The May Day When Everything Finally Changed!

Did the world seem to be, well, a better place when you woke up this morning? Was the sun shining a little more brightly? Were the birds singing more sweetly? Is there a new sense of justice and fairness and equality in the air you breathe today? Yes?

Yes, I know there is. Why? Because yesterday was MAY DAY 2012, THE DAY WHEN EVERYTHING FINALLY CHANGED (v. 47.2). MAY DAY! MAY DAY! The day so highly anticipated, the premier event of the Prog Spring of 2012, is now history. Indeed, it MADE history, that is how significant it is. In the annals of annaldom, this will go down as something that happened.

People--THE People, the 99%--took to the streets and did nothing. To do nothing for one whole day--think of the impact! No work! No school! No chores! Not One D*mn Anything Day! GENERAL STRIKE! SHUT IT DOWN! Bring the f***ing capitalist pigs TO THEIR KNEES!

Thus did the DUmmies of DUmmieland express their solidarity with this movement of non-movement, viz., the Occupy May Day General Strike. Witness this THREAD, "Occupy movement prepares for nationwide general strike."

So let us now leave the 1% behind and go in search of the 99, in Bolshevik Red, while the commentary of your humble guest correspondent, Charles Henrickson, occupies the space in the [brackets]:

Occupy movement prepares for nationwide general strike. . . .

[YES! OCCUPY! GENERAL STRIKE!]

Occupy Wall Street organizers plan hundreds of marches, strikes and teach-ins in 120 cities around the country on Tuesday for what they call a “general strike” for economic justice.

[Teach-ins, even! Think of the impact!]

May Day protesters from New York labor unions, immigrants groups and others are expected to march from Union Square to Wall Street on Tuesday for “A Day without the 99 Percent.”

["A Day without Trust Fund Ted Hall." It will DEVASTATE Wall Street!]

Officials in other cities, such as Seattle, have warned of the possibility of vandalism and violence.

[V for Vandalism and Violence. Be sure to don your Guy Fawkes masks and gas masks (which you need anyway when hanging out with the OWSies).]

Other big actions are planned for the West Coast, including a large march in the San Francisco Bay area. Organizers said a plan to shut down the Golden Gate Bridge has been scrapped.

[Pitt was too pooped to cross that bridge.]



If there's violence I'm washing my hands of them.

[Pitt is washing his head.]

Will someone please give me a job so i can stay home tomorrow?

[If a DUmmie stays in the basement, and there's no job around to stay home from, does it go on strike?]

M1GS (May 1st General Strike) is not just a day of not doing things. It's also a day of . . .

[. . . complaining about not having things to not do.]

Many of us here will be in the streets tomorrow. Occupying. Whose streets? OUR streets!

[OUR streets! Yes! Take to them! Occupy them! Say it loud, say it proud: WE'RE PIERCED! WE'RE COMMUNIST! WE'RE IN YOUR SPACE!]

I will participate and spread the word.

[MIC CHECK! WE ARE THE 99%! SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER!]

This the people's last best hope for real change.

[POWER TO THE PEOPLE, BABY! RIGHT ON!]

Be careful about putting all your eggs in one basket, there.

[LOUSY FREEPER TROLL!!! AGENT PROVOCATEUR!!! You're trying to squelch the rising tide and dispirit the multitudes!]

see you in the streets!!!

[It will happen! The world is on tiptoes!]

In the STREETS, bro!!!

[Speak it!]

We're in.

[Just hours to go now!]

I've been encouraging workers to wear red . . .

[BOLSHEVIK Red. . .]

. . . in solidarity even if you can't participate.

[Even if you're not able to not do anything, you can still do something! Brilliant! It'll make an impact!]

How well publicised was this?

[Um, well . . . MAY DAY! MIC CHECK! SHUT IT DOWN! WE ARE THE 99%!]

I think I only first saw something about it on the main DU forums yesterday. If it had that low visibility on a site like DU that should be ideal for the message, I suspect the action won't get to the level that can be called a 'general strike'.

[Another agent provocateur, squelching and dispiriting! Shut her down!]

It has been posted here sporadically for about 2 months or more

[Two months of sporadic posts on DU. How can anyone NOT have heard of it??]

first I heard of this was this evening.

[Oopsie.]

It is going to fizzle...occupy is dead...and has been for quite a while.

[NO! NO! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!! LA LA LA LA. . . .]

[Well, this thread is turning into a bummer. Let's try another THREAD. . .]

Prediction: The May 1st "general strike" is going to be an enormous flop.

[LA LA LA LA. . . .]

Yeah, yeah, I'm sure I'll get called a capitalist imperialist running dog lackey for this.

[F***ING capitalist imperialist running dog lackey!]

There's a good reason that you can count the number of general strikes in the US in the last century on one hand and still have fingers left over--it's a practically nonexistant phenomenon, and pretending that you can summon one out of thin air would be funny if it weren't so egomaniacal.

[DUmmie TheWraith, you can count the number of Kewpie Dolls about to be delivered to your door on one finger! Please continue . . .]

If they had bothered to study history, they would know that what they want to try has been tried, and failed, and tried again, and failed again, ad nauseum.

[Go to the Ad Nauseam Museum and you can see the exhibits.]

This will likely make one news cycle and then be written off as a failure.

[Sorry, DUmmie LadyHawkAZ, only Kewpie per DUFU.]

If it gets 5 minutes on the evening news, I'll be amazed.

[But if we give it 5 minutes on the DUFUs, you'll be amused!]

How about defining some specific objectives?

[Sheesh! What does THAT have to do with anything??]

How about organizing politically and running candidates for office? How about not protesting violently? How about defining an identity that goes beyond "We're against income inequality and political corruption"? OWS hasn't done any of those things and as a result, they've fallen off the radar screen and I doubt very many are paying attention.

[Another May Day Naysayer! Agent provocateur!]

If you can't specifically identify the objectives that will fix those problems, the demonstrations are a waste of time.

[So? It's OUR waste of time! On OUR streets! MIC CHECK! 99%! OCCUPY! SHUT IT DOWN! 99%! SHUT IT. . . .]

it is an opportunity to re-connect with other Occupiers and engage with new ones.

[Yes! Re-connect! Engage! Hook up! Meet some chicks! Cool! I'm all over it!]

There are a lot of teach-ins scheduled.

[Teach-ins! Think of the impact!]

What do you think will become of Occupiers if M1GS fizzles?

["If it fizzles"? "IF IT FIZZLES"?? Where is your FAITH, man??? I BELIEEEEEVE!!!]

for some reason Democrats like to piss on fellow Democrats.

[Just ask benburch.]

Define "enormous flop".

[Enormous flop (n.): Prog event or activity that is supposed to change the world but fails to do anything, even when not doing anything is the main (in)activity. See Freudenschade.]

I've been offline. What general strike? thanks.

[I rest my case.]