wing and centrist candidates that will not aggressively fight for the interests of working people in the same way that progressives will, or they will donate to authoritarians. In the 2023-2024 election cycle, 78 commercial bank PACs tracked by OpenSecrets gave $7,033,998 to Republicans compared to $4,554,978 to Democrats. Even though they donate to Democrats, it’s no secret that they will give money to lawmakers on committees that oversee their actions. These donations could presumably be used to buy influence and support for the banks (who, again, are not accountable to their communities but only to their shareholders). These donations to Democrats aren’t good just because they go to a party that isn’t openly advocating for authoritarianism.

How Credit Unions Solve This Problem

The act of switching to a credit union, in some ways, solves this problem. Upon switching to a credit union, your money is no longer making money for an unaccountable corporation to use for political donations and buying political influence. However, not all problems are immediately solved by switching to a credit union. Take a look at the spending of Truliant Federal Credit Union’s PAC according to OpenSecrets. TFCU’s PAC takes in money through a voluntary program that allows members to “deduct a buck” to make political contributions. You may notice that according to OpenSecrets, the recipients of that PAC’s funds are almost entirely Republican.

TFCU members that would oppose this if they knew about it have a unique opportunity to organize to hold their leadership accountable. They could either vote out the directors who support these donations and will instead support donations to progressive pro credit union candidates, or they could vote in directors that will kill the program entirely, depending on which is more viable for TFCU members to accomplish. (If you’re with TFCU and interested in doing this, reach out to us!)

This is one example of how credit union members can work to improve their communities in a way they can’t through a bank – by stopping the flow of money to candidates that ally themselves with authoritarians. It is a drop in the bucket, but if everyone did their part to hold their credit union accountable, then it would add up to a significant amount of money that stops flowing to problematic politicians. This effect would be increased if people who are interested in building a more progressive society also switched to a credit union and worked with its progressive members to shape its policies in their image.

Making Your Credit Union Environmentally/Socially Responsible

As a member-owner, you can ensure that your credit union is committed to fighting the climate crisis or is otherwise environmentally and socially responsible. An example of a program that a credit union can create that supports this ideal is a green lending program. A green lending program is a program that offers better conditions than a traditional loan for purchases that support environmental causes, such as buying an electric vehicle or installing a home solar system. Valley First Credit Union in California’s Central Valley offers such a program, as many other credit unions do.

Another example of ways a credit union can be socially responsible is by creating a strike loan program to assist striking workers. Strike loans are loans specifically designed to help striking workers get through their work stoppage, and are often at 0% APR. Provident Credit Union, for example, has a strike loan that is specifically for employees affiliated with the California Teachers Association. Financial Plus Credit Union offers a general $1,500 strike loan at 0% APR and no payment for three months.

If your credit union doesn’t have these programs, reach out to your board of directors! Remember that they are beholden to your interests as a member-owner. If your board of directors is unfriendly to the creation of these programs, you can run against them or find someone who will run against them on a platform of creating this program.

Action Items

If you’re not a member of a credit union, become one. Consider moving your money into it. Consider running for the board, or campaigning for members who will make the credit union better for all its member-owners. Use your vote to support a board of directors that will make the deduct-a-buck program at your credit union work against authoritarians rather than for them or support a board of directors that will support the creation of a green lending program. And rest easier knowing that parking your money somewhere doesn’t mean you’re contributing to the political funds of authoritarians – or, if it does, knowing that you can change that as a member-owner.

If you are a leader or treasurer of a grassroots organization with a bank account, consult your members about pulling money out of the bank and into a credit union. If you are active with a grassroots organization in your community, talk to your organization’s leaders about banking with a credit union. Local Democratic parties/clubs, Indivisible groups, labor union chapters and locals, and resource councils are progressive-leaning groups that can be influenced to bank with a credit union. If you have a relationship with someone considering running for office, talk to them about the importance of opening their campaign account with a credit union.

Together, we can ensure that the infrastructure of our financial system is democratic and not unaccountable. If you’re interested in running for the board of directors at your credit union or organizing membership at your credit union, reach out to us!

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What is Heeler Political and The Nip?

Heeler Political is a political consulting firm exclusively for anyone who is running to take the reigns of a given constituency and move an entity in a more progressive direction. Whether you’re running for the board of a credit union to make your Deduct-A-Buck program stop donating to fascists running for office or running for your state legislature on a progressive policy platform, we’re here to help.

The Nip is a place for us to encourage individuals to take action while explaining why a given action can move the world in a more progressive direction. We’re metaphorically giving you a nip on the heels, and herding the progressive movement in the direction it needs to go. If you like what you read, consider a paid subscription to support the movement.