As grassroots anger grows against the feeble facade that is democracy in the US, the 'Occupy' movement is gaining in popularity, and its massive online presence is being translated into boots - and tents - on the ground. After getting their start on Wall Street - the belly of the imperialist beast - the occupations have spread across the country.
Marchers reach Brooklyn Bridge last weekend, before the mass arrest
Occupations are underway or planned in these locations, according to Daily Kos
Cops made another bid to intimidate would-be demonstrators this weekend, when they entrapped over a thousand marchers on Brooklyn Bridge, and then arrested several hundred of their number. Again however, their tactics seem to have been backfired, and tens of thousands more are now getting involved. Copycat occupations have begun in Los Angeles and Boston, Massachusetts, and according to a graphic compiled by the Daily Kos (below), hundreds more are in the pipeline, all across the US.
Occupations are underway or planned in these locations, according to Daily Kos
Without a doubt, this is a movement against the death grip which the financial aristocracy holds over both the economy and the political system of the United States. No less than the 'Arab Spring' protests, or their equivalents in Greece, Spain and Israel, it shows that those who wrote off the working class as a political force did so at their peril. A mass fightback is now in its initial stages.
However, various issues need to be considered. Just like the demonstrators in the Mediterranean countries over the summer, they are predominantly very young and unemployed. This is hardly surprising, as it takes some physical hardiness to camp out in the midst of state hostility for three weeks, and anyone with any regular work commitments simply couldn't afford to spare the time.
Also unsurprisingly, as a generation that has come to political maturity at a time when the trade unions have managed to restrain all class-based resistance, the majority show little awareness of working class struggle as an agent of political change - beyond the struggle of remaining encamped. As sections of the union bureaucracy, plus fellow reactionaries such as former World Bank Vice President Joseph Stiglitz and multi-billionaire financier George Soros voice their 'support' for the demonstrations, they do so with the intention of making them safe for capitalism.
After all, in yesterday's New York Times, finance columnist Andrew Sorkin revealed some of the fear now churning the guts of the ruling class:
“Is this Occupy Wall Street thing a big deal?” the C.E.O. asked me. I didn’t have an answer. “We’re trying to figure out how much we should be worried about all of this,” he continued, clearly concerned. “Is this going to turn into a personal safety problem?”
The 'Occupy' movement is exciting, but it must reach out to the wider working class if it is to have any lasting effect on the political landscape. Beyond the occupations of town centres and squares, working people must fight for control of their own workplaces, neighbourhoods, and communities. Only then can "the 99%" dictate terms to those who have run roughshod over their basic needs for so long.
Occupations are underway or planned in these locations, according to Daily Kos
Without a doubt, this is a movement against the death grip which the financial aristocracy holds over both the economy and the political system of the United States. No less than the 'Arab Spring' protests, or their equivalents in Greece, Spain and Israel, it shows that those who wrote off the working class as a political force did so at their peril. A mass fightback is now in its initial stages.
However, various issues need to be considered. Just like the demonstrators in the Mediterranean countries over the summer, they are predominantly very young and unemployed. This is hardly surprising, as it takes some physical hardiness to camp out in the midst of state hostility for three weeks, and anyone with any regular work commitments simply couldn't afford to spare the time.
Also unsurprisingly, as a generation that has come to political maturity at a time when the trade unions have managed to restrain all class-based resistance, the majority show little awareness of working class struggle as an agent of political change - beyond the struggle of remaining encamped. As sections of the union bureaucracy, plus fellow reactionaries such as former World Bank Vice President Joseph Stiglitz and multi-billionaire financier George Soros voice their 'support' for the demonstrations, they do so with the intention of making them safe for capitalism.
After all, in yesterday's New York Times, finance columnist Andrew Sorkin revealed some of the fear now churning the guts of the ruling class:
“Is this Occupy Wall Street thing a big deal?” the C.E.O. asked me. I didn’t have an answer. “We’re trying to figure out how much we should be worried about all of this,” he continued, clearly concerned. “Is this going to turn into a personal safety problem?”
The 'Occupy' movement is exciting, but it must reach out to the wider working class if it is to have any lasting effect on the political landscape. Beyond the occupations of town centres and squares, working people must fight for control of their own workplaces, neighbourhoods, and communities. Only then can "the 99%" dictate terms to those who have run roughshod over their basic needs for so long.
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Lessons from the Paris Commune!
05.10.2011 19:09
The big mistake that Marx later pointed out after the crushing of the workers government by the Imperial Bourgeoisie of France, was that while in power of the whole government of France, the workers failed to enter into the Bank of France and take the money for their needy projects, but stood outside and thusly allowed the hoarded money from their labour to lanquish until the bourgeois could greedily get their hands on it an use that money to destroy the workers government.
This new movement of workers (occupy wall street) organized and unorganized should not make the same mistake as they approach taking over the government, and using the monies from the labour of the workers for needy instead of greedy war destroying projects, and pollution for the bosses private monopoly projects, which assaults the very life of the planet.
After all the need now is to RE-TOOL THE ENTIRE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION to the renewables such as wind, tidal, and solar power which transforms to electricity and would end the fossil fuel pollution that has already burned-out and poisoned (38% gone) of the Earth's atmosphere oxygen gone CO2--carbon-dioxide, and we cannot live on carbon-dioxide radiation.
This shows that if the present system motivated by coal, gas, oil, and atomic energy continues the oxygen will be burned-out and asphyxiation will result. Change is necessary and not an option. Dismantle Nato, the holder of pollution worldwide, would free up tens of trillions of dollars for the social programes necessary for our continued life on the planet, and end the Aggressive wars policy of any nations foreign policy. NO PASARAN!!
Aggressive wars are what is holding the pollution societies in place. The liberation of the species depends on ending the war machine and its manufactury, so that a path to freeing the people with mutually beneficial trade can be oppened. That was the policy of the anti-fascist fighters of the second world war. CDN 1st Div. says that. Workers of the world, unite!! Build agricultural organic communes instead of prisons. Wealth to the needy workers, not greedy paper shuffling polluting war makers. Occupy Wall Street, another world is possible!
Union Jack
@ Union Jack
05.10.2011 23:56
What?
explain please........
I think you have your basic CO2 / global warming science a bit topsy turvey!
bob