come back some of that that comes. from the big apple to bangladesh the dread to moscow people around the world celebrate may day we'll take you around the world and into the heart of the rallies including a stop at occupy wall street. close in the race to cure the global economy each country thinks they have the perfect prescription but ready for a dose of reality because it never seems neither are sturdy nor endless bailouts or the best remedy will tell you why. these things people from both leaders want to be in the repos and these are millionaires moliere million of those look you know after the interest of million is a multi million is we're not talking about the one percent we're talking about the u.k. parliament and a growing trend of brits from privileged backgrounds ruling the country but can the

rich and powerful really solve the u.k.'s economic hardships well explore. it's tuesday may first four pm in washington d.c. i'm abby martin you're watching r.t. no work no school no shopping no banking it's may day and today marks the first nationwide strike in u.s. history it's a day that has long been dormant in the u.s. but celebrated internationally since eight hundred eighty nine now the occupy wall street movement has resurrected the workers' holiday calling it a day without the ninety nine percent made it actually originated here in america and the one nine hundred century unregulated capitalism ran amok workers were being paid very little wages and working ten to twelve hour days. for decades tens of thousands of workers took to the streets in protest to demand an eight hour workday

employees ignored the call resulting in the haymarket right in chicago on may first eight hundred eighty six things turned ugly people were shot a policeman was bombed by alleged anarchists and the movement was stalled in the u.s. but it's been taken up internationally ever since. over the last century lawmakers have tried to co-opt the holiday numerous times here at home by calling it americanization day loyalty day and even law day an attempt to pease workers and distance themselves from the radical roots of the holiday the government declared september fourth as labor day instead needless to say the true origins of may day were long forgotten until now today there's an stark occupy general strike in over one hundred thirty five u.s. cities for the first time workers students immigrants and the unemployed are all standing together for economic justice and it's happening globally in france thousands took to the streets demanding economic liberation workers there are upset over policies many feel are strangling any hope of economic recovery and this is

the scene in indonesia some one hundred sixty one thousand people took part in events across the country let's go to our t. web producer andrew blake were all started in new york city for more on the day's events there. andrew what is the mood there what's going on in the streets of youyou do a good hopeful as well over there tell us about it you're kind of a not the best guy but also trying to the best god i mean union square right now fourteenth street middle of manhattan and i were outed by thousands and thousands of really really really energized people started to get near me to speak or just took the stage in front of me but your union square and elsewhere across. there's been massive demonstrations all over the island today also going at the brooklyn thousands and thousands of people it's unlike anything that i've spent the occupy

movement kind of like a little bit of a hibernation last year and the energy that evident here today is. something let me tell you you know and in face of the federalize crackdowns that we saw and the harsh militarized actions against occupy camps nationwide and also the harsh winter that kind of put occupy in a dormant state would you say that today marks a reemergence of the occupy movement. absolutely it's so nice to see how these people believe that about something so happy about something law enforcement is definitely out in full force there leandro to all reports of a rush without men and no reports of progress on the west coast as well but it's been a really really positive experience so far today i've been walking around for the last six hours now personally i've seen deer or rest i've been zero impact seen a little couple uncomfortable moment here and there and there but the people are really really really having

a blast they are they're all being brought together by bus to really polarizing things it's not just what we thought that by moving last year with an end to corporate greed corporate personhood. that woman is very excited you see that but i'm talking about everyone here everyone is just really getting behind things that are going to buy important things or get a high worker's rights to getting behind equal rights for immigrant they're getting behind it and the corporate greed and there's people of all walks of life all ages i mean little little little kids old old old and i think that is mr tom morello president seen on stage right now about coming out as rock and roll guitar so there's got all walks of life here and it's really let me tell you that incredibly positive job very welcoming very and i have a lot of work and counted a couple cops like there might be having a bad day but i got my fingers crossed that things are going to leave today but we

can only hope yeah and you know it is beautiful to see people across all walks of life standing together for a common cause and that's what's really amazing about this movement it's amazing that we're reemerging may day and really standing behind it to get together unfortunately andrew there has been some violence in oakland. you know it and of course is how to had past violence with the with the cops standing off with the protesters and there was tear gas fired earlier today multiple arrests. and hopefully we can hope that in new york things will stay peaceful and that the n.y.p.d. won't make disagree just arrests that we've been seen across people who are just my check in sitting down seems like they're interpreted laws day by day what do you think this topic has to fear about people just getting together and talking. i don't know what people are getting behind with people really or is something that the bad. guys don't want them to be doing it looks like. these are every man the

