New York City's unemployment rate has reached 8.7%
cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/city-unemployment-rate-ticks-up-to-8-7/ . New York City's population is over 8 million. That means that at least 696,000 people in New York City do not currently have a job. Since "unemployment" only measures those still actively looking for work, this number is even larger. Since unemployment has starkly risen since the recession and bank bailouts, a large number of these people are in the positions they are in because of them and are most likely just as angry as us.
A large amount of these people are able-bodied citizens who could potentially join this coalition. Let's use this forum to bring these people out. We need to get them educated on the subject and get them as pissed off as we are. The ripple effect should take over from there.
I propose that those unable to bring their bodies to Wall Street take a half hour out of their day to contact organizations in NYC that would have a large base of either low income or unemployed peoples. Many people are still unaware of Occupy Wall Street, and if they are aware of it, they're not taking it very seriously. The protesters have been contacting labor unions and the like, but it needs to go further. We should contact local community organizers, universities, schools, unemployment centers, soup kitchens, etc. Let's work together to get the word out!
The reality right now is that people outside of NYC are going to find it hard to get there during the week. Those with jobs are too afraid to leave them for fear of being fired and losing their only source of income. If the movement grows large enough, these fears will be pushed aside for the greater good, just as they were during the Civil Rights Movement. Until that point, we need to bring the local people into this.
By contacting these groups and explaining what we're all fighting for, we can hopefully grow the coalition and continue to gain support and bring people in NYC to the protests. If you decide to reach out to some groups, explain the situation we're in and ask if they know of anyone we should get in contact with, if they are interested in lending their voice by contacting their members, or if they can even rally up a few folks to get down there. Contact can be through email, phone call, chat, etc; anything that the organization offers that we can access either online, through the phone, or even in person if you're in the area.
Here's a short list to start with:
NYC Bankruptcy Assistance Project 646-442-3630 40 Worth Street, Suite 606, in Manhattan
bankruptcy@LegalServicesNYC.org
Bedford-Stuyvesant Community Legal Services 1360 Fulton Street, Suite 301 Brooklyn, New York 11216
(718) 636-1155
Brooklyn Family Defense Project 177 Livingston Street #700, Brooklyn, NY 11201 (347) 592-2500
www.bfdp.org/ www.bfdp.org/contact/staff-list/ Use this to contact specific persons
For an all-encompassing list with an overwhelming amount of organizations and offices to contact, copy and paste this url into your address bar and type in a New York City zip code, hit search, and begin contacting:
a858-ihss.nyc.gov/ihss1/en_US/IHSS_S050E_officeLocationsPage.do?a311referPage8477=%2Fapps%2F311%2FallServices.htm%3FrequestType%3Dservice%26levelOneId%3D37683836-06A7-11DE-AC9C-EF5AFBC474DE%26levelTwoId%3D37683836-06A7-11DE-AC9C-EF5AFBC474DE-1%26serviceName%3DACCESS%2BNYC%2BInformation%26finalSubLevel%3D2%26intentId%3DE9E66310-8137-11DE-8E9F-96DAE110FEB8&caseID=For a list of New York City zip codes:
www.health.state.ny.us/statistics/cancer/registry/appendix/neighborhoods.htmIt may take some digging, but we all have the time and ability to do this. If this movement is going to be successful, we're going to need to work together.
You and me, me and we, we the free will build a coalition like no one has ever seen.
