I completely lost all that kind of faith a few years ago.
We had a huge majority in the House and Senate, and A Dem Prez, from Jan 2009 until Jan 2011.
The problem of the 1% was not addressed to any significant degree during that period of time. The excuses were many, all of them pretty lame.
Occupy pretty much came about because progressives expected the Dems to fix a few things that really needed fixing, and when they did not make a significant effort to fix these things, folks concluded that the system was not working and decided to take matters into their own hands.
Unless we get a huge Senate Majority, like 65 Dem Senators, republicans (with a little help from blue dogs) will once again filibuster any significant attempt at constructive change.
As an LGBT person, for many years I've been told to STFU and go the back of the bus, and if I don't STFU, I'll damage the Dems chances of winning. Wait until they win, and when we win I'll have equal rights, and real, positive change will occur.
I'm still waiting. I really do want Democrats to win huge majorities in the House and Senate, and that Obama wins in a landslide. It's way better than having republicans in power.
And, although I respect and understand what you are saying, at this time I personally cannot trust a political party to remove the 1% from power and build a working democracy that places the needs of human beings over profit, regardless of any majorities.
Honestly, and unfortunately, I'm not expecting this General Strike to have the effect that it could, and should, have, because too many folks seem to agree with you, or feel that they're too busy, or have to work that day cuz they need the money, or they don't like Occupy, or they are afraid, or just don't really give a shit. It is this consistent lack of solidarity among the 99% that insures that things will continue to get worse as the 1% polarizes more wealth and gains more control over the people of this planet.
Below is pretty much what I hope to achieve with the strike. I hope we can pull it off. If we don't, I hope your way way works, Scuba, but I personally wouldn't bet on it.
Occupy May Day: Not Your Usual General Strike
Last December, Occupy Los Angeles proposed a General Strike on May 1 “for migrant rights, jobs for all, a moratorium on foreclosures, and peace – and to recognize housing, education and health care as human rights.” The idea has spread through the Occupy movement. Occupy Wall Street in New York recently expressed solidarity with the proposal and called for “a day without the 99%, general strike, and more!” with “no work, no school, no housework, no shopping, take the streets!” Reactions are ranging from enthusiastic support to outraged skepticism. What form might such an action take, and what if anything might it achieve?
-----
Most Occupy May Day advocates understand that a conventional general strike is not in the cards. What they are advocating instead is a day in which members of the “99%” take whatever actions they can to withdraw from participation in the normal workings of the economic system -- by not working if that is an option, but also by not shopping, not banking, and not engaging in other “normal” everyday activities, and by joining demonstrations, marches, disruptions, occupations, and other mass actions.
-----
What Occupy May Day Could Achieve
The Occupy May Day event is first of all a great chance for 99% to show itself, see itself, and express itself – to represent itself to itself and to others. The kinds of plans that are being made by OWS in New York, with a wide variety of ways in which people are being invited to participate, can encourage multiple levels of sympathy, response, connection, and mobilization among the 99%. The result can be a percolation of the ideas OWS has been promoting through workplaces, communities, and other milieus.
May Day can provide a teachable moment. It is an opportunity for millions of people to contemplate the power that arises from collectively withdrawing cooperation and consent. It can propagate the idea of self-organization, for example through general assemblies. If it truly draws together a wide range of working people, ranging from the most impoverished to professionals, from urban to suburban to rural, and including African Americans, Latinos, whites, and immigrants, it can embody the ability of the 99% to act as a group. It can demonstrate the idea of solidarity, for example by the movement as a whole supporting the needs of some particular groups. And because May Day is a global working class holiday which will be celebrated all over the world, it can reveal a rarely seen vision of a global working class of which we are as individuals and as members of diverse groups are part.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/26-8
peace
= new reply since forum marked as read