average person getting together for something that everyone can relate to not feel wall street and even though we're right around the corner where. we don't belong there is a lot. we're here to stand by what we're getting not it what the that was but what . some people might not like that idea but clearly there's. getting behind that right now well andrew i wanted to read you a quote really quickly that noam chomsky actually wrote and light of made a coming up in the occupy wall street movement he says quote if you get to the point where the existing institutions will not bend the popular will you then have to eliminate the institutions that was noam chomsky do you think that at this point the institutions are bending to popular will. why. you know that it would be gone about. not exactly a lot of. our brains around but i think that people are definitely on exactly

what's going on you'll be encouraging them to map the or. but there are some changes. that i think it's going to happen it's already been. a month of the occupy movement. and it didn't go. and there's still really. it is amazing and you know hopefully we can work within the existing institutions but you know there has to come to a point when if the two party dictatorship that we're seeing does not bend to popular will then maybe something that we are working outside of that to get together to rally to speak about that and that's where really dialogue starts and change happens that was our key web producer andrew blake. in the church and the supply chain of man manufacturing gone for good in the u.s. turns out the low wages are not the only attraction for companies to produce goods overseas take apple for example a team of researchers recently took apart

a five hundred dollar i pad to see how much money it actually takes to make an assemble they found the product contain one hundred fifty four dollars worth of materials from multiple countries the labor cost the world wide for the i pad totaled thirty three dollars but only a mere eight dollars for china's share of the labor costs. small amount of money going to pay for chinese assembly why doesn't apple just make the i pads in the us because it's not just about wages anymore china represents a successful industrial cluster that continues to give it its competitive edge the cluster isn't part of a network of firms skills experience and production knowledge and as long as they maintain their edge the production will not come back to the u.s. or europe. even though the wages factor in there becoming less and less important and the cost of labor rises this is will continue to chase the market across the globe but it doesn't look like chasing it back home anytime soon so ahead on our

team it was supposed to be the solution to europe's economic heart heartache but if things austerity isn't a for proof as many people thought you know what they say about assumptions that story next. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through it's already been made can you trust no one. is you know view with the global machinery to see where we had

a state controlled capitalism score. when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more. is the state run english speaking russian channel it's kind of like. russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us. he just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old and don't you tell the truth.

i'm a confession i am a total get a friend that i love rap and hip hop music and. he was kind of a yesterday. i'm very proud of the world without you she has played. at first rate not just burns your eyes right right i mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper it's a food product essentially. this is much stronger than anything if you buy a lot of sort of these is thousands of times i'm stronger than any one of the ever put you know.

cuts cuts and more cuts in the u.k. david cameron has tackled the economic crisis by making drastic government cuts across the public sector as austerity measures are set to cut one fifth of all public spending by two thousand and fifteen while giving tax breaks to the u.k.'s wealthiest citizens but the prime minister's so-called debt reduction and austerity plan has backfired the unemployment rate has now surpassed that of the u.s. and their economic recovery is the slowest in its history here in the u.s. the g.o.p. is pushing implements similar austerity measures in order to ease the recession but are these measures the solution to our economic problems or the u.s. fall victim to the same fate well joining me to now answer that is ben cohen editor of the daily banter and president of banter media group so ben i know you know we saw with regen omics of the whole trickle down economics solution that he tried to implement do tax breaks ever really work when you give them to the wealthy. i mean the evidence shows that it really doesn't and particularly the time of

a recession. a lot of consumer confidence in the economy and when you have tax breaks for the wealthy if nobody's buying anything then it doesn't really make any difference which people discount a potence of their wealth so that's what you're seeing in the u.k. and hopefully what we're not going to see in the u.s. and you know the wealthiest are sitting on the wealthiest businesses are sitting on two trillion dollars right now across the globe and of course the poor are going to buy anything when they feel like their debt is going to skyrocket so why is it that the u.k. is as implemented these stringent austerity measures. i think you have to look at who's in power what kind of social background the politicians they're in power to david cameron is a very wealthy comes from extremely wealthy family. i know i went to school with a lot of people who look and sound a lot like david cameron and i were kind of families they come from the stream the wealthy and they have a very ideological belief that people like themselves should run and know how to

