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#OWS has galvanized thousands of individuals to engage in direct action with the monetary elite and the fictional business of the stock exchange. The initial occupation of Zucotti Park has increased awareness of their cause and inspired autonomous occupations in locales all around the world, a physical, simultaneous movement of political activism for a generation which has traditionally participated more in the election of American Idol than American Presidents. When you don’t have any, money can be a powerful motivator.
Since the inevitable dispersal of the occupations, the recent move to re-occupy, in defiance of police and government officials citing municipal codes and long-standing laws re: camping, has created more hostility towards authorities than creating awareness of wall street scum-fuckery.
“Yes, we’re breaking the law, a system of rules created by elected officials as influenced by lobbyists, bribes and political party pressure.”
The “peace-keeping” actions of authorities in response to a non-violent protest of financial inequality is absolutely unjust. Batoning innocent civilians, pepper-spraying students, profiling protestors as anarchists— all these are legitimate problems and symptoms of a corrupt political system. These problems are unquestionably tied in to the #Occupy movement but where do they fit? The more Occupiers rally against authoritative police forces our message becomes diffuse and the public loses interest. Considering public apathy is what led us to where we are today (allowing George W to become president without being popularly elected, shame on us all!) our message needs to stay on point, punish fraudulent Wall Street practices and arrest the bankers which have created the mortgage/housing crisis.
In light of these facts our public officials have done nothing to hold white collar criminals accountable.
Our public officials don’t care about us.
“Occupy Wall Street” is a movement founded on the principal of equity injustice. It is NOT a compassionate revolution*. Those Occupiers who spend their time fighting for the betterment of all peoples, regardless of personality or social position, are saints of the movement and should be commended for their humanity. We, “the 99%”, have the difficult task of increasing public support for a revolution which will empower all peoples around the world.
Sleeping on the sidewalk will not accomplish this goal.
Disruption of business will.
While at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, protesting the Business Software Alliance’s support of SOPA (of which Apple is a member), several grannies asked me how closing down the ports, costing truckers and longshoreman a day’s wages, is supportive of the 99%.
“Well, miss, by disrupting the business of the port, majority owned by the bank Goldman Sachs, we are able to take direct action against the financial powers of the world. If we can’t take away their power through the political process than we must take direct action.”
“You’re lost. Gone, hopeless,” raising her hands in defeat.
What traditional news media did not tell the public was that the laborers supported the closure of ports owned by Goldman Sachs. The reason three different shifts were disrupted was not because of Occupiers milling about outside, but the workers in support of the action who called in sick, rather than break “union” lines.
The longer #Occupy continues, the more diffuse our message becomes. Is #Occupy the youthful, radical, liberal answer to the conservative libertarian (non-Koch funded) Tea Party or are we fighting for the same goals?
Do we blindly trust our government representatives, who have manipulated the political process for their own means and created this crisis, to take care of us? For surely there will be no change without involvement from the political powers-that-be.
How do we accomplish our goals to end the tyranny of corporate greed? How do we compel people to value world-wide prosperity over momentary distractions? What are the magic words that create middle-class rebellion?
*Compassionate revolution being something we could *create* from #Occupy
Business Taxes vs. Individual Taxes by theweek.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
