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“I have no trouble understanding what OWS are complaining about” (video)
Alan Grayson, Bill Maher show
“Epic Alan Grayson smackdown of P.J. O’Rourke re: Occupy and the economy on Bill Maher’s HBO show last night.”
http://www.whosay.com/BillMaher/videos/77327
Alan Grayson “is the former U.S. Representative for Florida’s 8th congressional district, serving from 2009 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party.”
(7 October 2011)
Alan Grayson explains it clearly and succinctly.
Mentioned by Greg Mitchell at The Nation
-BA
Wall Street, Heal Thyself
Devin Leonard and Romesh Ratnesar, Bloomberg Businessweek
The smartest way for bankers to defuse their critics is to listen to them
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At first glance, it is difficult to take the Occupy Wall Street protests seriously—in part because the participants seem to be having so much fun. On Oct. 2, the start of a third week of demonstrations against the financial industry, visitors to Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan might have thought they had stumbled on a carnival, or an East Coast spinoff of Burning Man. A shirtless protester writhed to the beat of an African drum while another waved a flag with the slogan “Generation Revolution.” A punk rocker with a dog collar around his neck and a safety pin through his nostrils spoke about the virtues of peace, love, and anarchy.
The frivolity was deceiving. The Occupy Wall Street protests have proven more organized, disciplined, durable, and yes, businesslike, than critics—and even many supporters—might prefer to believe. There is, for a start, plenty of free food; nobody is condemning the financial sector’s excesses on an empty stomach. Organizers send out a barrage of tweets, updates, and press releases on laptops powered by portable gas-powered generators. The protesters have published their own slickly designed broadsheet, the Occupied Wall Street Journal, and handed it out to the throngs of reporters, cops, students, nurses, teachers, truckers, union leaders, military personnel, and myriad curiosity seekers who have converged on the steps of the New York Stock Exchange. The paper’s lead story began with a virtual declaration of victory: “What is occurring on Wall Street right now is remarkable. For over two weeks, in the great cathedral of capitalism, the dispossessed have liberated territory from the financial overlords and their police army.”
Hyperbole aside, what the Occupy Wall Street activists—or “Occupiers,” as they call themselves—have achieved is remarkable. The movement reached a crescendo on Oct. 5, when thousands marched from Foley Square to the Financial District—”where their pensions have disappeared to,” in the words of the organizers. Similar protests have taken place in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Boston, where 25 people were arrested on Sept. 30 for refusing to vacate the lobby of a Bank of America (BAC) building. More rallies are being planned in at least 240 other cities, according to the website occupytogether.org. The Wall Street demos attracted the usual celebrity suspects—Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, Cornel West—as well as Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who conducted a teach-in on Oct. 2 for 500 dissidents.
(6 October 2011)
Slavoj Žižek Speaks to Occupy Wall Street
Aaron Gell, New York Observer
… Standing above the assembly in a red T-shirt, the heavily bearded dissident–turned–academic superstar at first spoke from prepared notes, hitting on many themes that will be familiar to fans. …
… Mr. Žižek also offered some practical advice. Noting the festive atmosphere in the park, he warned, “Don’t fall in love with yourselves. Carnivals come cheap.” The meaningful work will be what comes afterwards.
He steered the discussion away from the Cold War debate between communism and capitalism, noting that former communists, particularly in China, “are today the most efficient, brutal capitalists.”
The communist revolution “failed absolutely,” he said, suggesting that “the only way we are communist is that we care about the commons,” citing the environment as an example.
Mr. Žižek suggested that the left “abandon certain taboos,” including hard work, discipline and following orders, if they support the agreed-upon goals. And he advocated reclaiming certain notions that had been adopted by the right wing, including family values.
Somewhat controversially, he described organic food as a “pseudo-activity,” designed to make consumers feel they are having a positive impact on the world and thereby absolving them from looking at the more destructive systemic issues.
(9 October 2011)
The Wall Street Occupiers and the Democratic Party
Robert Reich, Common Dreams
Will the Wall Street Occupiers morph into a movement that has as much impact on the Democratic Party as the Tea Party has had on the GOP? Maybe. But there are reasons for doubting it.
Tea Partiers have been a mixed blessing for the GOP establishment – a source of new ground troops and energy but also a pain in the assets with regard to attracting independent voters. As Rick Perry and Mitt Romney square off, that pain will become more evident.
So far the Wall Street Occupiers have helped the Democratic Party. Their inchoate demand that the rich pay their fair share is tailor-made for the Democrats’ new plan for a 5.6 percent tax on millionaires, as well as the President’s push to end the Bush tax cut for people with incomes over $250,000 and to limit deductions at the top.
And the Occupiers give the President a potential campaign theme. “These days, a lot of folks who are doing the right thing aren’t rewarded and a lot of folks who aren’t doing the right thing are rewarded,” he said at his news conference this week, predicting that the frustration fueling the Occupiers will “express itself politically in 2012 and beyond until people feel like once again we’re getting back to some old-fashioned American values.”
