What does OWS want?

[nadinbrzezinski]

We are so busy with our lives that this seems strange, even threatening. Old words come up as well as old ways of thinking. People a afraid of the 'isms that have haunted Western civilization for a hundred years or more. Yet none knows what those 'isms are.

Don't get me wrong, people are talking radical words, especially for today. People are talking how the system has failed them. In a few cases People are talking of destroying the world and starting anew...yet that is far from a majority view. Cynicism runs rampant, nihilism does not. There is a difference.

Is this a challenge, even a direct challenge, to the status quo? Yes. There is no way around it. This is a direct challenge in ways not seen since the 1930s. It gets worst, this is quite global thank you very much. The people have figured out that neoliberalism is not benefitting them but a very narrow slice of the global society.

So it is time to put into words what I sense from reading on the web and visiting my local site. What do people want? Why is it that they are willing to risk hypothermia, hunger, or even death? People don't do this unless they are at the end of their rope, and lord knows that's what I've witnessed with my own eyes.

* Economic Justice: Nice sounding phrase, but it has a meaning. People are tired of those at the top of society benefiting from the current order while people live and die in the streets. No, I have not heard any express those famous words, "to each according to his needs," so stop it. What they want is just as radical. They want the top one percent to pay their fair taxes, and to get rid of loopholes. They want social services to be funded by those same taxes, and yes, people are willing to pay more taxes to fund that dream. Don't kid yourself in our current political system this is radical.

* Healthcare for all: To say that I agree is honest, but beyond me...the medical needs are astounding. I have not seen this much need since I worked as a medic with a national red cross society in Mexico. So the ground is not mud...40k Americans are dying a year so a private system (that is collapsing) does not incurr losses. In fact, Americans at a rate of 70% wanted single payer, but none in DC listened...why people are in the streets.

* Justice: This is a quaint concept I know, but people are in the streets because they see no justice comming to a banking system that has committed a slew of crimes. This is the closest to the 'ism that a few of my readers might fear. "The banking system must be brought down." Them are words of anger, and it's anger at a real feeling that if you belong to the caviar and champagne club, you have nothing to fear. By the by, let me whisper two words dreaded in DC, no, not Marxim-Leninism, worst...Glass Steagal.

* End the Wars: This is comming particularly from them old and young that have done the killing and dying for Uncle Sam, and now are seen as spent ammo...they realize that war is a racket and until we put a stop to this...insanity...there won't be money for the things we truly need it for. Is this a realistic demand? Well all empires sooner or later retrench. Whether they do it voluntarily or not is the question.

So these are the mushy demands... I am sure as I spend more time with them, talking, listening...I will find more of that. Suffice it to say...time for our political class to start paying attention...to the people.

[kestrel91316]

1. K&R

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Oh and added to journal

Will add to posterous later.

[tomg]

3. Spot on, as usual. K&R

[Chan790]

4. It's a competing paradigms issue...

they don't want to issue demands and I get that...but if they continue to evade reasonable insistence from observers for concrete objective and purpose in favor of the "mushy", they're at imminent risk of being dismissed as incoherent economic neo-luddites who cannot grasp a "modern economy". I had someone tell me today that it was imperative that OWS be crushed for the good of humanity, mocking them as "wanting a pony".

"ponies"? Sounds familiar.

They seem to forget that we were promised "ponies" and those "ponies" are the goddamned "ponies" of our labor. The 1% creates its' "ponies" through speculation, slight-of-hand, and voodoo.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Taxing the 1% and funding services

Is quite concrete. I understand why that is threatening though.

Asking for medical care is very concrete, but threatens blue cross, aka a pony

You are deluding yourself if you think this is just ponies.

[Chan790]

6. No, I agree.

But that's not any official OWS concrete objectives and purpose as I understand it, just your impressions as an eyewitness...any time someone has stepped forth to attempt to speak for the movement, the rest of the movement denounces them as not having any authority or their position not being official. I'm saying its' time...before it be dismissed as irrelevant, incohesive or lacking purpose.

What is the endgame here? We're talking about changes that are going to take years...are they going to Occupy for years? Are there benchmarks to be met to which the fulfillment of which is that they take down the camps? Ia there a timeframe? Do they want an agreement on legislative actions and reforms? Not having an answer for any of that is to be primed to be disregarded as seeking "ponies", to be, as Macbeth said: "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Having been on both sides of protests in the past, having been both protestor and protested...there is a moment where the protested says/thinks "Fine, I realize your point and am willing to do what I must to end this, now what do I have to do to make you go away?"

