We’re all Coxeyians now because like Jacob Coxey, considered father of what would become unemployment insurance despite some of the failures of these marches at the time(because they led a lot of the support of what would be known as the New Deal later defining earlier versions of the Union ticket's proposals). We are all leaders of this bigger non violent populist movement with no particular leader unlike Coxey whom was considered the leader of Coxey’s Army of the unemployed. Regardless some of the same tenements from that time to now remain the same:
Coxey's Army was a protest march by unemployed workers from the United States, led by the populist Jacob Coxey. They marched on Washington D.C. in 1894, the second year of a four-year economic depression that was the worst in United States history to that time. Officially named the Army of the Commonweal in Christ, its nickname came from its leader and was more enduring. It was the first significant popular protest march on Washington and the expression "Enough food to feed Coxey's Army" originates from this march.
The purpose of the march was to protest the unemployment caused by the Panic of 1893 and to lobby for the government to create jobs which would involve building roads and other public works improvements, with workers paid in paper currency which would expand the currency in circulation, consistent with populist ideology. The march originated with 100 men in Massillon, Ohio on March 25, 1894,[1]passing through Pittsburgh, Becks Run and Homestead, Pennsylvania in April.[2]
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Some of the most militant Coxeyites were those who formed their own "armies" in Pacific Northwest centers such as Butte, Tacoma,Spokane, and Portland. Many of these protesters were unemployed railroad workers who blamed railroad companies, President Cleveland's monetary policies, and excessive freight rates for their plight. The climax of this movement was perhaps on April 21, 1894 when William Hogan and approximately 500 followers commandeered a Northern Pacific Railway train for their trek to Washington, D.C. They enjoyed support along the way, which enabled them to fight off the federal marshals attempting to stop them.
A full employment Greenback-er. No adherence to the barbarous relic called the gold standard forcing deficits to matter in the long run & choking the money supply. Coxey was my kind of economic populist.
I don’t mean to make an exact analogy as I specified above, BUT like Coxey’s Army along with Eugene Debs, the populist party in Lampasas TX and others who lit the fire that would burn brighter and brighter over the years through every boom and bust and every economic panic until enough people joined in those aims, Anarchist, Socialist, Communist, and Farmer Labor Party alike, there is reason for some real hope and real change. All these factions though with their harsh differences sometimes harmful to their aims, in some ways, came together along with regular people and were finally able to make a difference during the Great Depression as all this cumulated into a breaking point years later with these movements leading on these issues.
We worked to build this country, Mister,
While you enjoyed a life of ease.
You've stolen all that we built, Mister,
Now our children starve and freeze.
So, I don't want your millions, Mister,
I don't want your diamond ring.
All I want is the right to live, Mister,
Give me back my job again.
The people were united. They were ultimately not defeated, for 50 years anyway till the era of neoliberalism came through with Milton Friedman and the Chicago school, even though they suffered defeats like the breaking up of the Pullman strike in 1894 which turned violent among others as the strike was broken up by United States Marshals and some 12,000 United States Army troops earlier at the start of this culmination in 1893 although resulting in what we know as Labor Day. This is why non violence as an aim is so essential.
We are at another breaking point in history. That much is clear despite the attempts of the Corporate owned conglomerates of media empires to dismiss us. There’s reason to believe we can achieve some of these same aims but for the 21st century and for the first time ever. It has nothing to do with the 2008 election. There actually is hope now. And now there is an army of the unemployed marching on Wall Street and across the nation--non violently--but ever so powerful in the memories of Gandhi and MLK following the teachings of Henry David Thoreau’s manual on civil disobedience through and through.
And now I’m going to talk about my appreciation for this movement on a personal level. It’s inspiring. I feel that supporting this movement anyway I can is actually worth something unlike traditional political top down “your money and activism matters but not really” politics. I don’t expect everyone here to agree with me and neither does this movement which is one of its strengths, but I feel I can draw something now and make a difference as opposed to the real world that seems to have rejected me.
I mean, say you’re like me, a shy person in real life. Let’s say you have skills, but you have always had awkward social skills. Let’s say you get nervous and do not interview well like me, even if you read self help books and try to say things employers want to hear. Does that mean that you are such a POS to society that you don’t deserve to make a living and be happy with what you want to do? Does that mean you are resigned to a future of no future where your parents worry, and rightfully so in some ways that you won’t have a future?
It feels that way. It gives me anger and anxiety and I can actually see an army of people with that same fear and anxiety. It lets me know I’m not so messed up like my parents think I am. BTW who the fuck does the leisure class think they are? The answer is probably royalty, economic royalty. So if you are one who cannot sell yourself and kiss the right rings, you’re worthless, less than worthless regardless of your skills and you don’t deserve to live a happy life in what we call a capitalist society. No one ever tells you this when you are young.
They say, “You can be……..whatever you want to be…….IF you work hard enough at it and believe in yourself. If you get good grades and graduate from college you can achieve your dreams and use your talents to make a good living for yourself. To a certain extent this can be true (as social mobility dwindles down and inequality has gone up and the 1% have everything, this is much much much less of a reality for most and you have to be very lucky), but what if you have psychological problems? What if you live your life like Van Gogh who only sold one painting in his life and now that he is dead, the millions of dollars his paintings are worth now never helped him when he needed it?
Anyway I see a bunch of artists working and contributing to this movement in order to expose these lies and these problems with our society. This is inspiring, when few things are. I may not have a future and my parents may be right that I will be on the street when they die, because I live with them and it’s embarrassing for me and for them but for a few moments I can forget that.
I just feel I have to do what makes me happy. I am told to get a McJob or “I’ll never find a job ever” and if I work hard at a Mcjob my dream job just might be around the corner because experience! I don’t believe it. Oh well. That kind of soul sucking creativity killing, self loathing is something I’d rather gamble with my life on. But I've even looked for one and I can't find one either though I admit my heart is not that into it.
It seems I am not alone. All Mcjobs remind you of is how fucked you are. Take it from me as I am from the state with the economic Mcjobs miracle Perry is running on that his wife admitted to recently. But even during the bubble good times I ran away from home for a couple of years when I was 17 and worked at grocery stores for minimum wage. I was told if I worked for 5 years I just might get a quarter raise. This is when you realize that part of what Marx said was right about corporations stealing the fruits of your labor from you-- yet you are told you can rise above it-- through education.
We have politicians, including too many in the Democratic Party and our president still spouting BS about structural unemployment (turn off the video games!). The pernicious jobs are left because of education and not free trade agreements (really treaties to protect corporations from Governments who might want labor or environmental standards) and stipulations like them that started in the late 60s that started the trade deficit explosion we see that are only mercantilism to countries that hold all the cards.
It's about demand and not much else except Irving Fischer's debt deflation analysis inverting the demand curve now that consumers are indebted so they can't spend like they could when they used their house as an ATM.
Anything else is BS like efficient market hypothesis and rational expectations though in the general sense I would like some rational expectations to failed policies. It should be a rational expectation in the non failed economic generic sense to see people in the streets where we all should have been a long time ago though I don’t say that to let politicians off the hook because they have failed us. We haven’t failed them. That is a sad reality.
BUT though I have times late at night where my writing is mixed with fear and anxiety with a little self loathing about the future(you see a little of that), but this movement gives me hope and inspiration for the future like few things do. So in that spirit I will reveal my latest Occupy Wall Street piece as #OWS is giving me inspiration to do more artwork these days. Regardless of not making any money or really having any future I feel these pieces are worth putting time into and are important. Thanks you for viewing them and for reading and thank you everyone Occupying Wall Street and everywhere else! You are my inspiration.