“Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that we are the 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary” Arab Spring” tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.”
So Occupy Wall Street are the 99% and they will not tolerate greed and corruption by the other 1%. I have been to their website Occupywallstreet.org and have read through their statements. Despite the fact that I have been told they actually have a manifesto all I have been able to find is a list of unapproved “Demands.”
What I have found however, is that this movement has no direction and according to one of its members of “The General Assembly”, Mark Bray, they not looking for one. They are trying to be all things to all people. You want to complain about your taxes, join the protest; you want to complain about unemployment or the redistribution of wealth, join the protest; you want to complain that the weathers too hot or too rainy where you live, hey “join the protest.”
They are planning to make as much noise as possible before they all get bored, go home and get back to the business of trying to find a job. A lot of people are praising them and cheering them on never realizing that these are just people voicing their frustrations or looking for a hand out. Most are simply jealous of those who are making six figure salaries while they are not. Most never think or don’t care that most of these executives worked 20 hours a day seven days a week for twenty years to get where they are. Most spent four to eight years in college getting business degrees or MBA’s to get where they are. And besides it’s none of the protestors business or for that matter, our business, what they make or how they chose to spend it. You see this is “still” a Democratic Republic” based on Capitalism, making money is what drives our economy. We are “not” a Socialistic Regime where all things are suppose to be equal and every one shares in the wealth and the misery.
In a July Press Release “Occupy Wall Street” said,
“ In Solidarity, and as a response to this call, a planning group was formed [occupywallst.org], and an info sharing site established. The participation of every person, and every organization, that has an interest in returning the US back into the hands of its individual citizens is required.
Our nation, our species and our world are in crisis. The US has an important role to play in the solution, but we can no longer afford to let corporate greed and corrupt politics set the policies if our nation.
We, the people of the United States of America, considering the crisis at hand, now reassert our sovereign control of our land.
Solidarity Forever!
When I hear words like “solidarity” and “sovereign control of our land” bandied about I sit up and take notice.  If this “protest” did not start as a “Socialist Movement” it’s sure beginning to sound like one. Don’t believe me here’s a quote by Bryan Koulouris of Socialist Alternative regarding “Occupy Wall Street”..
“We have found it extremely easy to raise a socialist program. Some of the organizers are hostile to politics but in reality they often have politics of their own but don’t want to have a political discussion.
But there is a widespread thirst for ideas. Everywhere we set up a stall they are flooded with people.
There are almost too many people who want to talk to us about joining Socialist Alternative!
We’ve made speeches in the general assembly’s about concrete steps forward for the movement. We have put forward the idea about outreach to the trade unions and have played an instrumental role actually in getting some of those union endorsements that have made such big news.
As yet there is no worked out alternative put forward by the movement but there are some very clever slogans against the cuts that resonate, in particular pointing out the 1% versus the 99%.
But these occupations provide a lot of opportunities for building the socialist movement.”
So decide for yourselves what is behind this movement and where they plan on taking it but The Occupy Wall Street symbol, the “Raised Clenched Fist”, which stands for solidarity was also used by Benito Mussolini and his Fascist Party, Adolph Hitler and his Socialist Germany and the former U.S.S.R. to name a few. I think it is time we paid close attention to these protests and really listen to what is being said and who is profiting from them politically. While most think they are harmless people just blowing off steam I think there is a much darker under tone here. After all “Fore warned is fore armed.”
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Ira,
I really don’t think that it’s fair to use terms like “or looking for a hand out”
How exactly is this handout going to come? and who is asking for one directly.
Tell us about this hand out you speak of.
I think you are still assuming way too much.
As for the hard years those people in corporate America have put in…the movement is against special interest and favors to large corporations. You know…illegal stuff that made the taxpayers suffer.
Why don’t you lend a hand to these people if you think they need organization and stop jumping to conclusions that fit your article.
People have a right to be mad as hell and you say they are looking for hand outs. Imagine this…even if they were they deserve it. Corporate America got Billions based on a bullshit claim that the financial grid would explode if they didn’t get the money and they did…lots of it and You, me and the rest are going to be paying it back for the rest of our lives and our kids will have to take over from there.
The handouts already came! and the ones in those buildings they are standing in front of already got them!
You could give every person in that crowd a million dollars cash and you would not even scratch the surface of the handout/bailout those maggots got.
That’s what they’re talking about.
