January General Strike of 1918

January General Strike of 1918 

a mass political demonstration by more than 700,000 proletarians in Austria-Hungary; staged with the goals of improving the food situation and achieving peace in accordance with the proposals made by the government of Soviet Russia at the negotiations in Brest.

The strike began on January 14 and spread through industrial regions in Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia. Councils of workers’ deputies were established during the course of the strike. The strike was brought to an end, however, by the Social Democratic leaders, who entered into negotiations with the government and called for the workers to resume their duties on January 24. The strike reflected the increasingly revolutionary mood of the working class of Austria-Hungary and showed the sympathy of the workers for the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia. The January general strike foreshadowed the Revolution of 1918.

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January General Strike of 1918 

the largest proletarian demonstration in Germany against World War I. The strike, which had more than 1 million participants, was provoked by the annexationist demands made by the German military leaders at the peace negotiations in Brest.

The strike began in Berlin on January 28 at the call of revolutionary leaders and the Spartacus League. It spread to all the important centers of the country; a workers’ council was created in Berlin. In an attempt to suppress the strike, the authorities declared a state of siege and sent the strikers to the front. Leaders of the right-wing Social Democrats, including F. Ebert and P. Scheidemann, were on the strike committee and contributed to ending the strike. On February 4 the strike was brought to an end.

V. I. Lenin noted that the strike had expressed “the attraction exercised by the Russian revolution” and represented “a turn of sentiment along the German proletariat” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 36, pp. 530 and 531). The January general strike foreshadowed the November Revolution of 1918.