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Protesters Against Wall Street
Editorial, New York Times
As the Occupy Wall Street protests spread from Lower Manhattan to Washington and other cities, the chattering classes keep complaining that the marchers lack a clear message and specific policy prescriptions. The message — and the solutions — should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention since the economy went into a recession that continues to sock the middle class while the rich have recovered and prospered. The problem is that no one in Washington has been listening.
At this point, protest is the message: income inequality is grinding down that middle class, increasing the ranks of the poor, and threatening to create a permanent underclass of able, willing but jobless people. On one level, the protesters, most of them young, are giving voice to a generation of lost opportunity.
… Extreme inequality is the hallmark of a dysfunctional economy, dominated by a financial sector that is driven as much by speculation, gouging and government backing as by productive investment.
When the protesters say they represent 99 percent of Americans, they are referring to the concentration of income in today’s deeply unequal society. Before the recession, the share of income held by those in the top 1 percent of households was 23.5 percent, the highest since 1928 and more than double the 10 percent level of the late 1970s.
… Research shows that such extreme inequality correlates to a host of ills, including lower levels of educational attainment, poorer health and less public investment. It also skews political power, because policy almost invariably reflects the views of upper-income Americans versus those of lower-income Americans.
No wonder then that Occupy Wall Street has become a magnet for discontent.
… It is not the job of the protesters to draft legislation. That’s the job of the nation’s leaders, and if they had been doing it all along there might not be a need for these marches and rallies. Because they have not, the public airing of grievances is a legitimate and important end in itself. It is also the first line of defense against a return to the Wall Street ways that plunged the nation into an economic crisis from which it has yet to emerge
(8 October 2011)
Pelosi Supports Occupy Wall Street Movement
Jessica Desvarieux, ABC News
House Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she supports the growing nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement, which began on the streets of downtown New York City in mid-September.
“I support the message to the establishment, whether it’s Wall Street or the political establishment and the rest, that change has to happen,” said Pelosi in an exclusive interview with ABC News “This Week” anchor Christiane Amanpour. “We cannot continue in a way this is not relevant to their lives.”
Pelosi sees the protestors’ anger stemming from unemployment, which remains above 9 percent.
Pelosi added that the failure of TARP, commonly known as the bank bailout, to add liquidity to the Main Street marketplace is fueling Americans’ animosity towards Wall Street.
(9 October 2011)
The video at the original has obnoxious commerecials which keep repeating … but the text is about the best on the web at the moment for the Pelosi news. -BA
Confronting the Malefactors
Paul Krugman, New York Times
… When the Occupy Wall Street protests began three weeks ago, most news organizations were derisive if they deigned to mention the events at all. For example, nine days into the protests, National Public Radio had provided no coverage whatsoever.
It is, therefore, a testament to the passion of those involved that the protests not only continued but grew, eventually becoming too big to ignore. With unions and a growing number of Democrats now expressing at least qualified support for the protesters, Occupy Wall Street is starting to look like an important event that might even eventually be seen as a turning point.
What can we say about the protests? First things first: The protesters’ indictment of Wall Street as a destructive force, economically and politically, is completely right.
A weary cynicism, a belief that justice will never get served, has taken over much of our political debate — and, yes, I myself have sometimes succumbed. In the process, it has been easy to forget just how outrageous the story of our economic woes really is. So, in case you’ve forgotten, it was a play in three acts.
(7 October 2011)
Derrick Jensen Speaks To Occupy DC via Skype (audio-video)
Derrick Jensen, Ustream
(8 October 2011)
Suggested by EB contributor andrew who writes:
“The link is to a recording of a Derrick Jensen speech to the protesters at Occupy DC. While Derrick recognizes the importance of these demonstrations and he encourages them, he also seeks to escalate them to a revolution to overthrow the corporate state. It is a great speech because it reminds us that this movement cannot simply be about seeking a share of the wealth when the creation of the wealth itself is so destructive.”
Think Again: The Era of the ‘One Percent’
Eric Alterman, Center for American Progress
Whether one agrees or disagrees with the tactics of the Occupy Wall Street movement, it’s easy to understand the inspiration for its anger as well as its impatience.
“Historical movements,” the historian Mary Jo Buhle rightly notes, “are rarely judged solely in the light they cast themselves.” In that sense it is a decidedly risky business to try to draw too many hard and fast conclusions about the present moment in history. Even so, I think the Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz was as accurate as anyone is likely to be when he pronounced our age—and our government—to be one “of the one percent, by the one percent, for the one percent.”
Think about it: In 1974 the top 0.1 percent of American families enjoyed 2.7 percent of all income in the country. By 2007 this same tiny slice of the population had increased its holdings to fully 12.3 percent—roughly five times as great a piece of the pie as it had enjoyed just three decades earlier. Half the U.S. population owns barely 2 percent of its wealth, putting the United States near Rwanda and Uganda and below such nations as pre-Arab Spring Tunisia and Egypt when measured by degrees of income inequality.
(6 October 2011)
Occupy Sesame Street Gets Violent
Tauntr.com
Occupy Wall Street is a major movement both on the streets and on the web, but it isn’t getting the media attention it deserves. Why? Because it doesn’t resonate with kids. Kids drive the market and therefore the media, but they have absolutely no interest in seeing politically-charged 20-somethings sprayed in the face with mace (probably).
Pepper spray Snuffleupagus, however, and you got yourself a protest ready for prime time. Which is why we here at Tauntr have envisioned the perfect revolution. Don’t Occupy Wall Street. Occupy Sesame Street.
(5 October 2011)
More (Photoshopped) photos at the original article. -BA
#OccupySesameStreet: The Making of a Meme
Mother Jones
Since it launched two weeks ago, the #OccupyWallStreet movement has gone national, spawning copy-cat demonstrations in far-flung locales like Tulsa and Boise (see our map). Its members have serious concerns–about income inequality, the influence of large corporations in our political system, and their own financial futures. The #OccupySesameStreet movement? Not so much. A quick primer:
It began, as all things must, with a tweet:
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Urgent phone call to roommates
#occupysesamestreet http://twitter.com/nonstopdemo/status/119855033675292672/photo/1 nonstopdemo
September 30, 2011 at 12:24
Radiohead was not actually there, but that almost seems trivial at this point.
The meme wallowed in obscurity for days, but then on Monday evening, it came back to life, with a vengeance:
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“The counting vampires are destroying America!”
#OccupySesameStreet
… So what do the #OccupySesameStreet protesters want–and will it work? A quick guide:
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Why isn’t Reporter Kermit covering this?
#occupysesamestreet DonaldEFerguson
October 3, 2011 at 20:53
It wouldn’t be a public protest without media criticism.
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The few prosper, while others live in garbage cans!
#OccupySesameStreet
(4 October 2011)
OccupySessameStreet is on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/occupysesamestreet
