[PAA-Discuss] Freedom Rider: Occupying Wall Street

Sun Oct 9 13:38:33 EDT 2011

We need a good alternative candidate alright.  You ready to run Kris?

From: graham2639 at mindspring.com
To: discuss at paa-tx.org
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2011 10:01:00 -0500
Subject: [PAA-Discuss] Freedom Rider: Occupying Wall Street

Freedom
Rider: Occupying Wall Street

By Margaret Kimberley

Created 10/04/2011 - 21:52

Submitted by Margaret Kimberley on Tue, 10/04/2011 - 21:52

by BAR editor and
senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

It is great that
the Occupation “movement” exists, but unclear where it is going.
Its leaderless nature may help to avoid cooptation and media manipulation, but
there are equally serious drawbacks. “The movement may be doomed to
become a permanent gripe session against an obvious villain, but with no means
of planning how to end the system that increases income inequality, debt
peonage and unemployment.” Most importantly: can the 99%ers bring
themselves to abandon the Democrats?

Freedom Rider: Occupying Wall Street

by BAR editor and
senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

“Do they know and are
they ready to state that they must dump the Democrats if they are to have any
opportunity to save themselves and what is left of democracy?”

The Occupy Wall Street/99% movement
has succeeded in demonstrating one important fact. There is a great deal of
anger and frustration directed at the financial services mobsters and the
political system that gives them such great power. Any mass effort directed
against the prerogatives they now enjoy is a positive indication that there is
still something left of what we call democracy. 

The spread of the Occupy Wall Street
movement around the country should be the beginning of a much needed political
movement, but at the moment it isn’t clear that will take place. While
the righteous and justifiable indignation is evident, organizing and the
analysis which it should be based upon are not.

It isn’t really difficult to
be angry with the bankster class which has ruined not just the American
economy, but which has also devastated the lives of people around the world. It
is much more difficult to think outside of the paradigm of the two parties
which are both in fact servants of the plutocracy. Collapsing markets and
rising unemployment are but symptoms of a larger and more worrisome disease.

In all likelihood the Democratic
Party has benefited most from the votes cast of demonstrators at Zuccotti Park
in lower Manhattan.
Do they know and are they ready to state that they must dump the Democrats if
they are to have any opportunity to save themselves and what is left of
democracy? 

“Collapsing markets
and rising unemployment are but symptoms of a larger and more worrisome disease.”

If the “spectrum of thinkable thought
[6]” is not done away with, some
of these same protesters who are now so valiantly acting in opposition, will
one year from now return Barack Obama and his policies of bailing out Wall
Street, back to the White House.

The cry for change must include a
cry in opposition to the Democratic Party. When Congressman Charles Rangel visited
Zuccotti park, he was shouted down by one protester, but then received words of
apology from others.

Certainly Charles Rangel is not
himself the cause of all that ails American politics, but Democratic members of
Congress and the Congressional Black Caucus have time and again been
subservient to the dictates of their leadership and to the career trajectory of
Democratic presidents. This subservience almost always takes precedence over
the needs of the people. If protesters apologize for the righteous anger of one
of their members, it is an indication that this movement is not quite ready to
look outside of the thought spectrum which allows the economic elite to control
both Democrats and Republicans. 

The leaderless, mass-led nature of
this action presents both benefits and problems. It is good that the corporate
media cannot personalize these activities and designate any one person or group
of people as leaders. Inevitably, those people are scrutinized in ways that
render them useless or in the worst case scenarios are co-opted and bought off.

“They must not succumb
to fears about the latest Republican bogeyman or woman.”

The down side to this
non-organization is that there may not be anyone able to direct the mass action
in any effective way. The movement may be doomed to become a permanent gripe
session against an obvious villain, but with no means of planning how to end
the system that increases income inequality, debt peonage and unemployment.

Make no
mistake, Occupy Wall Street
should be the beginning of fundamental changes in the political landscape.
Whether it will be or not, will depend upon the willingness of activists to
stand up for those changes. They must not succumb to fears
about the latest Republican bogeyman or woman. Rick Perry or Michelle Bachman
or Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney will be mocked as a fascist, charlatan, idiot who
doesn’t believe in gay marriage/evolution/global warming and who is
therefore unfit to serve as president.

But it is
Barack Obama, a man no doubt supported by many of the occupiers, who backs
offshore oil drilling and the wholesale resurrection of the nuclear power
industry. It is Barack Obama who has forestalled efforts to require cleaner air
standards. It is the constitutional law professor who decides that Anwar al-Awlaki
or any other American citizen can be marked for death. 

Some commentators have likened
Occupy Wall Street to the actions at Tahrir
  Square in Cairo,
 Egypt which
brought down president Mubarak. The Egyptian protesters had a clear demand,
that Mubarak had to go. What is the clear demand in Zuccotti Park,
that Obama and the Democrats go? That is to say, are they committed to end
their support for them? 

Right now this site has become a
magnet for celebrities and gawking tourists. It ought to become the place where
Democratic Party control of the left dies once and for all. 

Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in
BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog
as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. [7] Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail
at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.com.

[8] 

Source URL: http://blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-occupying-wall-street

Links:

[1] http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/dump-democrats

[2]
http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/leaderless-wall-street-occupation

[3] http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/occupy-wall-street

[4] http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/us-political-duopoly

[5]
http://blackagendareport.com/sites/www.blackagendareport.com/files/occupying_wall_street01.jpg

[6] http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/overcoming-divide-and-conquer-strategy-—-economic-elite-vs-people-usa

[7] http://freedomrider.blogspot.com/

[8]
http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblackagendareport.com%2Fcontent%2Ffreedom-rider-occupying-wall-street&linkname=Freedom%20Rider%3A%20Occupying%20Wall%20Street

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