Just in case people don't know about this, Occupy Wall Street is planning a massive May Day General Strike! For more information, go to maydaynyc.org
Anyone planning to attend in NYC, get together with me via PM, maybe we can make an earthers meetup in this at the same time.

If you are NOT in NYC, the following OWS assemblies are planning a general strike in these areas as well, google up information to get involved near you!!


THESE GENERAL ASSEMBLIES HAVE ANSWERED THE CALL FOR A GENERAL STRIKE:
Occupy Atlanta, GA
Occupy Albany, NY
Occupy Amherst, MA
Occupy Baltimore, MD
Occupy Bellingham, WA
Occupy Boston, MA
Occupy Bozeman, MT
Occupy Brooklyn, NY
Occupy Buffalo, NY
Occupy Burlington, VT
Occupy Bushwick, NY
Occupy Chicago, IL
Occupy Cleveland, OH
Occupy Dayton, OH
Occupy Delaware
Occupy Detroit, MI
Occupy Durango, CO
Occupy Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Occupy Fullerton, CA
Occupy Honolulu, HI
Occupy Huntington, WV
Occupy Indiana
Occupy Irvine, CA
Occupy Las Vegas, NV
Occupy Long Beach, CA
Occupy Long Island, NY
Occupy Los Angeles, CA
Media Consortium
Occupy Melbourne, AU
Occupy Miami, FL
Occupy Minneapolis/Twin Cities, MN
Occupy Mira Monte, CA
Occupy Naples, FL
Occupy New Jersey
Occupy Oakland, CA
Occupy Ottawa, ON, Canada
Occupy Oxnard, CA
Occupy Pasadena, CA
Occupy Philadelphia, PA
Occupy Phoenix, AZ
Occupy Portland, OR
Occupy Providence, RI
Occupy Richmond, VA
Occupy Riverside, CA
Occupy San Diego, CA
Occupy San Fernando Valley, CA
Occupy San Jose, CA
Occupy Santa Cruz, CA
Occupy Schenectady, NY
Occupy Seattle, WA
Occupy St. Louis, MO
Occupy Sydney, AU
Occupy Tacoma, WA
Occupy Tampa, FL
Occupy Venice, CA
Occupy Ventura, CA
Occupy Washington, D.C.
Occupy Williamsburg, NY
Occupy Wall Street

I will be occupying my job, making money. Not crying that someone has more then me.

Good drone.

Besides, the government knew about this upcoming protest even before it was planned by the protesters. Only a few hundred people will show up, and some of them be rounded up and arrested for...protesting, thus sending a message to any other would-be protesters.

Just gotta love Syria!

Please occupy the road in front of truck,I'll be the guy running your ass into the ground!

Only a few hundred people? You must not follow OWS much. There are hundreds committed from each of the Labor Unions involved alone.

hundreds that should be commited you mean

I am happy to see people exercising their right to free speech.

Keep it peaceful.

Oh, I follow them. Well, not really 'follow' per se, but I do glance at the news every so often at the idiots "occupying" public parks and other public places with tents and other camping gear, only to be arrested and have their stuff confiscated. They're barely even a blip on the media's radar, and this doesn't look to change (until those arrests are made, then it's maybe a 3-minute news blurb).

KILL WHITEY!

Good drone? If he and I weren't doing so, where would the government money you live off of come from? Where would the goods and services you enjoy come from?

See, this is exactly the kind of ignorant snobbery that OWS is trying to fight. What makes you think that he lives off government money? Why did you naturally assume that someone who supports OWS doesn't work themselves?

If you bothered to educate yourself the tiniest bit about May Day, the entire point is for the WORKING CLASS, to strike, thus showing the elite minority that WE truly hold the power. Stop being an ignorant government yes man and think for yourself.

Because he implied he doesn't work. You are part of a mob while I'm out trying to make a living for myself as an individual - who is the one that isn't thinking for himself? I would truly love to know what the OWS theory of economics is because nothing I've ever heard from them would work.

Yes, you OWS protesters can just keep telling the 1% that you hold all the power. In the meantime, the 1% will be living comfortably in their multimillion dollar yachts, mansions, and vehicles, (while having the full protection of their friends in Congress) while stuffing them all through tax loopholes designed specifically to keep the working class...in the working class.

Because really...if a person doesn't have a job, because he or she is too busy "occupying X", where else is that person's income coming from?

What about the line "Good Drone" implies no job? I think it pretty plainly states that Marco's comment of "Not crying that someone has more than me" is the mark of someone that is glad to be one of the sheeple.

