mind!
On May 1, factions of Occupy Wall Street plan to impose a “general strike” on America by shutting down business, public transportation and crucial infrastructure. “New York, Denver, Seattle and other major cities are bracing for what should be an eventful day,” notes activist blogger Brent Wahl.
In New York, OWS has called for forcibly blocking bridges and tunnels. Strike is a Verb, an OWS affiliated website, declares “autonomous direct action groups within Occupy Wall Street, as a part of the global mobilizations for general strike and economic non-compliance, will block one or more Manhattan-bound bridge or tunnel to protest the shameful opulence of the 1%.”Strike is a Verb has posted a list of groups participating in the action below an old newspaper illustration showing a demonstrator firing a pistol at police during the Haymarket riot in 1886 in Chicago. The website calls for civil disobedience and a “wildcat march” that will undoubtedly court police reaction: “We were told by bosses, by activists, by union leaders we couldn’t strike. Perhaps, they suggested, if we wanted to protest we could carry a sign and walk within police barricades, safely cordoned off in a free speech zone. On May 1st, we aren’t working and we aren’t protesting. We are striking.”
In San Francisco, as part of an announced general strike, OWS plans to shut down not only transportation, but also hospitals. “A General Strike will not just occur at one workplace or one thoroughfare but throughout the whole Bay Area. There will be May Day worker and student protests and strikes in Oakland, San Francisco, small and large U.S. cities, and around the world. The status quo is unacceptable and May Day actions will demonstrate that the working class is no longer willing to abide by it,” Occupy the Bridge explains.
The May 1 events are being organized by a coalition of Occupy Wall Street, Alliance for Labor Rights, Immigrant Rights, Jobs for All, May 1st Coalition for Immigrant & Worker Rights and “Immigrant & Community Organizations.”
The Alliance for Labor Rights includes Workers United, a labor union associated with SEIU (the union gave Workers United over a $1 million). Last November, the union announced with “great pride and a sense of purpose, the 2.1 million members united in SEIU endorse President Barack Obama for re-election.” Remarkably, the SEIU claims Obama is “a leader willing to fight for the needs of the 99 percent,” despite the fact the Obama administration is in the hip pocket of Goldman Sachs and is micromanaged by the CFR, the Trilats and the banksters.
The OWS “general strike” will of course prove to be a failure and an unmitigated disaster (and will provide New York cops with an excuse to pepper spray more people).
Despite corporate union claims of solidarity, May 1 will be another day of work for most Americans. OWS and organized labor have announced they will make it difficult for them to get to work by closing down bridges, tunnels and mass transit. The actions planned by OWS will do little to the so-called 1%, but will make life more difficult for the 99% who must work for a living.
If corporate labor unions, professional anarchists and the OWS are sincerely interested in changing the economic structure of America, they would rally at Federal Reserve locations around the country and demand an end to the stranglehold the bankers have on the nation.
Calls for socialist palliatives and increased taxation will not remedy the economic and social ills that ail America. Putting an end to the Federal Reserve and removing the financial elite and the globalists from the economic future of America is the only sane and effective choice, not closing down the Golden Gate Bridge.
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