“We are the 99%”
Sign held by an American “indignado”
New York City, October 2, 2011
twitpic Photo posted by @jopauca
Yesterday I was following with fascination on Twitter the American “Occupy” cities movement in action in New York City. There’s definitely something major happening in America—a “revolution” that would ultimately dwarf the Tea Party rise, if it maintains its current momentum.
And this revolution has nothing to do with the Arab Spring as Nicholas D. Kristof wrongly assumes in his op-ed “The Bankers and the Revolutionaries”:
“I tweeted that the protest reminded me a bit of Tahrir Square in Cairo, and that raised eyebrows. True, no bullets are whizzing around, and the movement won’t unseat any dictators. But there is the same cohort of alienated young people, and the same savvy use of Twitter and other social media to recruit more participants. Most of all, there’s a similar tide of youthful frustration with a political and economic system that protesters regard as broken, corrupt, unresponsive and unaccountable.”If anything, this American “revolution” has instead close affinities with the movement of the “indignados” (the Outraged ones) that sprang up in May in Madrid when thousands of young protesters illegally occupied the Puerta del Sol square “in defiance of a ban on public demonstrations in the run up to the country's local elections.”
The Arab Spring movement was the rise of the masses against medieval regimes whereas the Spanish and American movements have their root in a “crisis of political economy” of advanced Western democratic capitalist systems; a crisis that has prompted a “delegitimation of political and economic elites,” as futurologist and global intelligence analyst George Friedman has powerfully demonstrated in an essay I reproduced on this blog.
The difference between the “Occupy” American cities movement with its Spanish counterpart is the massive scale of the movement in the US and its overt political economy content and implications (read below the manifesto of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement). Well, anything American is in essence gigantic. Participants in this movement are primarily from the left and “extreme” left—ordinary liberals, disappointed pro-Obama types, recovering Naderites, the rising generation of feminist firebrands and LGBT activists, anarchists of all stripes (including the pro-WikiLeaks Anonymous hackers, etc.)—as well as independents , some of whom of the “Non-Paul” libertarian persuasion.
Blogvolution in Manhattan
Photo: John Minchillo/Scanpix /AP
And when CNN did pick up the story today, its correspondent Susan Candiotti on the scene described a leaderless movement with “no organized message.” @GrainOfSands tweeted: “#CNN harping on ‘no 1 leader’4 #OccupyWallStreet protest. Why is that so important? We have no corporate leadership? Is that what they imply?”
As for the lack of “organized message,” maybe Susan Candiotti ought to check out this story by CBS6 “’Occupy Wall Street’ releases official declaration” with a link to the TweetDeck of actor/director Mark Ruffalo (@Mruff221).
This is the declaration/manifesto of the “Occupy Wall Street" movement as given by Mark Ruffalo tweeting yesterday from his TweetDeck (a sweeping rejection of savage neoliberialism and state disengagement advocated by the Tea Party--a rational and civilized capitalism of the European social-democratic kind):
"#occupywallstreet Here is the General Assemblies Statement Read it and weep (tears of joy) Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!
*These grievances are not all-inclusive.”
White shirts “square off against protesters”
Brooklyn Bridge, New York
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Photo: Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters
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