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Occupy Wall Street on the Move
The question confronting the Occupy Wall Street encampments and their offshoots in scores of cities and towns around the country is quo vadis? Where is it going?
This decentralized, leaderless civic initiative has attracted the persistent attention of the mass media in the past five weeks. Television cameras from all over the world are parked down at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, two blocks from Wall Street.
photo: Todd Blaisdell
But the mass media is a hungry beast. It needs to be fed regularly. Apart from the daily pressures of making sure the encampments are clean, that food and shelter are available, that relations with the police are quiet, that provocateurs are identified; the campers must anticipate possible police crackdowns, such as that which has just occurred in Oakland, and find ways to rebound.
There are enough national polls showing broader support for the Occupy people than for the Tea Party people. Additional communities are installing their own Occupy sites right down to small towns like Niles, Michigan (pop. 12,000) and Bethel, Alaska where Diane McEachern is occupying the tundra. But, there is trouble ahead.
First, police departments in other cities will be observing the nature and reaction of mass arrests in places like Denver, Chicago and Atlanta. The plutocrats’ first response is always to push police power against the people. The recidivist violations of the ruling class are rarely pursued, yet the rumbles of the lower class are often stifled. With the onset of colder weather and looming police pressure, the protestors need new venues for their demonstrations
Activists need to vary their tactics. I suggest citizens surround the local offices of their Senators and Representatives. The number of Americans fed up with a gridlocked Congress, beset by craven or cowardly, both marinated in corporate campaign cash, can motivate an endless pool of activists who want their voices to be heard.
We know that the Occupy people want to keep their opposition on a general level of informed outrage and not get to the specific policy level. Fine. The 535 people in Congress, who put their shoes on every day like we do, are quite susceptible to a fast rising rumble from the people. They don’t need specifics. They know all about the savagely avaricious corporate paymasters and their swarming lobbyists on Capitol Hill wanting ever more varieties of goodies and less corporate law enforcement. What they need to know is that you’ve got their number and that people are fed up and on the move.
More members of Congress than one might expect, with their finger to the wind, start readjusting their antennas when they sense voter agitation. It is just that for years, there has been nary a breeze from that crucial source, while the corporatists have had their party year after year with their governmental toadies on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Make no mistake; support for the power shift espoused by the 99 percent movement is now only a breeze but a windstorm is coming. The protesters are feeling their way – demonstrating before big banks and closing out their accounts in favor of smaller community banks. Protests in front of the Manhattan mansions of the superrich from the big media and the big hedge funds also make sense.
Each new protest gives the protesters new insights. The protestors are learning how to challenge controlling processes. They are assembling and using their little libraries on site. They are learning the techniques of open, non-violent civil disobedience and building personal stamina. They are learning not to be provoked and thereby win the moral authority struggle which encourages more and more people to join their ranks.
In the Arab Spring of Cairo, Egypt earlier this year, it was said that a million people in Tahrir Square lost their fear of the dictatorship. It can be said that in this “American Autumn,” some 150,000 people have discovered their power and rejected apathy. They have come far in so little time because the soil for their pushback is so fertile, nourished by the revulsion of millions of their countrypersons moving toward standing up and showing up themselves.
This vanguard of larger protests to come is building on the personal stories of desperate but failed attempts to find work; stories of heart-breaking inability to pay for healthcare for themselves or their families’; stories of being defrauded of their pensions, their tax dollars, their savings and their rights. They demand accountability for the culprits who lied, stole and got away with it destroying the economy. And they want Congress to never bailout the Wall Street crooks, swindlers and speculators with taxpayer dollars.
Shining the light of the 99 percenters on the operations base of the corporate supremacists and their Congressional minions in one location after another both empowers and further informs those Americans who are seeing that showing up is half of democracy.
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123 Comments so far
Show AllAn alternate tactic could be to also stand vigils in front of all local offices of all House and Senate representatives. More people would demonstrate in their own neighborhoods and it would force the gestapo law enforcement to cover more sites.
