NOTE: This is the forum topic for discussion of the May 1 General Strike.
The original Proposal is here
The Event Listing and March Details are here
Flyers/Posters are here
MAY 1 IS INTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY!
Cities/Occupy GAs Who've Endorsed the Call for an International General Strike on May 1st 2012: Miami, FL; Los Angeles, CA; Boston, MA; Riverside, CA; Long Beach, CA; Venice, CA; Minneapolis, MN, Melbourne, Australia; Tampa, FL, Minneapolis, MN - and Las Vegas, NV.
UPDATE 13 APR - At last night's GA, Occupylasvegas.org decided by direct consensus to stand by OccupyLV.org in supporting both the Strike and the March. For Vegas locals, this is another positive step in coalition-building and solidarity within the movement. Big twinkles to my homies downtown. - TF
What you can do to help #OccupyM1 and build the general strike (Facebook)
LINK UP WITH OCCUPY MAY FIRST #occupym1
Friend: http://www.facebook.com/occupymayfirst
Like: http://www.facebook.com/occupym1
Follow: http://www.twitter.com/occupym1
Which way forward for the 99%?
Build Power & Show Power through Mass Participatory Bold Action
By Occupy May 1st
[...]Currently, the state of the economy has hit all of us (some facing overlapping prejudice and oppression, harder than others). There are too many people out of work; our pay has barely or hasn’t kept up with rising costs; our social services have continued to be cut; our influence on government has eroded; and our civil liberties have been attacked. This has been going on while the elites of this country have captured an increasing share of wealth; have had the highest decreases in the amount of taxes they pay; have attacked our social services and organizations of popular defense (such as our unions and community organizations); and have consolidated to an even greater degree their power over politics. The Business Insider- ironically- provides one of the more useful series of charts that root the Occupy movement’s concerns in the sobering historical fact that we experience.
The way forward must involve building and showing our popular power against that of the elite. But the form of our power must be different from theirs: we must fight fire with water. Where they exercise hierarchical power over us to dominate, control, exploit and oppress; we must build and exercise horizontal, bottom-up power with each other to cooperate, liberate and collectively empower each other. We need to organize ourselves autonomously from all forms of hierarchical power relations in our communities, schools and workplaces to fight collectively for our interests. This must include a rejection of attempts to divide and rule us; a rejection of racism, patriarchy, xenophobia, elitism and other forms of oppression; a rejection of attempts by electoral parties, powerful special interest groups and others to co-opt and control our movement.
We need to develop the movement beyond the camp because the majority of the 99% can’t camp out in a city center. The majority of the 99% have obligations and vulnerabilities that prevent them from such time-consuming, geographically-specific action including: work, school, responsibilities in caring for children or other dependents, particular health needs, etc. So in order for us to truly exercise our power as the 99% and to truly be participatory, we need to find ways where all of us can participate, and be valued, in whatever capacity and with whatever time we have to contribute. We need our action to be as participatory, diverse and widespread as possible. We must boldly show and build our collective power.
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A Call to Reassert Our Right to Protest: 2012- A Year of Struggle
by InterOccupy NYC on Jan 6, 2012 • 11:04 pm
Occupy Los Angeles, in solidarity with the occupy movement, asserts our right to live, work and organize peacefully and politically without repression. On October 1st we assembled together to explore and create collective will to address the various special interests that have taken hold of our governing processes. We stand together again, at the dawn of a new year, to reassert our dedication to developing a peaceful nonviolent resistance movement in Los Angeles, the neighboring cities of Southern California and throughout the world.
Our efforts to organize and petition for justice were met with the following measures utilized by Law Enforcement, the City Attorney, Mayor, and City Council with the complicit support, if not express coordination of the Federal Government:
1) restrictions on individual and commercial free speech and press including the selection of a ‘media pool’ and the exclusion of religious, legal, and medical observers.
2) restraints on free speech including regulation of sound devices or the requirement of permits to assemble
3) the restriction of our first amendment right to assemble (or occupy) by arbitrary city ordinances
4) the withholding of access to a public park and the arbitrary establishment of designated “free speech zones”
5) the abuse of ‘declaration of unlawful assembly’ to stop peaceful assemblies
6) the predatory nature of the entire legal and judicial system by which free speech is being criminalized through an aggressive arrest policy
7) the abuses of the City Attorney’s office, who misrepresents “the people” by holding peaceful individuals engaged in public protest for extended periods of time without access to basic human necessities in order to intimidate and impose harsher restrictions
8) the intimidation of individuals willing to engage in deliberative public assembly by constant police presence or escalation
9) the private contracting and institution of a re-education course on the 1st amendment
10) a full-scale paramilitary operation to remove OccupyLA from Solidarity Park (paid for by taxpayers) by law enforcement, the City Attorney, Mayor, City Council and the support, if not express coordination of the Federal Government
11) the CIA’s refusal to process a Freedom of Information Act request exposing what role, if any, they played in the orchestrated evictions of occupy
encampments nationwide
12) the concession of basic civil liberties by our representatives to appease political and financial pressure by special interests
We consider the methods used to intimidate and criminalize protesters throughout the country to be unconstitutional, and move to notify our appointed representatives and civil servants officially that they have abused their authority and violated our fundamental and explicitly documented rights. We hope to inform the world and our peers throughout this country that what we have experienced at the hands of our representatives and civil servants cannot be mistaken for anything other than an intent to silence and oppress the growing discontent felt by people everywhere.
