I had occasion to be near Sixth and Jefferson Streets yesterday. This is one venue of the Louisville version of Occupy Wall Street.
I stopped by to see if anything was happening. A crowd of around 20-30 people were milling around some picnic tables, and some of these people were engaged in a General Assembly in which decisions about policy are made in an open forum. I was not close enough to hear what the particular issue was, and I was only catching the tail end of the process.
I did hear one man say he wanted to discuss Christopher Columbus, at which time I left to feed the parking meter. When I returned, he was, in fact, conducting a discussion about Columbus and the ill-effects his "discovery" had on the inhabitants of the New World.
While driving to Louisville I heard on the radio dismissive talk of the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon, primarily in New York, but a few other cities were singled out for criticism. The common refrain was "what do these people want?" The idea being that this protest or gathering is delegitimized because it has not produced a coherent manifesto of its purpose and intentions. It has not even endorsed a presidential campaign yet. And I feel fairly certain it has not lined up corporate sponsorships with any companies engaged in the sale of camping gear.
That criticism is unfair.
This movement is kind of like a cake being baked. At the moment the ingredients are being laid out on the table. Since it is being baked by loose knit "committees", some want chocolate, some want lemon, some want nuts, it is entirely too early to pass judgment on the cake's eventual value to and acceptance by the political diners who will behold it when it emerges from the oven.
Personally, I'm intrigued by the process. I am hopeful for meaningful results. (I'd like to see public financing of elections, the abandonment of the legal fiction of corporate personhood, a return to meaningful financial rules including the Glass Steagall Act, and a fair apportionment of tax burdens--that will do for starters)
And, I am grateful for the trouble these patriotic people are taking on our nation's behalf.
I anxiously await the cake's removal from the oven, because then it's time for the icing.
6 comments:
"What do these peope want?" The same thing was said about the civil rights marchers.
People who have it all have no idea of what it is like to have to decide between paying the mortgage or buying food. It's going to be a long time before they "get it".
Another great article BTW.
sorry John but to me occupy wall street lost it's credibility when it made an alliance with moveon.org, the Obama Propaganda machine. I tend to believe Herman Cain's comment that this is being orchestrated by Obama political operatives to detract from his record of failure.
Obama is a one term prez and his chicago style divide and conquer politics wont work this time around.
Anonymous:
Here's what's credible. One in 6 Americans lives in poverty; 22% of U.S. children are poor; 14 million Americans are unemployed; 50 million have no health insurance, As of June 2011, 2.9 million U.S. homes have been foreclosed, including 1 in 781 homes in Indiana - considered a "high" rate of foreclosure.
Meanwhile, Anonymous, investment bankers have made billions by knowingly bundling worthless financial "products" and selling them worldwide, bringing down the economies of Europe and the U.S. David Cay Johnston of the IRS reported that in 2004 the bottom 60% of wage earners made less than 95% of each dollar they made back in 1979. Yet, CEO pay has increased 300%, and corporate profits are at historic highs while they use cheap overseas labor and shelter their incomes to avoid U.S. taxes.
Three decades of tax, trade, and labor policies have hobbled the middle class, and those who were already living at the margins have dropped further into poverty. Volunteer at a food pantry sometime and you'll see.
From Prof. G. William Domhoff of the Univ. of California in "Who Rules America", the U.S. has the most highly concentrated wealth distribution of any Western democracy except Switzerland. In 18of these countries, strong trade unions and successful social democratic parties correlated with greater equality in income distribution. www.whorulesamerica.net/
So, while the Occupy Wall Street protestors have disparate issues, the overarching theme is the injustice that the big bank grifters have gotten away with their crimes, and that corporate "personhood" is a dire threat to democracy.
one term bleeding heart Obama is through.
"..occupy wall street lost it's credibility when it made an alliance with moveon.org"
If that were true, I'd agree with you. Just because MoveOn has tried to co-opt OWC, it doesn't mean they've been successful. OWC is fighting their attempts.
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