"May Day General Strike" photos from Reuters prove event was NOT "a dud" as reported earlier

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Earlier today, Reuters posted a video, "Occupy Wall Street resurgence a dud." (http://www.reuters.com/article/video/idUSBRE8400UV20120501?videoId=234276781), with the comments:

May 1 - Occupy Wall Street hoped to use May Day to shift back into high gear, but a poor turnout suggests the movement may not be able to regain its former glory. Conway G. Gittens reports. ( Transcript )

The photos below were immediately sent in, via Twitter and other means, in response. It wasn't a "dud."

http://live.reuters.com/Event/May_Day_General_Strike



Protesters blow through line of police scooters off sidewalk onto 5 Av. Have taken over avenue on way to union sq t.co
comment by AlexSilverman via P.twimg 4:27 PM



Hundreds of protesters sitting on 5 Av at 20 St. Apparently waiting for other group cut off by police t.co
comment by AlexSilverman via P.twimg 4:27 PM



PHOTO: Aerial view of Occupy Wall Street protest in Manhattan, via @911Buff - t.co
comment by ProducerMatthew via Twitpic 4:11 PM



Another shot of the "dud", according to @reuters. #ows #m1nyc #mayday t.co
comment by allisonkilkenny via Twitpic 3:53 PM



Long view of the march down Broadway at Walker St. Apparently the tail end just left Union Square #m1gs t.co
comment by katz via Yfrog 3:52 PM



@mtracey Did they not see this? t.co
comment by buddyroemer via P.twimg 3:45 PM



Front of massive #ows #mayday march, or according to @reuters "no one" #m1nyc t.co
comment by allisonkilkenny via Twitpic 3:38 PM



Aerial view of #m1gs t.co
comment by Timcast via P.twimg 3:35 PM

[FarLeftFist]

1. As a NYer who works in the city I can tell you it was FAR from a "dud". Also,

If you look at it not only on a National scale but on a global scale it was HUGE.

Solidarity!

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. Reuters was pretty quick to do "damage control" on a bogus story

It's unfortunate that the original got posted, but they did step up and make the correction.

[snot]

18. Where? At least at that link, the original "dud" story is still there, w/ no correction.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

19. Agreed, they didn't retract the story

That would have been full damage control. This was more like partially covering their ass.

[freshwest]

20. Tim Pool ragged on some in person until they wrote an additional story.

Listened to him grill some of them yesterday. The reporters were receptive, but said something about being handed the story. From the boss who is in the 1% or thinks he is, no doubt.

[redqueen]

21. There's no way any news room emplyee is in the 1%

A lickspittle lackey who dreams of one day getting there, sure.

[freshwest]

22. I said boss.

[redqueen]

23. Bosses are employees of upper management.

I'd wager even most upper management isn't in the club, either.

[freshwest]

24. Didn't I say that?

[redqueen]

25. Pretty much

You said he was in the 1% or thought he was, I was only chiming in to say there's no way he was. I suppose there's an extremely small.possibility, though.

[freshwest]

27. And hello right back to you! Hope things are going good.

[mmonk]

3. The revolution will not be televised (except maybe on Current).

[kath]

5. Egg-zackly. Liberal media, my ass.

[just1voice]

10. RT is covering it and RT is free TV

http://rt.com/usa/news/

[panader0]

4. Thanks for the great photos. K&R

[varelse]

6. Beautiful (nt)

[Bjorn Against]

7. K&R and thank you to all who participated

This was a good day, but I am hopeful it will keep growing year after year as I am confident this will now be an annual event. If this continues to grow year after year those dismissing today's events will have egg on their faces, and in fact given the pictures of some very large demonstrations today they already have egg on their faces. Today was a small but important step to building a lasting movement.

[mmonk]

8. As long as the social injustice remains, Occupy or at least some version

of it will remain. I see nothing on the horizon that will alleviate the situation in the near term.

[DCKit]

9. I came across a post last night: (sic) "It'll be a dud, don't bother to show up"

Oh, wait, that sounds familiar.

[gratuitous]

17. I read something similar as well

I'm sure we will soon be treated to a detailed explanation from far-more-knowledgeable folks as to why thousands if not millions of people taking to the streets was a "dud" because there's still economic injustice and inequality, no laws were changed, and I didn't get a pony.

[pinboy3niner]

11. My photos from Occupy L.A. May 1st General Strike (M1GS)...

Thanks for the thread, AV.

My photo album from Occupy L.A. M1GS (May 1st General Strike):
I put 68 photos in this album. It was a long day, and I'm too wiped out to post more. Feel free to repost the link, or to post the photos themselves, to support the Occupy movement. I'd score this as a huge success. But one of the best parts, personally, was joining up in this action to march with DUers Fire Walk With Me, U4iklefty, and coalition unwilling and his wife.