Without the collusion of Congress, the OWS would not have been necessary. Even OWS-friendly reps should be confronted. Most, (but not all) acquiesced meekly to the bought-and-paid-for contingent amongst them.
"Even OWS-friendly reps should be confronted."
Exactly! for weren't most of them voting, over and over again, to fund the outrageous wars and other legislation favoring the rich and powerful at the expense of the rest of us?
Occupy Congress this winter! A steady stream into their warm and protected environments.
The offices of the 12 members of Obama's super secret catfood commission deserve extra attention since they now have all of the authority and none of the accountability to cut trillions of dollars from domestic programs to provide more war funds and bankster bailout funds.
Very important point.
They need to fully reinstate full medical care programs and expand medicare to everyone. Everyone. Who doesn't need medical care and we all pay for it. these programs can be very effective. We need to allow all senators and congress to participate in these programs and as consumers of healthcare they too can benefit from the same levels of care as the 99%.
An excellent point. Taking the money of Big Pharma and the HMO's while having excellent health care for life at absolutely no cost is hypocrisy of the first order. Perhaps making the Legislators health care and pension plans an average of that found outside the beltway would be a good first step.
Occupy has to Occupy the Empire.
Only by 'outing' the Empire as an Empire, which is surely true and PROVABLE by all manner of multiple measures; vast economic inequality, dumping negative externality costs of pollution and 'debt bombs' on society, expanding foreign imperialist wars, destroying our only fragile global environment for faux-profits, and all forms of extra-Constitutional domestic spying and tyranny, etc. etc.
Only by confronting and 'outing' this Empire as an 'empire' and not a valid government of the people, can the non-violence tactics of Occupying the Empire effectively and safely achieve the reasonable and humane goals, demands, and agenda to rebuild a real government in place of this Empire.
The camouflaged global Empire, which has now fully 'captured' and occupied our former country, by hiding behind the facade of its 'bought and owned' TWO-Party "Vichy" sham of faux-democratic government --- as surely as the Nazi Empire occupied France and installed its facade of a crude, first-generation, single-party "Vichy" sham --- will only be able to be evicted for the territory IT IS NOW Occupying, when the Occupy movement Occupies the Empire, and educates all 99% of Americans that what we have to confront is not any form of 'our own' government, but the deeply disguised cancerous tumor of an Empire --- which is the proximate cause of all the valid 'symptom problems' that are on the lists of the 99% currently being oppressed by Empire.
A Second American Revolution will, like the First, be "Against Empire".
Best luck and love to Occupy,
Alan MacDonald
Liberty, democracy, and the "Multitude"
over
violent/Vichy
empire
Priceless Commentary! THANX
To the question of what is the meaning or message of Occupy Wall Street, I say we have in mind several IDEALS:
I -- International
D -- Dignity,
E -- Equity,
A -- Accountability
L -- Liberty (and)
S -- Sustainability
Please, CD readers, help pass along these IDEALS of Occupy Wall Street.
Personal thanks to Ralph Nader, who wondered out loud this past April (here at CD) just what "the spark" would be. Now we know: Occupy Wall Street.
What "OWS-friendly reps"? The whole of Congress is corrupt. Nader says they put their shoes on everyday like we do, but they need to wear damn strong suspenders to keep their pants up---being so full of corporate 'donations' as they are. 'Donations', my eye. You know these funds are investments by the corporations and you can see they get a fine return on these investments!! The income of the 1% is at an all time high. And look at the increase in income of those corrupt Congress Reps and Senators!! Lady Nancy Peelosi's income went up 400% when she was Speaker of the House.