We reject this treatment, and our response to harassment, intimidation, criminalization and repression is as follows:
“In the spirit of constant public protest and as a direct response to these assaults on our civil liberties, we are calling for a year of struggle among all communities and across all issues to unite against state sponsored repression and assert the inherent right of the people to peacefully assemble. We will stand in solidarity together as a people, despite having different beliefs, values and political ideologies, to reestablish these rights and mobilize against corruption by special interests in our towns, cities and government.”
Please join us to demonstrate the power of the people and collective will by striking on May 1st.
Organize. Occupy. Strike. Power!
Occupy LA GA 1/4/2011
It was suggested by Ballentine in the Jan 22 Circle that we combine this event with a march for May Day (aka International Workers' Day). May Day is called "Labor Day" in most countries and it is a time of solidarity for workers. Thoughts/plans/opinions?
Call it a General Strike/Public March.
sponsored by Occupy LV/ Occupy Wall Street
Pick the destination early, and we can start working on the more in depth plans. Destination, time, message. Press release, advertise it, etc.
I think we should make this the next major Occupy event for the area.
Agreed, and it needs to be as big a show as we can make it. We need to show the people that we are still here and picking up steam.
I'm for the idea. Pushed
Bob
May Day General Strike: A Day Without the 99 Percent
- from alternet story: What Has Occupy Been Up To? 6 Great Actions You Can't Miss This Spring
StrikeEverywhere.net is the home of the NY May Day General Strike. Lots of good resources and information up there.
UPDATE 13 APR - At last night's GA, Occupylasvegas.org decided by direct consensus to stand by OccupyLV.org in supporting both the Strike and the March. For Vegas locals, this is another positive step in coalition-building and solidarity within the movement. Big twinkles to my homies downtown.
*USA:* *Occupy General Strike*
For the first time, workers, students, immigrants, and the unemployed from
over 115 U.S. cities will stand together for economic justice.
May Day Directory: http://occupywallst.org/article/may-day/
Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/337068492974144/
They request help:
They need Leaflets (one Page), Posters and Banners (trike promotion material) in different Languages for the First of May. Especially in French, Hindi, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, etc.
If you can help, please email euromayday@euromayday.org
More info: http://maydaynyc.org/ and http://www.may1.info/
A taste of what's going on in other US cities...
Charlotte, NC
Converge for Justice: Occupy Wall Street, South
*Break Up BOA's Business as Usual!* On May 6-9 people from across the country and world will be converging in Charlotte, NC, home of Bank of America's Headquarters and their annual Shareholder meeting, to demand an end to their practices that are bankrupting our economy and wrecking our climate.
http://www.ncagainstcorporatepower.org/2012/04/join-the-99-to-break-up-t...
Los angeles, California
*May 1st Convergence Celebration*
https://www.facebook.com/events/206902279419687/ On May 1st, the people of Los Angeles will come from four winds of the city to arrive upon Main Street. No more Wall Street, Come to Main Street. There's a revolution in town - Main St and 6th St.
*MAYDAY-MOBILES!* https://www.facebook.com/events/353770878002100/ On May 1st 2012, Occupy LA - in conjunction with numerous other groups across Los Angeles and YOU! - are going to converge on the city with a *four-wind caravan* of cars, bikes, vans, skateboards, rollerblades....
JOELLEN KAISER/THE MEDIA CONSORTIUM (TMC) - going ahead w nationwide coverage of May Day actions. there will be about 30 diffr media outlets covering them. We would like to get contact people avail for Skype interviews or tweets. joellen@themediaconsortium.com
Official interface will be at www.mediaforthe99percent.com
CAROLINE/FREESPEECH.TV working with TMC for coverage. Occupy The Media show looking for content about this. Our media booking contact is melissa@freespeech.org we are looking to interview occupiers via Skype or as on-the-streets correspondents. caroline@freespeech.org
??? - http://maydaynyc.org/connect - they have 115 cities participating
ESTEBAN/LA - putting together a bike and car caravan, working w the east LA contingent; we're going to march - take the metro downtown - then march again.
DAMIEN/HONOLULU - Planning BrunchNotBombs and Labor March to Walgreen's, then go back to camp for live music & film screening
JACKIE/BUFFALO - We're having a Die-In @ a recruiters office, a block party, teach-ins, then rally & march to our former camp @ Niagra Square, we have about 10 speakers from labor groups
FACIL - NYC Tech Ops are also doing a Maestro Radio Station from April 29th - May 2nd. This will be a place to keep up to date in relative realtime. Watch for updates on IO and NYCGA.
ESTEBAN - We are using walkie-talkies and a SMS service called "GroupMe". We used to use BeGrouped but their site is down.
HASHTAGS:
#mayday
#M1GS
LA is using #M1GSLA
JOELLEN KAISER - we are using #maydaymap for our interactive map. Check it out.
MICHAEL/LA - Janitors in LA taking a vote on striking. There will also be a nurses strike in Bay area.
JACKIE - Occupy Providence has decals you can put on bank windows etc to make them appear boarded up. Where can we get those?
FACIL - Solidarity actions in LA incl "Let Them Eat Cupcakes" action by Rodeo Drive (flash mob). Looking for info on organizing flashmobs.
JACKIE - are we going to debrief?
FACIL - Yes. May 7th.
JACKIE - Some ppl from Occupy Buffalo are now working with firedoglake. Occupy Albany got a HUGE billboard! Occupy Tacoma is handing out pamphlets door-to-door with the history of Occupy on one side and History of May Day on the other.
JOELLEN - After M1, www.mediaforthe99percent.com will become an archive of what happened that day.
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