Bravo Code Pink and French General Strikers

Imagine my delight when there on the front page of my morning paper was Medea Benjamin, the creative, non-stoppable leader of Code Pink.  Just having returned from leading a feminist mission to Gaza for International Women's Day,  Medea and her fearless crew of pink clad women were protesting the appearance of the CEO of AIG.  The contrast between the designer suit clad AIG boss and the women with Pink T Shirts saying, "Give us back our $$$' couldn't have been clearer. Speaking for millions of Americans, this was direct action at its best.  Bravo Sisters.

Then I heard the news on the radio of the General Strike in France where the private sector joined a public sector strike and the reporter said tens of thousands maybe hundreds of thousands hit the streets to protest the government's response to the economic crisis.  And this one week after a general strike by students.  Shades of May/June '68, an student led uprising in France that workers joined and set the revolutionary tone for an entire generation around the world.

Conventional wisdom says that in a depression like the one we are facing, workers get conservative trying to preserve what they have but given what we've been seeing these past weeks from Iceland to Eastern Europe, it's looking like people are not going to sit by and watch their hard earned money continue to fill the pockets of the corporate villains who got us into this mess to begin with.  Bravo!