And that whole part of a mob thing? How do you think most progress was made in this country? By MASS protest and demonstration. MLK would have done no good for civil rights if he was the only one protesting.

And the economic theory that is being worked towards is equal responsability, rather than the rich having a million tax breaks etc, so that they can easily stay rich while those that are working class shoulder the vast majority of the burden in this country.



This is exactly what OWS is trying to work AGAINST Nuk. And the OWS supporters around the country aren't just the people that are sitting in parks all day, but also a huge section of that same oppressed working class you are referring to. Thus the entire point of the May Day protest, to show what happens when the 99% decides to stand up and make our voices heard.

I agree with you that legislation that hinders upward mobility is a problem that is perpetuated by the power of money in politics. Income inequality, though, is not a bad thing without government interfering with upward class mobility. Income inequality provides incentives for productivity and innovation, without which we would stagnate.

The question is, how can we stop the upper class from having such an unequal influence in government? Even more powerful than money in a democracy is votes. Only 50% of the population votes. If 25% more were active participants, elections would hinge on their votes. They would have to have policy representation or else incumbents would lose. This requires voters actually paying attention too, they have to reward those that pass policies beneficial to them and punish those that don't. Voting is the only way to overcome money in politics because there really isn't a way to get it out.

Blacks are particularly disadvantaged in policy representation because of their dedication to the Democratic party. The Democratic party knows they don't have to represent black interests because they have their vote no matter what. The Republicans know that no matter what they do, they aren't going to get more than 10% of the black vote. No one has an incentive to represent them. The best thing blacks could do for themselves would be to vote Republican and make the Democrats earn them back.

I wrote 2 words, how is it possible to make implications writing just two words? I really wish 'your' government supplied me, but they don't. I'm also fairly sure that most products I use (allbeit not all) has little to do with the states. Of course, you're free to start paying taxes to Sweden so that I may take part of your profits.

Yep, that's right, I'm not even american. You're free to continue waddle in ignorance and prejudice. Meanwhile, we've had demostrations like this for decades in Sweden (and prolly many other European countries as well). I congratulate the americans on starting to catch up in consciousness.

Ya, you guys really need to split up into something else than a 2 party system...

Well maybe if all the people who attend May Day vote for some real change as opposed to whatever it was Obama wanted to do we could actually get somewhere economically as a country!

Maybe, but this would require serious amendment to the Constitution that will never get done. Winner-take-all elections are always 2 party systems, the US would have to go to proportional representation to get this kind of change.

Please go home or go somewhere else. Your DC division of misfits not only has destroyed McPherson's grass, but the park now smells of filth, often large bags of trash are left in a corner and it's become so bad that NPS had to put visible rat traps under every tree. You made your point. Now you guys just stink, literally and figureatively.

While I'm at it, blocking traffic or even those of us using the bike lanes, is really not helping your case of supporting the 99%. In DC, your 1% aren't leaving during rush hour or they're high up officials who have motorcades to go around you. Ergo, you're only acting as a public nuisance and not even an attractive nuisance like the hot women who sometimes protest PETA.

Every week day, I walk by your mini-dump encampment and think aloud about how this is exactly what I don't want America to become. Sometimes I even pass your Anarchist Library to go to the ATM and think aloud why don't you break the rules and try another park for a day or a week, or a year, or forever?

DC is bad enough with traffic, motorcade shutdowns, inept Metro, humid summers, and tourists that we don't need a bunch of whiny brats to compile our regional problems. So this May Day, march right out and take your story across America to every little town--please!

And watch as every little town slowly whittles down the worthless deadbeats until there's none of them left? Sounds like a plan to me.

Send em here to Appalachia, they wouldn't last too long. And they'd know what real poverty looks like; its nothing like their privileged, entitled selves.

Whiny brats? For trying to bring about change in our country adn get rid of the very class system you are bemoaning?



Who exactly are the privileged, and entitled you are talking about? Teachers? Construction workers? Laborers? THIS is the working class that is fighting for the change. The mahority of the people who support OWS and will be participating in May Day aren't the people that are being complained about that are in the parks. They are the ones fighting to make a living every day in this society. They are the college graduates who just got out of college and can't find a decent job in their field because we outsourced those jobs overseas, or because corporations have made major cutbacks because their funds were tied up in an inflated real estate market that preyed on the working class.

