Michael Moore begins: "On this day, December 30th, in 1936 - 75 years ago today - hundreds of workers at the General Motors factories in Flint, Michigan, took over the facilities and occupied them for 44 days. My uncle was one of them."
Filmmaker Michael Moore at Liberty Plaza visiting demonstrators taking place in the Occupy Wall Street protests, 09/26/11. (photo: raymond/Flickr)
75 Years Ago Today, the First Occupy
30 December 11
riends,
On this day, December 30th, in 1936 - 75 years ago today - hundreds of workers at the General Motors factories in Flint, Michigan, took over the facilities and occupied them for 44 days. My uncle was one of them.
The workers couldn't take the abuse from the corporation any longer. Their working conditions, the slave wages, no vacation, no health care, no overtime - it was do as you're told or get tossed onto the curb.
So on the day before New Year's Eve, emboldened by the recent re-election of Franklin Roosevelt, they sat down on the job and refused to leave.
They began their Occupation in the dead of winter. GM cut off the heat and water to the buildings. The police tried to raid the factories several times, to no avail. Even the National Guard was called in.
But the workers held their ground, and after 44 days, the corporation gave in and recognized the UAW as the representative of the workers. It was a monumental historical moment as no other major company had ever been brought to its knees by their employees. Workers were given a raise to a dollar an hour - and successful strikes and occupations spread like wildfire across the country. Finally, the working class would be able to do things like own their own homes, send their children to college, have time off and see a doctor without having to worry about paying. In Flint, Michigan, on this day in 1936, the middle class was born.
But 75 years later, the owners and elites have regained all power and control. I can think of no better way for us to honor the original Occupiers than by all of us participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement in whatever form that takes in each of our towns. We need direct action all winter long if we are to prevail. You can start your own Occupy group in your neighborhood or school or with just your friends. Speak out against economic injustice at every chance you get. Stop the bank from evicting the family down the block. Move your checking and credit card to a community bank or credit union. Place a sign in your yard - and get your neighbors to do it also - that says, "WE ARE THE 99%." (You can download signs here and here.)
Do something, anything, but don't remain silent. Not now. This is the moment. It won't come again.
75 years ago today, in Flint, Michigan, the people said they'd had enough and occupied the factories until they won. What is stopping us now? The rich have one plan: bleed everyone dry. Can anyone, in good conscience, be a bystander to this?
My uncle wasn't, and because of what he and others did, I got to grow up without having to worry about a roof over my heads or medical bills or a decent life. And all that was provided by my dad who built spark plugs on a GM assembly line.
Let's each of us double our efforts to raise a ruckus, Occupy Everywhere, and get creative as we throw a major nonviolent wrench into this system of Greed. Let's make the politicians running for office in 2012 quake in their boots if they refuse to tax the rich, regulate Wall Street and do whatever we the people tell them to do.
Happy 75th!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYjJxstGl7Y
I sent the request to over 100 people. I have received one "no".
How are we ever going to fix anything?
Unfortunately, the next Republican Congress will probably try to repeat the Wagner Act.
A happy 79th to them.
It is marvelous to be reminded of such a fantastic anniversary!! You should ask Amy Goodman to include a story about this event. I always remember Wyndham Mortimer's book "Organize" published 1971 by Beacon Press which chronicles his role in that Flint Sit-Down Strike. It taught me the potential for ordinary people to gain power in a struggle through organizing themselves and standing firm on their principles. It is worth reading it now!!
Every candidate for legislative office in 2012 must be asked whether or not he/she will support Bernie Sanders' constitutional amendment asserting that corporations are not people and money is not speech. Only an unequivical yes or no will do.
It's all about Congress in 2012.
Regarding the founding of the UAW and other industrial unions, two things:
(1) besides maybe Walter Reuther, give me the name of any other "leader" - especially on the shop floor, where it counted;
(2) remember what happened when organized labor in the United States became successful and "established"; first, it became a witting ally of the anti-communist hysteria in the 1950s and then it watched all its gains erode, starting in the 1970s, accelerating in the 1980s and 1990s (under BOTH Reagan and Clinton) and finishing with "globalization" in the more-or-less here and now.
