Ms. Klein expresses my thoughts exactly:
Occupy Wall Street: The Most Important Thing in the World Now
I love you.
And I didn’t just say that so that hundreds of you would shout “I love you” back, though that is obviously a bonus feature of the human microphone. Say unto others what you would have them say unto you, only way louder.
Yesterday, one of the speakers at the labor rally said: “We found each other.” That sentiment captures the beauty of what is being created here. A wide-open space (as well as an idea so big it can’t be contained by any space) for all the people who want a better world to find each other. We are so grateful.
If there is one thing I know, it is that the 1 percent loves a crisis. When people are panicked and desperate and no one seems to know what to do, that is the ideal time to push through their wish list of pro-corporate policies: privatizing education and social security, slashing public services, getting rid of the last constraints on corporate power. Amidst the economic crisis, this is happening the world over.
And there is only one thing that can block this tactic, and fortunately, it’s a very big thing: the 99 percent. And that 99 percent is taking to the streets from Madison to Madrid to say “No. We will not pay for your crisis.”
That slogan began in Italy in 2008. It ricocheted to Greece and France and Ireland and finally it has made its way to the square mile where the crisis began.
“Why are they protesting?” ask the baffled pundits on TV. Meanwhile, the rest of the world asks: “What took you so long?” “We’ve been wondering when you were going to show up.” And most of all: “Welcome.”
Please read the longer unedited version at link.
Robber Baron eating us after he's eaten our children
Occupy Wall Street isn’t about left or right, and it DAMN sure isn’t about Repukes vs. Dimwits. This is about fighting back against the class warfare being waged on the rest of us by the 1%.
Amen. I was gratified to see the demonstrations begin in the US in Sept. There hasn’t been much about it in the news north of the border.. I guess the “Robber Barons” are afraid the idea will spread. Europe…well it’s half a world away and you know, they never could manage things anyway.(sarcasm).
And yes I’m one of THOSE people that believe it was a manufactured crisis to cut the throat of the diminishing middle class and totally crush those that are the working poor.
Homes were lost, pensions disappeared and many now have to have 2 to 3 or more jobs with no benefits, just to keep food on the table and a roof overhead, that is if they can find a job.
But you know…these people are lazy spendthifts, that’s why they can’t save for a rainy day.(again sarcasm).
It’s gratifying to hear from Chris Hedges journalist, that it isn’t only the left that is demonstrating. And no they are not nutbars, there’s too many of them to be classified as nutbars. But that’s what the mainstream media would like you to believe. If they keep the common purpose and are peacefully persistent they will be heard.
What’s the common purpose you might ask? JAIL THE BASTARDS.
At least that may bring some emotional satisfaction to those that have lost so much.
I have heard that there is a planned demonstration in our financial district, Bay Street. I hope to be able to attend.
sorry for the rant.
Right on, BG. I agree with every word.
“If they keep the common purpose and are peacefully persistent they will be heard.”
Exactly BG. I think it’s extremely important they keep going exactly as they are. There is nothing wrong with the protesters, their message, or the way they are conducting themselves. But there is DEFINITELY something wrong with the way they’re being portrayed in the media.
More Chris Hedges. Pay particular attention to what he says about how ownership of the media controls the message:
And this:
http://i55.tinypic.com/hu3m81.jpg
And Jim Hightower on the stupidity of the media acting like they don’t know what OccupyWallStreet is on about cuz it’s pretty friggin’ obvious:
Something Big Is Happening: Occupy Together
by Jim Hightower
To paraphrase one of Bob Dylan’s songs of youthful protest, “Something’s happening here, and you don’t know what it is, do you Ms. Bellafante?”
A New York Times writer, Ginia Bellafante, is but one of many establishment reporters and pundits who’ve been covering the fledgling “Occupy Wall Street ” movement — but completely missing the story. Instead of really digging into what’s “happening here,” they’ve resorted to fuddy-duddy mockery of an important populist protest that has sprouted right in Wall Street’s own neighborhood.
In a September article, Bellafante dismissed the young people’s effort as “fractured and airy,” calling it a “carnival” in an “intellectual vacuum.” Their cause is so “diffuse and leaderless,” she wrote, that its purpose is “virtually impossible to decipher.” No wonder, she concluded, that participation in the movement is “dwindling.”
Whew — so snide! Yet, so wrong.
While the establishment is befuddled by the plethora of issues and slogans within the protest, confused by the absence of hierarchical order and put off by its festive spirit, that’s their problem. The 20- and 30-somethings who are driving this movement know what they’re doing and are far more organized (but much differently organized) than their snarky critics seem able to comprehend.
It’s silly to say that the protestors’ purpose is indecipherable. Hello — they’re encamped next door to Wall Street. Isn’t that a clue? Their cause is the same as the one boiling in the guts of America’s workaday majority: Stop the gross greed of financial and corporate elites, and expel a political class that’s so corrupted by the money of those wealthy elites that it has turned its back on the middle class and the poor.
Such movements don’t begin with a neat set of solutions pre-packaged for The New York Times, but with roiling outrage focused directly on the plutocratic perpetrators of an unjust economy and an unresponsive politics. The movement will find agreement in due time on specific ideas for stopping the injustice, but now is the time for the passion and creative, nonviolent confrontation that will energize others to stop moaning and join the rebellion.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/05-2
That should be *What’s one common purpose*
Another very important purpose is the message that we care for one another, to paraphrase Ms. Klein.
Nice Russell Edgington reference to punctuate yoour points here, couldn’t agree more. P.S. I think the corporate elite, their enablers and apologists are far scarier than King Russell!
Thanks piercedpom.
I think the corporate elite, their enablers and apologists are far scarier than King Russell!
So true. At least Russell was willing to spill the beans on the nightly news.
@sunny & piercedpom
Sort of like ‘the devil you know’?
Sort of like the devil giving us the scoop!
I love how you incorporate articles such as this one into your blog. It’s kind of funny (for me) that it’s written by NAOMI Klein — I’ve been spending some time analyzing the addition of the TB character Naomi for a blog post (“What’s In A Na…omi?”).
Even though I said it at TAP it needs repeating on your site…..
Happy Birthday Sunny.
Hope you have fun today.
Thank you! Fun will definitely be had today. So glad I have grandbabies.
Interesting development today. Occupy Wall Street campers have been evicted and Occupy Toronto campers are in the process of being evicted.
It seems the Occupy movement is being evicted all over the place.
Did TPTB have a collective deadline? Isn’t group think amazing? Nahhhh just my paranoia.