Occupy Wall St. The movement is spreading. The sentiment is widely shared. People are fed up with the continued leeching of money from the labors of the working class to the wealth at the top of the economic sphere. Fed up with policies that place profit above human rights, dignity, and justice. Fed up with the pillaging of the earth and environmental destruction of our land, waters, and air for the profit of a few. It is not surprising that the protests are spreading as people finally see an opening to express their outrage and grief about this most dismal state of economic reality.
And, I stand with them 1000%.
There has been criticism that this movement lacks a core message. I disagree. The message is clear. People want this system of inequality to change. What is lacking is not message but tactic.
This movement is political. Yet, I am dismayed by the lack of specific targeting of our CURRENT Presidential administration whom has consistently and relentlessly worked for the very corporate interests we are protesting on Wall St. Why is this President not being called to task for his economic policies, appointments, and propaganda that specifically empower the corporate structure and degrade worker’s rights? Right now, the President is campaigning for a job’s bill that includes three Nafta style ‘free trade’ agreements with Panama, South Korea, and Columbia that will increase American unemployment, reduce American wages, decrease American worker’s benefits, and diminish American worker safety. After Nafta, Americans intuitively understand the dangerous implications these corporately sponsored ‘free trade’ agreements pose to their economic security and working lives. Yet, the Wall St protests have yet to issue a single united demand for the President to stand up and stop the exporting of American jobs out of the country with these trade bills.
Obama is set to send trade agreements to Congress, TODAY.
http://www.sfgate.com/...
From the above link:
Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama may send free- trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama to Congress for consideration as soon as today, according to a person familiar with the administration’s plans.
Obama said at a Cabinet meeting today that the administration will make an announcement on the pending trade deals “in the next day or so.”
“The trade pacts reached under President George W. Bush and revised by Obama have been stymied in a stalemate with House Republicans over benefits for workers hurt by import competition. The Senate voted to extend the aid on Sept. 22, and House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said he would consider the program, called Trade Adjustment Assistance, in tandem with the trade deals once the Obama administration submits legislation to enact the agreements.”
….So, while Obama sends the largest component of his ‘job’ creation bill bill to Congress for approval, it is stuck on the detail of providing worker benefit for those hurt by the import competition? HUH? A jobs plan that requires a safety net for the damage it will cause to American workers?
From David Sirota of Salon: http://news.salon.com/...
“ Last month, for instance, the Obama administration undercut its assertion that the proposed Korea Free Trade Agreement would be a net job-grower in America when it subsequently declared that a domestic job displacement program was a necessary part of the deal (Why would you need to expand existing job displacement programs if a trade pact was going to be a net creator of jobs??). Then this month, as Eyes on Trade shows, the administration’s International Trade Commission report openly predicted that the Korea deal will kill manufacturing jobs.”
So, there it is in a nutshell. Obama is passing off ‘free trade’ agreements as a job’s program that reduce American employment in typical Orwellian prose.
If the Occupy Wall Street Movement is going to result in real world change, it will require calling political leaders to task for specific policies that empower corporate rule and degrade American workers as well as targeting the corporate structure itself. It will empower the movement to specify its targets and demands and crystalize its message. Opposition of the free trade agreement policy is timely, relevant to the objectives and sentiment of the movement, and it will provide the first tangible goal for its partipants. No more Nafta Style Free Trade Deals. I am not proposing a sole focus to the one issue, but the first in a series of targeted campaigns.
As for how we are going to provide the consequences for politicians in this Tweedle Dee/Tweedle Dummer Two Party System who continually ignore the peoples’ will:
Here is a link to a GREAT start:
http://www.americanselect.org/