run the economy and they're usually people in business people have very strong ties the banking and they follow economic policies that work really in their own interests and at the moment or so it's measures are clearly working in the interests of the rich you're seeing wealth divide increase significantly you are seeing as you as you pointed out the business is worldwide are sitting on two trillion dollars of cash and they're not spending it ok this is an unprecedented division between the haves and the have nots so i think it's clearly. kind of symptomatic of what kind of people we have in power so obviously the wealthiest shouldn't be the ones deciding on how the economy should be solved i mean they're completely out of touch with the working class and really the problems of the underlying problems of why the economy is the way it is so as cameron states you know this is just all due to a weak global economy is it deeper rooted than that he's kind of you know blaming

the problems on just the global market right now i mean i think of course the economy the global economy is extremely interconnected so there is a knock on effect happening from from around the world but. you know the stimulus has it has worked in america u.s. economy is not growing particularly quickly but it is growing in and you know you can kind of contrast that with what's happening in europe where they've reacted different economic measures they've been out to the stairs he measures and you've got economies are contracting you know the u.k. we had a double dip recession in the u k. spain greece i mean these countries are facing severe economic hardship and they were not to the measures and that's coming from the governments that governments are not seeing these austerity measures so the government does have a certain amount of control of the economy does make a difference and why is the u.s. trying to emulate this failed not i mean we have the g.o.p. we have romney pushing for the ryan plan that will kind of similarly push and

implement these harsh austerity measures and we have even ron paul a popular tarion candidate or libertarian as a candidate who's pushing his one trillion dollar stared a plan that would cut one trillion dollars within the first year of him being in office why are we trying to emulate a failed model that's proven not to work. i mean my personal opinion is that you it because it works in their own interest to have people who pay for the republicans to get into power the banks insurance industry they benefit from from when the government cuts spending you know cuts welfare spending. the rich are not particularly concerned about welfare issues about who goes to say they'd like government resources to be able to bail them out when they need it but when government is spending money on the poor and middle classes that's a big problem so they're not ideologically opposed to the bailouts and welfare they just opposed to bailing out people who actually need the money and let's talk about bailouts a little bit do you know we see greece being bailed out and spain is close behind i

mean will this work to discontinuous the bailout whole country's first us corporations now the country is i mean where is this and where's the money coming from it's based on a system of debt i mean how can this how can we turn this around i thought i can't really see a way out of the european crisis is very very severe and if we keep continuing the policies of. which is lending money you know the government sort of cessed in europe with being able to borrow money at low interest rates so they're cutting public spending in order to boost their credit rating but if you don't have investment for growth for a strategy of growth it doesn't really mean anything you just kind for cuts cutting sake and the debt increases i mean the greek economy i believe is predicted to contract by five percent this year and this is after not seeing one of the most severe was thirty programs in in history of greece i mean you've got the i.m.f.

is even now saying that this is not working the. poor thompson who was one of the architects for the austerity measures in europe he's come out and said this in the working so looks i don't understand how they're going to get themselves out there were less there is a complete shift in direction then we start to lower. restart to lend money to banks not to lend money to these countries at lower interest rates and they can have some sort of plan for growth right and greece is asking for i mean we already know that we need more money for greece it's the initial bailout wasn't enough i mean how far is this going to go and it's all the expense of the taxpayers of these countries and let's take it back to america really quickly you mentioned that you know the surplus or of the stimulus worked people always like to tell clinton as this you know he caused this huge economic boom and everything was great but it was really based on unsustainable bubbles the housing bubble the stock market bubble so what is the answer i mean we have the g.o.p.'s push the g.o.p.

pushing austerity measures but what is the answer really that we can implement here at home to really turn this around at home we need to have. again we need we probably need another stimulus in america there needs to be another injection of money into the economy the most effective way of doing that is through public spending is through infrastructure spending we know that. over and over and over again we've seen how into world war two that was a classic example of cajun economics of the government stepping in and boosting production that happens to be for a war but it pulled the u.s. economy out of recession out of the depression really so we know the answer to how how you can see how you can pull a country out of recession and it's through public sector spending. looks like you know the republicans are coping brines committing to over six trillion dollars worth of cuts over the next ten years and they assume that private the market is

