Zuccotti Park Press, a project of Adelante Alliance, a Brooklyn-based immigrant advocacy group, is releasing Occupy, a new book by Noam Chomsky, on May Day.
People seem to know about May Day everywhere except where it began, here in the United States of America. That's because those in power have done everything they can to erase its real meaning. For example, Ronald Reagan designated what he called "Law Day" -- a day of jingoist fanaticism, like an extra twist of the knife in the labor movement. Today, there is a renewed awareness, energized by the Occupy movement's organizing, around May Day, and its relevance for reform and perhaps eventual revolution.
If you're a serious revolutionary, then you are not looking for an autocratic revolution, but a popular one which will move towards freedom and democracy. That can take place only if a mass of the population is implementing it, carrying it out, and solving problems. They're not going to undertake that commitment, understandably, unless they have discovered for themselves that there are limits to reform.
A sensible revolutionary will try to push reform to the limits, for two good reasons. First, because the reforms can be valuable in themselves. People should have an eight-hour day rather than a twelve-hour day. And in general, we should want to act in accord with decent ethical values.
Secondly, on strategic grounds, you have to show that there are limits to reform. Perhaps sometimes the system will accommodate to needed reforms. If so, well and good. But if it won't, then new questions arise. Perhaps that is a moment when resistance is necessary, steps to overcome the barriers to justified changes. Perhaps the time has come to resort to coercive measures in defense of rights and justice, a form of self-defense. Unless the general population recognizes such measures to be a form of self-defense, they're not going to take part in them, at least they shouldn't.
If you get to a point where the existing institutions will not bend to the popular will, you have to eliminate the institutions.
May Day started here, but then became an international day in support of American workers who were being subjected to brutal violence and judicial punishment.
Today, the struggle continues to celebrate May Day not as a "law day" as defined by political leaders, but as a day whose meaning is decided by the people, a day rooted in organizing and working for a better future for the whole of society.
Originally posted by Zuccotti Park Press
http://the53.tumbler.com/post/17371506142
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
That's basically it in a nutshell. Do we have the ability to reform the current institutions with the current political structure we have. Obama has proven that we do not. That is what helped inspire the grass roots movement that begat the Occupy Wall Street protests. The deck is stacked against the common person, and the rich and the big corporations are calling the shots and the elected officials are doing their bidding. I hope that a true grass roots movement will make a difference, because Hope And Change turned out to be just More Of The Same.
The underlying assumption to most posts here is that people would agree with you if only they were more enlightened, less stupid, etc.
The truth is that "progressives" make up a sliver of the population. Getting their views out more will not increase the percentage.
But in the end all power resides in the people as long as they can wield it. Democracy gives people great power if they vote in large blocks and lets them sweep away autocratic opposition. The problem is the ignorance of the majority who have allowed themselves to fall under the power of the anti-democractic and un-American forces that are at large in the country. Blame our troubles on ignorance because there is no other source. The wealthy have just exploited this ignorance and have enhanced it with fear tactics and propaganda. But the brass ring has always been there if the American people just decide to grasp it. Until the people decide to work together again there is really nothing to do but wait.
OWS in action:
http://youtu.be/Er7ZLcXnT7Y
RON PAUL
My friend is an Icelander and she said it is a really hard day there. No relaxing like they do here in Germany. They use the day to get in the streets and protest worker rights.