occupy wall street

In the first flurries of the Wall Street Occupation, I must confess to feeling the revolution had started. The signs were all there. The Police were macing the innocent while the world watched on the edge of their seats…

Well, not the “world” as far as the American presses were concerned, who were looking in the opposite direction whistling Dixie and hoping the whole thing would go away before they would be forced to give it a column inches worth of attention. Amanda Marcotte in the Guardian on Wednesday brought my attention to one response I was not aware of from the American Right. She Wrote:

“The rightwing response is shockingly incoherent, even from a right wing dominated by putting emotion before reason: the Tumblr We Are the 53%, a reference to the 53% of Americans who pay federal income taxes. The Tumblr was started by Erick Erickson, and the argument behind it appears to be: "Sure, America may be suffering record unemployment, a go-nowhere economy, uninsured numbers in the millions, a foreclosure crisis and household debt that is 90% of the GDP, but as long as there's still a federal income tax, you should shut up and suffer." It's a strange argument, much akin to telling homeless people they shouldn't complain about being hungry because you pay rent every month, but then again, there's no reason to believe Erickson doesn't also do that.”

America is a bizarre country.  As a punishment for violating the use of pepper spray, deputy inspector Anthony Bologna faces losing ten vacation days…that’s it.  This is how the NYPD deal with their most stressful, incapable employees? By taking their holiday away from them? Isn’t that like locking an arsonist in a highly flammable room but only giving him two matches? Please? Give the man a permanent holiday, behind very strong bars with nothing but his excuses to defend himself with.

But I don’t want to besmirch this otherwise entirely peaceful protest with negative smear, unlike the Daily “hate” Mail (I can’t help it, the sooner these fascists are gone way of the NOTW the better humanity will rest at night) who could think of no better way than slamming the cause than saying local Manhattan residents (the superbly rich) were in “fury” because protestors were “showering in sinks, brushing their teeth (is dental hygiene now a public offense?) and making a huge mess (this next to a photograph of people scrubbing streets and clearing up the huge mess that they were making into orderly piles?)”

Now in its fifth week, occupy Wall Street is making the discourse of corporate greed, at the cost of the majority, highly public.  According to Wikipedia: “By October 9, similar demonstrations were either ongoing or had been held in 70 major cities and over 600 communities in the U.S, including the estimated 100,000 people who demonstrated on October 15.Internationally, other "Occupy" protests have modeled themselves after Occupy Wall Street, in over 900 cities worldwide. An October 11 poll showed that 54% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the protests, compared to 27% for the Tea Party movement, and up from 38% in a poll conducted October 6–10.  An October 12–16 poll found that 67% of New York City voters agreed with the protesters and 87% agreed with their right to protest.”

The slogan that will no doubt be remembered long after the last camper has headed home (not for some time, I hope) is we are the 99%, referring to the difference in wealth between the top 1% and the rest of the world. It cannot go unnoticed any more.

We all know that modern war is Capitalism with its gloves off, Iraq was as much a part of Halliburton’s aggressive expansion policy as it was a warning to the Middle East that a new domino had fallen the way of the Anglo/American free market pioneers.  Anyone who still believes that 9/11 was the act of terrorism really ought to watch a documentary called Zeitgeist, it’s free to view. These nasty bastards do need regulating (behind bars), and it is we the people who need to draw the line.

I must confess however that I agree with Guardian writer Alex Slater, when he said it was ambitious to suggest OWT was becoming a political force. “Quite apart from the deliberate absence of leadership and organization in the movement, its disjointed complaints and sometimes contradictory demands, Occupy Wall Street has put a particular emphasis on remaining an apolitical movement, unattached to any party and unwilling to be co-opted by Washington. Chris Ketchum writes in the Los Angeles Times that this movement will either "organize or just prophesize." I don't believe either seems likely.”

So what do we want? What can we hope to expect? Dr Martin Luther King, writing in 1963, said: "In these turbulent days of uncertainty the evils of war and of economic and racial injustice threaten the very survival of the human race.  To co-operate passively with an unjust system makes the oppressed as evil as the oppressor."

Perhaps in this spirit, saying no is enough for now – there are more of us. Lets keep saying no.