All of us living by wages and not by investments face political pressures that vary from open hostility to smug indifference. How much more are we expected to take? Well, it is not going to stop until we say we've had enough.
Let us declare a General Strike, where all who make a living by hourly and salary wages withhold our labor from those who make a living from their investments. do not show up for work on Friday, September 2, 2011 (friday before the labor day holiday).
The point of the General Strike is to raise protest that:
1. Unemployment rates in this country are an outrage, yet the government does nothing, nothing about creating jobs. It's as if Washington doesn't notice and doesn't care. We need to get their attention.
2. A Constitution that codifies freedom of association is violated by Republican attacks on unions. The aggression against unions by the Republican party is politically motivated (not fiscally motivated). Workers are not the enemy; but those governing in violation of the Constitution are.
3. American workers have dramatically increased productivity - our labor is more valuable now than ever - but wages have actually decreased. Our strike is to say that we, collectively, have had enough. Pay us what our labor is worth.
4. The political efforts to undermine Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is stealing from the American worker the benefits we have paid for. Social Security taxes have been diverted to war and tax cuts. We paid for those programs. They are ours, and not yours.
5. The dramatic erosion and sometimes theft of our pensions and other benefits has gone on for too long. We have had enough.
We will not be given what we do not demand. And we must demand that we will be respected. That we have given more in "shared sacrifice" than the bond holders, than the investment banks, than the defense department, than the product importers, than the politicians, than anyone. IT IS ENOUGH.
ONE DAY GENERAL STRIKE.