General strike edition
What if we don't need to shed 'the blood of tyrants' to save the country? What if we just stopped working for them?
In November of 1948, workers in the British and American-occupied sectors of west Germany (then known as the Bi-Zone Economic Area, Bizonia for short) staged the largest single-day strike in the nation's history.
More than nine million workers, out of a total workforce of 11.7 million, stayed home from work, shutting down mines, factories, mills, and transit services. The reason? Skyrocketing inflation sparked by a currency "reform" that had wiped out the savings of most average west Germans, while leaving those with capital – owners of businesses and real estate – largely unscathed.
It was this long-forgotten, one-day action that provided the true impetus for the development of Germany's reknowned "social market economy," argues historian Uwe Fuhrmann, though the strikers never got the credit.
