Monday, April 30, 2012
Occupy / Etiquette / City / Economy Are You Going to the May Day Protests?
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 6:15 PM
For some people, tomorrow is a big day: no work, no school, no banking, and no shopping as a protest about immigration policy, the wealth gap, and a bevy of other problems the demonstrators see with the status quo. Plus demonstrations. (Schedule here.)
The mayor seems a bit freaked out, anarchists seem resolved, and the city has announced that Second Avenue might be shut down tomorrow afternoon.
Last month, a Slog poll showed that 28% of you were planning to participate.
- slog
How about now?
26
Is it OK if I celebrate May Day by poking fun at the tired, stilted, outdated Marxist rhetoric the Occupy movement uses? Or would that make me a fascist pig?
24
@jen - give it another couple of years and all the big hospitals will get rolled into the Swedish Epic hivemind. If you are working at one of those crappy Meditech community hospitals well, you might want to get used having the fax machine around.
22
Schedule change - I am at work processing the medical records of those who were discharged yesterday so their medical history can be searchable in the Online Record of Clinical Activity (ORCA - yay whales) ASAP.
Majority of my co-workers were born in the Philippines. If someone big on languages worked here they'd of learned Tagalog already by shear immersion. Guaranteed paid vacation and overtime means they can visit the Philippines about once a year. Management always eliminates overtime, but it always comes back because they also wont give us the budget to have enough staff to adequately process medical records 7 days a week. Each patient chart has to be online within a set number of hours to be in compliance with our mandated standard of care.
The paperless hospital is about as feasible as the paperless bathroom. But still; PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if you have any influence in data management at all - make it so WA area hospital servers can email each other a patients history. You don't know how many print outs I have scanned back into a database.
Majority of my co-workers were born in the Philippines. If someone big on languages worked here they'd of learned Tagalog already by shear immersion. Guaranteed paid vacation and overtime means they can visit the Philippines about once a year. Management always eliminates overtime, but it always comes back because they also wont give us the budget to have enough staff to adequately process medical records 7 days a week. Each patient chart has to be online within a set number of hours to be in compliance with our mandated standard of care.
The paperless hospital is about as feasible as the paperless bathroom. But still; PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if you have any influence in data management at all - make it so WA area hospital servers can email each other a patients history. You don't know how many print outs I have scanned back into a database.
21
May Day has been International Labor Day (either officially or unofficially) in most countries of the world since the Haymarket massacre. The Eisenhower Administration -- in a move reminiscent of Vichy France's changing Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood to Work, Family, Fatherland -- rebaptised it "Law Day." On balance, though, Eisenhower was probably still more progressive than Obama: interstate highway system, sending troops to integrate Little Rock schools, >90% top marginal income tax rate...
20
@18
Here's a fun bit of US history for you, JensR: In our country, Labor Day was observed with work stoppage by trade unions on the first Monday in September (a date proposed 4 years before the Haymarket Affair) long before the Pullman strike prompted national government recognition of the date.
Happy Holiday!
Since we have our legally declared labor holiday on a different date, we'll be doing an actual protest of some sort on May 1, not enjoying a Government-sanctioned day of strolling around in the parks eating ice cream.
Here's a fun bit of US history for you, JensR: In our country, Labor Day was observed with work stoppage by trade unions on the first Monday in September (a date proposed 4 years before the Haymarket Affair) long before the Pullman strike prompted national government recognition of the date.
Happy Holiday!
Since we have our legally declared labor holiday on a different date, we'll be doing an actual protest of some sort on May 1, not enjoying a Government-sanctioned day of strolling around in the parks eating ice cream.
19
@14
1) Because it was a snarky throwaway option in the first poll.
2) Because this blog post is more about going to the protests than walking off the job.
3) Because organizers have, for the purposes of this Action, redefined "Strike" down to the point where it doesn't mean walking off the job, or even anything job-related at all. Apparently you can participate by putting off your grocery shopping until the next day, or by staying home and watching TV in the evening instead of going out to the movies, or by rolling through a stop sign.
1) Because it was a snarky throwaway option in the first poll.
2) Because this blog post is more about going to the protests than walking off the job.
3) Because organizers have, for the purposes of this Action, redefined "Strike" down to the point where it doesn't mean walking off the job, or even anything job-related at all. Apparently you can participate by putting off your grocery shopping until the next day, or by staying home and watching TV in the evening instead of going out to the movies, or by rolling through a stop sign.
18
Yep. Not in Seattle, but here in Sweden (1st of may/workers day is a holiday here) and theres demonstrations all over the city, meetings, food, music, flags, balloons and those infaltable castles for the kids.
And the weather is fantastic.
