you can force politicians to pass things they wpuldn't have the initiative to pass themselves (like universal healthcare), as long as you have a manifesto that's surgically precise (eg. with pre-prepared drafts of laws) and you refuse to cease until that manifesto has been passed as law verbatim.
it's still fully constitutional. On paper, the politicians came up with these ideas and passed them out of their own volition.
the unity & platform created by a general strike would create very good conditions for a 3rd party to have an actual chance of winning seats.

~~All you need is some philanthropist who will create a massive strike fund.~~

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Relying on a philanthropist is risky, and possibly unviable if the scale is large enough. Most strike funds are created and maintained using union dues, which would scale up to any size. The unfortunate part is that it generally takes time to fill them, and we're a bit short on that.

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 6 points 5 days ago

True, relying on a single donor would make the strike too vulnerable to their influence, much like political parties