Morning, or afternoon, all!
This thread is to begin discussion of the follow up action on 8/27/12: the day we put "General Strike" in "National Women's Strike."
I propose that as many of us who are able protest on Monday, 8/27 by saying "No work, in or out of the home, no school, and most especially, NO SHOPPING" for one symbolic day and use the day for educational and other actions tailored to the legislative situation in each state.
I have been floating this idea for awhile and a few women agree with me that the powers that be, at the moment, respond to very little but a perceived threat to their massive wealth. For reasons that are unclear to me, though, a surprising number of women have been defensive, or even hostile to this idea. Their response has basically boiled down to a) this is in competition to the 8/26 actions and/or, b) "Not everybody can afford to lose a day of work, ya know!"
In response to the former, it just could not be further from the truth. These actions dovetail beautifully and are in support of each other. The ferocity and rapid escalation of the recent attacks on our rights as American citizens (arguably, a partial manifestation of the death throes of the GOP as we have known it pre-Tea) is unprecedented and desperate times call for desperate, traditional, and every other kind of measure in between. In other words, this is not going to be about any one day or action, this needs to be the reawakening of a massive social movement for us to meet our goals.
Per the latter I would have to say "Big duh!" Nobody says everybody has to do or should do everything we propose. We each know what we are willing and able to do for a cause, but the implication by some that "I must be very privileged to propose such a thing" really made me laugh. Sadly, I am not but more importantly, the labor movement in this country, including the general strike, has a long and distinguished history and was a product of the working classes, obviously. Our forebears did this frequently at great personal sacrifice and it led to most of the rights that we take for granted in the workplace today.
On April 25th, 2004 I was fortunate enough to attend the March for Women's Lives in Washington DC. I usually have no memory for precise dates but I am staring at the T-shirt I bought that day. It was a fabulously successful march and rally by the usual standards for such things--massive , psyched crowd over a million strong, excellent feminist and other star power, gorgeous, albeit hot like DC in August weather. Even the bus rides there and back were better than most: the organizers had gotten tapes of The L Word for the trip and I hadn't seen it before that.
The demands of the march were encapsulated as "Choice-Justice-Access-Health." So, you tell me, how much better are things for women since that day in 2004? Exactly. I think weekend rallies are great but I also believe that in this country they have become a little "old hat." They are limited in their impact unless wedded to other means, the men in power have no issue with letting the little ladies get it off their chests on the weekend as long as nothing interferes with the upward flow of $$ to the 1% come Monday morning.
I maintain that business as usual needs to be interrupted and altered for significant change to come. Who is with me?
Rita Lipshutz
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