Nader is so correct to say we need to pay attention to the voting records of our so called Representatives. If your 'rep' voted for the wars, voted for the bankster bailout, did not vote for Single Payer, Medicare for all and voted for the 'super committee' to make massive cuts in our domestic programs as well as refusing to up the taxes on the big boys; you would have to be an idiot to vote to keep them in office. Oh, you are worried the replacement might be worse so you'll vote for who you think is the lesser evil? Look what that has done for us in the last four decades. They get more and more evil and more and more callus to the conditions for the working people. With all the people out of work due to NAFTA, how did Congress vote? TO EXTEND NAFTA TO THREE MORE NATIONS...How you like that? Still got a job? it will be soon moved off to Korea, Columbia or where ever is the third new 'free trade area". Free trade---that mean corporations are free to lower wages of worker and get free of any worker safety rules or environmental regulations. They also pay less in taxes by keeping their profits out of the United States. They have their corporate office (really just need a phone line) in some nation that does not tax them.
You can go to your rep and say you will give them one more chance to keep their job. If they vote to end the wars, tax the rich, care for the people and protect the environment you will vote for them again---but if not.....PINK SLIP TIME!! They can go join the rest of the Americans in the unemployment office.
They will not vote as their constituents direct unless they are scared of us. We have to be in their faces and let them know WE ARE SERIOUS. We won't take this slop anymore! And this activity must not be a one time event. We have to keep it up for at least 6 years. The corrupt in the House come up for election every two years. We need to kick out the corrupt and if the replacement is corrupt kick that creep out too. The Senators just come up every six years but with the hard pressure on the Representatives in the House, the Senators can quake in their fancy hand made boots too. Get in their face!!! Again and again!! Keep up the pressure.
Another alternate tactic could be to refuse to buy any goods made by exporting American jobs overseas this Christmas.
It wouldn't be easy, but accepting such a challenge would give people a snapshot of how bad things have gotten while at the same time serving notice for all the taunts about OWS people using their iPhones, etc.
The average person who struggles to make ends meet and who can join the protest only in spirit could protest in this way. There is a certain resonance here which goes back to America's founding.
Can someone please tell me when this is going to hit Wall Street in the pocket book? I am 100% behind the OWS movement and have participated in the protests in my own district. Maybe I'm not seeing things clearly but it seems to me the markets are getting better each day. Every time the DOW goes up I'm reminded of how disconnected the 1% are from the rest of us. Corporations continue to profit, manipulating this and that; the rest of us continue to sink, unable to find decent paying jobs or get health coverage, while those sacrosanct CEO's keep raking in billions.
THAT is the question.
Ending corporate welfare (including pentagon welfare) and restoring regulation of corporations is what OWS needs to accomplish. Corporations will then need to find ways to profit in a regulated environment without huge taxpayer subsidies.
Great, but its not going to happen. No way. Continue to play nice and see what happens short or long term. No one is going to say go get the bastards, especially Ralph, so the status quo will remain intact. They won't give up anything without a fight.
Just say'n so you won't be disappointed, Ray.
I hope I'm wrong and the powers that be come around. It'll be a whole lot less messier that way.
The answer is kick the corrupt out of congress. Congress will not do anything that is not in the interests of their financial 'donors'. THere will be no change until you stop voting by party and vote for someone who has some morals and ethics. Forget D or R. If they are in office now they are in the pay of the top 1%. Don't vote for any incumbent.
What if you screwed up the Holiday buying season? Might that get someone's attention?!
We could all vow to give only non-commercial gifts this year, either homemade or charitable or gifts of time and talent.
A big part of this movement is about the lack of opportunity at home due to jobs being shipped overseas, so I would go with goods made here (though in practice they are so few and far between that local artisans and tradesmen are the only reliable choice now). The thing is that the greedy SOBs are parasites on the nation, not OWS, despite media spin. Our national survival has been endangered due to the greed of the 1%. Didn't Rome fall due to the rich grabbing everything leaving the common people barely able to eke out a living? Didn't the British Empire, that the sun never set on, make the same mistake? How well does the market economy work if the consumer has no money because the jobs have all been shipped overseas? How long does a nation survive under such circumstances?
I understand that OWS needs to convince the rest of the 99% that they are in fact the 99%. In order to do so you need a good resonant issue, and survival is as resonant as it gets. Plus as a bonus you have the juxtaposition of a cherished cultural good (the virtue of generosity during the holiday season) against the amoral and destructive greed of the 1%. Turn no further than the works of Charles Dickens during the Victorian era for a lesson from history.
