Work, Study, Save, Shop

Tomorrow is Occupy Wall Street’s May Day Mayhem Day.  They are calling for a general strike with no work, school, shopping or banking.  Cities around the world are preparing for the Mayhem.

One group who will watch this event with particular interest is the unemployed.  No work?  No worries there – we’re already not working, thanks to the Progressives who help begin OWS.  No shopping?  Well, we don’t have the money to shop.  No banking?  Not much money is going into our savings.  Our savings aren’t earning any interest – the rate is at 0.25 percent and most banks are charging all sorts of service fees for the privilege of saving our money with their institutions.

But go ahead – hurt more little people like us, from the clerks in the banks to the customers who still have the money to make purchases.  Yeah, that’s really going to help the economy, isn’t it? Protestors plan to block everything from the Port of Oakland to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge to the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels and the George Washington Bridge in New York.

According to Bloomberg News, in New York, Occupy Wall Street will “join scores of labor organizations observing May 1, traditionally recognized as International Workers’ Day. They plan marches from Union Square to Lower Manhattan and a “pop-up occupation” of Bryant Park on Sixth Avenue, across the street from Bank of America's 55-story tower.

“’We call upon people to refrain from shopping, walk out of class, take the day off of work and other creative forms of resistance disrupting the status quo,’ organizers said in an April 26 e-mail.

“Banks have pooled resources and cooperated to gather intelligence after learning of plans to picket 99 institutions and companies, followed by what organizers have described as an 8 p.m. “radical after-party” in an undetermined Financial District location.

“’If the banks anticipate outrage from everyday citizens, it’s revealing of their own guilt,’” said Shane Patrick, a member of the Occupy Wall Street press team. “If they hadn’t been participating in maneuvers that sent the economy into the ditch, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”

“Organizers describe the May Day events as a coming together of the Occupy movement, with activists also calling for more open immigration laws, expanded labor rights and cheaper financing for higher education. Financial institutions remain a primary target of the protests.

“Four years after the financial crisis, not a single of the too-big-to-fail banks is smaller; in fact, they all continue to grow in size and risk,” the group’s press office said in an April 26 e-mail.

“Occupy Wall Street began planning for May Day in January, meeting in churches and union halls with a decision-making system that avoids a single leader. Instead, participants rely on group “break-out” sessions in which clusters discuss such tasks as crowd-building, logistics and communications.”

About two weeks ago, I had a dream about the Occupy Wall Street movement.  In the dream, they occupied the town where my former company has offices.  All manner of strange people were milling about; people you wouldn’t ordinarily find in this particular town:  guys in dresses, with tattooed legs and so far.  They were all gathered behind in an empty parking lot, hiding behind a building until the right moment came.

I had no idea why I was there, since I was laid off.  I knew what the Occupiers were going to do in advance, and I had bought one of those V for Vendetta masks to get by them.  But when I got into the office, I didn’t recognize the people or the company and wasn’t very happy with whatever work it was I was doing; I didn’t fit in with them, any more than I fit in with the Occupiers.

Finally, I found my old boss and warned him that these characters were lying in wait to ambush them as they tried to come out of the building, rather than trying to keep from entering.  OWS should realize that New Yorkers are accustomed to disruptions and have learned to adapt.  They’ve experienced transit strikes, power outages, heavy rain and snowstorms, riots, and of course, terrorist attacks.  New Yorkers will find a way around OWS.

Since New York is a “college town” you can expect some stupid students to show up, even though they’re supposed to be studying for their final exams.  The stupidest students are the ones who can least afford to take a holiday from classes.

As for shopping, physical retail stores may experience problems, but there’s always online shopping.  A one-day disruption isn’t going to hurt many stores, anyway, especially not on a weekday.  Gainfully employed peopled shop on the week-ends.

The main problem will come at banks, even though most people do their banking online these days, and on the roadways as commuters try to get to their jobs.  With the economy so bad, you can depend upon the commuters to push back, not join up with a Communist movement dedicated to destroying jobs and free-market economies around the world.