Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Deepening political anxiety about the economic crisis went public this week as Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England declared that “this is the most serious financial crisis at least since the 1930s, if not ever.” and David Cameron in his keynote speech to the Conservative Party Conference admitted that “the threat to the world economy – and to Britain – is as serious today as it was in 2008 when world recession loomed.”
The Financial Times and Wall Street Journal have gone into full crisis mode with live blogs continuously reporting unfolding events. Equity markets are falling and London oil prices have been flirting with $100 a barrel for the first time since February. Talk of recessions, depressions, and even collapse of the euro zone is everywhere.
There is a definite possibility, if not a likelihood, that the innumerable debt crises when coupled with high and ever increasing energy costs could evolve into a major economic depression.
You courageous people in the #occupy movement are absolutely right in saying the system is broken, greedy, and unfair. But when our discussion turns to replacing the current system, we’ve got to embrace a bigger view of reality than the one held by stock traders and politicians. It’s not just our wealth they want to control, it’s our vision for what is both possible and necessary. We need a post-growth economy that works both for people (all of them) and for the rest of nature: a localized economy based on renewable resources harvested at nature’s rates of replenishment
So what is the role of community organizers and progressive leaders in this moment of #occupy momentum? After the dramatic mass arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday, the #occupy meme is spreading like wildfire and progressive forces are rapidly aligning around the protests.
The private investment firm of Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and one of the most powerful diplomats in the George W. Bush Administration, is upset that a client has lost an oil deal in the country. Khalilzad’s son, Alexander Benard, is on the attack in Washington, in particular against the Pentagon, which he says acted against U.S. interests by not advising the Afghan government to favor Western companies in the deal.
The big bronze bull is surrounded by metal fences and strategically placed members of NYPD’s finest. The famous statue, the symbol of aggressive market optimism, is normally open for tourists to grope and fondle, but today, in part because of the “Occupy Wall Street” protest, it has been penned. Today, the Wall Street Bull looks amusingly like a panicked animal in a cage.
Part of the blame for poor coverage lies in the movement’s own media strategy, or lack thereof. From the outset, its organizers have focused primarily on creating their own media—just as Gandhi did during the Indian liberation struggle, and as so many other movements have since. The occupiers do this very well, with a (theoretically) 24-hour livestream, a newspaper, websites, and more.
Meanwhile, many organizers have purposely avoided contact with mainstream media outlets, and no plan was in place at first for how to deal with them should they arrive. … This is changing.
– Why Do You Occupy? – Interviews At Occupy Boston – video
– ‘You’re creating a vision of the sort of society you want to have in miniature.’ (interview with theoretician-organizer David Graeber)
– Encounters with Occupy Wall Street – video
– Democracy 2.0 Barcelona – video
The EU’s crisis has been framed as an economic one, with the self-interest of individuals in nation states pitted one against the other: if the Greeks do well, the Germans do badly. But Europe needs a plural political existence – European political parties expressing this – in order to function.
As soon as former premier Peter Lougheed notified the country that he thought the controversial Keystone XL pipeline was a bad deal for Alberta, the experts got all flustered and expressed their usual shock and dismay. Yet Lougheed’s declaration was elegantly simple. “We should be refining the bitumen in Alberta and we should make it public policy in the province,” he told the CBC.
– WaPo: ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests gain steam, but movement’s goals remain unclear
– NY Times: Anti-Wall Street Protests Spread to Other Cities
– Occupation: Coming to a City Near You?
– #OccupyWallStreet is a church of dissent not a protest
– Gandhi goes to Wall Street
– Sharon Astyk – Don’t Feed the Zombies: The Problem of Protesting the Thing You Depend On
– The Unrepentant Marxist encounters Occupy Wall Street
– Understanding the Theory Behind Occupy Wall Street’s Approach