I have an idea of how we can actually do that! If you have a minute please check out www.greedalert.org with a grassroots viral movement to educate about pay discrepancies I think we can make the greedies feel our wrath....
The problem is not "corporations continuing to profit". It's the expectation of corporate profit that brought us the personal computer, the I-phone, waterproof outerwear, ibuprofen, flourescent lighting, quality accounting software, and a million other things that we take for granted.
No, the problem is that corporations (a) have begun to acquire "rights" that should be reserved for real people, (b) are corrupting our political system with their money, (c) are not paying their fair share of taxes, (d) are profiting from shipping our jobs overseas, and (e) in too many cases, have been heavily subsidized by the taxpaying public for no good reason ... i.e., looting the public treasury.
We need a Constitutional Amendment repealing all corporate "rights". They should be allowed to do only what we, the people, charter them to do. No more, no less.
The problem IS corporations continuing to profit. Why do they profit? Because they are allowed to write the laws. Why are they allowed to write the laws? Because of corporate personhood which, among other things, allows corporations to have First Amendment rights, which allows the feeding trough called LOBBYING.
We the People, the 99%, have little or no lobbyists. As a result, our laws and system are completely corporatized, and are completely adverse to the Constitution.
Perhaps Oilybomber, aka The Tom, being a Conlaw prof & all, can explain how Corporations can be shoehorned into the phrase "We The People." He can't. It's smoke & mirrors. It's a "legal fiction," but it's become so rooted in gobbledygook (e.g., the Citizens United case) that the only way to get rid of it is by Constitutional Amendment.
The only 2 ways to get the Constitutional Amendment are 1) via the Congress it would de-fund, or 2) by Constitutional Convention.
I hereby declare OWS to be the 'Reception and Introductory Remarks' portion of the Constitutional Convention called for the specific purpose of implementing a Constitutional Amendment abolishing corporate personhood. I nominate Ralph Nader to draft the Amendment.
So we have a difference of opinion.
The more important point is: would you be willing to work for a Constitutional Amendment to repeal all corporate "rights"? I'd guess we're on the same page there.
Not a difference of opinion. I believe you misinterpret Elizabeth's comments.
Elizabeth was referring to corporations' stock prices. Such is related to CEOs' legal obligations to maximize their profits, which results in a race to the bottom to see who can shave every cost, damn the consequences. Elizabeth's comments also relate to how Wall Street makes gazillions by speculating on and manipulating those same stock prices, damn the consequences to humanity.
You imply that incentives to invent new and helpful stuff are primarily based on expected corporate profits. I don't disagree, but those fairly-earned benefits of ingenuity and labor may be secured by intellectual property and in a perfect world, when a company is managed well, this would result in a company succeeding.
However, the game is not played fairly. CEOs and Wall Street (the 1%) own the game, so they write the rules, and there's no room for ethics or morals, so the 99% get screwed every time. The honest inventor/worker/businessman gets fleeced. The game needs to revert back to being run by the 99%.
Thank you Peacemaker for clarifying what I meant.
You know this already, I'm sure, but there might be many people who don't: the CEOs and CFOs of many of the corporations represented by the DOW and S&P 500 DO manipulate the markets. One way is by arbitrage, a term associated with companies like Goldman Sachs who do proprietary trading, in other words, they take in clients' money, invest it, then use their own money to bet against the client in order to maximize their profits. That is fraudulent investing. That's just one area. (as I see stocks climbing again)
There are still many areas of Wall Street operating fraudulently. Wall Street represents most corporations.They continue to participate in trading practices and profit making schemes that benefit THEM and the 1%, not us. Most aren't even investing in America anymore. That's what I'm sick of. I want to see them grovel.
I'm all for taking the privilege of personhood away from those damn corporations and making it so money isn't speech. They aren't people and dollars don't speak. I'd sign a petition to make a constitutional amendment that denies personhood to corporations and prevents them from contributing to political campaigns. Let's start with the Koch Brothers!.
