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“Occupy Tokyo:” Nuclear Power and Protest in Japan — The Yale Globalist

25 Oct

Though initially focused on a very unique American institution—Wall Street—the movement, with its simple but compelling call for social and economic justice, found a global audience. In Japan, where two decades of economic stagnation have provided a fertile ground for class-based discontent, the protests in Tokyo this past week took on a unique character in light of March’s tsunami and nuclear catastrophe.

For many Japanese, these Occupy protests come only as a continuation of earlier, much more intense anti-nuclear agitation throughout the past few months. Obvious concerns with the safety of nuclear power usage in a country so often plagued by earthquakes had combined with outrage over the clear failure of corporations and government alike to properly regulate the source of 29% of Japan’s energy inspired mass protests this past September, with over 60,000 taking to the streets in Tokyo.

via “Occupy Tokyo:” Nuclear Power and Protest in Japan — The Yale Globalist.

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Governor Andrew Cuomo failed to get aid in shutting down the Albany version of Occupy Wall Street – NYPOST.com

24 Oct

About 200 mainly young, hippie-like demonstrators “occupied’’ Albany’s Academy Park across from the Capitol on Friday night, pitching some 30 tents, claiming solidarity with Zuccotti Park protesters, and chanting for, among other things, higher taxes on the wealthy.

Cuomo, fearful the action could spark a larger protest that would carry over and potentially disrupt the next legislative session — where his continued opposition to a “millionaire’s tax’’ will be highly controversial — demanded that Mayor Jerry Jennings, a longtime friend, enforce a city ordinance closing parks at 11 p.m. … ” we had allowed this before . . . and my counsel said we’d be opening ourselves up to civil liability if we forced them out,’’ Jennings told The Post. But there was another reason as well, he conceded.

Albany’s leftist-oriented and highly political district attorney, David Soares, told city officials he wouldn’t prosecute demonstrators who were arrested by Albany police.

via Governor Andrew Cuomo failed to get aid in shutting down the Albany version of Occupy Wall Street – NYPOST.com.

How I Learned to Love the Goddamn Hippies – The Daily Beast

24 Oct

And in a strange kind of way, Occupy Wall Street made me think more fondly of the Tea Party as well.

The theme that connects them all is disenfranchisement, the sense that the world is shifting deeply and inexorably beyond our ability to control it through our democratic institutions. You can call this many things, but a “democratic deficit” gets to the nub of it. Democracy means rule by the people—however rough-edged, however blunted by representative government, however imperfect. But everywhere, the people feel as if someone else is now ruling them—and see no way to regain control. In Europe, you see millions unemployed because of a financial crisis that began thousands of miles away in the U.S. real-estate market—and grim austerity being imposed to save a currency union that never truly won mass democratic support in the first place. In the U.S., the hefty majority for sweeping reform behind Barack Obama’s victory in 2008 has been stopped in its tracks by slightly more than half of one House in the Congress and by a historically unprecedented filibuster in the Senate. Even when it is perfectly clear what the only politically viable, long-term solution is to our debt crisis—a mix of defense and entitlement cuts and tax increases—it is beyond our democratically elected leaders to reach a deal.

via How I Learned to Love the Goddamn Hippies – The Daily Beast.

At OccupyDC, Egypt’s revolutionaries chide U.S. – Occupy Wall Street – Salon.com

24 Oct

Three of Egypt’s so-called Facebook revolutionaries told a crowd of 100 people who gathered Sunday afternoon in Washington’s Freedom Plaza that the U.S. government has abandoned their peaceful revolution in favor of an alliance with the country’s still-powerful military. (Video here.)

“We hoped U.S. policy would change” said Esraa Abdel Fatah, known as the Facebook girl for creating a social media page that helped mobilize a general strike over workers rights in 2008. “We hope they would support the people, not the government. But U.S. policy supports the military now, the same way it was supporting Mubarak.”

via At OccupyDC, Egypt’s revolutionaries chide U.S. – Occupy Wall Street – Salon.com.

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Pete Seeger Leads Protesters in New York, on Foot and in Song – NYTimes.com

22 Oct

Shortly before 1 a.m. the crowd streamed into the center of Columbus Circle. There, surrounded by gushing fountains, musicians that included Arlo Guthrie, Tom Chapin and David Amram, joined Mr. Seeger on the base of the Christopher Columbus monument.

The crowd quieted. Guitars began strumming as Mr. Seeger began singing “We Shall Overcome,” a song that he introduced to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

via Pete Seeger Leads Protesters in New York, on Foot and in Song – NYTimes.com.

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Neoliberalism and OWS — Crooked Timber

22 Oct

… once upon a time, there were debates about trade ‘liberalization’ – globalization – that used to divide neoliberals and liberals and progressives. Basically, the neoliberals were gung-ho for trade on the grounds that the alternative was protectionism that amounted to shooting your own foot, and didn’t do any good for the poor in the Third World. And the progressives saw jobs being outsourced, labor unions weakening. Liberals were those caught in the squishy middle, per usual. We’ve had some debates on Crooked Timber of late about what ‘neoliberalism’ means. I’ve not participated because, honestly, term’s more trouble than it’s worth, worrying what it means. (I have other terms that are more trouble than they’re worth to worry about that I worry about. As a philosopher, I need to limit the number of such that infest my mental life.) The thing is: in the current situation, there is not – and should not be – anything analogous to the neoliberal side of the trade debate. No one sane thinks that this whole 99/1 business might be like NAFTA, i.e. something we have to go for, in an end-justifies-the-means spirit.

via Neoliberalism and OWS — Crooked Timber.

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Cornel West arrested as OWS spreads to Harlem – Occupy Wall Street – Salon.com

22 Oct

Occupy Wall Street headed to Harlem Friday afternoon in a solidarity march that ended with the arrests of a few dozen protesters including Princeton professor Cornel West — just days after his arrest in Washington, D.C., at another demonstration. . . .

The march, which was planned by existing left-wing groups but was also endorsed Thursday by the general assembly at Zuccotti Park, focused on the NYPD’s practice of “stop and frisk.” That refers to the controversial – and, critics argue, unconstitutional — practice of officers stopping city residents on the street and searching them.

via Cornel West arrested as OWS spreads to Harlem – Occupy Wall Street – Salon.com.

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Occupy America and Change History

20 Oct

Let Occupy Wall Street become a permanent well of political discontent.

Occupy Wall Street HAS changed political discourse in America. It remains to be seen, however, what fruit will come from this change, if any.

That the OWSers have yet to come up with a set of concrete demands has often been noted. On this I side with those who do not see this as a problem. On the one hand, as many have noted, it’s not as though their central issue—massive income inequality—hasn’t been obvious for years, if not a decade or two, and it’s not as though it is difficult to come up with proposal after proposal that addresses the problem.

Everyone Must Eat

It is more important, at this point, simple to recognize the problem and to see it as deep and fundamental.

America, with all our problems, remains the world’s richest nation. That being the case, it is disgraceful that anyone should lack the basic necessities of life: food, shelter, education, and health care. Everyone, WITHOUT qualification, MUST have access to the means of living a decent life. Just how that is to be done, yes, that is a problem. But let us first state, and accept, the principle:

Everyone, WITHOUT qualification, MUST have access to the means of living a decent life.

It is not the OSW movement’s job to come up with proposals to achieve that end. That is a job for think tanks, Congressional staffers, lobbyists, and universities.

The Well of Our Discontent

Moreover, I rather like the existence of a somewhat amorphous well of ‘WE AREN’T GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE.’ Perhaps that should become a permanent feature of our political ecology. Continue reading →

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Occupy Wall Street Hits K Street | The Nation

19 Oct

Lessig on the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street:

Now my belief is if this movement can take that message and carry it from Occupy Wall Street here, to Occupy K Street, and to look down K Street to all the other places where exactly the same kind of corruption is practiced, and talk about this problem as a problem of corruption, then this movement has the opportunity to unite people of very different views.

I spent time at a Tea Party convention in Arizona talking to people who were deeply concerned about this country. They didn’t talk about gay rights. They didn’t talk about abortion. They talked about getting our government back in control. Those grassroots populist members of the Tea Party—forget their leaders–would agree with this point about the corruption of the system. And if this movement can begin to speak about these issues in a way they can hear, where the focus is not against policies they agree with, for example against the free market, but instead against a corrupted market.

via Occupy Wall Street Hits K Street | The Nation.

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Lawrence Lessig: Occupy Movement Should Join Forces With Tea Party

19 Oct

WASHINGTON — Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig urged OccupyDC protesters to join forces with the Tea Party Tuesday evening during a teach-in with disaffected Obama supporters in McPherson Square.

Lessig, author of the newly-published book “Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress — and a Plan to Stop It,” argued in front of a crowd of more than 100 people that the two groups should work together to push for campaign finance system reform — moving to a small-dollar funded system — so that politicians aren’t beholden to their biggest donors.

via Lawrence Lessig: Occupy Movement Should Join Forces With Tea Party.

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