My painters are not working Monday. Stock up on bread and milk.

[DemoTex]

The Mexican painters working on the exterior of my house are not working on Monday. They are joining the strike. This is in sleepy, southern, Greenville, SC.

These are some of the best painters and hardest workers I have ever seen. They start at exactly 8:00 am, take 30 minutes for lunch, and leave at 4:30 pm. They re-did my interior paint job in December and January after I was ripped-off by an asshole wino painter last Fall. Now that the weather is warm, they are back doing the exterior of the house.

They just told me that everything will shut down on Monday, nation-wide. They will not work, they will spend no money, and they will stay out of the streets. May 1 will be a purely economic strike by the Latino community. Fancy and plain restaurants nation-wide will close for lack of busboys, dishwashers, and chefs. Airlines will be impacted as cleaners and caterers stay home. Businesses we never dreamed of being dependent on this groups' labor will be paralyzed on Monday. My house will not get painted on Monday. Grass will grow as mowers and blowers sit idle.

Monday, according to Vic, Carlos, and Ernesto, will be the biggest SOS (suspension-of-service) this nation has ever seen. It will be a peaceful action along the lines of a French general strike. This strike is, they emphasized to me, extremely well planned. It could be a model for our emasculated labor movement and spineless Democratic leaders, if we are lucky. Let's hope so.

It looks like a nation-wide snow storm blowing in from south of the Rio Grande on Monday. High drifts could paralyze certain locations. Those in the blizzard's path might consider stocking up on bread and milk. Or beer.

[WindRavenX]

1. I share you sentiments

I am very heartened and inspired by what seems to be developing; I hope this starts a positive change in the entire Democratic community.

[aquart]

2. Each one teach one.

Seems like an appropriate use of May 1.

[tammywammy]

3. Everyone will be here where I work

At least everyone's said they'll be at work. The money's more important. (BTW none of these guys are paid below or at minimum wage, at least a few dollars over). And as far as I know there's only 1 illegial (we found out when he tried to buy a car), but today's his last day. (it's sad, he's such a nice, funny, good worker, but with gas prices the way they are, he got a job closer to his home.)

edited to add: May 1 could be a huge eye-opener to the many people.

[AndyTiedye]

15. The Net Will Be Up But The Toilets In our Office Building Will Be Ewwwwww!

I think I'll be working from home for a bit.

[Ms. Clio]

4. It saddens me that so many Dems fail to grasp how this really is a model

and an inspiration.

[Lars39]

7. Agreed.

[AndyTiedye]

17. It's Only a Viable Model if Your Job Can't Be Offshored

[Ms. Clio]

19. What jobs can't be offshored?

Now people in distant states or countries read X-rays and take fast-food orders.

We must all hang together, or we shall all hang separately.

[Jigarotta]

5. thanks for the post.

I will be with them in spirit.
it's about damn time for the Other Superpower to speak up.

[Xipe Totec]

6. Here's one High Tech worker who's also on strike

I've taken the day off. I will not buy anything, and I will fast.

I'm standing with my kin on this one.

[DemoTex]

9. I will buy nothing on Monday, either. Solidarity.

I want better lives for those who help make my life better. There is no reason in the world this should not be a symbiotic relationship. Monday will be a day for common decency and humanity to prevail. Pray for the best. Pray for peace, too.

Mac

[Xipe Totec]

12. Thanks, Bro.

You reminded of the moral lesson of the level:

"The Level demonstrates that we are descended from the same stock, partake of the same nature, and share the same hope; and though distinctions among men are necessary to preserve subordination, yet no eminence of station should make us forget that we are brethren; for he who is placed on the lowest spoke of fortune's wheel, may be entitled to our regard; because a time will come, and the wisest know not how soon, when all distinction, but that of goodness, shall cease; and Death, the grand leveler of human greatness, reduce us to the same state."

I pray for peace.

[mikelewis]

28. Of course you're not working on Monday...

you're a Mexica God. God's don't work on Monday.

[Xipe Totec]

29. LOL!

I'm taking the day off from flaying the management ranks.

[mikelewis]

30. Just don't wear white skin until after Memorial Day...

Talk about a fashion don't.

[Xipe Totec]

37. May 1 is International Labor Day

I think white is ok for Labor Day.

But I'll just wear a white t-shirt instead of the more formal white skin :evilgrin:

btw, since we are on a humorous note, let me share the factoid that "white man" translates to Spanish as "hombre blanco". But hombre has two meanings:

1).- Man,
2).- Human.

And blanco has two meanings:

1).- White,
2).- Target.

So, hombre blanco can, sometimes, translate to "human target". :scared:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. It's odd. Americans used to be the ones to stand up and speak out

Now our camaradas from down south have to remind us how it's done.

[Warpy]

10. I'm respecting this strike.

I'm staying home. I'm not spending a dime. Commerce can go hump itself.

[Kurovski]

34. Same here. This strike will be a thing of beauty.

[Robbie Michaels]

11. I'm Staying Home

I'm not going to work or buying anything. I would like to take pictures of the peace vigil in Balboa Park on Monday evening.

F**king great. The local Fox News (Channel 6) affiliate just advertized a teaser for Monday night's evening news broadcast. It details how illegal immigrants are more dangerous at home, meaning Rosarito Beach. Of course, this commercial ran during the NASCAR Busch Series race at Talladega.

Great. Fan the anti-Mexican sentiment in my city so I get to walk around with a bigger bullsye between my shoulder blades. Fuck you, Fox News! :nuke::rant:

[kpete]

14. Balboa Park

a real gem!