going to step in and provide growth because you're going to self exactly exactly and if that was going to work we would have seen in europe it's not happening when burned a wrap of the segment i wanted to talk about the elephant in the room military spending all right this is completely off the table it seems with all this political discourse. it's increased exponentially i mean it's almost doubled since two thousand and one i mean what's going on i mean we could easily cut the pentagon to really begin to be that much less safe to go back to pre nine eleven spending when the pentagon i mean it just seems like this is such an obvious thing why is it being not being more talked about both i think the secret is that the pentagon. the pentagon system you have the military industrial complex i'm outside she one of the most if that's one of the most successful policy of the economy that the government it's government spending companies spending money on on the military and it's economically very beneficial to the country it's one of the only sectors that

actually works is it useful from a kind of a social welfare point of view to you know you know creating more more bombs that we don't need doesn't doesn't help kids get into school doesn't help fund health care programs for the o.t. so it's kind of completely useless from a from a from society's point of view but economically it's one of the only dynamic sectors left of the of the u.s. economy now when we're a military country it's hard to really cut what sells the most and quickly to our economy going exactly that was ben cohen editor of the daily banter and president of the banter media group we have some breaking news now concerning the may day occupy wall street protests in new york we're getting reports of police using tear gas on protesters at fourteenth and broadway in manhattan we'll continue to monitor and report and have updates coming up next at our five pm newscast. while many in the u.k. are having a hard time rubbing two pounds together british officials tasked with the making

the tough decisions are quite another story over the past three decades there have been a transition of sorts brits have come from privileged backgrounds and private schools are now more likely to hold office than the general population so how can people who are so out of touch with economic hardships navigate the u.k. through an economic crisis r t correspondent laura smith reports. prime minister david cameron eton and oxford. chancellor george osborne exclusive london schools then oxford. deputy prime minister nick clegg westminster school and cambridge none of these men come from ordinary backgrounds there's a lot of people that are being political advisors of one kind or another. and that's growing is each parliament goes by. you've got a lot more lawyers we've got the biggest knob of all time now in cameron running

the rules the snobs are there to be seen on the tory ventures in particular i call it millionaire's row dennis skinners an m.p. who would once have been seen as pure traditional british labor party stock the son of a miner and an ex miner himself he came up through the ranks became a trade union leader a counsellor and then a labor party m.p. in one thousand nine hundred seventy it's a route into politics that's become almost obsolete replaced by a career path through top universities into special advisor posts and from there into ministerial jobs that's how ed miliband the leader of the party in which that core support base was once the working classes got his job you have the labor party quite detached at times from ordinary working class voters and the impact of both political parties. being slightly out of touch with ordinary working class voters.

working class people the coach in elections it's easy to see why sixty percent of today's cabinet went to feed paying schools compared with just seven percent of the total population thirty years ago forty percent of labor m.p.'s came for a manual or clerical jobs compared with just nine percent today there's been a real reduction in the number of m.p.'s who have first hand experience of the trials and tribulations of working class families the legitimacy of all of it depends on it being representatives and acting on the concerns of most in society so the worry is the less that people feel they are being represented the more. traditional politics and the more disaffected they'll feel from politicians that could mean greater numbers turning to disruptive ways of making their voices heard through demonstrations and even. under the current government the u.k. has seen

a surge in strikes and protests some ending in serious trouble on the streets after demonstrations by people who don't feel their representatives representing them these things people have a clue what it's like to be an ordinary person losing a million or more you million look you know after the interests of millionaires a multimillionaire these people know nothing about what it's like to be no mary person in this country. they don't speak for a snowstorm i don't think they represent. conservative. very privileged. i don't see how. we're all in this together is the rallying cry of the current government in these times of financial austerity coming from a leadership of the privileged and independent wealthy it rings especially hollow for many as the belt tightens so to rises the anger and alienation of those who

feel they have no voice in the corridors of power lower smith. couple account is up next on our t.v. look check in with lauren was sort of he was on today's agenda lorne there abby well with pain at the u.k. being tipped back into recession and may day protests all over the globe today some of which are attributed to austerity that is what really seems to be the buzz word by critics of it by the mainstream media by everyone talking about the eurozone crisis so on our show today we are going to debug some of the assumptions under this argument about austerity including some that i saw on your news cast i know. well of i can't wait to see it warren great. but does it for now for more of the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america or check out our website our two dot com slash usa you can also follow me on twitter abby martin.

the news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing corporations rule the day.

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