Press Release
(12/28/2020—Gentry, AR) We are a people in distress. Forty years of rising wealth inequality, stagnant wages, increased healthcare costs, brutal and authoritarian policing and criminal justice, climate crisis denial, and corrupt elections have all but destroyed the American Working Class.
If they will not hear us on the campaign trails, if they will not hear us at the ballot boxes, if they will not hear us in their legislative halls, then they will hear us on the street.
Yellow Vest Actions is organized by Eric Kestner, a 54-year-old Auto Service Manager from Issaquah, Washington. Eric was inspired by the solidarity shown by everyday French citizens as they organized to fight against the injustice and inequality they saw in their own government. He, like other Yellow Vest protesters, recognized that the American government has failed to provide for the general welfare of its people. Yellow Vest Actions is part of the larger, uncoordinated Yellow Vest movement in the United States. This group seeks to provide coordination for demand protests in the movement. We encourage you to seek out information on other Yellow Vest movements using the hashtags #YellowVestActions and #YellowVests. We invite you to participate in our demand protest on Inauguration Day. The situation is critical for millions of Americans. We must take swift an decisive action to obtain pandemic relief and healthcare for the people. On January, 20, 2021 the Yellow Vest Actions, organized under the
#ShutDownBrunch hashtag, will travel to Washington, DC to publicly issue a demand for Medicare for All and reoccurring stimulus checks on behalf of the people from the incoming administration. Medicare for All and pandemic relief payments are not the only demands the Yellow Vest Actions will make on behalf of the people in the upcoming year, but they are the most urgent.
The people cannot work if they are sick, hungry, or un-housed.
One in six adults is experiencing food insecurity.
Twenty-three percent of our households are afraid they will not have enough to eat. Food pantries are experiencing
unprecedented demand. An estimated
40 million people are facing eviction crisis.
Over 19 million Americans have suffered the effects of Covid 19, some dramatically and over a long period of time. Over 330,000 of our friends, families, and associates have died from the disease. Our people's medical bills will be crippling to our household finances. The
real economy does not function on corporate stock market fantasies. The people cannot provide infinite profit for extraction. We must have financial resources and healthcare care now! We will continue this cycle of action until our lawmakers capitulate to our demands before moving onto the next set of
demands.
We provide the following timeline for the #ShutDownBrunch action and #GeneralStrike response:
January 20, 2021:
1. The Yellow Vest Actions demand monthly, reoccurring $1,200 pandemic relief payments for each citizen and resident of the United States. We acknowledge this is not nearly enough for the American people to recoup nearly ten months of losses, but we know it is within the power of our government to accomplish. The American people will, as they always have, continue to provide for themselves. These payments merely offset a portion of our current losses and allow us to keep the real economy hobbling along. The demand deadline is February 1, 2021.
2. The Yellow Vest Actions will demand H.R.1384 - Medicare for All Act of 2019 be passed by Congress by March 1, 2021, signed into law, and implemented within one year of passing. A global pandemic is a once in a life-time event analogous in loss of life and financial chaos to a world war. The size and scope of this event cannot be downplayed. As we would fund our military to defeat a global militaristic threat, we must fund our healthcare system to combat the ongoing and future toll the pandemic is taking on American lives. We cannot leave a generation of Americans burdened with medical debt and untreated for the long term effects of this virus.
We know that the administration has the choice to acknowledge or ignore us. As our government has become lethargic and uncooperative, we do not anticipate the incoming administration to send a representative to receive our demands. The demands will be made and recorded in full view of the public and the video disseminated online. Legislatures will be notified via their publicly available contact methods and social media platforms. If the demands are unmet, the people will hold a general strike on March 7, 2021.
Stimulus Demand Deadline February 1, 2021:
We anticipate our pandemic relief stimulus payment demand will go unmet. After making our demands in DC we will begin organizing a general strike under the #GeneralStrike hashtag. A general strike withholds labor and consumer participation in the economy. This drives down profits, which in turns causes corporate powers to lean on politicians to capitulate to demands. Strike has historically been an incredibly effective tool for securing demands. We will repeat the cycle of demand followed by strike until each of our demands is met.
Medicare Demand for All Deadline March 1, 2021:
We anticipate our demand for Medicare for All will go unmet. We will continue to organize the general strike.
General Strike March 7, 2021:
Workers Strike! Strikers will withhold their labor. To show solidarity people can withhold their consumer consumption or flex any other economic leverage they have. We encourage you to show solidarity by withholding your purchases and redirecting your funds to your favorite mutual aid organizations. We encourage all people to use the economic leverage they have during each general strike.
The Day after the General Strike:
The process begins again, growing in the number of participants and involvement with each subsequent demand action. We continue to repeat our demands and withhold our economic participation until our lawmakers capitulate to our demands.
The people need you. The people need each other. WE NEED YOU to help us bring your demands to our legislature and impose real consequences for failing to uphold their constitutional responsibilities.
Donate to the cause, join us in Washington, D.C. on Inauguration Day, participate in the general strike, and share our message at ever opportunity. The power is our hands to make ourselves heard.
See Also:
