When MSNBC's Rachel Maddow recently asked the journalist and commentator Frank Rich on her show if he believed the "physical manifestation of discontent" was imperative to the Occupy Wall Street movement's cause, Rich replied that it was "not always that important" since the movement was polling well among Americans.
I disagree. The ideas that inform the direction of the movement arise from the actions of the movement itself, (not from pundits or armchair commentators no matter how sympathetic). It is the activism in the streets that is the most important thing. Bringing together people, occupying public space, holding General Assembly meetings, conversing with, and learning from each other, those are the true sources of the sea change in attitudes we're seeing.
The organic connection of thought and action will evolve on its own terms. Opinion polls, even those that indicate widespread support for the OWS movement, are tertiary at best, epiphenomena at worst.
OWS, so long as the direct action of street demonstrations prevails and continues, is at this moment growing into something that none of us can see at this time. It's all about the future. And it is this mobilization of ideas and activism focused on the future that gives OWS its strength and ties it closely to the aspirations of the Arab Spring and the social movements that are now building in Europe.
OWS has clearly taken the bankers and their political servants in Washington and in the corporate media by surprise. Tangible effects of the movement can already be seen in the authorities in Oakland backing off from their repression. Even the big banks are rethinking their latest gouging of their "customers" in the form of added fees. It's beginning to sink in to the skulls of our corporate overlords that tear gas and rubber bullets, even thugs on horses or camels, cannot slow the movement's momentum.
Obama did us a favor by showing us definitively that the Democratic Party is useless in a time of real crisis (even when controlling both chambers of Congress). It's just as beholden to the interests of the top 1 percent as the Republican Party (save the Republicans' retrograde culture war baggage).
The OWS movement that has spread to over a thousand cities and includes growing numbers of returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans among its ranks cannot be brushed off with the usual devices we've grown accustomed to from the corporate media. Labeling the protesters "socialists" doesn't mean anything since the big banks got their fat federal bailout. Calling them "anti-capitalist" is also a joke since they're not critiquing "capitalism" but a form of corporate domination over our nation's politics and governing institutions and over our most important policy choices affecting everything from energy to education, health care to housing, trade to "security," the environment to civil rights.
There's something happening out there where almost everyone you meet can tell you a horror story about how the big banks have mistreated them or a friend or family member. From the shoe store clerk at the mall to the nurse or teacher, even police officers and firefighters, are all catching on to the scam that Wall Street and its servants among Democratic and Republican politicians have perpetrated against us. If an honest opinion poll were taken today, disgust with Wall Street would not be 65 or even 75 percent but closer to 100 percent. You can feel it out there. Few people have internalized the crisis to the point of blaming the victims (even though you hear that point of view coming from all facets of the corporate media). Out in the real world people are showing a spirit that hasn't been around since the 1930s; a genuine feeling of solidarity like we're all in it together and to hell with the elites that stand in our way. The illegitimacy of a rigged economic system is beginning to sink in.
Back in the early 1930s Americans widely picked up on the song: "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime." The management of Republican-backed radio networks even told DJs to lay low on the song, and in some cases tried to ban it from the airwaves. The songwriter, E. Y. (Yip) Harburg, explained it this way:
The prevailing greeting at the time [1930], on every block you passed... was "Can you spare a dime?" "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" finally hit on every block, on every street. I thought that could be a beautiful title if I could only work it out by telling people, through the song, it isn't just a man asking for a dime. This is a man who says: I built the railroads. I built that tower. I fought your wars. I was the kid with the drum. Why the hell should I be standing in a breadline now? What happened to all this wealth I created?
The Occupy Wall Street movement echoes the spirit of solidarity and questioning of the status quo that Yip Harburg captured back in 1931. What's happening in Zuccotti Park and elsewhere where the OWS movement has taken hold is the beginning of a new ethos. We don't know where it is heading or how it will play out, but we have an interesting few years ahead of us.
"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mob,
When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear, I was always there right on the job.