I'm on your side.
Are you certain that it would take such an amendment to end corporate personhood before the law? I ask for two reasons. There was no such amendment that established said status, it was granted via a decision before the Supreme Court and inserted, by a court clerk, in that majority decision.
Secondly, amendments are damn difficult to enact, damn difficult, and I think necessarily so.
I would say that the goal is to take their pocketbook away from them.
When the 99 begin to withhold their money.
Yes. A specific call to withhold money would help to demonstrate the extent of popular support for the movement.
BOYCOTT!
We start with the "worst of the worst," those Corporations that have shown they are ethically & morally bankrupt. Hmmm . . . not too hard to figure this one out.
BOYCOTT BP, Exxon/Mobil, Shell, BofA, Citi, Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, M&I, AT&T, Cracker Barrel, Georgia Pacific, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, GE, Burger King, Motorola, Sara Lee, AOL Time Warner, Disney, Estée Lauder, Nokia, IBM. [add more here]
Give up your diet Coke & switch to Blue Sky. Gas up, if you must, at Citgo. Buy locally. Occupy Christmas!
When the 99% start to withhold their labor, you mean. That is where the exploitation and control over us begins, not in the shopping aisles.
Elizabeth, I think it's still too early. This system has been running in one direction for decades at least and it will take some time to put on the brakes, lose some momentum and then change directions. My wife is dismayed that so many people on FB are joking and/or mocking OWS. My reply is that it is burrowing into the collective psyche.
For a while, OWS was not reported, then reported as something that will go away. But OWS is not something that was; it is something that still IS. Look, over there--there it is!
Gradually the sleepers will awake, then they have to deal with the embarrassment of sleeping through the early opportunities, then they will join the 99%. This all takes time. I am hopeful.
"First, police departments in other cities will be observing the nature and reaction of mass arrests in places like Denver, Chicago and Atlanta. The plutocrats’ first response is always to push police power against the people. The recidivist violations of the ruling class are rarely pursued, yet the rumbles of the lower class are often stifled."
This must change. These fascists are not above the law. Legal funds must be started to charge the INDIVIDUAL CRIMINALS in government who order these brutal assaults with their crimes.
We must set an example for other fascists in positions of power in the US. Prosecute and sue!
Donate to the ACLU now to enable actions against fascist cops to proceed.
The first (and last) time I joined the ACLU I was barraged by snailmail with seemingly hundreds of 'justice' and advocacy groups, all wanting money. Going to the mailbox was a real drag. It never ended. Obviously they sold their member list. I applaud their work, but the clamor for money thing was a huge turnoff.
FWIW, my sister had the same experience.
She said it was like impulsively giving a dollar to a panhandler, then afterwards having a swarm of aggressive panhandlers bear down upon you with outstretched arms and clutching hands every time you walked down the street.
Your sister and moon aren't exagerating one bit. I got a virtual blizzard of donation requests from total strangers for a solid year. Not to mention the ACLU itself whining every month. Once, may twice a year from the ACLU only would have been okay, but after that it's spam, even abuse, imho.
Shit; They just "bought" me a "complementary" membership last night. I planned to get some signatures for a ballot initiative they are pursuing. I wonder if it will do any good to go into their office and ask them to take me off all mailing lists.
"(and last) time"... no kidding and me too, for the exact same reason.
The ACLU was on the wrong side in the Citizens United case.
I don't trust them.
Maybe we should support the Lawyers Guild . . .
Don't forget, the ACLU came out in favor of "Citizen's United."
Please donate to the National Lawyers Guild. They are the attorneys, legal workers and law students who are out there on the front lines with the protesters - including the student whose leg was run over by the cop's motorcycle in New York - filing lawsuits on behalf of protesters, documenting police misconduct, and representing the activists for free, in both civil and criminal matters. They operate on a small budget and could use your financial support. www.nlg.org
Alan...Prosecute and sue??? The US Courts are a part of the corrupt system. "They" own the Courts. "They" have the guns. "They" own the Congress. If there was an informed electorate in the USA NADER would be president right now. The big question is, has the window of opportunity for us been closed - are we waking up too late. What took so many so long to finally 'get it' - and do they get it now? Only the next election will tell and I'm not holding my breath. Even here at CD, I still see some support for the dems. Explain that???
