This Is What a Groundswell Looks Like

In my travels across the country, I've been speaking about a rising generation ready to emerge from the shadows of the last decade and enter a new era of social change. Now we are seeing something emerge -- a grassroots campaign has caught fire, turning out thousands of people, young and old, to create a free democratic space called Liberty Square on Wall Street.

All kinds of people are protesting that Wall Street has been rescued but there has been no help for most Americans. And city after city is joining them. Their statement:

We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we are working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.

This is what a groundswell looks like. This is a moment that could spark a broader movement that reaffirms the human dignity of all people. In a time when the top 1 percent have as much income as the bottom 60 percent -- a level of inequality not seen since before the Great Depression -- it's a matter of moral imperative to help fix a broken system.

Oct. 4 was a major day of action in New York, where an estimated 15,000 people marched for reform. I'm inspired by Jesse Jackson's editorial in the Chicago Sun-Times about the protesters:

"The discipline of their demonstrations, the clarity of their moral voice, has touched a chord. Occupy Wall Street is in that tradition of nonviolence with a moral voice organizing to challenge entrenched power and privilege, a movement that stands with the majority against a powerful elite."

But let's be clear: This isn't about bad people, it's about a broken system that isn't working to encourage opportunity for all Americans and rewarding hard work with decent pay.

Last month, our country marked the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 as the end of one chapter of history and the beginning of a new one has yet to be written. At Groundswell's teach-in at The Jerome L. Green Performance Space in September, I shared a vision of what a groundswell feels like. I said, "A groundswell is a broad swell in the sea, due to a distant storm or gale. It's a response to something. A groundswell is not self-generated but comes out of the zeitgeist."

We did not know what would come next or how it would happen -- we only knew that we were hungry for a movement that wasn't about a political party or a single issue, but a shared moral vision for a better world. We have taken the first steps together, now let's keep walking.

 

 

Follow Valarie Kaur on Twitter: www.twitter.com/valariekaur

Comments

[katiekatt551]

01:19 PM on 10/09/2011

The next logical step should be to protest the republican congress obstructionism. We must find a way for congess to stop blocking good policy the president has proposed....the jobs bill must pass for the middle class to survive. Without jobs,people can't pay their bills, purchase basic necessities,(food, clothers, medicine..etc). Why can't the republican congress support those significant changes? Don't they want this country to grow and prosper, or is it just ment for the 1% of the population that deserves that? We need to continue to be non-violent, but press for new republican leadership in congress...vote out the tea baggers and the obstructionst congressmen and women.

[Scholastica8]

02:30 PM on 10/09/2011

The problem that the Republicans have is that the Big Business-Big Oil-Corporate side of the Republicans encouraged the group that became the Tea Party.... those folks were being manipulated for the benefit of Big Business. The GOP, following the 2000 and 2010 censuses and elections, gerrymandered Congressional districts into "secure areas". Most of those totally secure GOP Congressional seats are held by Tea Party folks, who are loyal to Tea Party principles. Right now, they have the numbers to styme their own party.

The other thing that happened was Karl Rove and the other, more normal GOP strategists thought that they could use the "We Hate All Government" faction of Grover Norquist, which has allied with the Tea Party. Rove gerrymandered the GOP into deep trouble.

The split that we are seeing in the country is a rift in the very fabric of America... that's existed since the beginning. It's about the place, function, and power of government. The reason the Constitution is ambiguous on some things is because the Founders couldn't agree. Prior to the Revolution they villified government as tryanny. Then got hoist by their own petard when they had to form a government. What we see now in the Tea Party is the same Washington faced in Shay's Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion. In its greatest explosion it was part of what fuelled the Civil War.

[katiekatt551]

05:14 PM on 10/09/2011

Very well stated. The founding fathers could never have dreamed the country would advance to the level it has and the technology revolution would push us beyond belief yet stynie us at the same time. We need progresswive thinker not afraid to reah for the stars so to speak. But, we can not leave the middle class, nor disable, nor seniors behind, while the wealthy prosper on the backs of the working class. This is not class warfare, its survival of the nation. Big business can't survive without workers, nor people to purchase their wares...its such a simple solution...put people back to work..

