No going to work. No shopping. No cell phones. No driving. No TV.
From "Specific Suggestion : General Strike"
by Garret Keizer in October's Harper's :
"Of all the various depredations of the Bush regime, none has been so thorough as its plundering of hope. Iraq will recover sooner.
If someone were to suggest, for example, that we begin a general strike on Election Day, November 6, 2007, for the sole purpose of removing this regime from power, how readily and with what well-practiced assurance would you find yourself producing the words “It won’t do any good”? Plausible and even courageous in the mouth of a patient who knows he’s going to die, the sentiment fits equally well in the heart of a citizen-ry that believes it is already dead.
Any strike, whether it happens in a factory, a nation, or a marriage, amounts to a reaffirmation of consent. The strikers remind their overlords—and, equally important, themselves—that the seemingly perpetual machinery of daily life has an off switch as well as an on."
Some US broadcasters and bloggers, notably Naomi Wolf, have picked this up and are running with it - calling for an inaugural general strike today, even as they know this first one will be small.
Good luck to you today, American cousins.
2 comments:
I like it. Hope it does make an impact.
Do you think the Hollywood writers got a jump on the movement? :)
Thank you for your good wishes.
I appreciate the humor of using the Hollywood sign to advertise our strike.
There will of course be almost no impact but we have to begin a precedent somewhere. The difficult part is phoning up your boss and informing him you aren't coming to work due to a general strike he's never heard of.
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