We see what we want to see Bruce. I find it interesting that you did pick the most trivial thing about the article and the more important theme about this mob being steered towards socialism was ignored. We won’t agree on this one either my friend. I respect your opinion but don’t agree with it. Ira
One imagines that the point here is not Democracy or an argument against Socialism but rather to avoid the “surrender” of our Republic. Socialism is just a way station on the tram, “Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan once let slip that democracy was a tram you ride until you arrive at your destination, then you step off.” The stops include Communism, Fascism, Socialism, Democracy and a Republic. There may be more.
Please revisit “How Democracies Commit Suicide” http://www.hollywoodrepublican.net/2011/08/how-democracies-commit-suicide/ .
“The politicians, a few exceptions, wherefore art they, are spineless, weak, unpatriotic, and have created an atmosphere of great uncertainty, both political and economically, possibly unleashing (MAED) “Mutually Assured Economic Destruction.” Few know this theory but it is worth researching. It belongs in the class with (MAAD) “Mutually Assured Atomic Destruction” something most of us do know about.
“And the laws of Mutually Assured Economic Destruction are most assured being proved, reaffirmed, every day, no less dramatic than the laws of gravity. There is a solution, real, effective and feared, “term limits”, and within only several election cycles of the “phone book wisdom”, “I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston” telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.” William F. Buckley, Jr., this will yield a better solution.
The blame for this, the season of our unrest, this season of our discontent, rests firmly, almost entirely, and completely on our shoulders, not what others may think, says or does. When will we learn???”
“This is the road to how and why democracies commit suicide. “A civil war or at least grave civil strife is likely in one of two generations time. John Adams was right. Democracies contain the seeds of its own destruction.”
We suffer greatly, “And who of these hypocrites will not exempt themselves? There may be no greater wisdom than that of Albert Einstein who opined, “Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.” Isn’t that a dose of humility?
One thinks the issue is much more profound. ““Democracy… while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.” John Adams. And that is why we struggle to save our Republic.”
Isn’t this what is happening in Egypt. Is “Freedom” sweeping across the Middle East and across Europe, is the London riots too long ago? Doesn’t anyone know what the Caliphate is? We pound our righteous breast and cry for “Freedom”, for everyone, not understanding that for which we wish, nor how to nurture it and to protect “it.”.
You see unrest moves the populous to democracy, from individual accountability and responsibility, which can chose Socialism, which, according to Marx, always ends up in Communism, that is, if the people don’t get off that tram at a “Republic.”
Yes, please revisit “How Democracies Commit Suicide” for a more comprehensive dialogue on these observations.
http://www.hollywoodrepublican.net/2011/08/how-democracies-commit-suicide/ .
A Republic cannot be destroyed, it, like Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness, if these are included, “it” must be surrendered.
Thank you and it is good to see you commenting again. I agree with you for a democracy to be destroyed it must be surrendered. And often that surrender begins with the tiniest of voices.
Ira, thank you for a well written article about what is happening on Wall Street. I was amazed to hear some of the latest quotes being cited from the speakers of the rally today, such as calling for violence and bloodshed and openly calling for a turn to socialism. There can be no mistake where this movement is leading and what it amounts to. Those people who are envious of others who have achieved a measure of success through their hard work and diligence. I agree with everything you said and thank you again for warning us to take heed. Surrender can also be achieved by doing nothing and ignorning movements like this until they find their way to your own doorstep. Indeed, forewarned is forearmed. We must reject this angry, rudderless mob and be ever vigilent.
Elaine, I couldn’t have said that better. This is NO organized group protesting a particular given theme, I think that has already been proven by their own statements. They liken themselves to the Tea Party. Oye vey! Apples and oranges. Personally, I believe this gang gathering has been perpetrated by the WH itself or in some the Democratic party because, quite frankly, they are on a ship without a captain, and are just like the rats: they run from a sinking ship. Complete sweep in 2012. And they KNOW it. Hopefully we be able to get America’s Republic feet back on the ground. And I do agree with Ira, mostly about handouts. Karl Marx said it best…”From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”—Karl Marx. THIS is the nucleus of the Liberal Democratic party. It’s just packaged differently. Good reply!!
Ira
Although the fist mainly stands for SOLIDARITY and resistance in the face of violence, it has been adopted by socialist movements, thus it is reasonable to say that it is ALSO a socialist symbol (if you wish to read it that way).
But the symbol is in NO WAY attached to Mussolini or Hitler. There is no mention of them here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raised_fist
Wikipedia not enough? How about Ivy League scholarly articles?
http://www.docspopuli.org/articles/Fist.html
Now that I have provided evidence that your statement is incorrect, please share WHERE you got the idea that the fist is associated with Hitler/Mussolini.
Thanks