1983-2011 Posted October 11, 2011 Posted October 11, 2011 They came by the thousands, and then the tens of thousands. As the crowd swelled in Foley Square massing for a march to Wall Street, I was most struck by its diversity. They were young, old and middle-aged; black, white, Hispanic and Asian; college kids, professionals, workers and the unemployed. They had come to march on Wall Street, called by 15 of New York's largest unions in an act of solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement in Liberty Park. They were rimmed by the massive, impersonal edifices of a government they felt no longer cared about them - and they were preparing to confront the banks and speculators further downtown who had hijacked the state for their own private interests. They spoke with a diversity of voices and held signs covering a spectrum of demands. But it could all be summed up in one word: fairness. I talked with a bus driver, a nurse, a retired teacher, a salesman and an actor. (Check out my slideshow of the event to see photos.) Here is some of what they told me: Dorothy Ahmahd, an RN sporting a T-shirt of the National Nurses Union, said, "Nurses are supporting this movement because we see a lot of our patients who once had jobs, but are no longer able to pay for health care. We know this country's deficit is being balanced with cuts from poor people who can't pay." What does she want? "Taxation across the board so our patients can get good health care - no more loopholes for rich people or corporate America to slide through..." and Medicare for all. Jesse Mendoza is a bus driver in the Bronx, who characterizes himself as "the upper poor," struggling to make it even though he has a job. He wants an end to the fight against workers. He said his union had seen more than 700 station agents laid off recently, as well as bus and train operators, and feared that give-backs extracted from other public sector unions, like the CSEA, were coming next for him. Bill Buster is an actor and union member (AFTRA). He lives in the neighborhood of Liberty Park where the Occupy Wall Street protesters are encamped and started getting involved by bringing food to them. Then he was shocked into action when he witnessed the mass arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge last Saturday. Dressed in a suit and tie, he was outraged at the media's portrayal of the protesters: "It's just been insulting and patronizing the way the mainstream media has singled out only the young who they can portray as hippies; they do not portray the senior citizens that are involved with us; they do not portray the professionals; they're taking all the cheap shots they can." Declaring the movement welcomes "Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, who are all impacted because they live in this country," he added that he knew bankers and Wall Street lawyers who were active in the protests after having lost their jobs. But perhaps the retired teacher summed it up best. Telling me, "the system is broken and we are no longer providing the promise America always has," she held up a hand-made sign saying, "Economic Justice 4 All." Many in the media carp that the OWS movement is disorganized, without a discernible command structure. Yet it has been able to feed, provide medical care and get sleeping bags for the participants (the authorities won't let them put up tents). It has managed to get out its own newspaper and website, and organize teams, from media and public relations to a welcome committee, to list but a few. Decisions have been carried out by consensus - grueling and inefficient, perhaps, but perfectly suited to making the point the movement wants to exemplify: democracy is broken, on a bipartisan basis, and they want it fixed. As the website states: Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants. When this kind of movement filled Tahrir Square and elsewhere in the world, the U.S. media rushed to applaud it. But it's not so comfortable when the same thing happens here at home. This is how mass movements always start, messy, democratic, with a range of voices expressing different elements of the one underlying idea that got them moving (in this case, economic fairness). And it's finally making it through the self-imposed deafness of the media-although the latter is trying to minimize and trivialize it. (I came back from the march in time to hear the reporter for the radio show Marketplace claim that "at least a thousand people" had marched from Foley Square. Check out this photo for a real sense of the numbers.) That's because it's the real deal - and the beleaguered American labor movement (whose own massive protests last year were completely ignored) is smart enough to see it - and thrilled. One of the speakers at the rally expressed this sentiment when she said, "I am overjoyed that we have found each other. I want to thank the Wall Street movement for sparking the Labor movement and for showing us how to do it: take it to the streets." And the Labor movement has a lot the tattooed, skin-pierced, long-haired, scruffy white kids the media likes to train its cameras on lack: money, vote-getting organization and a way to reach millions of Americans who are just now waking up to the fact they are "the 99 percent." If the CSR community has any quibbles about OWS, we should be reassured that what we say we want - getting Wall Street to serve Main Street, reform executive compensation, rebuild America on an environmentally sustainable basis, get good green jobs, promote sustainable agriculture, improve justice for workers, etc. - is there to be seen on the signs being lofted by the marchers. We have been bemoaning forever that the "political will is lacking" to get it done. This is how the political will is created. This is what democracy looks like. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/11/idUS387529884420111011
1983-2011 Posted October 11, 2011 Author Posted October 11, 2011 Number Zuccotti Park/"Liberty Park": Several hundred "core" demonstrators[48] Other activity in NYC: 2,000+ marchers (march on police headquarters, October 2, 2011) 700+ marchers (crossing Brooklyn Bridge, October 3, 2011) 15,000+ marchers (Lower Manhattan solidarity march, October 5, 2011) Arrests/Injuries Arrests: 780+
1983-2011 Posted October 11, 2011 Author Posted October 11, 2011 xK7rnz-cJw4&feature=channel_video_title
Rajiv Posted October 11, 2011 Posted October 11, 2011 All I saw was iPod using, red-higlighted, pot smoking singers
akshayxyz Posted October 11, 2011 Posted October 11, 2011 Is it a silence before the real storm ( hint - UK riots)?
