Occupy’s MAYDAY Calls For General Strike Tomorrow
Occupy WallStreet has been actively organizing a “day without the 99%” aimed to be May 1, 2012. The protest will be a worldwide event including marches on capitol buildings; refusal to go to work or classes; no banking and no shopping.
The movement calls for a General Strike where professionals, students, immigrants and blue collar workers alike will demonstrate what life would be like without all who are involved. The point this demonstration hopes tomake is that without the “99”, a vast majority of production and economic flow will come to screeching halt thus: we must be treated more respectfully by the upper class minority who control a vast majority of the money.
Posted on their website, Occupy explains the MAYDAY protest:
[quote]On May 1st we will celebrate a holiday for the 99%. We will come together across lines of race, class, gender, and religion and challenge the systems that create these divisions. New Yorkers will join with millions throughout the world — workers, students, immigrants, professionals, houseworkers. We will take to the streets to unite in a General Strike against a system which does not work for us. With our collective power we will begin to build the world we want to see. Another world is possible! [/quote]
Although the first of its kind in recent American memory, this is not the first general strike staged this year. Back in March, Spain’s labor force organized a general demonstration of their own, resulting in mixed results. Electric consumption was down 17%; Metro services could only guarantee 30% of normal rush hour services; by midmorning over 400 flights had been cancelled and departures were down more than half of the daily average, going from 4,500 to around 1,600. This demonstration certainly had a direct effect on big business and the money that was made. The government of Spain had spurred this conflict by passing labour laws workers saw as pro-business and anti-civilian.
A similar pattern is forming in the U.S. Nearly every passing day results in evidence that those who we, the people, the majority elect are being placed in power and are being controlled by wealthy individuals who make up a minute number of the population. The only changes that seem to gain any steam in the legislative branch are bills which impose on those who are less fortunate. A storm is brewing in America; tomorrow could be the day the skies break wide open.
Naturally, the success of this operation rests solely on one thing: the participation of the self-proclaimed 99%. For this demonstration to truly make its statement, a vast majority of Americans must commit and take the streets. Civil disobedience is what makes all the difference. With non-violent demonstration, changes can be brought upon more ethically and morally sound principles. As with most things: the power lies in our numbers.
Matthew Cash
May 1, 2012 @ 5:43 am
Oh, you 99%. How you make my piss boil in anger due to your bitching and laziness. Make no mistake people, these people aren’t being thrashed in the workplace. They’re paid enough through the unions they’re forced to join. So, instead of doing their damn jobs, they want to go bitch to the rich and tell them that they deserve MORE and that the rich should have LESS (nevermind the fact that the idea of “rich” is now something like $200,000 a year before expenses).
“*sniffle* We aren’t millionaires. Let’s go hate on them instead!”
“That’s a good idea. I mean, it’s not like trying to shut down the country for a day is a bad idea or anything like that, right? That can only be positive!”
ALSO… what does this news story have to do about games/conspiracy theories/supernatural?
Robert Strick
May 1, 2012 @ 7:55 am
Politics and conspiracies are closely related.
Armand Lane
May 1, 2012 @ 8:08 am
Actually the minimum wage is not even close to a living wage. There’s not one individual, let alone an entire family that can live on 7.50 an hour. What these “piss-boiling” 99ers are protesting is the fact that the tax burden is continuing to fall on those with less rather than those who have money they can spare (the “1%”) It’s not about becoming a millionaire, it’s about placing financial burden where it won’t destroy an entire middle class.
Matthew Cash
May 1, 2012 @ 1:24 pm
Well, of course you aren’t supposed to live off of minimum wage. Minimum wage is for the basic of things. If they went to college (which pretty much requires them to PAY ATTENTION IN SCHOOL unless they want to pull out a student loan), got a job, etc., they wouldn’t have too much a problem. My brother and best friend have done it in New York and another one of my friends did it in Jersey. It isn’t impossible.
And it’s not like the millionaires (that’s 5%, not 1%) aren’t paying TONS more than we are. Let’s just use an example situation (tad less time-consuming), shall we? Let’s say you make $100,000 before taxes. The government comes in and says, “we want 25%”. There, you just paid $25,000 to the fed. Now, some millionaire has had a bad year and only makes $10,000,000 before taxes. Taxes come in, the government says, “We want 10%”. He’s just paid $1,000,000, 40x what you paid.