"Alan...Prosecute and sue??? The US Courts are a part of the corrupt system."
First, not all judges are corrupt; many will rule on clear violations of the law.
Second, even if a corrupt judge lets a corrupt official get away, THEY'VE FACED THE POSSIBILITY OF PRISON TIME, which will be a deterrent to other fascist officials that are contemplating violence against protestors.
Third, people vote for Democrats out of fear of the Republicans. They're unaware of the corrosive effect their unconditional support for this other corporate-funded party has.
With Obama's unprecedented progressive speeches, followed by his equally unprecedented betrayal of the 99%, some people are finally waking up.
Nader's the best presidential candidate, but he's his own party; when he's gone his "party" will go the way of Ross Perot's party.
The Green Party is almost at good as Nader, AND THEY HAVE LOCAL, STATE, NATIONAL, AND EVEN INTERNATIONAL STRUCTURE that will endure beyond the lifetime of any one member. IMHO, supporting the Green Party is the best way to build a sustainable opposition to corporate power.
Alan8,
I like the way you say it, short and simple... Further, the key words "people vote for Democrats out of fear of the Republicans". Good job! Brother :-)
Old Rumpled Ralph will never be elected President. The Green Party, The Libertarian
Party or any other 3rd party will never have any electoral clout. I didn't see anything like the Hate Obama CD crowd down here in OWS. Most everyone is disappointed in his measured approach with dealing with the Washington Republicans but understand how deeply flawed their candidates are.
Obama will come closer to articulating the themes embraced by the OWS groups. All of the CD Obama Bashers will spew out their hated, joined by the tea-baggers who have saddled the GOP horse to get their anti-government, but still pro-life, pro-corporation agenda adopted.
OWS is just a baby step in the right direction. 99% is a great unifing concept. Almost everyone in the world can intuit the inherent injustice in the status quo. The anger is there, but Ralph needs to step back, and consider that he cannot help this
movement. It is still very fragile. The police can easily bust it up any time they are
given the go ahead. OWS is better off if Ralph stays out of the way. He brings nothing to the table.
I have only one question for Mr. Nader. Does he know know how bad George Bush really was for our country?
No matter how many times you vote for Nader, he will still lose. Yet, political winds are changing. No Democrat can be pure enough for you, just as the Tea Party won't find Romney pure enough. Changing the status quo is difficult as any political scientist will tell you. Ralph has made a living with his insightful analysis, but he makes a terrible politician. If you cannot see the difference between Obama / Gore and Bush 2, you are more the problem than the solution.
Your naivete and pessimism is your own to live with. Your dismissal of the words and actions of Nader show plainly that have either never heard them, read them or thought seriously about them. Only a shallow thinker would posit that Nader ran to win, a concept perhaps to large for you to encompass.
Of course the Green Party, or any other third party will "never" win as long those dedicated to change follow your own limited thinking. If you cannot see the similarities between Obama/ Bush 43 then you are simply not trying hard enough. A pity you seem to ignore the silliness of your efforts.
A practical approach is to infiltrate the Democratic Party with "Occupy" minded candidates much like the Tea Party took over the Republican Party. Because the Democratic Party is already established/funded/accepted, this makes more sense than anything else. We need to supply like-minded candidates.
The Tea Party, via the huge amounts of money spent by the Koch's and their cohorts, experienced a "perfect storm" of events that allowed such a takeover. The GOP thought to ride the tiger of right wing radicalism to get Shrubya re-elected. Now it finds itself unable to dismount.
My experience in Democratic Party politics is that no such storm exists and that very top down and tightly run party would be very difficult to both infiltrate and change its course. Now, if Obama is defeated there might be such a "storm". But I think that my own inclination remains to help build the Green Party.