Are you fed up with policies that protect the 1% at the expense of workers’ rights, public education, and the environment? Are you sick of right-wing politicians who, once elected, change the rules on who gets to vote? Are you appalled by Amendment One? Are you tired of being ignored by our out-of-control legislature? Are you ready to make some noise for the 99%?Join the POTS & SPOONS PROTEST on May 16th!
What: Pots & Spoons Protest of our out-of-control legislature
When: Wednesday, May 16 at 10 A.M.
Where: Bicentennial Mall (across from the legislature), 16 W. Jones St., Raleigh, NC
Why: Let’s welcome state lawmakers back to Raleigh with a sound they can’t ignore.
Bring an empty pot and spoon (and a friend) this May 16th and join our cacerolazo, the first-of-its-kind demonstration of our out-of-control state legislature in North Carolina!
As corporate lobbyists and the right-wing crazy train line up to be heard when our legislature reconvenes, let us drown them out with a noise only We the People can muster! We will bang our empty pots non-stop for 15 minutes.
It’s all part of the 99% Spring. Are you in?
Define: cacerolazo (n.) – a form of popular protest practiced in certain Spanish-speaking countries – in particular Argentina and Chile – which consists of a group of people creating noise by banging pots, pans, and other utensils to call for attention.
In ongoing demonstrations, students in Chile have used the cacerolazo to protest efforts in that country to privatize public education (sound familiar?) and build new hydro-electric dams.
Workers in Greece have banged pots and pans to protest severe austerity measures imposed on that country by investment banks like Goldman Sachs.
Citizens in Iceland staged the so-called “Kitchenware Revolution” (little-known in the USA) in the aftermath of the 2008 banking crisis. There, in the face of a government trying to impose an unpopular bank bailout, Icelanders occupied street corners and plazas, banging pots and pans day and night until their demands for new elections were met.
It is time to bring the spirit of the cacerolazo to North Carolina, where our out-of-control state legislature has busied itself since the 2010 election with catering to corporate interests and right-wing ideologues, adding a hate amendment to our constitution, gutting funding for public education, and attempting to restrict our voting rights.
In April 2011, some 300 people stood on Bicentennial Mall in total silence for 15 minutes in solemn protest of the efforts here and elsewhere to silence workers by taking away our rights.
In May 2012, we will return – but this time to make such a noise that no politician on Jones Street will be able to ignore us.
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Share this event on Twitter with the hashtag #May16NC
If anyone is looking to sublet some office space in the legislative building, you may want to contact Speaker Tillis – he has a few empty desks that he might be willing to part with. Not that I’m implying anything else is for sale in his office.