A Call for Workers Assemblies
Across the world, workers are under attack by the 1%. Wages are at a historic low while unemployment remains stuck near a record high. Governments are attacking the poorest amongst us with brutal austerity plans. Unions are being destroyed, while autonomous workers’ movements meet with severe repression from Oakland, to Montreal, to Athens, and Cairo.
The power of the 1% is based on their control of the workplace. We need a new labor movement of the 99% to occupy the workplace and transform the economy, but the working class is divided - between union and non-union, immigrant and native-born, young and old, North and South, private sector and public sector; by national borders, race, language, creed, color, education, and industry.
The past year saw the signs of hope for a resurgent labor movement. May Day 2012 was the biggest celebration of International Workers’ Day since 2006, with a call for a general strike resonating with workers in hundreds of cities around the world. Since then we’ve seen a major upsurge in working class resistance with high-profile organizing inside and outside the traditional union structures, including the largest strike in history in India, continued wildcat strikes in China, general strikes against austerity in Europe, and many more mobilizations. How can the 99% take the next step to build a renewed and broad-based movement to assert the political and economic power of working people and move us beyond capitalism?
We need to bring the direct action militancy, democratic decision-making, and revolutionary spirit of Occupy into the workplace.
We call on everyone who wants to build workers’ power to:
- Sign on to the “Occupy Your Workplace” call and participate in May Day events that encourage union and non-union workers to organize and build power in the workplace
- Follow up on May Day by holding a Workers’ Assembly in your area, open to all workers, with the aim of developing skills and strategies that workers can use in their workplaces to win better conditions now, and shift the balance of power to working people in the long-term.
For more information and resources, and to sign on to the call, please email us at [email protected].
In Solidarity, Occupy Your Workplace
Learn more about us at:
- Website: OccupyYourWorkplace.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OccupyYourWorkplace
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/OccupyYourWorkplace
- Connect with us by email: [email protected]
- Our Facebook Group where we debate and discuss:
Occupy Your Workplace is a group originating out of Occupy Wall Street, dedicated to the organization of unorganized workers, promoting direct action/militant unionism and building solidarity within the wider labor movement. We want to Occupy our workplaces, and help you Occupy yours!