Idea that can't be waylayed by park rules. What do you think?

[Lionessa]

My idea could be local, national, even global. Would only take the net and cellphones, puts virtually no one in line for arrest or abuse, I don't think. What do you think?

One Hour Global Wide 99%ers sit down. Exactly time rotating around the globe. Drivers to pull over and stop, workers to step away from desks and sit down on the floor, teachers and students to stop and set down, everything except emergency services. Give them a taste of what it would really mean if we all just refused to be f'd in the arse from now till we die, with the legitimate fear that it will be worse for our grandchildren.

Just thinkin'? Twitter could easily handle virtually the entire campaign.

Let them feel the value of our toil.

[Vincardog]

1. go for it

[Lionessa]

4. I don't have the skills or know how to organize. Anyone that wants to can run w/ it.

[-..__...]

2. I think a better plan that would have them shaking in their boots...

is that if we threatened to enlist everyone on the planet to jump up and down at a predetermined hour, we could throw the earth spinning off it's axis and bring society/civilization as we know it to a screeching halt if they refuse to meet our demands.

[EdMaven]

23. global sit-down strike

A sit-down strike is a form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed at a factory or other centralized location, take possession of the workplace by "sitting down" at their stations, effectively preventing their employers from replacing them with strikebreakers or, in some cases, moving production to other locations.

Workers have used this technique since the beginning of the 20th century, not only in the United States, but also in Italy, Poland, and Yugoslavia were the first American union to use the sit-down strike.

On December 10, 1906, at the General Electric Works in Schenectady, New York, 3,000 workers sat down on the job and stopped production to protest the dismissal of three fellow IWW members.<1><2>

The United Auto Workers staged successful sit-down strikes in the 1930s, most famously in the Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936-1937...

French workers engaged in a number of factory occupations in the wake of the French student revolt in May 1968. At one point more than twenty-five percent of French workers were on strike, many of them occupying their factories...

The sit-down strike was the inspiration for the sit-in, where an organized group of protesters would occupy an area in which they are not wanted by sitting and refuse to leave until their demands are met.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitdown_strike



When they tie the can to a union man,
Sit down! Sit down!
When they give him the sack, they'll take him back.
Sit down! Sit down!

Chorus:
Sit down, just take a seat,
Sit down, and rest your feet,
Sit down, you've got 'em beat.
Sit down! Sit down!

When they smile and say, "No raise in pay,"
Sit down! Sit down!
When you want the boss to come across,
Sit down! Sit down!

When the speed-up comes, just twiddle your thumbs,
Sit down! Sit down!
When you want'em to know, they'd better go slow,
Sit down! Sit down!

When the boss won't talk, don't take a walk,
Sit down! Sit down!
When the boss sees that, he'll want a little chat,
Sit down! Sit down!

Source:
Alan Lomax, compiler, Pete Seeger, music transcriber and editor, Hard Hitting Songs for Hard Hit People (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999), 244.

[mike_c]

3. that's called a general strike and yes, it would make a loud and clear point....

We're not ready for a general strike yet, I don't think-- not even a short, rotating one like you suggest.

[Lionessa]

5. If you use the term "strike" I fear that many will think it limited to union-ers. Global SitDown

for the 99%ers, has no predetermined correlation to any potentially limiting group recognition.

[Fire Walk With Me]

6. Reminds me of the film "Day Without A Mexican". I like the idea.

[Lionessa]

7. Exactly, just expand to the entire globe of 99%ers.

[pipi_k]

8. I can see it now...

workers pull that a couple of times, and bosses, unamused by the stoppage and potential loss of business for however long the sit down 'strike' lasts, threaten to fire those people, knowing that for every person working at the company, there are possibly 100 more out there on the streets desperate for a job and willing to work on condition they don't do the same thing.

But hey...people can do what they want, as long as they're cool with the consequences.

:shrug:

[Lionessa]

9. Except for the top-most managers, they are the 99%. I'm not talking labor vs mgmt.

[pipi_k]

10. Unless I'm misunderstanding something...

are you saying that middle management will join in?

