District Eleven: General Strike! // Threading Contest

‘I can’t tell you how much your lives have gotten better because I know for every step we take forward, it can feel as though we’ve been dragged backwards. That in a world where fear governs more than faith, it can feel as though you have been forgotten. That our darkest days have come and that there is no light ahead. Long days in a hot sun, breaking your backs over food you don’t eat.’

‘However.’

‘We are many people and yet we are one – one district, small but full of hope, of dreams. Of life aching to break free from the soil and lift our eyes up to the sun.’

‘Our farthest horizon cannot be tomorrow.’

‘I will not waste your time with a speech to say that things have gotten good enough for the people of eleven. Your hours are too long, your rations too little, and your time underappreciated. And in hearing you, in talking with you and seeing your struggle, that is why I have agreed to a General Strike for the duration of the Eighty-Fourth Hunger Games.’

The speech plays over radios, across the district on the first night of the Eighty-Fourth Hunger Games.

Mayor Vasco Izar, in coordination with workers of Eleven states there is to be a General Strike for all citizens of Eleven for as long as the Eighty-Fourth Hunger Games lasts. He sends letters to the eleven other mayors asking for solidarity and better conditions for the people of Eleven.

Citizens are given a holiday and freedom from the fields, under encouragement by their head of government. They are advised against violence, rioting, or other acts of terror. They are encouraged to express themselves through protest or organizing, or to simply take the time they have earned while better conditions are negotiated.