General Strike!

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

It’s been an incredible day here in Puerto Rico. Long, hot and sometimes stormy, but our General Strike got off to a great start, with no reported violence so far. Though University of PR students had a tense confrontation with the police, cooler heads prevailed and the students, refusing to back down, finally ended up going around the police and their barricade, continuing on with their march to join up with the rest of us demonstrators in in support of the general strike…

The woman with the microphone is begging whomever is in charge of the police to please come to the microphone, then she continues to tell the police: we are here in peace, we are against violence, we do not have firearms, we have nothing to defend ourselves with, God please take charge of the police…please come to the microphone…

Then, Danny Rivera, my friend and local folkloric singer, is saying to the reporter that we all needed to take great care, there are agents within the crowd in order to foment violence and tarnish the peaceful protest…so we all have to take very great care…

one of the student reps then confronts the police captain to try and resolve the standoff, telling him just remove the police barricade, it would only take 5 minutes, the students can pass, taking another 5 minutes… so in 10 minutes they could avoid any violent confrontation that could lead to bloodshed…

the students start chanting to the police, “que se muevan, que se muevan”… move out of the way, move out of the way…

please forgive the rough transcription

just a couple of choice quotes, and then the pics…

This little gem is from our Governor Millhouse Fortuño…

“Algunas de las acciones que ocurrieron hoy, si llegan a pasar en Washington D. C., la capital de la nación más libre del mundo, estarían presos ahora mismo. Nosotros hemos demostrado que aquí tenemos un mayor grado de tolerancia porque entendemos el dolor que hay”, dijo Fortuño. Link

“Some of the actions that occurred today, if they had happened in Washington D.C., the capital of the most free nation in the world, the [protestors] would be in jail right now. We’ve demonstrated that here we have a greater degree of tolerance because we understand the pain that’s out there”, said Fortuño.

and the students, if in D.C., would now be in jail… from the video above you can see just how petrified they are, right?

and here’s a real piece of work… Millhouse’s sidekick, our very own Baghdad Bob…

El secretario de la Gobernación, Marcos Rodríguez Ema, aseguró a este diario que el impacto de la movilización de ayer fue sólo económico y en algunos sectores… Desde su óptica, Rodríguez Ema calculó que había sólo 15 mil manifestantes en el paro.

“No es cuestión de números, pero las leyes de física no permiten que haya más de 15 mil personas”, dijo Rodríguez Ema, mientras señalaba que los únicos que asistieron eran estudiantes universitarios, políticos y servidores públicos. Link

The Secretary of the Government, Marcos Rodriguez Ema, assured this newspaper that the impact of yesterday’s mobilization was only economic and in only some sectors… From his perspective, Rodriguez Ema calculated that there were only 15,000 participating in the strike.

“It’s not a question of numbers, but the laws of physics don’t permit that there were more than 15,000 people”, said Rodriguez Ema, while signaling that the only ones to participate were university students, politicians and public employees.

What’s really pissed everyone off is the following, another real WTF? moment provided by ‘Bob’…

“El Secretario de la Gobernación dijo que los líderes obreros eran terroristas y el Superintendente de la Policía avaló esas declaraciones y unos terroristas no pueden ir a reunirse con el Superintendente de la Policía en la Superintendencia de la Policía”, dijo Torres Montalvo a una radioemisora (WAPA) Link

“The Secretary of the Government said that the union leaders were terrorists and the Superintendent of the Police vouched for this statement, and these terrorists cannot go to meet with the Superintendent of the Police at Police Headquarters”, said Towers Montalvo to WAPA radio station.

I hope this explains some of the “terrorist” costumes you may notice in the pics below. Along with the word terrorist being tossed about, we’re also being tagged as “leftists” and “socialists”, and you can just guess what comes next, no? why Chavez is behind our civil disobedience! That’s right folks, the poor, the unemployed with no jobs in sight, and now the newly unemployed – the 30,000+ public employees that Millhouse just fired – we’re not marching because we’re furious at our right wing, privatize-or-die governor who promised during the campaign that not a single public employee would lose their job, and then he systematically fires over 30,000 since May – of course! it must union terrorists and Chavez causing all this civil disobedience! I’d cry if I wasn’t laughing so hard…

ps… all the eggs, and egg references in the below pics are a result of Millhouse getting an egg thrown at him a couple of weeks ago… it was his first public appearance after unapologetically announcing the firing of an additional 17,000 government employees. it was his Bush shoe moment, so to speak.

oh, don’t forget to see if you can pick out the 15,000 participating below…

Fortuño, I’m gay, so what? hehehe

well, Baghdad Bob’s number was pretty close if he was talking about police… there were a reported 17,000 in the streets. News radio is reporting right now that there were between 200,000 – 300,000 participants!

and this one made me think of you, underdog… the ‘class war’ was a theme running through everything today – especially a speech by PR’s archbishop who’s in full support of the people’s position against the government, but this is great…

The day that shit has some value, the poor will be born without assholes!

Hope you guys enjoyed seeing the action here, now I’m gonna try and get a bit of rest…