On 1 May, people around the world will strike. They will demand their right to decent working conditions, secure employment and pensions.
This day is for all people. It isn’t just for workers lucky enough to have unions to represent them. It is for parents and carers whose work is often not seen as productive, for people forced into workfare schemes, for students whose only way to employment is unpaid internships, for those who can’t get their foot in the door of the workplace because of their nationality, gender, disabilities. It is for all of us and our right to earn a living for a decent life.
The numbers of people claiming unemployment benefits is rising, with unemployment at levels close to their highest for a generation (much as the Government likes to constantly move the goalpost in their favour to massage the figures). Many with a job are forced to comply with unacceptable conditions, due to not having realistic alternatives, and their work is not as valued as some. The income gap between the highest and lowest is growing more quickly in Britain than other economies over the past three decades. [1] Topping the inequalities off, we’ve seen average pay rises for FTSE 100 executives at 43%, with ‘top’ directors at 49%, all of whom can use their status to avoid tax. [2] It is time for these inequalities to stop.
This May Day, strike with your union if you have one. Call in sick, take a holiday, don’t show up. Join actions and marches in your city, bring your community together and talk about the issues in your area, make some noise. Remember, you are not alone and that together we can make a change.
Occupy London will be out in support of events on the day and is be planning some actions of our own:
Upcoming dates for your diary
Wednesday 25 April – May Planning Meeting by steps of St Paul’s
https://www.facebook.com/
Friday 27 April – Occupy Games: Warming Up for May
https://www.facebook.com/
Saturday 28 April – Capture The Flag … with Climate Justice Collective & Occupy London
https://www.facebook.com/
Tuesday 1 May – Join Occupy London for May Day – a day for all
https://www.facebook.com/
Thursday 3 May – The Big Six Energy Bash- MASS ACTION! (Climate Justice Collective event)
https://www.facebook.com/
Saturday 5 May – Londoners Connect The Dots (Occupy London Energy, Equity and Environment Group)
https://www.facebook.com/
Saturday 12 May – 12M / Meet the 1% / Global Spring
https://www.facebook.com/
Tuesday 15 May – Drought of Democracy: Flood the British Bankers’ Association!
https://www.facebook.com/
Notes
[2] Top earners draw away from lowest paid -
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cfeba520-1f6d-11e1-9916-00144feabdc0.html
[2] Occupy London targets UK’s highest paid FTSE CEO
http://occupylsx.org/?p=1725 / N30, corporate greed, Xstrata and the right to protest -
http://occupylsx.org/?p=1755
All of us with jobs (and most of us without) are suffering, but aren’t most people who’ll be striking in the UK striking because their public sector pension isn’t going to be quite as good as it might have been… (but still better than 99% of private pensions?
This is the line that we are being fed. Just because private pensions have been demolished doesn’t necessarily mean that the same should happen for public. Fair pensions for all is what people are calling for
What do you intend to accomplish by disrupting the tube? Raise awareness at the expense of alienating the working masses just trying to do their job? The article states to call in sick, take a holiday or don’t turn up yet with another recession and redundancies every few months the reality is that many can’t call in sick or even use holiday time. Not turning up isn’t an option. But now you’re going to make life harder for the people you claim to be fighting for? Great, stop me getting to work so I need to stay even later to make up for it..
Inspiring? This isn’t inspiring in the slightest. It’s depressing.
The tube is the least fertile ground for protest and/or activism, it’s full of sleepy, irritable people going to work. I wouldn’t find a white flower encouraging or significant, I would be irritated that the Occupy person has infiltrated my miserable existence without being part of it.
Much better to find significant locations above ground and drop the flower idea, it’s a highly derivative symbol.
Bring it on, you flaky workshy scum.
Occupy the tube? At rush hour? London is ready to crush you under its feet.
I know, you’ll censor this comment because you’re worse than the people you oppose.
Try reading something other than the Daily Fail.