Do you think people in urban centers don't know what poverty is? It's estimated that 70% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck; yet those people pay a higher tax % than the 1%. And rather than fight back and try to enact that change, you want to call those that ARE fighting privileged and entitled. But I bet that if we are able to bring about some of that change, you will gladly spend the money that you save on your taxes.

I'm not bemoaning our system. I'm using your ridiculous labels to point out how illogical your protests are. You block traffic, try to disrupt the Metro, and march down bike lanes--all in a concerted effort to help the alleged "99%ers." I doubt I'm the first, but let me elaborate that no billionaires have ridden the Metro that I know about, and certainly none ride with any frequency.

Also, when do we the public get to use our 100% park again? I mean right now it's become a muddy mess. The sodding that NPS paid for last year was torn up, the empty park benches are largely "occupied" and every other day there are giant bags of trash left in the corner by the busiest intersection at the park. Sorry to be possibly waking you guys in your private park as I go to work, but seriously, get a real room. Come back in the daytime and protest. Do something other than make life that much harder for the 99%.

+100

thought we shot all the bloody dead beats... oh well, maybe if we can get them all to wear a hoodie...

http://www.usdebtclock.org

get off your bums, earn some money and pay some bloody taxes.

and just in case you didn't notice, 2/3rds of the nation doesn't have to pay any income tax. so i have no dang clue what the heck you are complaining about. oh, the poor impoverished masses that don't contribute one thin dime to provide for the peace and security that is provided to them by the 1/3rd that is actually paying for it. barely.

you'll also notice that the majority of what us taxpayers are paying for is a bunch of old retired people who did not feel the need to save for their future expenses in their chase for immortality. why am i paying for people who essentially had at least a 20 year head start on me?

meh, because they're a bunch of bullies and i'd have to violate a commandment from God that was issued to the Israelites, if i told them to lump it.

This thread is without merit! It ends here!

Wow, so first you start off making a joke of that kid getting shot in FL, then you jump to flatout bullfluff about taxes. I would love to know how all of you people are so ignorant about what the entire OWS movement is about. Who said anything about poor impoverished masses? Who is talking about people who refuse to work? You really need to jump of the republican ignorance train and do a bit of research about the things that you are badmouthing so vehemently.

Buddy. The occupiers themselves are ignorant about what the entire OWS movement is about. I've spoken to dozens of people who identify themselves as part of the OWS movement in Toronto and asked them questions about what it stands for, what their goals are, what system they'd like to see in place etc. and you get dozens of different answers. The only consistency is that what we have no isn't working. There's nothing close to a consensus about why it's not working or how to fix it. My problem with OWS is that it has no goal. You're complaining about our system. Fine. It's not perfect. There are classes. The upper class gets breaks that they don't need while the "middle" and lower classes pay taxes they can't afford. Fine. I'll grant you that. But pissing everyone off just to raise awareness about a problem isn't doing a god damn thing to fix the problem. All you're doing is alienating reasonable "middle" class people like me (a teacher) from supporting your cause. I agree with many of the arguments about our current economic system. What I disagree with is that we can fix the system by taking over public spaces and inconveniencing the very 99% that you claim to represent. You've identified a problem. Great. Now what's the solution? Ask 100 random occupiers that question and you'll get 100 different answers. Your "group" has no direction and no goal and I find it very hard to support something like that.

I also find it very hard to support people who are chanting about not having a job or paying too many taxes while they hold a $700 iPhone in one hand and drink their $6 Starbucks latte in the other. Many of them come off as hipsters who are only protesting because there's something to protest.

you really need to get the heck out of my wallet.

And this is part of what I have been trying to get across all day. The people just hanging out in the park are the minority of people that support OWS. May Day is going to mark a big change in how people view the movement. Massive national unions and other organizations are involved in getting all of this going. The face of OWS is going to change, which is part of the point on May Day, is for people to realize the movement isn't just employed people sitting around; but also teachers, teamsters, auto workers. The type of grassroots demonstrating that sparked the civil rights movement. Awareness has to be raised, people need to see that they are being treated like cattle for the slaughter! The hope is that everything will be so large, there is no way the mainstream media can cover it up anymore, and people will be able to glimpse the real face of the process.

I can't wait to laugh so hard at lostmonk when his prediction of the "glorious movement" turns out to be nothing more than a particularly satisfying dump...