:shrug:

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Demands are emerging organically

It's the way this particular one is evolving. By it's very nature it is not top down. That alone makes heads wrapping hard to do for the authorities. The particular American version of this global thing has no object leaders due to us history.

I expect organically aproved demands to emerge from larger encampments relatively soon, why they are trying to stamp this down.

[chaska]

7. Please people understand. If we don't get PUBLIC CAMPAIGN FINANCING we've won nothing.....

Without it, we will only get a few little, inconsequential things, enough to shut us up, and then it's back to business as usual with corporations buying legislators.

There is ONLY ONE ISSUE: public campaign financing. Until that's done, nothing else matters.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. It is in the list of things in more than one general assemnly

People get that.

[spanone]

8. k&r...

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Kick

[Raksha]

12. K & R - "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"

is actually a beautiful concept. It's the core of what we mean by "economic justice." As long as it isn't imposed from the top down (totalitarianism) by some central planning committee but recognized as an ideal to strive towards, I don't see a thing wrong with it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. It's how it's been transformed

Into an ideological canard used to red bait.

Why I was clear on that...it is a charge after all.

[applegrove]

14. "I don't mind that you have money; I mind that you are buying my government" says it all to me.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Radical you

:hi:

[applegrove]

16. It is from a sign at an occupy rally on the West Coast.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. I knw...my favorite photo so far

Is the old man writing fuck the cops while elderly wife watched. Kpete posted it...it was so...anti RW story line it wasn't funny.

[Amonester]

18. do not forget the most important one....

* End the Corruption: Get special interests money Out Of Politics.

In fact, I think none of the four wants could ever come true without that one being done First.

k&r

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Well I am sure it's part of it

I will get more and more from informal questions.

But a meta level...yup, from all reading, and no just in the us.

[WiffenPoof]

19. Something That Is Not Mentioned...

...enough here is what is (at least to me) an obvious reason why the Occupy Movement got started to begin with.

Simply put, it was President Obama's failure to follow through on the numerous promises that he made during the campaign. People started to realize that he was not going to represent our concerns so "the people" decided to address the issues themselves.

Look at the list in the original post...that list of demands were all addressed by the President during the campaign.

Have you noticed that the ardent supporters of the President have been strangely quiet since the start of the Occupy Movement? These ardent supporters can no longer deny the fact that President failed to move this country forward on Democratic principles. Can he claim some success in specific areas? Of course he can and he should receive praise. However, it is his inability or unwillingness to fight for the underlying principles of our party that have caused people to lose patience and finally take matters into their own hands.

At least that is my take.

-P

[bvar22]

21. THAT explains the absence of "Obama 2012" signs at the OWS protests.

The People Get It!

Its really sad because he could have marched at the front of His Army
and been one of the greatest Presidents in American History.
Obama's Army, Jan 20th, 2009

His Army is now marching without him.




You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
Solidarity99!
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[alfredo]

25. One of the strengths of Occupy is that it is not partisan.

Endorsing one candidate or another will turn off a large segment of society. I'm an Obama supporter, and an Occupy supporter. When I represent Occupy, that is where my allegiance lies.

http://www.lex18.com/videoplayer/?video_id=20234&categories=233

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alfredo_tomato/sets/72157627666611013/comments/

[Zorra]

24. Yes. What we strongly suspected was proven true in fact.

It became crystal clear that the only possible agent of progressive change, the Democratic Party, was not overly concerned with bringing about progressive change.

We voted them in to counter corporate control and the regressive republican onslaught, and Democratic legislators responded by cooperating with the corporations and republicans.

After a few years of this, it became obvious to most reasonable people that trusting Democrats to carry out the will of the people was no longer realistic.

Now we have no other recourse but to take whatever non-violent measures are necessary in order to either instate and insure our democratic control of the current government, or to form a new, much more evolved democratic government that can take measures to not repeat the mistakes of the past.

[louslobbs]

22. K&R n/t

Lou

[alfredo]

23. In Lexington, Ky we are pushing our state to pull our money out

of Chase, and move our money to a locally owned bank.

http://www.lex18.com/videoplayer/?video_id=20234&categories=233

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. We need to start a damn map of occupies.

All of them, large and small

[robdogbucky]

27. There's more maps out there than this one, but this one is also global

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/oct/18/occupy-protests-map-world


and Al Jazeera English has this one of the US:



Map: #Occupy protests across America

Demonstrations against Wall Street and corporate dominance break out in cities from New York to San Francisco.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/occupywallstreet/2011/10/201110317294664881.html

[alfredo]

28. I bet you can find one somewhere. Here's one