[Overd0g2]

01:26 AM on 10/10/2011

The 'jobs' bill will do nothing except heap debt on our descendants so the government workers can live far above us dupes who pay for the whole circus.

[Scholastica8]

11:57 AM on 10/09/2011

People have known that even during the headiness of the housing bubble and the tech bubble, etc that they were cloaking a truly serious problem.... wage stagnation, followed by oursourcing. Now, IMHO, the Recession is concealing the fact that countless jobs have been eliminated, rendered obsolete, by technology that will not provide replacement jobs in sufficient numbers. After all, this technology is often referred to as cost saving. It is saving costs by not having to pay into benefits programs or payroll taxes. There are a load of costs incurred when you deal with human employees.

I think that both the Tea Party and the Occupy movments are symptoms of a subconscious recognition that we have entered a new normal... a worldwide normal... in which human talents and skills are increasingly marginalized and obsolete. It's not really a matter of more education or re-training (that's only a relatively small part of the problem). The reality is that we are entering an era in which software and automation can and will be doing just about anything a human being can do. It's not a 1-for-1 replacement, but a great elimination and merging of jobs. 1 employee now doing the work of 10 with the help of software and/or automation.

Without knowing it, all the protestors worldwide are saying,99% of human beings are being rendered obsolete. We need a society in which those 99% have purpose and value.

[Gadgetman]

10:57 AM on 10/09/2011

A first I thought these protests were pointless even though I was glad they were doing it. I was wrong. This is picking up steam and I'll be joining it when I visit NY. MOVE YOUR $ TO COMMUNITY BANKS! Protests are one thing - directly hurting the banks economically en mass is the ONLY thing that will make them change their behavior. Once the CEOs realize their precious stock options will get hurt then things will change.

[Scholastica8]

12:21 PM on 10/09/2011

While I agree in theory, both local, community banks and credit unions have a treacherous past. During the Depression it was the community banks that went belly up and took people's money with them. Credit unions have been notoriously susceptible to embezzlement. Laws have changed, protections increased, but I wonder what will happen in small banks suddenly flush with cash.

[Gadgetman]

02:33 PM on 10/09/2011

Things have certainly changed since then. It is worth bringing those concerns up with the prospective bank and see what their answers are. But these concerns should not be a reason to continue to support the big banks. They are causing far more loss.

[Pembrokelib]

11:03 PM on 10/09/2011

In the late 80s the Credit Unions in RI went under and many lost their entire savings. Make sure they are insured by FICA.

[Scholastica8]

12:25 PM on 10/09/2011

There is also another issue. We are all angry at the big banks. However, we want out cash at a moment's notice. We are accustomed to easy access via the ATM. It is the big banks that control the networks that allow ATMs to transfer funds. Currently your community banks and credit unions may be connected to those networks... However, if accounts begin to move en masse to these other financial entities, I guarantee you that the financial institutions that own the networks will find a way to get their chunk.

Of course, there is also another, relatively unnoticed development. Almost all government benefit programs... from food stamps to unemployment to Social Security is being done via electronic funds and debit cards. Social Security allows deposit into the bank of a person's choice. However, unemployment, food stamp programs, welfare programs, etc are often dealing with only 1 bank. Some states allowed fees on these debit cards, others allowed 5 free uses before fees. I think that got sorted out. However, it's worrisome that the state is forcing the use of a particular bank. For example, in California unemployment and EBT is handled by Bank of America. No options. It gives BofA a huge, state-promoted advantage.

[Gadgetman]

02:36 PM on 10/09/2011

Of course, because our form of govt is really for the corporations, by the corps, of the corps. Things will only and have only ever changed when the masses force it. If enough peo move their $ the big banks will be hurt far more than what they reclaim by controlling network access fees.