I'm on lostmonk's side here. One of the few freedoms we have left after 911 and tha patriots act is the right to assemble and protest, though I'm sure that, like Assad in Syria, our government of billionaires who buy the votes of the ignorant masses with attack ads would probably disagree. Surely the unequal distribution of wealth in America (and Canada)is worth protesting. It is being made more and more unequal by government policy for the benefit of wealthy investors who collectively own the huge corporations that export our jobs, rape the environment, send us to filthy wars with lies, and laugh as they manipulate global food markets and people's home mortgages to make billions and pay no taxes. I am surprised at the posts on this thread. Are you really so complacent about poverty and injustice? The Occupy movement may seem silly in a way, but what other means do we have of communicating our disgust? And I beliieve thise in power do listen, because while only a small percentage of the disgusted will stand up and protest, they represent a lot of people and get press, so they are listened to and do have an impact.

@lostmonk

This thread is a pure proof that "Divide and conquer" works in worlds greatest democracy too.

The OWS movement doesn't know what it's about except that it hates "greed." I've spoken to probably a third of your encampment at the McPherson Square at some point or another. Luckily the one pushy kid left who would walk about to you demanding you oppose fracking. There was the man explaining that OWS is really about anarchy. Another told me about how Republicans and Democrats were secretly in some cabal to manipulate everyone, peons I think he called us. And the list goes on. About the only thing I noticed OWS united on was their dissatisfaction with the NPS Park Police and DC Police.

What's funnier yet is you tossing a partisan label into the mix. My liberal coworkers attended a DCCC event at the W several months back and were accosted by the same OWS. They have the same reservations about them as I do. OWS is delusional, at least in DC. I haven't really seen any other encampments except in NYC.

As for "doing research," I have learned over the last 7 months that this is code for you saying we're wrong because you said so. The crazy anti-fracking guy even promised me that you couldn't change water's density with salination and to research it.

What the hell?

May day is about us normal working people getting a paid day off from work, and because of that drinking alcohol until all the misery from world is gone. A day when you don't have to put your alcohol to paper bag because streets are filled with jolly drunken people. You put on your old Student cap that still smells vomit form last year, when the tramp you laid in the romantic spring night shining in to the gutter, vomited in it the 5 litres of cheap champagne she consumed that evening. Party goes on for the night before and in to the day until the next morning when you have to somehow magically get to the work place. Three weeks after the engineering students that started to celebrate May day the week before start to appear for all the places a man can pass out, ready to take the challenge of working trough the summer.

Occupy the bars!

damn

Oh, don't get me wrong. I believe we've given up way too many of our freedoms in the wake of 9/11. However, in the days when the threat of the population rising against the "tyranny" of the government or whatever can be easily countered with a few unmanned drones and other weapons which are illegal for most civilians to posses, the threat of "protesting", especially protesting in which 99% of the protesters don't even know why they're protesting, doesn't really inspire confidence in the rest of the population, nor does it inspire fear in the ranks of the ruling elite.

Stand up, damned of the Earth
Stand up, prisoners of starvation
Reason thunders in its volcano
This is the eruption of the end
Of the past let us make a clean slate
Enslaved masses, stand up, stand up
The world is about to change its foundation
We are nothing, let us be all
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race :|

There are no supreme saviours
Neither God, nor Caesar, nor tribune.
Producers, let us save ourselves
Decree the common salvation
So that the thief expires,
So that the spirit be pulled from its prison,
Let us fan the forge ourselves
Strike the iron while it is hot
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race :|

The State oppresses and the law cheats
Tax bleeds the unfortunate
No duty is imposed on the rich
The rights of the poor is an empty phrase
Enough languishing in custody
Equality wants other laws:
No rights without duties, she says,
Equally, no duties without rights
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race :|

i remember the whole OWS thing when it was 'in'

it was a cute/completely disorganized effort for change. now get back to work like the rest of us

How many days are there in April again?

30

figure some people watch FOX alittle too much, media doesn't cover the positive.. my thought is.. what makes the Tea party protests differnt from the OWS protests... the amount of police macing and beating the protesters.. you won't see a sign in the OWS movement stating they didn't bring their gun "yet" while hanging outside goverment buildings..

the OWS protesters probly get a bad wrap because these are everyday people, who want a change in how Elections are ran, how banks are regulated, and to stop business as usual..

by no means are they bums, they protest for long periods because they have to, to get their points across, if protests could change things just in 1 day.. you'd probly see alot more people in them.

all's i see is a bunch of nutty union workers whose idea of making more money is to refuse to do work, then refuse to let other people do the work.

Enjoy all your mad OWS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahMGoB01qiA