On Tuesday, May 1st, known as May Day or International Workers Day, Occupy Wall Street protesters hope to mobilize tens of thousands of people across the country under the slogan, “General Strike. No Work. No Shopping. Occupy Everywhere.” Events are planned in 125 cities. We speak with leading social theorist David Harvey, distinguished professor of anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, about how Occupy Wall Street compares to other large-scale grassroots movements throughout modern history. His most recent book is “Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution.”
by John Laesch, posted on Saturday, April 28th, 2012 at 12:24 pm
Teachers and retired teachers filled a school cafeteria in Naperville, IL to hear a presentation from Dick Ingram, the Executive Director of the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) on Thursday, April 26th.
The staff at the high school had to set up extra seats to accommodate an estimated 300-400 people.
The presentation itself was very “matter of fact” and seemed to be a part of a PR effort to let teachers know that Governor Quinn and the Illinois General Assembly were about to deliver a hard-hitting punch. Most of the information presented was not new, but the use of multiple events and participation by the news media re-enforced the message, “the sky is falling and teachers have to make concessions.” Before delivering the bad news, Ingram did talk about how great it was that teachers had lived up to their responsibility by paying into the retirement system all of these years. He also acknowledged that teachers are not eligible for Social Security (a point that is often missed by the public and seems to be ignored by lawmakers).
When May 1 rolls around, the proposed general strike will probably not strictly resemble famed general strikes of history. But the tactic is no less significant now than it used to be. In fact, a lot rides on this upcoming May Day. This video, featuring archival footage and the words of Marina Sitrin, Francis Fox Piven and John Nichols, explains why the general strike matters so much, not just for Occupy and labor but for the legitimacy of democracy itself.
The idea of the general strike is not reformist simply because it demands changes to laws and working conditions. Rather, as Professor Gayatri Spivak of Columbia University argues in this video, the general strike is one vital tool in the array of tactics that must be used to fundamentally alter the relations between the classes. What’s more, revolution will not come about through a “catastrophic change” as was once imagined, and that concept should be given a decent burial.
Schools have morphed from extensions of a community into centers that more closely resemble factories and prisons, says David Stovall, associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. What will it take to confront this reality, instead of distancing ourselves from it, as we are now?
Van Jones introduces the Rebuild the Dream Revivals, where musicians, artists, and community and national leaders are coming together with thousands of everyday people to envision an America that works for us all. RSVP now at http://rebuildrevivals.org/wi to join Rebuild Wisconsin on May 19 in Milwaukee.
The call for a general strike on May 1 should not be solely about work, argues Marina Sitrin, a postdoctoral fellow at CUNY specializing in global mass movements. Instead, it should reshape our ideas about how society is built, as Sitrin explains in this video, by asking hard questions about class, consumption, work and society.
DemocracyNow.org – In part two of our interview with Tavis Smiley and Prof. Cornel West they discuss growing up in working-class households. “I saw so much poverty growing up,” says Smiley, who lived with 13 family members in a three-bedroom trailer and learned that even when he was not optimistic, he could be hopeful. “Hope needs help,” Smiley notes. West recalls how he worked with the Black Panthers to organize a general strike while growing up in Sacramento, California, in order to push for African-American studies programs in local high schools. Looking at current events, Smiley and West cite Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s comment that “war is the enemy of the poor.” They compare the amount of money spent on the war in Iraq, and the 2012 presidential campaign, to funding for programs that assist the one in two Americans who are now poor.
The first part of this discussion can be seen here.
The idea of a general strike might seem a little outdated for today’s global economy, but general strikes nevertheless demonstrate not just the power but also the necessity of coordinated action for social and economic justice. In this video, John Nichols, who grew up in a factory town, offers a brief overview of the history of unionization and the general strike and the impact of both on workers’ rights.
