Monday, September 19, 2011

The New American Revolution Began on the 17th September

17 September 2011 was the first day of "Occupy Wall Street" -- at least a thousand people were in the Wall Street district to protest. There are lots of tweets going on (#OCCUPYWALLSTREET and #takewallstreet). People are getting ready to sleep in the Wall Street district. The police were out in force, guarding all entrances to Wall Street, the famous bull statue, many banks in the area -- that was only the first day; could build over the next month. It is another sign of revolt building.

The website organising this event has the following statement:
We want freedom for all, without regards for identity, because we are all people, and because no other reason should be needed. However, this freedom has been largely taken from the people, and slowly made to trickle down, whenever we get angry.

Money, it has been said, has taken over politics. In truth, we say, money has always been part of the capitalist political system. A system based on the existence of have and have nots, where inequality is inherent to the system, will inevitably lead to a situation where the haves find a way to rule, whether by the sword or by the dollar.

We agree that we need to see election reform. However, the election reform proposed ignores the causes which allowed such a system to happen. Some will readily blame the federal reserve, but the political system has been beholden to political machinations of the wealthy well before its founding.

We need to address the core facts: these corporations, even if they were unable to compete in the electoral arena, would still remain control of society. They would retain economic control, which would allow them to retain political control. Term limits would, again, not solve this, as many in the political class already leave politics to find themselves as part of the corporate elites.

We need to retake the freedom that has been stolen from the people, altogether.

If you agree that freedom is the right to communicate, to live, to be, to go, to love, to do what you will without the impositions of others, then you might be one of us.

If you agree that a person is entitled to the sweat of their brows, that being talented at management should not entitle others to act like overseers and overlords, that all workers should have the right to engage in decisions, democratically, then you might be one of us.

If you agree that freedom for some is not the same as freedom for all, and that freedom for all is the only true freedom, then you might be one of us.

If you agree that power is not right, that life trumps property, then you might be one of us.

If you agree that state and corporation are merely two sides of the same oppressive power structure, if you realize how media distorts things to preserve it, how it pits the people against the people to remain in power, then you might be one of us.

And so we call on people to act

We call for protests to remain active in the cities. Those already there, to grow, to organize, to raise consciousnesses, for those cities where there are no protests, for protests to organize and disrupt the system.

We call for workers to not only strike, but seize their workplaces collectively, and to organize them democratically. We call for students and teachers to act together, to teach democracy, not merely the teachers to the students, but the students to the teachers. To seize the classrooms and free minds together.

We call for the unemployed to volunteer, to learn, to teach, to use what skills they have to support themselves as part of the revolting people as a community.

We call for the organization of people's assemblies in every city, every public square, every township.

We call for the seizure and use of abandoned buildings, of abandoned land, of every property seized and abandoned by speculators, for the people, for every group that will organize them.

We call for a revolution of the mind as well as the body politic.
I am not sure who well this event will be covered by USMSM since it threatens the status quo. It did cause the Toronto Star to ask "Is the Arab Spring Coming to America?" That's a good question can social media be used as a means for activating the dormant left wing the way it has been used in other countries? The tea party stands for the rich, not disaffected and impoverished youth--youth who have graduated from university with a pile of debt yet see no future.

One protestor, Lisa Fithian, said she's not part of any official group and that the “occupation” of Wall Street is the work of many people coming together for the same purpose and with the same message. "Wall Street is certainly the heart of why we're here. It's the corporations — the big banks in this country have been destroying this country, Overfees or high mortgages, student loans, the banks are touching every aspect of our lives."

She added that banks and the wealthy have taken money for their own interests and their own survival. “The people here are saying enough of that".

OccupyWallStreet--The American Revolution Begins Sept 17th
Occupy Wall Street: Protests Continue on Day 2
Wall St. Protesters Say They’re Settled In
A real Wall Street takeover threat
Social Networking Spurs Wall Street Protest

17 comments:

  1. What's amusing about FWM's comment is the fact Wall Street is hurting him more than some hippie. Far more.

    Things like this are good--not that they'll change Wall Street immediately--like all non-violent revolutions, it will take years. But Wall St. does not like the attention.

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  2. Exactly, JadeGold!

    I'm sure FWM is probably unaware of the fractional reserve banking system and how it operates.

    Of course, there is no one voice on the financial system from the right since some see the Federal Reserve Bank as being evil--see Federal Reserve Bunk.

    Of course, they have to keep up the image that capitalism is a functional system while it is really more like going to a casino--and everybody knows the bank always wins at the Casino!

    SOCIALISM FOR THE RICH!

    CAPTIALISM FOR EVERYBODY ELSE!

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  3. Hey, FWM, what about?

    For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14)

    or is this the new "Christian" gospel?

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  4. Only about 300 protesters, mostly college kids and aging hippies, showed up near the Stock Exchange for yesterday’s anti-Wall Street rally -- far fewer than the 20,000 that organizers of the so-called global “Day of Rage” had predicted.

    Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/sparse_day_of_rage_MrTG7UDAV9u29hAGGWNHpO#ixzz1YQ1ZAOBt

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  5. Let's see that's the NY Post is part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, so I would not trust that very much.

    Although, it has been said that in England the Boobs are found on page three and in the US they are the ones reading Murdoch's papers.

    I would be truly surpirsed if US MSM gives this protest too much attention. This isn't too bad a turn out since we have to consider that the TEa Party protests are pretty much Murdoch shills and astroturfers.

    I should add that your Post article was from the first day, FWM.

    The protest is still going on. As one commenter said:

    Laugh at the low turnout while you can. People are getting fed up and the crowds will get bigger. Remember crowds showing up at bankers' homes in late 2008? As more people lose their jobs, homes and suffer, the crowds will show up and get violent.

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  6. I seriously doubt there are more people there today than on Saturday.

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  7. Does this knowledge come from reading a crystal ball? I know that you are nowhere near NYC.

    Protesters in the "Occupy Wall Street" movement had forced New York Police to barricade blocks around Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange, forcing residents and workers to show identification to enter the zone.

    Doesn't sound like only a handful of people, but that came form an international source.

    USMSM is more than willing to report about protests in other countries and tame tea party protests, but it is loath to cover left wing events no matter how well attended.

    Face it, FWM, US news is censored, not by the government, but by the big business that owns it. It doesn't want to stir up too much trouble.

    It wants to keep people like you happy little wage slaves so that they can redistribute the wealth upwards.

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  8. This is interesting the Guardian reports:
    On Saturday 17 September, many of us watched in awe as 5,000 Americans descended on to the financial district of lower Manhattan, waved signs, unfurled banners, beat drums, chanted slogans and proceeded to walk towards the "financial Gomorrah" of the nation. They vowed to "occupy Wall Street" and to "bring justice to the bankers", but the New York police thwarted their efforts temporarily, locking down the symbolic street with barricades and checkpoints.

    add in:
    Three hundred spent the night, several hundred reinforcements arrived the next day and as we write this article, the encampment is rolling out sleeping bags once again.

    Or this American media ignores large protest on Wall Street (Video)

    If your family was on Blair Mountain, FWM, how can you trust the bosses to tell you the truth?

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  9. FatWhiteMan:

    I'm really curious; is there some part of gunzlove that says anyone who thinks that there is something wrong with the way securities and commodities are wagered (and wagered is the correct term) in his country is automatically a scruffy lowlife of some sort? I mean, is it even possible that you give a fuck abou the rest of humanity--other than those similarly armed and socially benighted. WTF?

    The largest, by far, proximate cause of financial turmoil in the world is the machinations of the Armani'd criminals in the financial sector and the oligarchs in the energy, food and banking sectors.

    So, when you're out skeetshooting with your billionaire pals; do you all have a good laugh at the struggles of the underclass who have no chance of prevailing against your armed and GOD endowed primacy? Seriously, wake the fuck up.

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  10. Hippies protesting greedy bankers is old news and won't amount to much.

    Where were these protesters when Obama was handing out money to the greedy capitalists so they could have their bonuses? And where will these hippies be on election day next year? Voting for Obama again.

    I sagely warned this was coming when we began sending our manufacturing to China decades ago. And when the politicians gathered together to give each other a reacharound in the aisle or whatever it is they do, to get Clinton's permanent Most Favored Nation trading status for China that in a decade we would have protests in the streets.

    Anyway, right or wrong, hippies and college kids protesting corrupt Wall Street bankers is hardly nothing new.

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  11. Hey, FWM, did you see the video? It isn't just hippies protesting--it's everyone who has been messed over by the financial sector--that's a lot of angry people from all walks of life and all parts of the country.

    People who saw their retirements go down the tubes.

    People who have lost their life savings.

    People who lost their jobs or businesses.

    I am really curious, FWM, how you could avoid being hurt by the financial crash since unless you are super wealthy, you got his. And even the super wealth have been hit, but they have far more money than everyone else.

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  12. Serr8, you don't appear to seek out objective sources.

    Twitter is sometimes reliable, and as was pointed out on a local news network here in MN, social media is for the first time being used in fighting a major forest fire here in our Boundary Waters area.

    BUT, not all of the information tweeted has been reliable or accurate.

    Social media CAN be useful, but it is not the same thing as facts in assessing events.

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  13. FatWhiteMan:

    Answer my question, why don't you. Do you give a fuck about the rest of the world or not? I suspect that the answer is no, so you're trying to figure out how to have your cake and eat it too.

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  14. Shortly before the French Revolution Mozart wrote the music for Da Ponte's lyrics which include 17 times "Viva la Liberta."

    http://youtu.be/gKkOKD8fS10

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  15. I see that shitstained is still hiding behind Mr. Kilmer's sardonic gaze.

    So you're clever about hashtags AND teh gunz. Good for you, try growing a fucking conscience.

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  16. Hmmmm, I guess that FatWhiteMan is busy amassing a pile of data from one or another of the Kochsucker Bros. front grou--, er, "non-partisan policy institutes" defending the position of the NRB*.



    * New Robber Barons

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