NYC General Strike!

In some countries, when citizens are outraged by egregious governmental failures or injustice, they call a general strike. A concerted effort by workers can shut down whole sections of an economy.

New York City is the financial center of the U.S. Other industries, such as the media, are centered here as well. I say let’s strike.

The economic costs of a shutdown of the financial sector should be fairly easy to predict, since we have the example of September 11 to go by. I think one day would be all it would take. Imagine what a powerful statement would be made if (say) 70% of New Yorkers, throughout the city and especially on Wall Street, all refused to show up at work on the same day.

I recommend a Tuesday, for greater resonance with September 11, to remind the rest of the nation that we New Yorkers were the primary victims. I suggest January 18, the day after we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. That too would be resonant, since Dr. King was our greatest national prophet of peace.

Thoughts? Please comment.

3 thoughts on “NYC General Strike!”

  1. What would be the end result, though? Yes, it would have a major (if not temporary) impact,
    but I would think once everybody returned to work everything would return to normal. Well,
    besides the bundles of people fired for their non-violent protest. I’m all for dissent, but
    I think your method is too general and fleeting to achieve a specific goal. Actually, what
    is your goal exactly? I don’t know anybody who isn’t aware that New Yorkers were the
    hardest hit and still feel awful about it. Help me understand, man!

  2. I suppose that is the nature of a one-day general strike – it’s meant to make a statement, not really break things. The statement would be something like “We (the majority of New York City folk) object to how we think the election results leave us in greater danger than otherwise, and to the way we are not given out fair share of anti-terror funds etc. etc.” – someone else could write the manifesto much better than I. I suppose I don’t think it’s actually a very realistic suggestion – the people who would participate would be the people who participated in the street protests at the RNC convention – a LOT of people, but not in relation to the whole population. Still, I like to think that such a thing could be contemplated in our fractured culture.

  3. Not getting the attention we deserve is correct. Not liking the election results, I LOVE the election results and honor the Democractic process which brought them to the nation.

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