# OWS plans "General Strike" for May Day
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 27, 2012, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126 "2012-04-27T13:34:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/21 "2012-04-27T18:16:32Z")
I’d like to, but I have to work that day.
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### Author:  [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/22 "2012-04-27T18:17:19Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> March?
No, May 1st.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2012, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/23 "2012-04-27T19:38:30Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> I plan to go to work and earn my paycheck, which I see as economic justice for both me and my boss.
It is good that you think so . . . Or, maybe it isn’t . . .
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### Author:  [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2012, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/24 "2012-04-27T19:45:56Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> It did? Maybe it’s just me, but I have not noticed one iota of difference from last year. Certainly \*I \*don’t give more of a fuck about shit than I used to.
I personally found it ironic that by Occupying Zucotti Park, the one thing the OWS did for sure was oust a falafel seller and a farmer’s market. Stick it to the man guys! The farming, immigrant, street vending man!
(FYI, the falafel guy is back, but the farmstands seem to have moved permanently to Bowling Green)
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/25 "2012-04-27T21:52:21Z")
> [@Shodan](#):
>
> I wonder how the unemployed go on strike. Do they stop looking for jobs? Stop collecting unemployment?
[Martin Luther King’s idea](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_People%27s_Campaign) was that they should march on Washington.
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### Author:  [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/26 "2012-04-28T06:47:39Z")
What will this “general strike” affect? How will they manifest their strikedom? What exactly are they planning to stop doing? How do students go on strike? Does this mean immigrants will stop immigrating? Is it true that 99% of the US population lives in only 125 cities? If it’s a _Day Without the 99%_, where are they all going to go, and do I have to go with them? (Ah hell, I’m starting to write like SMDBKL.)
I don’t understand this newfangled form of protest.
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### Author:  [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/27 "2012-04-28T18:09:01Z")
> [@Sudden\_Kestrel](#):
>
> Is it true that 99% of the US population lives in only 125 cities?
No.
About 80.7% of the US lives in Urban Areas or “Urban Clusters”, and this number includes 486 Urban Areas.
If you restrict it only to Urban Areas, it’s 71% of the population.
[http://www.census.gov/geo/www/ua/uafacts.html](http://www.census.gov/geo/www/ua/uafacts.html)
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### Author:  [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/28 "2012-04-28T19:27:53Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> Occupy this.
You forgot the rest of the statement, let me add it for you.
**::: kayaker points to their crotch:::**
😃
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### Author:  [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/29 "2012-04-28T23:07:31Z")
So the idea is that the 99% strike to show the 1% that they don’t need them, or to somehow punish them? The people with money will shrug and go about their business even if everybody participates, and the 99% will go without a day’s pay, and this will accomplish precisely what?
It’s like the so-called gas holidays. People will merely defer their purchases to the next day. The catch is that this time the suggestion will result in a real loss of income.
Great idea. I’m all in. Of course, I’m off Tuesday, but it’s the principle that matters, right?
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/30 "2012-04-28T23:12:16Z")
The _Anti-Atlas Shrugged_.
Hey, at least you posted this topic in the correct forum!
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/31 "2012-04-28T23:34:10Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#):
>
> So the idea is that the 99% strike to show the 1% that they don’t need them, or to somehow punish them? The people with money will shrug and go about their business even if everybody participates, and the 99% will go without a day’s pay, and this will accomplish precisely what?
And what about the people just going about their business? They have to deal with chaos at the short-staffed grocery store because a bunch of 99ers want to treat their jobs like a Facebook post meme?
[del]Kony 2012[/del] [del]Green With Lace[/del] Strike For the 99!
:rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2012, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/32 "2012-04-29T00:44:31Z")
[Apparently they’re intending more of a general demonstration than a general strike:](http://www.thenation.com/blog/167602/occupy-prepares-may-day-no-work-no-school-no-banking)
> [@](#):
>
> The plan initially drew the ire of some labor leaders who quickly declared their members would not participate in the so-called strike.
>
> “It won’t happen,” Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, flatly told Buzzfeed. “They are not working with the unions in a serious way yet; nor are the unions working with them in a serious way. And it is the wrong strategy.”
>
> Under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, a general strike in support of other workers is illegal. Furthermore, individual unions must call for a strike, so the participation of workers in a protest does not constitute a general strike.
>
> The official OWS press release about May Day mentions the phrase “general strike” twice: once in the headline, and once in quotation marks in the first paragraph. Perhaps keenly aware of the likelihood that an across-the-board labor strike is not only unlikely but illegal, the day is now being described by organizers as a nationwide protest with themes of economic noncompliance. (Poster by Nina Montenegro, via Occuprint.)
>
> “We wanted to create a broad space for people in all different circumstances from all sorts of backgrounds to be able to participate,” the OWS press release states. “But we also recognize that for some people skipping work is not feasible so we are encouraging people to participate how they can whether that involves wearing a button at work or leaving early or simply showing up to the march after work.”
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2012, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/33 "2012-04-29T03:51:33Z")
As much as I agree with OWS and sympathize with its objectives, I, like most of the 99%, don’t have the liberty of just going without a day’s pay.
So i’ll be at work.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/34 "2012-04-29T17:55:36Z")
You could wear a button!
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### Author:  [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2012, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/35 "2012-04-29T19:30:48Z")
\*\*OWS plans “General Strike” for May Day \*\*
Does this mean that the panhandlers will all take the day off?
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### Author:  [@DJ\_Motorbike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DJ_Motorbike)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2012, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/36 "2012-04-30T17:18:51Z")
They have a raised fist symbol on the front page of their website. :rolleyes:
OWS is out of touch. Where I work nobody will participate. I’m certain that will be true for a vast majority of every work place tomorrow. Does anyone care if students go on “strike”? What does it even mean for the unemployed to go on strike?
What a joke.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/37 "2012-04-30T18:36:33Z")
The web site is supposed to be in English, Spanish and French (what, no Russian?) but if you click the link for French, you just get the English version.
Why does OWS hate Canada? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2012, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/38 "2012-04-30T19:08:57Z")
In honor of Occupy Wall Street, I’ll be occupying and demonstrating at a local federal building; occupying my usual desk and demonstrating my ability to ignore OWS’s BS.
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/39 "2012-04-30T21:18:01Z")
> [@DJ\_Motorbike](#):
>
> They have a raised fist symbol on the front page of their website. :rolleyes:
And a few days ago they had a "Free Mumia"protest. :smack:
As an Obama-supporting, card-carrying liberal, I want to like the Occupiers. But they make it so damn hard.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ows-plans-general-strike-for-may-day/620126/40 "2012-04-30T21:43:02Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#):
>
> And a few days ago they had a "Free Mumia"protest. :smack:
Well, their only choices were that or “eating meat is murder”, so can you really blame them?
> [@](#):
>
> As an Obama-supporting, card-carrying liberal, I want to like the Occupiers. But they make it so damn hard.
They have a lot of time on their hands. This whole thing about not having leaders is a big part of the problem. If you don’t have a leader, you’re going to get the crazies. In fact, even sometimes when you do have leaders, you get the crazies. But no leaders, and the press is going to latch onto the crazies.
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