I don't get the anguish (in some other diaries) over the blackout bye and large of the anticapitalist, anti financial swindle protests currently taking place around the Wall Street area of Manhattan.
What do we expect will happen when a confrontation of some sort is made between upset people and some of the most powerful people on the planet?
there won't be a sensational, made for cable/tv /FOX event, that is for sure.
There won't be sympathy generated for the protestors, not after years of tagging the anarchists who show up at the G8, G20, IMF, World bank confabs. No, those in charge are smart enough to try to stay out of the spotlight, be discreet and keep the robberies rolling on throughout the day and night and not be the focus themselves. (more below)
OK, it's as American as Apple Pie. The protest is typical American rugged individualism in action.
Get thousands of earnest, passionate, interested folks to show up around a common site with a recognizable problem; Wall Street that has odds on been the center of producing, both inventing and deepening the financial mess we are now in. get people who have no affinity except social media, access by time or inclination to come down.
have not much in common(artists, unemployed, ex service, retireds, students, some long term activists, some new), have no organized sponsorship, have a handful of default anarchists sort of playing political games as the repugnance toward the Democrats and Republicans for valid reasons motivates these folks...
and you have a scattered, unsystematic, barely organized social networking protest.
The links between the suffering and the problems and the basis are real enough, but those links in Manhattan's financial district follow many twists and turns. Many people look at it (the protest) as symbolic or an even created for itself. They don't connect it as an urgent and purposeful happening that may play a role in actually changing things.
Mubarik was the personification and focus of a 30 year dictatorship in Egypt and he could be rightfully blamed as the focus and problem, rigged elections, cronyism run amok etc and a need to push his gang out.
On Wall Street, the executive in charge of the stock exchange makes 144 million ? more, but doesn't "rule" quite the same way. Getting him pushed out won't change anything except whose picture graces their yearly PR statement.
The good being done is to bring the focus back on those who are behind this mess. The drama over the suppression of the SIGNS. This is easily the most significant event so far and a harbinger of the tactic in other places, unless the means of communication are defended. where is it Americans need to ask permission if it is possible to speak in public, what police station do we go to and sign in, sign up, and beg for permits? Just like any other dictatorship? The mask is peeling off...
The politicians are the tools, those in the pockets of the bankers and the wealthy. Discussing the actual effect of Wall Street and its responsibilities is important. It isn't done in the larger culture. WS doesn't want that discussion. Corruption, collusion, bribery, lawbreaking and failure of the agencies that have been captured by the entities they supposedly regulate-all very important but only if the public learns about it. Without this, that protest gets little attention and nothing "done"' except to learn for next time.
This protest is like the Yippies' doings of the 60's except broader and deeper, but having the same disdain and naivete that unorganized indignation and a sort of osmosis that sucks in lots of people to an event will somehow make things happen.
Would the protest be better if 10,000 are there? 1 million? Wall street would shut down with 1 million in the streets around it. But the world financial system would keep humming with the exchanges still functioning
in Germany and France and Hong Kong and Tokyo and elsewhere.
It could still happen. European Finance is about to let Greece go bankrupt and reconstitute itself because there is no way to force a complete bleeding on the Greek people to preserve the extortionate bonds and loans now...
Americans still believe something will happen to make it all better, somebody out there will just make it happen.
Wisconsin is a much better example of something effective. Only it is not an instant success. And it has its own dynamic, its own unique problems also in that an organized effort is needed to bring this problem to a showdown, a turning point and something positive accomplished. An organized effort that has continuity, sustainability and persistence. That is the organization that can bring these creatures running the offices and managing the financial system to account. Obviously and clearly there is no accounting for effects and direction and injuries caused now. It can't be a free for all with no clear goal, or policy. That is the most obvious feature of the governance on the ground of the WSProtest, the ultrademocracy that is so vexing and frustrating. It means striking out in all directions in effect, going towards no objective in essence.
Any thoughts, tips, critiques?
La lotta continua. . This resembles the Paris Commune, The Bonus Army of 1932, and the recapturing of Wall Street from the second wave of pigs after the farmers were pushed out and the suits that whispered instead of grunted took over. There is a lot of energy world wide because this highlights a crisis of the world capitalist system and the financial leadership of the Western world especially the US/European banking system.
Putting a spotlight on the US's contribution to the debacle is not what the bankers and
elites want in any way shape or form. From the Murdoch instigators, clowns like FOX's Red Eye Staffer showing up and acting like a retread hippyprankster clown to the CNN financial reporter really annoyed all her "serious work" was upstaged by the Occupy break with the domination of financial news that suppresses and confuses....the veil is being pulled off.
Mon Sep 26, 2011 at 9:09 AM PT: Things are going better than my initial asessment. there is an intense overreaction by the NYC authorities...are they afraid of the growth of the protest to the point they will feel some serious pressure exerted on the functioning of Wall Street? Or politicians having to get involved who have been up to now keeping mum about the central crisis we face?
Good thing we are over a year away from elections. That distraction won't be trotted out because it isn't close enough to encourage people to "go home and leave this to the professionals".
Outrage over the gratuitous pepper spray, there are some sadists among the police, confirmed once again by the white shirt sleeved guy.
We have desensitized and brutalized everyone with the acceptance of torture by the authorities, including torture of Americans (re:the Rumsfeld case going up the chain of courts now). Spread the word. Add news of what is taking place in your city as a challenge to the oligarchs and financial pirates and thieves if you are not in NYC.
Wed Sep 28, 2011 at 6:36 PM PT: The struggle grows and continues. We see reportage all over, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, many other mentions in the world press and that in turn is percolating into the US domestic press.
I keep thinking of the critics and the skeptics as having blinders on, of acting as if the future is fully mapped out and the great majority of people don't have any part of that future.
"Of what use is a new born baby?" Exactly, you have to allow it to grow up, develop and then judge.