f.b.m Posted October 11, 2011 Posted October 11, 2011 These protestors are like a plumber trying to perform emergency brain surgery. Their intentions are admirable but they have no idea about what they're doing and is almost assured to kill the patient.. Just my $0.02
Rajiv Posted October 11, 2011 Posted October 11, 2011 It will take slow painful time to fix the economy ( US ) - there is no quick fix at all, and politicians are ruining it further, which in turn affects the entire world
f.b.m Posted October 11, 2011 Posted October 11, 2011 inspired by this? This must be the most overused quotation ever. Scientology would be in stage 3 and the westboro baptist church in stage 2 (making progress to the third). My prediction is this: Just like the tea party this will start off as a grassroots ideological protest and before long will be swamped and hijacked by a political party (the democrats) and lose all of its meaning and significance...
punjabi_khota Posted October 11, 2011 Posted October 11, 2011 The tea party says the problem with America is too much government. The wall-street protesters say the problem with America is too little government. Flamy says the problem with America is too little Marijuana.
Clarke Posted October 11, 2011 Posted October 11, 2011 They don't have a unified voice. Wall Street influence, decade old war, tax rates & unemployment are all issues which are exist somewhere in the abyss. Lets see if some sort of leadership comes out.
flamy Posted October 11, 2011 Posted October 11, 2011 The tea party says the problem with America is too much government. The wall-street protesters say the problem with America is too little government. Flamy says the problem with America is too little Marijuana. :D we had this 'Occupy' thing in portlandia too
Ram Posted October 11, 2011 Posted October 11, 2011 I am planning to go check these guys out during the weekend, maybe even spend some money buying a few of them food/drinks and quite possibly, do some yelling myself. Its incredible how the US public opinion, especially the media, is so disconnected from what is true/just. The messages these protesters are championing are as populist as populist can be. If what they ask for materializes, it will directly benefit 95% of the US population. Yet, they're being portrayed as the lunatic fringe, dancing and hollering in the middle of the streets.
yoda Posted October 11, 2011 Posted October 11, 2011 Bound to happen with the growing disparity between the have and the have-not. Some of the basic demands like closing corporate tax loop holes (which both parties agree on) should be enacted ASAP. Problem is that the Repubs have their own pet industries they want to protect and same with the Dems too. Politicians in the US have become as useless as those in India, less corrupt may be while in office, but becoming as inefficient. Regarding taxing the rich, there are infinite number of tax deductions, some of which only apply if you are in special situations, more of which apply to you if you are earning more. This brings the overall tax rate of the rich down, whereas the middle class keeps getting screwed over and over. At least the poor pay very less or none in the form of income tax cause many of them are below the minimum taxable income level.
Rajiv Posted October 12, 2011 Posted October 12, 2011 I am planning to go check these guys out during the weekend' date=' maybe even spend some money buying a few of them food/drinks and quite possibly, [b']do some yelling myself. Its incredible how the US public opinion, especially the media, is so disconnected from what is true/just. The messages these protesters are championing are as populist as populist can be. If what they ask for materializes, it will directly benefit 95% of the US population. Yet, they're being portrayed as the lunatic fringe, dancing and hollering in the middle of the streets. They talk in sign language or some kinda echo theme - it was fascinating, saw it on CNN
akshayxyz Posted October 12, 2011 Posted October 12, 2011 On (extra) taxing the rich - well, rich and powerful will anyway get to decide how the tax money is utilized. So, unless public has come way to have a say in how tax money is budgeted....does it really matter where the tax money comes from (in what proportions it comes from the rich or otherwise)?
Vijay.Sharma Posted October 12, 2011 Posted October 12, 2011 Interesting times.Very interesting....have u noticed such uprisings are happening all over the world in the last few months. Our species is evolving!
Recommended Posts