I don't know what this is supposed to add to your discussion about it - oh except that it didn't use to be a holiday. People just didn't show up for work and went to the demonstrations and if anyone got shit for it the unions and his or her coworkers stepped in and backed him/her up. So now its a holiday.... just saying that if you all call in sick, they can't fire everyone. :)
Anyway Happy 1st of May! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aDSMjgVN…
And the weather is fantastic.
I don't know what this is supposed to add to your discussion about it - oh except that it didn't use to be a holiday. People just didn't show up for work and went to the demonstrations and if anyone got shit for it the unions and his or her coworkers stepped in and backed him/her up. So now its a holiday.... just saying that if you all call in sick, they can't fire everyone. :)
Anyway Happy 1st of May! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aDSMjgVN…
16
@8
I'm sure most occupiers really do believe it's more important to disrupt the official daily 9-to-5 period of indentured corporate servitude than it is to avoid minor inconvenience to the protesters.
Consensus process, however, means they have to accommodate the few who don't share that particular priority. And let's remember, while it's important for an Action to have as much immediate, tangible effect on The Banksters as possible, it's also important to hold extended discussions of The Movement, and to engage in paradigm-threatening consumption of psychoactive chemicals, long into the wee hours of the night.
I'm sure most occupiers really do believe it's more important to disrupt the official daily 9-to-5 period of indentured corporate servitude than it is to avoid minor inconvenience to the protesters.
Consensus process, however, means they have to accommodate the few who don't share that particular priority. And let's remember, while it's important for an Action to have as much immediate, tangible effect on The Banksters as possible, it's also important to hold extended discussions of The Movement, and to engage in paradigm-threatening consumption of psychoactive chemicals, long into the wee hours of the night.
13
I can assure you that armed patriots, probably from the tea party, will be there in case those Marxists start anything.
12
Communism is deader than disco, yet you assholes still keep digging up the corpse, flinging bits around and claiming it'll be OK once the right people are running things.
You can't even run your own life, I'll be damned if you'll run mine.
You can't even run your own life, I'll be damned if you'll run mine.
11
I would also add: "or the jobs they don't have on account of corruption, profiteering and greed."
10
Not to be all uppity, but tomorrow is a big day for the business I started once I got properly sick and tired of being unemployed, despite my various degrees. So no, no May Day on account of: 'time for hard work'. But still, I support those standing for a better lot in the jobs they've already got. Stick it to The Man!
9
I don't want to participate - not because I don't believe in it, but because I do. I practice in the social justice/civil rights field. It does more for the movement if I'm at work.
8
@5 Occupy types don't wake up early enough to disrupt the morning commute.
@4 So what kind of freelance work do you do, S?
@4 So what kind of freelance work do you do, S?
7
Uh oh a bunch of barista monkeys and Kinko's chimps are going to protest? Will the republic stand?
5
For those wishing to avoid inconvenience, I suggest going into and leaving work early.
Occupy Seattle has yet to stage an action that affects the morning commute; they prefer to make their presence felt when the sheeples are trying to get away from their corporate overlords, and back to their families.
Occupy Seattle has yet to stage an action that affects the morning commute; they prefer to make their presence felt when the sheeples are trying to get away from their corporate overlords, and back to their families.
3
@ 2. Here's a press release from the mayor's office:
* * *
SEATTLE –A May Day demonstration involving an estimated 2,000 participants is expected to impact downtown traffic tomorrow. The march will start at Judkins Park at 5 p.m. and will end at the Wells Fargo Building and the Federal Building.
The marchers will travel west on South Lane Street to 20th Place South; north on 20th to South Jackson Street; west on Jackson Street to Fourth Avenue; north on Fourth Avenue to Union Street; west on Union to Second Avenue; south on Second to Marion Street.
A rally will be held at Second Avenue and Marion in front of the Federal Building and Wells Fargo.
Police Officers will escort the marchers. Travelers should expect congestion in the area. Second Avenue could possibly be closed during the rally.
* * *
* * *
SEATTLE –A May Day demonstration involving an estimated 2,000 participants is expected to impact downtown traffic tomorrow. The march will start at Judkins Park at 5 p.m. and will end at the Wells Fargo Building and the Federal Building.
The marchers will travel west on South Lane Street to 20th Place South; north on 20th to South Jackson Street; west on Jackson Street to Fourth Avenue; north on Fourth Avenue to Union Street; west on Union to Second Avenue; south on Second to Marion Street.
A rally will be held at Second Avenue and Marion in front of the Federal Building and Wells Fargo.
Police Officers will escort the marchers. Travelers should expect congestion in the area. Second Avenue could possibly be closed during the rally.
* * *
2
Can you point me to a source for the potential closure of 2nd ave? I have a meeting on 2nd ave tomorrow afternoon, of all days.
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