This whole charade is purely for the benefit of three groups. Pubic sector demanding everybody else subsidise their compensation whilst refusing to contribute themselves, workshy benefit claimants demanding everybody else funds their carefree lifestyle and the professional protestors just wanting to engage in group violence and vandalism.
Your post is to the benefit of the corporatocracy.
The taxpayer subsidises the big four banks to the tune of £100 Billion per year. to the detriment of the public and private sector.
Most social benefits are given to pensioners. Are you accusing them of being workshy?
Violent protest? Where did you invent that from? Murdoch’s Faux News from the United Corporate States of Amerika?
100% correct, the sooner Occupy realise they are lazy workshy unwashed the better. I bet my comment doesn’t get posted either because the truth hurts. And before you comment Occupy, I was at Patenoster square and the you lost were drinking cans of tenants super and strongbow, that is exactly your image, FACT
People must be willfully ignorant if they can’t see the shit the ruling class are loading on the working class, public and private, in the name of saving the ‘deficit’ and their fucking pay checks. For many of the unemployed there have been no opportunities for work despite their efforts and they are called lazy? The real lazy ones are the cushty rich who sit in their thrones and profit off the hard effort of the working people. Smash the fucking banks! End to the slavery of wage and debt!
Level of comment pretty poor thus far. hopefully strikers will share ideas as well as stand up to razor thin strata of “owners” who do so via the whole system that prevents change from the outside. Stand up not to just bankers pay or corporate excess but whole mind set of greed. Greedy public sector workers wanting the trappings of pension wealth, greed of private sector management who wanted trappings of owners wealth, greed of owners who want the profits generated by hard working workers and management, greed of parasitic establishment courting all with lunches at downing street and join the court of st. James mentality if you serve Windsors plc – nobody in the main body of society knows about the extras to the 30 million civil list, what about the 10000s who serve in royal palaces for just one family’s use? prince Charles having ministers “summoned” to his swanky house in London all the time. frank discussion is needed amongst us all. We are here for only 80 years and if we had some snazzy bar chart analysis done with the census of how many hours this year were done doing what you would see it would make depressing reading. Microwave Tv meal heating and requsite tv watching for the poorest when not gambling and the rest, ski holiday brochure reading for the middle and the top at play all day. Except day of royal wedding when we all fawned apart from the 7? Arrests…These stereotypes exist because for the past few decades they have truly existed. Look at the bar chart – its called google search results loosely. not many hits on how tv is was originally a program designed to mind control nor the agenda of media owners nor recent history of greed – British east India company shareholders etc.Mindsets change who looks at caves like a cave man once did so all is most certainly not lost but what a shame we are here for so little time and we are complacent and do not work harder to persuade all to change views, mindsets, behaviours etc. happy with base desires- sex websites, gambling, money….Only work harder for money. Artists copying business men and running after queen’s pictures… Maybe it is all a game of power and having pissed off the whole world we now need to stay ahead of BRIC countries, you think china has forgotten the drugs trade we imposed on them ? But we need to talk about it and work together to come up with solutions to all the problems. Yes we can. But not if we don’t talk and keep being distracted by petty point scoring, fallacious arguments. Incoherent as I’m a student on a broken phone. . .
Hey JJ and Joe Commuter, thanks for earning your money by trundling out such predictable, puerile rubbish.
I’d argue with you but then, you’re not even stating your own opinions are you? You’re just churning out pre-packed stock diatribes.
You sound very angry. Let me make you a cup of tea and have a nice flower: there is hope for you, too. Come, join us! Learn about hope and to dream your dreams in your own voice! Be kind, be genuine, do no harm!
Here we go again….another season of more charades organised by people that could really do more for their life by getting a grip and just getting on with it. Yes a lot of aspects of everyday life for each and every one of us is not ideal, and in some cases unfair, but to try and create such annoyance in the name of those causes is such a waste. There are plenty of spaces to occupy in the country-side, and if you don’t like whats on offer there, find one abroad. London really has enough on its plate without you.
These comments here don’t seem to grasp what’s really going on. I fear people are still too comfortable.