MY ALBUM:
http://s948.photobucket.com/albums/ad321/pinboy3niner/M1GS%20Occupy%20Mayday%20General%20Strike%202012/?albumview=slideshow

I posted a brief report in sabrina's thread:

Thousands of marchers converged in downtown, coming from the four cardinal compass directions. In addition to these four 'Winds,' picketing union workers at LAX formed a fifth Wind.

It was hard to get an accurate picture of the size of the event, as there were concurrent marches and rallies throughout the day. I estimate that there were easily more than 2,000 strung out for what seemed to be a half mile in one Occupy L.A. M1GS march alone, while one of the immigrants' rights marches moved in parallel a block over and police prevented the two from merging. (VERY heavy police presence, including six helicopters hovering overhead at one point.)

I met coalition unwilling and his wife for the first time, approaching them because I recognized the style of their signs from posts here. U4iklefty soon joined us before the main march kicked off. Later, Lefty and I joined Fire Walk With Me and we took a break to share some coffee and cookies. (That turned into a long walk, as most of the businesses in the area had closed.)

There also was a series of actions in the financial district, where the local HQ buildings of major banks were cordoned by police in riot gear. (The BofA building also was protected by a long line of metal barricades.)

Have to finish uploading my pics. Normally I take about 30 at an Occupy event, but this time I ended up with about 80.

This turned out to be a very exciting day--for a 'flop.'

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=635195

I should do an OP in the Occupy Underground Group, but I'm too wiped out now after a long day. For now, the album photos don't really need much explanation.

Here at Occupy L.A., M1GS was HARDLY a 'dud' or a 'flop.'

[Scuba]

12. Well, that's a nice little gathering, but compared to this Tea Party rally, it's a fizzle.

US Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) addresses the Tea Party faithful:

<a href="http://imgur.com/0lXwB"><img src="" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a>

[hay rick]

14. Looks like half the crowd is from the media. nt

[shcrane71]

15. Whoa... is that a May Day teabgger crowd?

Could the Kochs be running out of money to for protesters-for-hire?

[countryjake]

13. K&R!

[SalviaBlue]

16. Thanks for posting.

[frazzled]

26. Excuse me, because I've been sick the last few days

A damnable upper respiratory virus that's going around. So it's not surprising that I don't know much about how these rallies went. Needless to say, I was inside huddled under blankets with hot tea, boxes of Kleenex, and a big jar of Vitamin C, so I did not see throngs of people. As I understand it, the Chicago Occupy event was successful to the extent that (according to today's newspaper), "several thousand" people attended.

I'm not sure that can really qualify as being successful, however, for several reasons. First, getting several thousand people to show up for a few hours (or even a day) isn't really very much at all. New York is also said to have had several thousand. That's in cities with populations of 4 and 8 million, respectively. Back in May 2006 I attended a May Day immigration rally that had 400,000 people (same newspaper's estimate): 200 times larger. It felt great: the marchers from Union Park to Grant Park stretched for miles, not blocks. All the major politicians--US senators and representatives--were even there. Los Angeles and other cities had equally massive marches. And what happened? Nothing. The comprehensive immigration reform the march was asking for still hasn't passed, and doesn't look like it will any time soon. Very sad.

A march (and especially a small march) isn't an action. A "general strike" would have meant that the trains and buses weren't running because transportation workers had shut them down; businesses would have shuttered their doors. This wasn't a strike at all, because it didn't have any participation from a broad base of citizenry. Europe has these strikes from time to time (there was a general transportation strike that closed even airlines earlier this winter), but we don't do that here. Maybe because it's not a tradition, or maybe because workers are complacent; or scared. But believe me, the general strike that was called did not happen. Until this movement can really capture the imagination of the general public, not just a few thousand people, it's going to fizzle. I don't say that happily, just honestly.

Maybe if you haven't seen marches before, these pictures seem to suggest something big to you. But really, more people show up for a hockey game or concert at Madison Square Garden on a regular basis (18,000-20,000 capacity) than participated yesterday. A hockey game. This is where American priorities are, and you need to understand that if you really want to start to understand the mechanics of effecting change in this country.

[malthaussen]

28. I happen to agree with you, but

... let's not rain on the parade. As someone said upthread, the important thing is to keep going and try to generate momentum through repetition. It's going to be a long time before we see a May Day in the US that can compare to one in Europe. To me, the most hopeful sign is that the hardhats aren't beating up the hippies in this movement, unlike the '60s.
Of course, the hardhats are a much smaller group, now. They're probably scared.

The thing that bothers me most about all the Occupy pix I've seen is that the racial diversity of the crowds does not match the demographics of the US. Until more minorities start participating, the claim to represent the 99% does not ring true.

As far as I can see, the May Day assemblies were far from a flop, and that is encouraging. But I think it is going to be some time before we see Joe Six-Pack standing up in solidarity and singing the "Internationale."

-- Mal