I too will stay home...

and ditto to your comments on Fox news

[Divernan]

13. Che would be proud.

nt

[Xipe Totec]

16. "If you tremble indignation at every injustice

then you are a comrade of mine"

- Ernesto (Che) Guevara de la Serna

[Divernan]

25. Thank you for that powerful quote.

nt

[laruemtt]

18. dh and i have no choice -

we're scheduled to fly from st. lucia into miami and out of miami into jax on monday. we made these reservations months ago before we even knew anything was brewing for may 1. the airlines say we're still on. we'll see. could get interesting.................

[Pugee]

20. Apparently, there is a backlash movement also.

I saw an email going around that told everyone to go out on Monday and do lots of shopping. I deleted it, but that was the main part of it.

[Xipe Totec]

33. It should technically be called a counter-backlash

Let me first say that the following rant is not directed at you. I understand that you are making an observation about what you see and do not necessarily agree with it. Quite the contrary, I sense you are in disagreement with those positions, and I thank you.



The May 1st strike is THE backlash to a full court attack against the inmigrant community, instigated by the Republican noise machine. The fact that it has resonated whithin some DU subgroups is, at best, disturbing.

Let's not forget why this particular day was chosen for this particular demonstration. If anyone is unfamiliar with the significance of May 1, they should google Haymarket and labor movement. It will be an eye opener for those unaquainted with history.

For more recent material, they should watch Fight Club:

"Look, the people you are after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, we drive your ambulances. We connect your calls, we guard you while you sleep. Do not... fuck with us."

- Tyler Durden, Fight Club

[troubleinwinter]

39. Perhaps (hoping) the stores will have to be closed!

[stillcool]

21. My initial reaction to the demonstrations....

was one of envy. Now, I'm impressed and hopeful. The walk-outs, sit-ins, and various other acts of civil disobedience in the 60's gave birth to lots of new ideas, communication, and introspective thinking for me. It was so much more than the war, it seemed to bring all issues of human rights to the forefront. I feel another paradigm shift in the works...

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science. - Albert Einstein

"The struggle of man against tyranny is the struggle of memory against forgetting." Milan Kundera

"Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us." Martin Luther King

[Jim Warren]

22. MY painters?

Curious phrasing. (figure of speech, yadayada I know)

[DemoTex]

27. Subject line spacing (yada, yada, yada).

The painters employed by a painting contractor with whom I have entered into a binding, legal agreement to have the house (that is owned by the mortgage company, but occupied by me et. ux. until such time in the future when we might own the house) painted ... just won't fit the subject line.
But yeah, it is a totally innocuous figure of speech. My painters are working on my house. Tonight, over beers, they will speak of the long talk with the Gringo today on "my job" at "his house," in Spanish, of course. Their "my boss" is used interchangeably for either me or my painting contractor, Dan, who must treat them very well because they really like and respect him.

[sandnsea]

23. My town of 10,000

I know the owners of all the Mexican restaurants are shutting down. The OWNERS, not just the employees. I'll make sure and shop before Monday, that's the least I can do. I've been ready for a nationwide shut down for a LOOONG time, Monday's as good as any.

Solidarity. No exploitation of labor anywhere. I stand with that.

[madrchsod]

24. everyone will show where i work

if half of of the latin workers didn`t show up they still make the rest of us work 12 hours to cover the loss. 50% of my fellow workers are mexicam americans and we don`t make enough to afford not to work

[Xipe Totec]

26. All the more reason to do so.

I made my decision to stay home when the cook at my company's cafeteria asked me if I was going to respect the strike. Mind you, she's putting her job on the line, barely makes minimum wage, and will not be paid that day. There's no way I'm going to ignore her request.

btw, her name is Esperanza. It means Hope.

[kevinbgoode]

31. I don't have to work on Monday. . .well, except grade research papers

and I planned on doing that at home. But I'm not going to be shopping on Monday either - I'll make sure I have all the food I need at home and honor the action. My Ex-brother-in-law and his family are Latin immigrants, and though I am not fond of him, I know his family always worked very hard to get ahead.

Whoever sent the stupid email around telling people to "shop all you can" on Monday is laughable - Monday isn't exactly an ideal day for anyone to go out shopping at the beginning of a work and school week -I suspect that countermove will fizzle.

Without making a statement about immigration, I agree with those of you who see this action as a much larger issue - meaning the need for laborers of all stripes to stand up and be counted. This country needs to see that there are Hispanics in all walks of life interwoven with the lives of the rest of us. . .too bad Alberto Gonzales is likely not planning to take the day off.

[fishnfla]

32. The grass will still grow? Good God not that!

just another way of saying life will go on, I guess

[DemoTex]

38. That was not my intended meaning.

I was just pointing out another cog in the wheel of our economy that might be amiss on Monday. Indeed, some will feel that without their precious lawns manicured like the Palace of Versailles that the good life comes to a screeching stop. Can you imagine the beauty of a long-planned, $250,000 evening party in Dallas's ritzy Highland Park (former home of Dick & Lynn Chenney) canceled because the lawn was not mowed in the morning, and the tents were not delivered and set up, and the ice sculpture was not available, and the pool was not cleaned, and the servers and bartenders did not show up?

[Cha]

35. Thanks for writing this..

It's very interesting and informative!

I work in a co-op in upstate New York that isn't even open on Monday. We don't have any immigrants working in our town but I won't be spending any money on May 1, 2006 to stand with the economic strike of our Latino Brothers and Sistahs. Si Se Puede!

[catmandu57]

36. Monday is payday, but

I can keep my wallet in my pocket in support of my brothers and sisters. If we could do the same there wouldn't be a war and we'de be shut of these morans stinking the place up. Viva la raza.