The struggle, in short, is never completely won, but complacency ensures that it will be completely lost in the long run.
If the 99% can focus on this factor and eliminate this tool of the 1%, it will give us an all important system whereby we can start correcting the other problems.
I am so encouraged that Michael Moore has taken this position. The occupy movement has lacked a prominent spokesman, and he has now stepped in. Please spread this concept, and follow Michael’s suggestion.
Michael Moore’s blog:
‘In 2012, I'm Only Backing Candidates Who Pledge
to Get Money OUT of Politics – Like Dan Kildee from Flint’
You're right to say that the "umbrella" is "MONEY" ... but that's enough. The REAL issue (i.e., what creates and distributes "money") is an entire economic system (call it "mode of production") which, in the final analysis, governs the production and distribution of goods and services as well as the political and ideological institutions that arrange and justify it.
Be careful, however, when saying that the Occupy Movement NEEDS a leader. The genius of the Occupy Movement is its leaderlessness. It amounts to an experiment in social organization. Like "commune"ists and gentle anarchists in the past, it has done a nice job of showing that there are alternatives to hierarchy.
By succumbing to the media demand for leaders and maybe lists of specific demands, you are playing "their" game. It reminds me of a story of US cavalry riding into Indian territory, meeting a small hunting party and demanding that they return the next day, and bring their leaders. The next day, hundreds of Indians showed up, saying "We are all leaders here."
The story may be a fabrication; but, if so, it's a nice one.
Alternative? Be like the hideous religious right + neoliberal "Think Tanks" which took over the Republican Party, but Occupy the Democratic Party instead.
" ... but that's NOT (repeat NOT) enough."
Silly me!
1. No leaders means that the plutocrats can't destroy the movement through character assassination against an individual.
2. Lack of specific demands means that they can't enact one or two legal Band-Aids and say, "You got what you wanted. Game's over. Go home. Shut up."
In short, they're not going to get rid of us that easily.
Look what the Republicans are putting into place already:
Michigan Republican Governor has ablolished locally controled and elected governments and has become a dictator.
Voter ID requirements that selects who can and who cannot vote.Documentation even though presented means nothing if the clerks does not "want" to accept it.
We fail to remember that that Karl Rove wants a one party state, a dictatorship.
ALL Republican have stated that they will not only extend but expand the Presidential powers to do whatever they please.
Don't forget Scott Walker in Wisconsin,the other Republican Governors in Main, Ohio, Florida, Arizona, and every other states with Republican Governors with Republican Legislative majorities, as well as local Republican Governments.
Ron Paul would achieve the same end but he employs a reverse model. Total lawlessness(no Government) and survival of the fittest ie. thoes who have the money, power and their own private protection.
The hand writing is on the wall, read it.
Republicans don't need the 99% and they think there are too many of us anyway.
So, I applaud Mr. Moore, and urge those who read his words with nods of approval to become aware ... no, REALLY aware of the legacy and the inheritance that the Occupy Movement and others need if they are going to be more than part of a cruel TIME magazine "person-of-the-year" joke.
The corporate propaganda machine (part mass media and part official education) either ignores or trivializes the history of oppressed people, for example turning the Luddites into romantic anti-technology fools.
Meanwhile, caught up in the ecstasy of the specious present, ahistorical protesters, also contribute to what Edward Thompson called the fate of the past movements, namely the "enormous condescension of posterity."
Remember, please, what Marx warned about historical events: they can happen twice - first as tragedy, second as farce.
A good knowledge of history and of enduring social structures is NECESSARY if mere protest is not to become the cultural meme-de-jour.
Or, as George Grant said in 1965: "Moral outrage is too valuable a commodity to be wasted on anything but reality."
'nuff said ... the old fart has spoken.
Heed your parents well, and good job Michael!
JM
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