May Day Rally – Kansas City Board of Trade
Monday, 30 April, 2012 in Movement Updates, Occupy KC News
On May Day, Occupy Kansas City will gather at the JC Nichols fountain on the plaza at 12:30PM in preparation to pay a visit to the Kansas City Board of Trade, drawing attention to the commoditization of food that negatively impacts the hungry and poor. We then, in solidarity with 115 other cities, will engage the people through educational outreach about the importance of May Day, the Haymarket massacre, and the importance of the General Strike.
OccupyKC in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, Occupations across the country and the world, supports the Occupy May Day General Strike, May 1st. We are also holding a potluck dinner on May Day eve which will include a guest speaker, Professor Fred Lee, who will offer his perspective on the history and the modern significance of May Day and the general strike.
Occupy KC, along with Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly, Pace e Bene, PeaceWorks, PeacePlanters, Vets For Peace, AFSC-KC, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Occupy Springfield, Loretto Peace & Justice Network, Mid-MO Peace Coalition, and other peace activists from around the MidWest participated in a weekend long “trifecta” action, drawing attention to a three-part protest detailing the detention of US military whistle-blower Bradly Manning, the continued support of nuclear weapons plant construction in the KC area, and the drones that are operating out of Whiteman AFB. Reports back from the field indicate a successful action and heightened awareness of these issues. The event was also summarized this week on the 90.1 FM KKFI community radio show Mic Check reviewed the event and highlighted that 60% of our budget goes to military expenses The opinion expressed was that with such enormous expenditures, it is not a watering down of the message of Occupy to have endorsed this event, but rather a necessary focus on a huge and ongoing financial burden. The video linked has received thousands of hits within the first two days of posting. What follows is a very detailed and colorful first hand depiction of the entire weekend… Link to video: 
Though windy and cold, December 30th was a beautiful, sunny day for a rally. Death of the Social Safety Net—the Occupy KC rally fashioned after a New Orleans Jazz Funeral—focused its message on the failure of our elected officials to ensure the security of our country’s Social Services.
Today’s event went swimmingly; more soon.
This is not just any funeral.
Greetings from the 99%! OccupyKC is proud to announce that the We Are One Rally and March—held October 30th, 2011—had high attendance and was successful in its efforts to share a message of diversity and horizontal democracy.
