Those loud right-wing voices in our political discourse that are trying to make Occupy Wall Street look like something "foreign" to American culture are barking up the wrong tree. When David Crosby and Graham Nash recently showed up at Zuccotti Park for an impromptu sing-along with the protesters they linked OWS with the long American tradition of resistance to oligarchic rule. Crosby's song, "What Are Their Names?," has given the movement an anthem.
Please forgive us if we don't respond positively to the notion of "bipartisan" solutions to the nation's current problems. The absolute worst policies of our time have been enacted with "bipartisan" support: NAFTA and the WTO; deregulating Wall Street; the Bush tax cuts; the Iraq invasion and occupation; the bailout of the banks with no strings attached -- all were "bipartisan." And now we have the "bipartisan" deficit "Super Committee" taking aim at further shredding the social safety net in a time of record-long unemployment and real human suffering. We don't need to hang around until the closing credits to see how this shitty movie is going to end.
Going back to antiquity the only time rational human progress was made was when the oligarchs and monarchs, large landowners, and the Church were brushed aside for a moment in time. In 1776, had the American revolutionaries tried the Barack Obama approach of "reaching out" in a spirit of "cooperation" with the Tories and the British Crown there never would have been a United States of America in the first place. It's the same with the Progressive Era, the New Deal, and the Great Society -- none of these periods of reform would have been possible through "bipartisanship."
Alexis de Tocqueville identified this anti-oligarchic strain way back in the early national period, and we can see it by simply popping in a Frank Capra movie from the 1930s (or John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath). Occupy Wall Street has far more in common with this deep American cultural tradition of individual resistance to inherited wealth than any of the confused faux populists of "Americans for Prosperity" or the "Tea Party Patriots." I really believe Americans will not put up with living under an authoritarian oligarchy like the one the Koch Brothers, Grover Norquist, and Karl Rove envision for us.
Throughout the decade of the 1930s, even while President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Democratic Congress were doing a great deal to help alleviate the suffering of the 99 percent, there were violent confrontations across the country with workers being tear gassed and beaten, even shot or killed. Back in 1934, militant strike actions broke out across the country including the General Strike in San Francisco, the Auto-Lite Strike in Toledo, Ohio, and the Teamsters-led Minneapolis Strike. Shortly thereafter came the sit-down strikes in Flint, Michigan and the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) struggle against Little Steel. On May 26, 1937, in Chicago, there was the "Memorial Day Massacre" where 10 steel workers were shot in the back as they fled the police outside of Tom Girdler's Republic Steel plant.
For OWS it's just the beginning of the beginning.
We must sideline the Norquists and the Kochs and the rest of the oligarchs and begin to plan rationally for an ecologically sustainable future. OWS is the first baby step in that direction. Grover breathes the same air we do. And not even the Almighty Kochs can protect their heirs from the looming environmental catastrophe they and their political underlings have contributed mightily to bringing about.
(And what do we make of a Republican presidential frontrunner, Herman Cain, who declares: "I'm the Koch Brothers' brother from another mother!" What does it tell us about the seriousness and understanding coming from the standard-bearers of the GOP? The party that President Obama is so determined to work with.)
How many decades can the ruling class in this country fail the people before the extent of its failures exacts a political cost? The time to act is passing by quickly. We must sideline the right-wing zealots and the corporate elites and their water carriers to carve out the democratic space to accomplish something real in behalf of the planet and its people.
Follow Joseph A. Palermo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JosephPalermo1
Robert Kuttner: The Superfluous Super Committee
Mary Bottari: As Zuccotti Park Is Cleared, Congress Moves to Gut Financial Reform
Christine A. Scheller: Protesting Greed in the Shadow of 9/11
Expect OWS to occupy until the 2012 elections. Expect them to submit a redress of Grievances to the 2012 government. If the OWS isn't satisfied with that administration's actions to redress the list of Grievances, expect them to run against EVERY elected official in the 2014 midterm election AND the 2016 Presidential election as 3rd party.
They are going to use a CONSTITUTIONAL and perfectly legal means to WIN back this country for the benefit of the PEOPLE!
