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World Strike Day 2012

Istanbul.

“Strike for no money! That’s rich! how we gonna live with no money? I’ve heard it all now.”

In 2005 CounterPunch published an essay I wrote talking about the idea of abolishing money as a way to make poverty history and solving the most pressing social problems in the world.

I received several positive emails in response to the article at the time, and in conversation with friends and strangers on the topic the consensus was always that it would be a great idea (the ultimate goal of socialism and even Karl Marx himself), but ultimately a’utopian’ dream.

What could we do to change the capitalist dog-eat-dog world in which we live? Little or nothing. We had to accept things the way they were, whether we liked it or not.

Then one morning shortly after the article was published, while watching a depressing news report on TV of poverty, monetary crises, corporation corruption, price rises and global warming, I flicked channels and came upon a scene from a production of ‘Waiting for Lefty’ by Clifford Odets, with the actor/workers chanting “Strike! Strike! Strike!”

Nice one! I thought, and flicked channels again. It was a report about the next Olympic Games, to be held in London in 2012. Suddenly everything clicked together in a flash, and I reached for a pencil …

This is what I wrote –

WORLD STRIKE 2012

It’s up to you.

The only way for this plan to work is for the message to be spread.

The idea is for everyone in the world to know about the strike by the summer of 2012. Then, within a very short time, a new moneyless system will be brought about that will change the world completely.

FIRST: Ask in conversation whether the person you’re speaking to would like the idea of a world where money does not exist; where everything is free; a world without rich or poor; where all human needs are met by society working together as a whole; a world without boundaries, people living together in peace and harmony.

Most people will say ‘yes’. Basically, probably all human beings are socialist anarchists at heart. But, they will say, it wouldn’t be possible.

NEXT: Tell them about the Strike for a Moneyless World in 2012. If they like the idea, tell them to tell their friends. Those friends will tell others, and by the year 2012 everyone on the planet will know, and decide whether they are for or against the idea.

You might make copies of this flyer –

WORLD STRIKE 2012

If you agree that the abolition of money would be a fine solution to most of our problems, and that we could create a much better system where EVERYTHING – food and drink, clothing and housing, water, heating, education, health-care and entertainment – shall be FREE for EVERYONE – why not join the World-Wide Strike on the opening day of the Olympic Games in 2012?

The Strike will begin the moment the symbolic Olympic flame is lit – the signal for all who support the abolition of money to stop work and demand a new fair world of true freedom and justice.

WE WANT A MONEYLESS WORLD

Pass it on.

“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” Thomas Paine.

That was, and is the call, and now, since it was written in 2006, has spread by internet and word of mouth to thousands, if not millions of people, including YOU.

Make your choice.

MICHAEL DICKINSON lives in Istanbul.  He can be contacted through his website:  http://yabanji.tripod.com/