AOC tells democratic socialists it's their 'responsibility' to 'create the conditions' for a general strike

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., indicated to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) that they couldn't outright call for things like a general strike amid the coronavirus crisis, but should slowly change public opinion before proposing "alternative structures" for society.

"You know, there's a lot of people saying, 'call for a general strike, call for a general strike,'" the freshman congresswoman said during a DSA video event on Tuesday. "The majority of Americans don't know what a general strike is and so our responsibility is to talk about it, expand consciousness about it, and to actually create the conditions in which working people can generate and really exercise their own power, the power that they already have."

Her comments came as the coronavirus shutdown inflicted a heavy toll on the economy and millions of Americans have filed for unemployment. The New York congresswoman previously told Vice TV that workers should boycott work rather than return to society when the economy reopens.

AOC SUGGESTS LOW-INCOME AMERICANS SHOULD BOYCOTT WORK AFTER CORONAVIRUS SHUTDOWN ENDS

"When we talk about this idea of reopening society, you know, only in America does the president -- when the president tweets about liberation -- does he mean go back to work. When we have this discussion about going back or reopening, I think a lot people should just say 'no' -- we’re not going back to that,” she had said.

“We’re not going back to working 70-hour weeks just so that we could put food on the table and not even feel any sort of semblance of security in our lives,” she added.

The freshman congresswoman has received a lot of attention for her response to the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. She previously posted an apparently celebratory tweet in response to oil prices collapsing.

AOC CELEBRATES OIL CRASH IN NOW-DELETED TWEET: 'YOU ABSOLUTELY LOVE TO SEE IT'

"You absolutely love to see it," she said in a now-deleted tweet that referenced oil prices collapsing. That tweet was replaced by one describing the "opportunity" presented by the coronavirus's impact on energy.

"This snapshot is being acknowledged as a turning point in the climate movement. Fossil fuels are in long-term structural decline. This along w/ low interest rates means it‘s the right time to create millions of jobs transitioning to renewable and clean energy. A key opportunity," she said.

CLICK HERE TO GET COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

On Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez argued capitalism was allowing the stock market to perform well while the rest of the country suffered.

"Hint: it starts with a C and ends with -apitalism," she tweeted, linking to a tweet about the health of the stock market. She added that "this is what happens when Wall Street captures Congress and writes themselves bailout check after bailout check as working people die."