“We hope this tour illustrates how widespread the exploitation of immigrant workers is, how integral immigrants are to America, and how the ultimate responsibility for all of our pain lies at the feet of the one percent.”
Occupy Wall Street is back, and they’re planning on being louder and more eminent than they were before.
To understand their “comeback,” we sat down with Phil Arnone — an Occupy founder we interviewed back in the fall — who told us the group has planned for hundreds of arrests to occur during May Day to “directly challenge power and change injustice.”
“Actions that activists take knowing they will be arrested are done because the pressure the action generates breaks the silence around the injustice, and forces the system to respond,” he told us.
Arnone quoted Gandhi saying “the purpose of civil disobedience is to provoke a response and the response of the system will only serve to further highlight the injustice.” He assured us that all arrests will be peaceful and not meant to provoke any violence from the NYPD.
In the march today, Arnone says OWS will be picketing in front of businesses they feel have profited from the “exploitation and criminalization of immigrants.” This includes Chipotle across from Bryant Park to “demand they accede to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers Fair Food Agreement,” Capital Grille at 42nd Street because “the company is resisting workers efforts to exercise their right to organize” and Hot & Crusty, also at 42nd Street, where “workers have endured discrimination, wage theft, and poor working conditions,” he says.
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