On Numbers

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

At 11:54 AM -0400 5/25/02, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>Chuck0 wrote:
>
>>The left seems to be always in the
>>mode of resisting stuff when bombs are dropping or American lives are
>>being lost. What can we do to really challenge the system?
><snip>
>>Protests are nice, but we need to raise the stakes if we are serious about
>>stopping the war machine....
>
>*****   Eight-hour general strike in Italy
>
>By Peter Schwarz in Florence
>17 April 2002
>
>Large parts of Italy came to a standstill yesterday, when 13 million 
>workers followed a call by the three main union federations for an 
>eight-hour general strike. It was the first such national stoppage 
>in Italy for twenty years. The entire transport sector, most public 
>services and large parts of the private sector were on strike....
>
><http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/apr2002/ital-a17.shtml>   *****

According to the CIA World Factbook, Italy's labor force numbers 23.4 
million (2000, 
<http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/it.html>).  About 
56% of the Italian labor force went on strike on 16 April 2002. 
Impressive.

The news release on "The Employment Situation: April 2002" issued by 
the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday, May 3, 2002 says the US 
civilian labor force amounts to 142.6 million.  To emulate Italians, 
about 80 million American workers have to go on strike.

How do we get there?
-- 
Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus: 
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
* Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>