And, I’ll certainly participate in any general strike, but I haven’t got a job, so…

Don’t further muddy this by accusing me of an ad hominem attack I didn’t make.

By the time he had it, Labor day was celebrated by the majority of states before it became a Federal holiday and well before the idea of preventing solidarity happened.

Hell, Labor Day in November was supported by the Knights of Labor who were largely responsible for the Haymarket affair in the first place.

I like to think that if you knew more about what I do with a living and the people I work with every day you wouldn’t assume I was one of “those people.”

Learn something:
http://www.racialicious.com/2011/08/03/the-people-you-meet-when-you-write-about-race/

Don’t be one of those white people who is always ready to rationalize when someone points out a problem.

But if you want classic propaganda imagery, OWS was certainly described in terms straight from Nazi propaganda like “The Eternal Jew.”  Calls to clear out OWS sounded like they could have been describing the Warsaw Ghetto.  Weren’t Jews also stigmatized as filthy, promiscuous, parasites, drug peddlers, diseased, and a threat to the virtue of good Christian girls? 

Attacks on OWS went straight to the antisemitic propaganda playbook.

I agree that the accusations of ACTUAL antisemitism in the movement seem baseless. No point in giving the nuts on the other side any fuel for those claims, though.

“…….Seymour’d told me to shine my shoes just as I was going out the door with Waker. I was furious. The studio audience were all morons, the announcer was a moron, the sponsors were morons, and I just damn well wasn’t going to shine my shoes for them, I told Seymour. I said they couldn’t see them anyway, where we sat. He said to shine them anyway. He said to shine them for the Fat Lady. I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, but he had a very Seymour look on his face, and so I did it. He never did tell me who the Fat Lady was, but I shined my shoes for the Fat Lady every time I ever went on the air again — all the years you and I were on the program together, if you remember. I don’t think I missed more than just a couple of times. This terribly clear, clear picture of the Fat Lady formed in my mind. I had her sitting on this porch all day, swatting flies, with her radio going full-blast from morning till night. I figured the heat was terrible, and she probably had cancer, and — I don’t know. Anyway, it seemed goddam clear why Seymour wanted me to shine my shoes when I went on the air. It made sense…..”

More skinny white girls! Perfect!

Skinny girls, yes. But white? The girl in the first poster is blue and the one in the second is represented in silhouette. Either could be white, but that has more to do with your assumptions than the way they are depicted.

By the time the Federal government had anything to do with it, 30 states had adopted it instead of May Day completely unrelated to reducing international coordination.

Yes Grover Cleavland was worried about mixing it up with the Socialists/Anarchists/Communists celebrating on May 1st, but it was adopted by most of the US prior to that.

Granted, as Navin points out below the octopus has also been used to represent many other perceived threats over the decades, from monopolies to unpopular minorities to American imperialism to the Nazis themselves. But in my opinion that just supports the idea that we could use a more original iconic image.

I have always thought the ‘octopus’ you’re referring to was usually symbolic of “trusts”, Standard Oil etc.

 Different times, different struggles.  I am decidedly working class and support the movement. 

Whether or not factory workers are involved or not, doesn’t diminish that the message and grievances are real.

And at least here in Chicago, Occupy and the progressive / labor movement, community groups and so on, are very much in cooperation. So yes there are thousands of working class people, of all colors showing up on days of action.

In regard to this endless “helpful” criticism of the movement, I think Angela Davis said it best a while back in Oakland:

“Rather than worrying about reaching conservatives, organize your natural allies and let them feel left out”.

Amen.

That’s “Haymarket”.  Sorry, as a Chicagoan I just can’t let it pass.

/fussiness

This will certainly shut up those critics of Occupy that say it is by, for and about privileged white people.

By way of contrast, a cute tween girl skateboarding is an excellent metaphor for how much real working class involvement is characteristic of Occupy in general.