What these protests are about aren’t “making the ‘1%’ pay their fair share!”, it’s to reduce the amount of money these millionaires make exponentially until they’re down here with us middle-class folk. It’s a move to damage capitalism and to damage businesses. And, to further explain the wonderful outcome of this crap, let’s think for yet another moment. This hurts business. Businesses have to pay more. Businesses can’t afford as many employees now, so now they cut some and can’t hire any more.
Fantastic, now we have even LESS jobs. Because it’s so easy to find some now.
There was some celebrity on the radio yesterday that came from Cuba, though I can’t remember his name now. He talked about how, when in Cuba, he barely had anything to eat. The government gave them barely a thing and they had a make it last. He dreamed of coming over here just so he could eat all of this food. When he got over here, his uncle, who had already been living here, took him to the store. When this Cuban dude got there, he saw rows upon rows of food and gaped in wonder at such a breathtaking sight as a grocery store. His uncle tells him that he can get whatever food he wants so he starts wondering around and opening containers (not knowing that you’re supposed to grab the whole thing) and grabbing bits of food here and there. He takes it back to his uncle who proceeds to laugh and tell him that he’s supposed to get the entire container, not just bits in pieces. This, once again, leads to this man’s excitement as he realizes that he can have seemingly as much food as he wants. When the host of this show asked him what he still thought of this country, he replied, “This is just a fantastic country, the best in the world.”
People these days are spoiled. We have everything handed to us and the moment something is taken away, they act like… toddlers, really, talking about how it’s “not fair”. This country was founded upon working for what you have and what you get. These millionaires that they hate so much are providing them with jobs, food, the newest technology, etc. It isn’t due to a tax burden, it’s due to feeling entitled to just as much as everyone else. There’s a word making it where everyone is on just the same level as everyone else. It’s “socialism” and notice what it’s done to Greece.
Yeah… I apologize, I rant sometimes. By sometimes, I mean all the time. XD
hariseldon
May 1, 2012 @ 4:30 pm
OK, so we get all the people on minimum wage properly educated, then what? Your argument presupposes that there are jobs for these now highly skilled workers. Or do we send them back to do minimum wage jobs? In any event, even if we could find them jobs, who do we get to do the jobs they were doing? Robots? More immigrants?
Your tax example is deeply flawed- you are effectively advocating a regressive tax based system (ie you richer you are the less you pay). Even if that is what you are intentionally arguing for, which is scary in itself, the rich will still be paying a smaller amount, proportional to their income, than the poor. That is not just. But who cares about them anyway, they are uneducated and deserve minimum wage jobs.
In your second point you are conflating personal income tax with business taxes- why do businesses have to pay more? You could argue that high personal tax rates cause skilled workers to move overseas and work in countries with lower tax rates, but that argument is a scare story- labour is not very mobile (especially internationally)
I think your Cuba story places a convenient gloss over some of their acheivements in terms of literacy and healthcare (take note). Yeah their economy is in the toilet, but I wonder how much of that is down to their economic system or the fact that their next-door neighbour (and largest economy in the world) has placed a trade embargo on Cuba…
I agree with you about people being spoiled, although in the UK (my country) it has manifested itself as welfare dependency. Now, I’m not suggesting that no one should have benefits nor am I going to exaggerate the issue- but it does exist. There are instances where families can live off benefits and have a better standard of life than a similar family who work have and ask little of the state.
Also, I am not in favour of making everyone equal as that is both impossible and undesireable imo. I only think that the current system in the US (and the UK- our government recently cut the top rate of tax for highest earners :/ ) is not just. At all.
bleachorange
May 1, 2012 @ 12:42 pm
I agree with both sides. I think some people are entitled, true. there are many who don’t work at all and live off of my tax money (people I know, not just shadowy masses). and there are the rich who always get richer. and no, you need about double 7.50 an hour to even consider no roomies. there’s no way you could live off that without aid of some sort. so, I see it from both sides.
the only way to get reform is to change campaign finance laws, because the legislators listen most to those who get them into office. and no, that isn’t always those who voted for them.
synopsis
June 13, 2012 @ 7:31 pm
Not going to go indepth here, but what i hate with things like this is that typically 1 percent of the people involved actually have knowledge of, or care about it. Turns into a huge poser/follower event, which most often is its own downfall. Who hasn’t seen some of these people on tv getting a interview on the street, and they know next to nothing on the subject, but they are furious and passionate!… People need to quit trying to find something to buy into and just do whats right daily, so simple to say, impossible to ever happen on a major scale sadly. Its not sexy enough i figure.