In the
Outline Of History, H.G. Wells recorded "the general strike of the
plebeians; the plebeians seem to have invented the strike, which now makes its
first appearance in history." Their first strike occurred because they
"saw with indignation their friends, who had often served the state
bravely in the legions, thrown into chains and reduced to slavery at the demand
of patrician creditors."
Wells noted
that "the patricians made a mean use of their political advantages to grow
rich through the national conquests at the expense not only of the defeated
enemy, but of the poorer plebeian..." The plebeians, who were expected to
obey the laws, but were not allowed to know the laws (which patricians were
able to recite from memory), were successful, winning the right to appeal any
injustice to the general assembly. In 450 BC., in a concession resulting from
the rebellion of the plebeians, the laws of Rome
(Note:
"plebeian secession" was a tactic used by the Roman plebs of vacating
a city entirely and leaving its ruling elite to fend for itself, thus an even
more radical action than a "general strike", yet unlike the latter
term, it does not pertain to withholding labor within a wage-system. General
strikes in the current sense of the term only begin to take place in a context
where in which labor is treated as a commodity, and wage workers collectively
organize to halt production.)
