Our European brothers and sisters remember that real power lies with the people, and not in an armed populace taking to the streets. The oligarchs may know how to deal with armed insurrection: brute force. But the plutocrats don't know how to deal with large numbers of peaceful demonstrators who won't take "Go Home" for an answer. If some folks at a demonstration want to turn the event into a riot with looting, rock throwing, etc., you can be certain they're criminals, insane, or agents of the police.
If you have doubts about the power of strikes, here are some stories from Europe for you to look at:
9/7/2010: "Strikes in France, London Foreshadow More Protests," Associated Press, reprinted in Common Dreams.
10/20/2010: "The Growing Struggles of the Working Class in Europe," The Greanville Post.
12/31/2010: "France Not Victorious, But Not Defeated," Cyrano's Journal Online.
2/1/2011: "The Great British Austerity Experiment," The Guardian/UK.
6/30/2011: "UK Strikes: 750,000 Set to Down Tools in Biggest Day of Industrial Action Since the 1980s," Mirror/UK.
2/12/2012: "Greeks Compare Austerity to Dictatorship as 48 Hour Strike Begins," Common Dreams.
6/19/2012: "Reflections on the Vatican's Condemnation of Farley's Book, "Just Love," OpEdNews.
The History of the Strike in America
David Swanson's April 20, 2011 OpEdNews book review/article, "The Cure for Plutocracy: Strike!," discusses Joe Burns's book Reviving the Strike: How Working People Can Regain Power and Transform America. While the article offers a bit of the history of the labor strike in America, both Swanson and Burns miss the simple fact that the protest march and the strike are fraternal twins of the same mother: the desire for an end of oppression by the oligarchic ownership class. Swanson, however, notes one important mistake concerning strategy in Burns' book. He reminds us that "Nonviolent tactics (which will, of course, often be met with violence from the other side) are more likely to succeed and to do so at less cost, building greater solidarity in the process."
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