There are so many examples of nonviolent resistance … that worked … but most of us don’t know about them. Our friends at Rise and Shine are awesome at offering history lessons we probably never learned. With the May Day Shutdown coming soon, let’s see what our friends at Rise and Shine has to teach us about historical (and recent) strikes and shutdowns that had impact!

They’ve been powerful time and time again!

Starting with very recent history:

We saw the power of a statewide shutdown on January 23, 2026, when Minnesota closed 700 businesses to oppose ICE’s violent occupation of Minneapolis. We saw the strength of student organizing the following week when hundreds of high schools held walkouts and over 1000 groups took action as part of the National Shutdown on January 30, 2026 in support of immigrant rights.

India held an immense 1-day strike with 300 million workers in February 2026. Some cities shut down entirely. Even if workers wanted to go to work, they couldn’t get there because the buses weren’t running. Mayors and transit authorities put out public service announcements about the strike. Local television and radio stations warned people about its impacts. A nationwide action like this disrupts everything. By helping everyone in your community get ready for it, you can help spread the word . . . even among people who aren’t intending to support it.

Then there are ones you may have about about:

• The People Power Revolution shut down Manila for three tense days to oust Ferdinand Marcos.
• The Singing Revolution in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania resisted Soviet re-invasion for over a week.
• Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution disrupted daily life in intense ways for two weeks, culminating in a decisive 2-hr general strike.
• The Icelandic Women’s Day Off threw their society into upheaval when women stopped working for a day and led to wage increases, greater gender equity, and the election of first female president of Iceland.

Then there are 5 (for starters) you may never have heard about.

For our next examples, let’s take a look at a lesser-known set of nonviolent campaigns in Central America in the 1930s-40s that used general strikes to kick violent dictators out of power. While the rest of the world was engulfed in the horrific violence of World War II, this part of the world was waging struggle against tyrants in an utterly different way.

In El Salvador in 1944, an armed uprising failed to oust the dictator Martinez. One month later, a student-led general strike mobilized doctors, lawyers, dentists, teachers, pharmacists, engineers, shopkeepers, market women, laborers, technicians, theater employees, and bank, railroad, and electric-utility employees. The dictator—who had so handily crushed his violent opponents—didn’t know how to stop the strike. His soldiers tried to forcefully reopen shops and threaten doctors into going back to work. The people refused. After one week of utter standstill, Martinez resigned.

Guatemalans to followed suit, inspired this successful campaign, just months later,.President Jorge Ubico was an admirer of Hitler and ruled with an iron fist. On June 24, 1944, students marched through the street with their arms held behind their backs to symbolize their nonviolence. When soldiers attacked them, mothers dressed in mourning blacks held a prayer vigil in the center of Guatemala City. Police fired on them, killing a woman. The next day, all of Guatemala City joined the movement. Everything closed, workers struck, railway workers joined in a sympathy strike; streets were empty. On July 26, 50,000 demonstrators surrounded the National Palace, shouting at the top of their lungs for Ubico to resign. On July 1, he stepped down, ultimately being replaced by a liberal democratic president.

In 1946, Haitians defied martial law to oust US-backed President Lescot after he forced the Haitian congress to give him dictatorial powers. Ten years later, they did it again with a 2-day strike in December against President Magloire. This time, bus drivers refused to transport food to the capital, shopkeepers refused to open their stores, lawyers did not accept cases, university students did not attend classes, many children in elementary and secondary school failed to show, and even government employees left work early. Magloire himself marched through the streets with a submachine gun, trying to force business owners to end the strike. The people held strong and Magloire, conceding defeat, resigned December 12.

Nonviolent history is full of stories like these. 

In 1931, Chileans overthrew the dictator Carlos Ibáñez Del Campo with a dramatic shift from armed skirmishes to bankers calling for the people to use nonviolent shutdowns. They leafleted the town with a flier that read: “Without arms, with ideals alone we will overthrow murderers and thieves . .  grasp the arm of passive resistance.”

In 1933, a Cuban bus drivers strike ballooned into a mass movement to get rid of President Machado with everyone joining in from longshoremen to typographers, bakers to railway workers, physicians to cigarmakers. In a few weeks, Machado was out.

The United States is immense, Rise and Shine reminds us. And we’re under-organized compared to other societies and chapters of history. This May Day Strike is helping us rebuild our network, strengthen our commitment, flex our noncooperation power, and become ready for the struggle ahead. It’s worth joining in for all of those reasons. And, if it grows large enough, it also sends a warning to powerholders: we’re strong—and get stronger by the minute.