Maybe. Maybe not.

But let's not fool ourselves into thinking that they would be safe from retaliatory action from THEIR bosses, either.

And all the way up the line to the top, where there will be calls for figurative heads to roll.

I don't know...maybe it's just me, but if I felt fortunate to have a job where millions of others don't, I really don't think I'd be doing anything to jeopardize it. Even middle management can be one paycheck away from being homeless...

[ChandlerJr]

11. One Hour Global Wide 99%ers sit down?

Most people with jobs call that lunch.

Try again.

[Lionessa]

12. Co-ordinated to bring each time zone to a halt? I don't think so, we all do to much

during our lunch hours to think everyone is sitting down.

[flvegan]

13. I might have this wrong, but

I'm thinking that this is about Zuccotti Park. That said...

Park rules? Really? Sit downs, traffic...oh my goodness. Inconvenience other 99%ers. Great work. We really should be hurting each other, right?

OR, we could go after the roots rather than the branches. Dear Lord, but going after those responsible seems like what we should do rather than blocking traffic.

Hit those who own the place and are pushing this, not the everyday folks.

I cannot believe I have to say this again...SHAC wrote the book on this. Read it.

[EFerrari]

14. There are no "park rules" that trump the 1st Amendment.

It's political bullshit.

[flvegan]

15. Read my last

3 sentences. Nothing to do with the 1st Amendment nor political bullshit.

[EFerrari]

16. I didn't mean what you said, but the idea that anyone can lease

a plot of land anywhere in this country to a city and expect that lease to trump our right to protest, which is the implication in the OP.

The thing is, this hasn't happened for forty years so we're out of practice. Every threat that comes down the pike is embraced before it's thought through, imo.

[flvegan]

17. Makes sense.

And no, nothing trumps the Constitution. Owning or leasing an interest in a plot of land that might defy that is laughable at best.

-Real Property Underwriter
flvegn

[EFerrari]

20. I remember that you do real estate.

We do some here, too. So you know what a big steaming pile this is. I've no idea what Bloomberg is after. Is he trying to mollify the cops or the banksters or what? Don't these people know their game is over? The public doesn't come back from this place with nothing unless you put them in boxes.

[flvegan]

21. We are playing

a very interesting game here now in regards to real property.

But, it's a game that can be won from our standpoint.

[EFerrari]

22. What the police in all these venues are teaching people

is not to fear them. Every time they go into mass arrest mode, they pilfer from their own reserve of menace, imo.

[Lionessa]

18. I don't think it should, I just think that the police are going to make it so, right or not.

So my thoughts went to... what could we do that police or military action couldn't put an end to. One hour of extreme inconvenience. The only way the 1% is ever going to accommodate the 99% is when at least 70% of the 99% get together and do something all at once. Otherwise, it seems, that we just get swept away and convinced as a few on this thread already have proven, that keeping things status quo for those with jobs (crap jobs, stagnant wages, but jobs) is more important than moving the global economy to a more equitable place for all.

This is why Occupy Wall Street is going to collapse here soon. Some places seem to have already collapsed, though I have difficulty keeping up with every detail of every attempt across the US.

I was so hopeful for OWS, and last week I finally said, "Cool, they're going to make it," I'm ready to join. Got my things all in order to be able to go and stay for a while, and all the news starts changing back to... the police are shutting it down, lots of places.

I'm just so frustrated, 1000's aren't enough. We need some action that will unite the 99% that in unison will be huge, but individually is small enough to not feel like we're committing a crime. To me sitting down, bogging up financial traffic, just refusing to play at all, in anyway for one hour, seemed like an idea.

Oh well. Fingers crossed OWS survives till Monday.

[EFerrari]

19. I hear you. But you know these mofo 1%ers aren't going to cave easily.

They are going to challenge anyone and anything that gets in their way.

And this movement is very young. It is still learning. Those VietNam protests went on for years, not weeks, years.

Imo, this has to be about the long haul. There will be mistakes and set backs but we can't flip out every time a threat comes down or we'll be flipping like pancakes, lol.

:grouphug: