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Is Occupy Wall Street too white?

10 Nov

For one, even a rudimentary examination of Occupy Wall Street in New York City would reveal that numerous unions with significant black and Latino rank and file or leadership are heavily involved in the movement. This includes TWU Local 100, SEIU Local 1199, National Nurses United, the United Federation of Teachers and many more. Second, a slew of people of color community groups are heavily involved in the movement, and there are also Occupy movements led by people of color in New York City like Occupy the Bronx and Occupy Harlem. There is a people of color committee at OccupyDC in Washington.

On Oct. 5, the day of the big labor and student walkout, protest and rally that drew well over 30,000 people, large numbers of African-American and Latino New Yorkers joined in.

via Is Occupy Wall Street too white? – Occupy Wall Street – Salon.com.

Activists Occupy California’s Imperial Valley

9 Nov

Agriculture is threatened and the environment is in peril:

Anita Nicklen, a migrant rights advocate and mother of two of the younger protesters, explains the links in a potentially fatal chain. “Farmers are under tremendous pressure to fallow land and sell their water entitlements to San Diego’s suburbs. Fewer crops means fewer farm workers and fewer dollars circulating in our local economy. There is also less runoff from irrigation into the rapidly shrinking Salton Sea. Fish die, migratory birds leave, tourists stay home. As the sea dries up, its toxic contents are exposed to the wind.” …

But the death of the Salton Sea, an extraordinary reservoir of sinister chemicals, would be like opening Pandora’s box, a creeping Chernobyl of respiratory illness and cancer. Partial depopulation of the Imperial and d valleys might follow.

To prevent such an apocalypse, Sacramento proposed a $9 billion restoration plan for the sea, but authority for the appropriation was blocked in court in 2009, and the plan now faces the triage of the state debt crisis. Meanwhile, climate change and a long drought in the Colorado Basin have reinforced political pressures to allow much larger water transfers from the Imperial Valley to the coast.

Organize:

What I discovered, in fact, was a desert flower brought to blossom by a combination of long cultivation (local activist tradition), lots of sunlight (dialogue via social media) and, equally important, the existence of a local greenhouse (a physical space for meeting and interaction). …

Occupy El Centro provides a framework both for concentrating forces, as against Wind Zero, and for nurturing new solidarities on both sides of the steel wall that now separates the two Californias.

“Because the Imperial Valley is on the border,” Camden, said, she looks forward to “opportunities to take part in not only local or national activism, but global activism as well.” Anita hopes in particular that they can link with similar groups in Mexicali and begin to build an “Occupy the Border” dimension.

Finally, there is the virtual community aspect of the Occupy movement that enables participation in spite of geographical distance. Thanks to Facebook, for example, the Valley’s college diaspora, including recent UC Santa Cruz graduate Jessica Yocupicio, was able to play an integral role in planning the protest.

Complete article in The Nation.

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Occupy Movement Inspires Unions to Embrace Bold Tactics – NYTimes.com

9 Nov

Union leaders, who were initially cautious in embracing the Occupy movement, have in recent weeks showered the protesters with help — tents, air mattresses, propane heaters and tons of food. The protesters, for their part, have joined in union marches and picket lines across the nation. About 100 protesters from Occupy Wall Street are expected to join a Teamsters picket line at the Sotheby’s auction house in Manhattan on Wednesday night to back the union in a bitter contract fight.

Labor unions, marveling at how the protesters have fired up the public on traditional labor issues like income inequality, are also starting to embrace some of the bold tactics and social media skills of the Occupy movement.

via Occupy Movement Inspires Unions to Embrace Bold Tactics – NYTimes.com.

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The radicals have grey hair: 47 senior citizens arrested today in Chicago protest against cuts |

8 Nov

From today 11/7: Jane Addams Senior Caucus staged a sit-in to protest social security and medicare cuts in alliance with Occupy Chicago. 47 senior citizens were arrested – 3 of which were in wheelchairs, according to Occupy Chicago’s tweets. Their action was outside the offices of Senators Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk.

“Many older women, especially older women of color, would suffer the brunt of these cuts…Senator Durbin and Senator Kirk need to hear that seniors are the members of the 99% and have something to say about this issue and these programs.”-Mary Burns, leader of the Jane Addams Senior Caucus, in a statement, according to NBC Chicago

via The radicals have grey hair: 47 senior citizens arrested today in Chicago protest against cuts |.

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Can OWS end America’s war against the poor? – Occupy Wall Street – Salon.com

7 Nov

Now, in what seems like no time at all, the fog has lifted and the topic on the table everywhere seems to be the morality of contemporary financial capitalism. The protestors have accomplished this mainly through the symbolic power of their actions: by naming Wall Street, the heartland of financial capitalism, as the enemy, and by welcoming the homeless and the down-and-out to their occupation sites. And of course, the slogan “We are the 99 percent” reiterated the message that almost all of us are suffering from the reckless profiteering of a tiny handful. (In fact, they aren’t far off: the increase in income of the top 1 percent over the past three decades about equals the losses of the bottom 80 percent.)

via Can OWS end America’s war against the poor? – Occupy Wall Street – Salon.com.

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Welcome to the “augmented revolution” – Occupy Wall Street – Salon.com

6 Nov

Simply put, the terms “real” and “virtual” to describe the physical and digital worlds are inadequate: Facebook is real as the rest of the world grows increasingly virtual. It is this massive implosion of atoms and bits that has created an augmented reality where properties of digitality — information spreads faster, more voices become empowered, enhanced organization and consensus capabilities — intersect with the importance of occupying physical space with flesh-and-blood bodies.

via Welcome to the “augmented revolution” – Occupy Wall Street – Salon.com.

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Gates offers G20 a lesson in philanthropy – The Globe and Mail

6 Nov

It’s nice the Bill Gates is devoting all this time and money to good works. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t also be a self-important arrogant dorkwad!

To confront the concerns of protesters who call themselves “the 99 per cent,” the G20 decided to invite a member of the 0.000000001 per cent.

Mr. Gates laughed at this comparison, but had little time for the new inequality protests.

“Good old Occupy Wall Street! I will certainly be glad to print up signs for them if they want to hold them up saying ‘More bed nets!’, ‘More vaccines!’, ‘More agricultural research!’ ” Mr. Gates said. “I’ve never met any of these people … but I haven’t seen them holding any banners speaking up on behalf of the world’s poorest.”

Mr. Gates was invited because he has a reputation for getting things done: His foundation played a key role in getting the African AIDS crisis under control, and was the key actor behind the successful development of vaccines against meningitis and malaria.

via Gates offers G20 a lesson in philanthropy – The Globe and Mail.

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Occupy Wall Street Protest Reaches a Crossroads – NYTimes.com

6 Nov

Community Board 1, which represents the area, recently passed a resolution to support Occupy Wall Street. Loving the protesters and hating the problems that have accompanied them “are not mutually exclusive,” said the community board chairwoman, Julie Menin.

“Half the residents are completely out of their minds and need Occupy Wall Street to leave immediately,” said Patricia L. Moore, who lives near Zuccotti Park and also leads the Quality of Life Committee for the community board. “And half are residents who came to the last meeting and said, ‘Welcome to the neighborhood.’ ”

Ms. Moore said that most of the residents’ complaints were less about Occupy Wall Street’s presence than about getting the city to make life better for the protesters and the neighborhood.

via Occupy Wall Street Protest Reaches a Crossroads – NYTimes.com.

Elites Who Back the Wall St. Protesters – NYTimes.com

6 Nov

Yet when I interviewed the two of them in a wide-ranging public conversation last week, hosted by the Center for International Governance Innovation, a independent, nonpartisan Canadian research organization, they sounded an awful lot like the people camped out in Zuccotti Park in New York.

Neither Mr. Zedillo [former President of Mexico] nor Mr. Martin [former Canadian prime minister] had sympathy for the complaint that Occupy Wall Street lacked a clear agenda. As Mr. Zedillo put it: “These criticisms — ‘Oh, they don’t have an agenda, they only pose problems and provide no solutions’ — well, they are citizens and they have earned the right to express a very serious, real problem.”

The truth, the two statesmen agreed, was that the protesters were articulating a real, important and global concern.

via Elites Who Back the Wall St. Protesters – NYTimes.com.

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Occupy Wall Street: America HAS a Ruling Class

5 Nov

The OWS movement recognizes that America is divided into a ruling class and a class of servants.

Yes, America DOES have a ruling class. It’s not a hereditary ruling class, like the old European aristocracies. It’s permeable. One can enter it from below, and one can be thrust out of it too.

Of course the existence of this ruling class contradicts official doctrine, which says that American is ruled by the people and for the people. Members of this ruling class, therefore, will deny its existence. Certainly, the politician members MUST deny it.

Just what these rulers say among themselves, at the Bohemian Grove, in board meetings of for-profit corporations (e.g. General Motors, Goldman Sachs) and not-for-profit (e.g. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ford Foundation), in private clubs of various kinds, that’s a different matter. On that, I suspect, some are frank about being among The Rulers while others persist they are still of the people.

Nor do non-member Americans recognize the existence of this ruling class. Well, some of us do, some of us don’t. It’d be interesting to see whether recognition of the ruling class is stringing among non-voters than among voters. After all, if you do see that there’s a ruling class, what’s the point of voting? You vote doesn’t matter. At the same time, one might vote out of identification with and affirmation of that very same ruling class. After all, maybe you too will be tapped to enter into the sacred halls of the ruling class.

All of which is to say that, while a ruling class exists, though not a classical ruling class, class consciousness is weak, on both sides of the divide.

Outing the Class Divide

And THAT’s the biggest service that is being performed by Occupy Wall Street: identifying the class divide in America. The 1%, that’s the ruling class. The rest, no matter how many things otherwise divide us, we are the 99%. Continue reading →

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