THE GLOBAL UPRISING GROWS
17 11 2011
Every concept produces its opposite. Every phenomenon feeds others which contribute to it. No phenomenon or concept is alone, there is no independence. As the global crisis grows, so does the global uprising. In the age of globalisation trade, crises and uprisings have all become globalised.
This is how the Occupy Wall Street protest in the USA has begun. The developments in New York’s Zuccotti Park are a natural result of developments. The OWS is spreading fast and wide. The OWS has a presence in many states. In the meanwhile police reaction to the OWS has been tough and unafraid to use force.
Will the OWS become degenerate? Will it loose sense and purpose? According to the OWS’ claims the police are directed known criminals, the homeless and evictees towards Zuccotti Park where the OWS is at its strongest. The claim is that through this means the police intend to lower interest and respect in the OWS.
On the other hand the municipality will not allow for the use of portable toilets in Zuccotti Park. The municipality is preventing the use of power generators over concerns for safety and health. In New York the reaction of the OWS continues despite three people being hospitalised with frostbite. Against the risk of the municipality evicting Zuccotti Park on the pretext of cleaning, the OWS cleans the park itself.
As pressure from the municipality and the police mounts, the OWS comes up with creative and humorous responses. For example, upon the police banning the use of megaphones, the demonstrators have begun using a “people’s microphone”. In this case, the listeners repeat parts of the speech being delivered out very loud. The OWS has set up a media centre, public library, cafeteria and a legal counselling centre in the park. For directing those interested, stickers have been placed on the ground. A protest newspaper called the “Occupy Wall Street Journal” is being published through donations. In the meanwhile the social media and the internet are being used effectively.
The people who have set up tents in Zuccotti Park come from among those who have lost their belief and trust in the system. These people who have lost their homes, cars and jobs, who have found themselves on the street within a day and have been pushed into isolation bear the anger of not having a future. Those who are peacefully protesting in Zuccotti Park despite the bitter cold and the mounting pressure want social justice. They demand that the wealth of society should provide benefit to every segment of society.
The OWS is essentially an open reaction to neo-liberal politics. The anger felt at the economic system conditioning people to consume, to make them live a life of consumption only and then leaving them unable to consume is very great. In a zombified society, just like zombies which have no function other than to consume flesh, “consumers” who have no function or value other than to consume are rising up.
The OWS might result in the capitalist economic model rehabilitating itself. However, one should accept that the odds are not high. The economic system gave priority to saving large companies and covering their losses when the crisis erupted. In the meanwhile the “man in the street” who was unaware of the goings on and became indebted to maintain the consumption he was used to has lost everything and literally became the man in the street. Someone had to foot the bill for compensation to be paid to the executives of giant corporations the massive losses of which had to be mitigated. Those forming the OWS want to know why there had to pay the bill.
Perhaps the OWS may produce a social model. No one expects more tolerance for the spread of the OWS movement. It does not seem possible for the OWS to become a sustainable movement, prepare concrete political demands and in fact attempt implementing them itself. To be realistic, the OWS consists of people who are unhappy, desperate and without a future. The identification of many people with the OWS might change depending on their life expectations and improvements in quality of life.
On the other hand the following could happen. The OWS might become an identity with no binding powers, which takes the principle of voluntary participation as basis and which is free to join and leave. Anyone with a grievance over any issue may take themselves as a part of the OWS. The OWS might become a civilian platform on which reactions over any matter may become organised. A trend which rejects the system, which carries out civil disobedience, which does not support any party, which does not care for any present political views and which keeps individual relations with official institutions at a minimum might come to the fore.
In the USA, the OWS and similar movements are not limited to New York City. There is a movement everywhere where the crisis has been felt. There are reactive movements in Oakland, California, Portland, Oregon, Denver, Colorado, Nashville, Tennessee, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Francisco and many other places. In some locations, protestors are not allowed to set up tents. In the USA, the police are arresting demonstrators. When intervening on protest, the police use tear gas and plastic rounds without scruples.
In the political tradition and democracy culture of the USA, people’s right to protest was not infringed upon. For this reason alone, the crowds who refuse to foot the bill for the crisis might react strongly to being treated in this way. Famous film producer Michael Moore expresses a similar concern.
The protest which was begun by a few demonstrators near the New York Stock Exchange on the 17th of September ought to be seen in direct or indirect connection with the Arab Spring and with the movements in Spain and Israel. For related protests were held in more than 800 cities in 71 countries on the 15th of October 2011, Saturday.
According to a survey by NBC television network and the Wall Street Journal newspaper, the OWS has a support rate of 37 percent. It is noteworthy that the OWS enjoys more support than the far right Tea Party movement (at 26 percent). Furthermore, according to a survey by the Time magazine, 54 percent of Americans find the OWS to be a positive movement. The Tea Party only gets 27 percent approval in this survey.
The OWS which was initially ignored has come to be viewed differently by politicians once it started getting grassroots support. US President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have said that they understand the movement. On the other hand, Republicans are displaying strong reaction to the OWS. Republican writer Karl Rove has written in the Wall Street Journal, referring to protestors as “insane”.