Although in this case, I think the phrase “general strike” is being used to distinguish it from a specific one. Rosie Gray at BuzzFeed (hi, Ben!) reports:
Occupy Wall Street, largely forgotten over the last few months, aims to make a comeback from this winter’s hibernation with an ambitious plan: a crippling May Day “general strike” in the tradition of 1930s radicalism.
The grand promise is what one occupier, Brendan Burke, described to BuzzFeed as “a day without the 99%.” But in the city where the movement was born, it’s already suffering from what has emerged as one of Occupy’s signal weaknesses, the lack of ability or interest to make alliances with liberal institutions. Despite public solidarity, there’s little relationship between the Occupy movement and organized labor. And as a result, even the most progressive New York labor leaders say their members will not participate in the May 1 strike…
The United States hasn’t seen a general strike — generally thought of as a moment when workers in a region or metropolitan area, across industries, walk off the job in class solidarity — since 1946, when an estimated 130,000 workers stopped working in Oakland…
Occupiers began describing the action as a “general strike” only after some internal debate, with some participants warning that the planned action won’t in fact live up to that disruptive expectation.
Whoa, what’s with the down-twinkles, you guys? Let not an iota of doubt enter your minds or facsimile thereof. This general strike is gonna be awesome! This time, your methods of getting what you want are really going to produce results. This time, those 99% fatcats won’t know what hit ’em. This time, you’re really gonna show Mom and Dad.
Especially Dad.
Soon the whole world will be an Occupier’s paradise:
One percent, meet #2 scent!