But if Occupy Wall Street coalesces into something like a real movement, the Democratic Party may have more difficulty digesting it than the GOP has had with the Tea Party.
After all, a big share of both parties’ campaign funds comes from the Street and corporate board rooms. The Street and corporate America also have hordes of public-relations flacks and armies of lobbyists to do their bidding – not to mention the unfathomably deep pockets of the Koch Brothers and Dick Armey’s and Karl Rove’s SuperPACs. Even if the Occupiers have access to some union money, it’s hardly a match.
Robert Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written twelve books, including The Work of Nations, Locked in the Cabinet, and his most recent book, Supercapitalism. His “Marketplace” commentaries can be found on publicradio.com and iTunes.
(9 October 2011)
How #OccupyWallStreet Is Evolving and Gaining Power
Mark Engler, Dissent Magazine
#OccupyWallStreet is evolving. Now in its third week, the protest movement not only continues to grow—it is maturing and becoming stronger in impressive ways.
What started as a few hundred independent activists gathering for a protest on Wall Street, and a few dozen having the resolve to extend their demonstration by camping out in Manhattan’s financial district, has become something much bigger. It has become the embodiment of longstanding progressive hopes that Americans who have been hit hard by the economic crisis—those left jobless, in debt, underemployed, foreclosed, or insecure—would finally get mad enough to publicly vent their outrage at the oligarchs who have for too long perverted our democratic politics and created gross inequality in our country.
The movement is rapidly spreading to cities around the country—to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, DC., among many others. And it has progressed in some very promising respects. Here are three:
1. The Demand Problem Has Been Solved
Throughout the first couple weeks of the action, the question of whether #OccupyWallStreet had clear enough demands was constantly raised, both by progressive commentators and in the mainstream media coverage the mobilization was receiving. This issue has ceased to be a serious problem because, as the protests have grown, their central focus has become significantly more defined.
… 2. The Occupation Has Drawn Together an Amazing Coalition
When it started, #OccupyWallStreet was made up of students and independent activists who responded to a call to action that was initially put out by Adbusters but that enjoyed very limited institutional backing. The major organized constituencies of the left—unions, community groups, environmentalists, faith based organizations, and the like—were not part of the mobilization. This was a problem, suggesting that the protests might not have significant reach and would have limited resources at their disposal.
Yet as the actions have gained momentum, the institutional groups have come. Nationally, all sorts have flocked to support #OccupyWallStreet, including but not limited to MoveOn.org and other major organizations associated with the American Dream Movement. In New York City, major unions have declared their support for #OccupyWallStreet, and a veritable who’s who of labor and community organizations are marching to the financial district to show their solidarity.
… 3. The Movement Is Becoming an Umbrella for Economic Justice Causes Nationwide
As the movement spreads nationwide, #OccupyWallStreet is becoming a unifying umbrella under which people outraged about corporate greed can get involved in supporting any number of ongoing efforts to create living-wage jobs, end foreclosures and predatory lending practices, hold banks accountable, get corporate money out of politics, and otherwise promote economic justice and genuine democracy. Much as the Tea Party has served as an overarching brand for conservative discontent, #OccupyWallStreet is giving people the opportunity to identify with a national struggle while advancing causes relevant to their local communities.
(5 October 2011)
The grievance is having no voice, being invisible
Ann Peluso, Energy Bulletin
The grievance is having no voice, being invisible. Each person there has their own story to tell, their own unique grievance, and there is no one to listen or care. Having no set agenda creates an environment where we are encouraged to tell our own unique story. Where is Studs Terkel when we need him? Any Studs (no pun intended) out there to carry
the torch?
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My hats off to the designers of the protest. They found common ground. Maybe internet can do what books used to, but to me it’s too transitory, and the problems are ubiquitous and universal. I’d prefer a beautifully edited book on my shelf for future as well as now. These suffering heros deserve solid print, like all of Studs’ people. They want to be heard and have a place in the world.
Perhaps there are no writers left who are up to the task – no interest in someone else’s story. That makes writers the problem, not the solution, doesn’t it. Maybe it’s a job for you. That’s what you do, isn’t it, edit someone else’s story for others to hear. You don’t want my story, Bart. You want theirs. Put it all in a book. I dare you.
Post if it’s useful. I have my doubts. Thanks for your tolerance. I have a very busy world right now. No time to futz with sign-up hurdles; little to say. Don’t bother much with me. I just noticed something in this pathetic, disfunctional, greedy world that is working.
Again, my hats off to the designers of the protest. They found common ground. And my best to the new “Stud”, whoever that might be.
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Here’s another one, close to something I saw: Woody Guthrie: “Some will rob you with a six gun, some with a fountain pen.” That needs to go somewhere to echo someone. No, I don’t know where. Reuters, I think.
Still looking to you for the 20-teens Stud.
Ann
(4-7 October 2011)
Ann Peluso is one of those EB contributors who writes emails, but can’t be persuaded to write more publicly. She always says something fresh and thought-provoking. -BA