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves. ... Abraham Lincoln
I think people can decide on their own how urban camping and drum circles will help better their lives.
I thought this movement had some serious potential but let's be honest, they seem content with just hanging out.
The Founding Fathers had a sound intellectual basis on which our government was founded. If you read your history, you will know that the American Revolution was not a revolution, but a struggle to keep the freedoms that most Americans enjoyed at that time. The conflict ended with an affirmation of our rights and the establishment of a government to protect them. The protesters are sorely lacking in a sense of history and an intellectual basis on which to build anything. They are shuffling around in the dark.
http://occupydc.org/
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
Yes, the 99% of American people had been sold a bill of goods over the past 3 decades, especially have their hopes and vital interests betrayed over the past few years.
A new social-democratic labor party with a new social compact absolutely needs to be formed quickly and soon, born of a new socio-economic-political philosophical worldview, egalitarian principles, with a strong moral-ethical-spiritual humanistic foundation. This is a necessary contradiction and complete rejection of the present totally corrupt, decaying and collapsing ruling kleptocracy of American imperialistic militarism and corporate greed based on predatory capitalism.
Concerning wages and prices, those would come later when the political superstructure is in place and the 99% are effectively in power. It's extremely doubtful a new social compact can be achieved or even attempted by the 99% through their representatives as a "supplicant class" begging for favors, through the hands and mouthpiece of thoroughly corrupted and bought Congrease. (It's no small accident they have 13% approval rating).
Those who are forward-thinking and courageous among the 99% should devote great deal of thought and energy to defining the philosophical foundational principles for a new American republic to replace today's global militaristic corporate empire. It's a tall order, but indispensable if "American Revolution II" is to emerge from the seeds of OWS, and achieve anything substantive at all in transforming American society and future destiny of the 99% under siege today.
SHORT TAKES:
There are 3 reasons why America is no longer a Republic:
1. Most Americans have refused to participate in their Republic for over a generation.
2. The rule of law does not apply to all its citizens.
3. The corrupting influence of Robber Baron money has been allowed to take over the U.S. Government, capitalist and legal systems and the mass news media.
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America's younger generation will be left with the awesome challege of regaining their Republic because to many of their parents and grandparents refused to participate in it and as a result they didn't keep it.
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There is no way the U.S. Government will be able to resolve America's serious problems as long as it is an Oligarchy.
Some of the richer, more productive nations have not been dragged down yet by Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain and others, but don't worry. The laws of economics will catch up soon and a good example of how the productive are chained to the non-productive. Everyone suffers and perishes in the long run.
We all know this was and still is a funded effort. It has invigorated the leftist political base just in time for the off season elections, held back the growing scandals looming around the Obama administration and their pay off to donors thru "loan guarantees", "no bid contracts" and false statements to congress. So at least Tides, Adbusters et al got something for the $$$.
The view of ows is dropping like a rock with each rape, shooting, suicide, assault and police confrontation that occurs each day eveyrday. Only the most easily dismissed continue to write fluff to cover the festering sore ows has become. Indeed, here we are and the fluff needs to be rolled back so the sore can be seen and cleaned!!!
Some people view this glass as half full others view it as half empty.
So ows at what ever level you perceive them is simply misguided. They are wrong, malleable, unstable and destructive. If you want to change it you have to change the leadership top to bottom and institute blind trusts on all congress members! Ows is not on that track indeed it seems their train is all but derailed. Think hard about it you just heard truth!!!
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/oct/21/historian-din-outdoing-presidential-messages
The video may be found at: http://youtu.be/h4K_bwrEeW4
The letter may be found at: www.facebook.com/AmericanOccupyMovement
Once you've opened the Google Document, you may click File, then Download Original, to open the original PDF version, which is easier to read and distribute.
Thank you.
Sorry to hear that, because that's their best shot at making a difference.
This is way too easy.
>>> Going back to antiquity the only time rational human progress was made was when the oligarchs and monarchs, large landowners, and the Church were brushed aside for a moment in time.
Why don't you tell us about the majorities that Roosevelt and Johnson had to work with in Congress??
>>> the New Deal, and the Great Society -- none of these periods of reform would have been possible through "bipartisanship."