Occupy May Day 2012
Occupy May Day General Strike.
For the second time in half a year I made the 300 mile journey to New York City to stand with the Occupy Movement during the May Day general strike.
It was organized so that there would be a morning group in Bryant Park from 9am till 2pm. The second gathering would be formed in Union Square at 14th street and both groups would march downtown to Wall Street at 5:30..
I was not involved as organizer or as a member in a group represented, but just as an observer.
I visited a friend who had a loft on West 17th St. a few blocks from Union Square and started out early Tuesday morning. I wanted the chance to chat with people before the park filled up with enthusiastic marchers.
I met a mailman and his wife who had driven 200 miles up from Delaware. He was an ex-vet who came to support postal workers. The Post office is currently under assault not by the public, but by Congress that is behaving as if the only solution is privatization.
A young, nicely dressed student had traveled 500 miles from Ohio. He was an astronomy student who sees his passion and love of astronomy made into a bad choice because of the requirements of onerous students loans.
I met a woman who was selling political books on civil rights and woman's rights. Cornel West had been arrested the day before and I asked her if she knew anything about it.
She said, "He was arrested for disturbing the peace!"
I said, I'm not surprised and we both laughed knowing West's tendency and passion for causing a fuss.
I sat with an artist who works for Starbucks who had come all the way up from Florida. He sat painting universal images on cardboard. I gratefully accepted a small painting of a dove.
I was completely energized by the experience.
No one knows what they want?
The occupy movement knows exactly what is needed for change. It is the cable news and big media that refuses to discuss these issues in a meaningful way. The big issues that affect the overwhelming majority of citizens are completely absent from the debate.
Who is their leader?
There is a good reason that there is no leader. If an announced leader rose up from the ranks, all energies of both the government and the media would be set lose to discredit such a person in order to separate the movement form the mainstream.
By mid morning I saw something I hadn't seen in my lifetime. Union marchers began to arrive in force. Nurses, subway workers, teachers, college and high school students, legal aid workers, taxi drivers, firemen and even some police from other cities. If the Occupy movement has done anything, it has re-awaken American Labor.
I did notice a conspicuous and complete absence of private sector unions. There was no cable and telephone workers, no fast food service workers and no Wal-Mart employees. Any kind of union in these companies is regarded as the enemy and dealt with swiftly. These companies view wage suppression as a good thing.
Unions are not perfect but organized labor and collective bargaining has been repressed during the last 30 years that union membership has dropped to 7% and it is mostly confined to the public sector.
The next morning I saw the most disparaging article in the New York Post. A Murdoch publication usually considered a working class newspaper.
The entire article was negative in every way and almost total fabrication. The office workers depicted in the paper's photo spread gave its location away to this old New Yorker through the reflection in the window.. It was in a building East of Lexington Avenue and far from Bryant park and the parade route. The caption below the photo was also a fabrication.
Why would the Post do this? A goodly percentage of subway workers, taxi drivers and city workers read the Post. The article calls upon its readers to identify with white collar office workers and demean the protesters.
The Occupy movement resists a formal platform and not all the their issues are practical, but many of them are reasonable and important points of view suitable for the public debate. Issues like housing foreclosures, interest re-adjustments on credit and loans, health care and education and the rise of private prisons.
Instead our politicians chat on about gay marriage, abortion and pass bills that shred our civil liberties like the National Defense Authorization Act...
A handmade sign carried by a protester said it in a nutshell,
Put people first
Reverse the NDAA
Reverse Citizens United
Stop CISPA
Restore Glass-Steagall
For the second time in half a year I made the 300 mile journey to New York City to stand with the Occupy Movement during the May Day general strike.
It was organized so that there would be a morning group in Bryant Park from 9am till 2pm. The second gathering would be formed in Union Square at 14th street and both groups would march downtown to Wall Street at 5:30..
I was not involved as organizer or as a member in a group represented, but just as an observer.
I visited a friend who had a loft on West 17th St. a few blocks from Union Square and started out early Tuesday morning. I wanted the chance to chat with people before the park filled up with enthusiastic marchers.
I met a mailman and his wife who had driven 200 miles up from Delaware. He was an ex-vet who came to support postal workers. The Post office is currently under assault not by the public, but by Congress that is behaving as if the only solution is privatization.
A young, nicely dressed student had traveled 500 miles from Ohio. He was an astronomy student who sees his passion and love of astronomy made into a bad choice because of the requirements of onerous students loans.
I met a woman who was selling political books on civil rights and woman's rights. Cornel West had been arrested the day before and I asked her if she knew anything about it.
She said, "He was arrested for disturbing the peace!"
I said, I'm not surprised and we both laughed knowing West's tendency and passion for causing a fuss.
I sat with an artist who works for Starbucks who had come all the way up from Florida. He sat painting universal images on cardboard. I gratefully accepted a small painting of a dove.
I was completely energized by the experience.
No one knows what they want?
The occupy movement knows exactly what is needed for change. It is the cable news and big media that refuses to discuss these issues in a meaningful way. The big issues that affect the overwhelming majority of citizens are completely absent from the debate.
Who is their leader?
There is a good reason that there is no leader. If an announced leader rose up from the ranks, all energies of both the government and the media would be set lose to discredit such a person in order to separate the movement form the mainstream.
By mid morning I saw something I hadn't seen in my lifetime. Union marchers began to arrive in force. Nurses, subway workers, teachers, college and high school students, legal aid workers, taxi drivers, firemen and even some police from other cities. If the Occupy movement has done anything, it has re-awaken American Labor.
I did notice a conspicuous and complete absence of private sector unions. There was no cable and telephone workers, no fast food service workers and no Wal-Mart employees. Any kind of union in these companies is regarded as the enemy and dealt with swiftly. These companies view wage suppression as a good thing.
Unions are not perfect but organized labor and collective bargaining has been repressed during the last 30 years that union membership has dropped to 7% and it is mostly confined to the public sector.
The next morning I saw the most disparaging article in the New York Post. A Murdoch publication usually considered a working class newspaper.
Quote:
Occupation Wall Street May Day, A Laugh Riot!
Occupy Wall Street's call for May Day mayhem largely fizzled, but at least provided a good laugh for hardworking people gazing from their office windows at demonstrators' antics as cops took a few dozen into custody.
"How can anyone take them seriously? They look like homeless people." quipped Financial District bartender Kimberly Leo..
Leo said, these people need a change of clothes and a shower.
Occupy Wall Street's call for May Day mayhem largely fizzled, but at least provided a good laugh for hardworking people gazing from their office windows at demonstrators' antics as cops took a few dozen into custody.
"How can anyone take them seriously? They look like homeless people." quipped Financial District bartender Kimberly Leo..
Leo said, these people need a change of clothes and a shower.
Why would the Post do this? A goodly percentage of subway workers, taxi drivers and city workers read the Post. The article calls upon its readers to identify with white collar office workers and demean the protesters.
The Occupy movement resists a formal platform and not all the their issues are practical, but many of them are reasonable and important points of view suitable for the public debate. Issues like housing foreclosures, interest re-adjustments on credit and loans, health care and education and the rise of private prisons.
Instead our politicians chat on about gay marriage, abortion and pass bills that shred our civil liberties like the National Defense Authorization Act...
A handmade sign carried by a protester said it in a nutshell,
Put people first
Reverse the NDAA
Reverse Citizens United
Stop CISPA
Restore Glass-Steagall
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