How can we arrange a nationwide across-the-board strike

<...>
The strikes dissipated, first and foremost, because the federal army did not break. Unlike the militias, those professional soldiers stayed together and followed orders. The strikes also collapsed because, despite the fears of the industrialists and the government, they were not organized uprisings but rather spontaneous outbursts. Once the anger of the strikers and crowds had run its course, so too did the revolt. There had been no leaders with greater political vision to take command of the strikers.

More than 100,000 workers participated in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, at the height of which more than half the freight on the country’s tracks had come to a halt. By the time the strikes were over, about 1,000 people had gone to jail and some 100 had been killed. In the end the strike accomplished very little. Some national politicians talked of labour reforms, but nothing came of it. Industrialists continued to cut wages and break unions. In a few years the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was all but forgotten.