They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead,
Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower, up to the sun, brick, and rivet, and lime;
Once I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell,
Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum,
Half a million boots went slogging through Hell,
And I was the kid with the drum!Say, don't you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time.
Why don't you remember, I'm your pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime?Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell,
Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum,
Half a million boots went slogging through Hell,
And I was the kid with the drum!Say, don't you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time.
Say, don't you remember, I'm your pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime?
Follow Joseph A. Palermo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JosephPalermo1
David Coates: Poverty Amid Plenty - America's Continuing Shame
I am intrigued by the way the money they have received in NY has given us the chance to see the socialist in action. The few take the spoils and dole it out at their own discretion. The productive cooks go on strike as they refuse to work for the unthankful and unhelpful homeless who show up uninvited.
It is like a microcosm of reality and a morality play of Atlas Shrugged.
It's always easy to say things are awful and then blame someone else. Some YOU perceive as different.
The political system can be changed forever with two words. Term limits.
There's a slogan for OWS that I could get behind.
Businesses can only buy political favors from politicians if those favors are for sell in the first place, thus the first line of guilt traces back from businesses to politicians.
Politicians are in the business of buying and selling favors because we the people have elected them to do so. We all want our politicians to promote, pay for, subsidize, or monopolize our favorite causes. Thus the second line of guilt traces back from the politicians to those of us who elected them.
You notice in all of our tea partying, occupying or bickering, nobody is arguing that government get out of the favoring business. Instead we are complaining that all the money is going to favor causes we don't agree with and not to the causes we support.
Once we decided to get our government in the game of handing out favors, we should've realized we ran the risk of somebody else beating us to those favors.
It's like a coach who decides to pay off the ref to win the game complaining of corruption when he finds out the opposing coach paid more.
"almost everyone you meet can tell you a horror story of how a bank mistreated them or someone they know" I know of no one that this happened too. Please let me know these stories or a link to them. I know the residential construction worker/builder who lost his job and have not been able to find work due to only having skills in an industry that has collasped.
Wall Street and their activities employee millon of people world wide. We did not complaim about these people when the stock market was at it highest and we had record profits in 401 K.
Brother I can spare dime, bother i do spare a dime everyday but I got no dime for a college grad wanting his student loan forgiven.
Wow. Aim high, don't you? Real vision there.
Today Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, who works with Dr Ian Shepherdson of London, who New York Times on November 6, 2010, profiled with a “darn good record", said:
"Now they (EU Leaders) are keen to tap into resources that are not their own to fund this crazy scheme of guarantees, leveraged off guarantees to sell bonds and bank shares that no one may want to buy, (in order) to restore value in the banking system destroyed by other bonds that no one wants to own right now. This is a construct of Madoffian proportions.” Well put. Just another Ponzi scheme like in the US economy. So the movement has be supported by all progressive and independent thinkers and doers. Its time for we the people to start and achieve the Second Revolutionary War to liberate we the people from the yoke of financial and economical smokescreen and fraud.
'the rigged economic system'
Oh, yeah.
We live to serve the rich,
while all our leaders lie.
Just as we do not want to live in a theocracy, neither should we live in a crpocracy. Or democracy requires our elected officials operate with our best interest at heart, not the orporation that paid them most. We all must support "Get The Money Out". That is and must be a central goal of OWS, otherwise we have to start all over
again.
www.getmoneyout.com
You may have been listening to the right-controlled media too much. In poll after poll, the vast majority of Americans are progressive on virtually all issues. I cite the popuilarity of Social Security (around 80%) as proof.
Quite simply, that means the protest is against fascism, by definition. Go look it up.
" papa " was in office a few months, and we went to war. that put us in a debt. to keep it short, after he left office. Clinton too office, and took this country from being in debt. to a surplus. Things were doing ok. people had more jobs, spending money, gas and food was stable. No wars. Had a good relationship with Gop. Worked with them to get things moving.. Then GW Bush took office, in a few months we had 911, and he went to the 3rd war to be exact. took a surplus budget and spent Trillions of tax dollars with Chaney at the helm. ( by the way was CEO of Halliburton) 8 years later.
Semper fi