Back in 1782 in Les Confessions, Rousseau wrote, "Finally I recalled the stopgap solution of a great princess who was told that the peasants had no bread, and who responded: 'Let them eat cake.'" This quote has become the iconic slogan of class oppression by the ruling elite. And today, the same class oppression that galvanized the French Revolution is being waged on the other 99% of us.
Last weekend in New York's financial district, police arrested between 80 and 100 nonviolent Occupy Wall Street protesters, marching peacefully and holding signs that said things like, "I can't afford a lobbyist- I am the 99 Percent." Some of the worst brutality caught on camera included a police officer kneeling on the neck of a determined-looking man holding an American flag. NYPD Lt. Anthony Bologna pepper-sprayed a group of women cordoned off on a sidewalk, disappeared into the crowd, and made more unprovoked attacks on another part of the crowd. One nonviolent protester was openly beaten in the street. While protesters were expressing their first amendment rights and experiencing brutal treatment by the police, Wall Street banksters lounged on the balconies above, sipping champagne. The wealthy, powerful elite mocking the impoverished masses protesting below. A Hollywood screenwriter couldn't have set the scene any better.
If you saw Jon Stewart's most recent bout with Bill O'Reilly, even the FOX commentator agrees that Wall Street speculators aren't paying their fair share and should be held accountable. Even lifetime registered Republican, corporate CEO and tax preparer Henry Bloch admits that wealth and tax burdens for the rich and poor are extremely unequal in the United States. Even billionaire tea party financier Charles Koch admits that Social Security and Medicare are wonderful programs worth paying taxes for and using to the fullest. Yet people like Koch and the organizations he supports are hell-bent on increasing profits and cutting their taxes even more, even if it means ending those same aforementioned social welfare programs for the rest of us.
While the right cries "class warfare" over the richest of the rich being taxed at a slightly higher rate, there is blatant class warfare being waged by corporations and the banking elite. The evidence is all over--foreclosure schemes, student loan traps, rampant oil speculation-- bankrupting the middle class this is how Wall Street makes it's money. So beginning on September 17th, citizens from all over have sworn to occupy Wall Street, demanding an economy that sustains itself not by uncontrollable growth and bubble creation, but by an more equal distribution of wealth, fairer tax codes, and an end to dangerous speculative trading.
Yet, despite such a populist message and stalwart resistance from the left, none of the existing power players in the professional left have officially backed the Occupy Wall Street movement, and mainstream media sources have only given the occupation a passing glance. While thousands were kettled on both ends of Brooklyn Bridge this weekend after shutting down the NYPD headquarters, CNN marginalized their number to 600. A New York Times reporter mocked their efforts, saying the protests were no larger than "maybe 80 people." The main criticism of the media has been the movement's supposed lack of organization and/or central message, and the supposed stereotypical images of the protests. The Times, and even Mother Jones has harped on the "dirty hippie" theme. Yet, the occupation has grown incredibly diverse, bringing in pilots, marines, unionized service workers, and causing 100 NYPD officers to boycott the overpolicing of the occupation in solidarity with the protesters.
Occupy Wall Street, and indeed, the rest of the occupation movement from Occupy Houston to the October 6 Occupation in Washington, D.C., has a central message- corporate and financial interests have overtaken our political system to tilt the scales in favor of the richest 1%, and the 99% who can't afford lobbyists are voicing their anger through nonviolent protest. It's a message that can be summed up by a reasonable-looking guy in this great video from occupywallst.org.
"If you're frustrated, if you're like me, and you see the tea party on the television and in the news all the time, and you wonder why the hell isn't there a radical left answer to the tea party, you should be here. If you have a ton of student debt, like me, you should be here. If you're pissed off and you realize that, you know, than General Electric-- a corporation-- you should be here. If you wanna see something amazing, you should be here."
From the collective bargaining marches and recall efforts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio early this year, to US Uncut actions in over 100 cities protesting corporate tax dodgers on tax day weekend, to liberal birddogging of Congressional Republicans during the August Recess, to 1,253 getting arrested to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, to the Occupy Wall Street movement and the dozens of similar occupation campaigns happening nationwide, the leftist uprising sweeping North Africa and Europe has reached America. Corporate-owned mediacan black it out and mock it all they want, but they're only delaying the inevitable. Dr. Cornel West said it best in a recent speech to the occupiers:
"...Because when you bring folk together, of all colors, of all cultures, of all genders, of all sexual orientations, the elite will tremble in their boots."
Now, it's up to ordinary Americans, the other 99%, to realize that the corporate takeover of our democracy will only worsen until we come together and demand new, sustainable economies and political structures uncorruptible by the influence of lobbying and corporate money. That's what's driving the occupytogether.org movement. And that's a demand that any reasonable member of the 99% can agree on.