Moderates article on strike and makes it less harsh (7,3,4)

'makes it less harsh' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't judge whether it can be defined by this definition.

'moderates article on strike' is the wordplay.
'moderates' becomes 'softens' ('soften' can be a synonym of 'moderate').
'article' becomes 'the' (the definite article in English).
'on strike' becomes 'blow' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'softens'+'the'+'blow'='SOFTENS THE BLOW'

'and' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?