Concerning Occupy Wall Street
To the Editor:
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is long overdue. The young people leading it should resist its being co-opted by the Democratic Party. They need to realize that Wall Street cannot be separated from the capitalist system.
The capitalist system works only for the super-rich and those who are well paid to serve them. Nowhere is this more clear than in the USA.
The richest country on earth is a site of massive social injustice. Hundreds of millions have no health care; no pensions; are unemployed or under-employed; live in slums; suffer from miserable prison-like schools; pay huge amounts for “public” education.
The foulest racist ideas and practices are promoted by major networks, news media and schools, to keep incomes of non-white workers a fraction of that of white workers, and their lives shorter and more impoverished in every way.
U.S. rulers send soldiers to murder tens of thousands of people around the world every year to steal the natural resources (like petroleum) and secure cheap labor which drives down wages for American workers.
The capitalists run the country and both Republican and Democratic parties. Finance capitalists, symbolized by Wall Street, created the current Depression, then got their flunkies in both parties to bail them out with public money — yours and mine.
Now “conservatives” — politicians like Gov. Christie, and those paid off or brainwashed by the rich — are blaming everybody but those really responsible. Public workers. The unemployed. Undocumented workers, whom they call “illegal aliens.”
The Republican Party is openly the enemy of U.S. employees, far worse than Al Qaeda. Its policies kill more Americans than a dozen 9/11’s every year.
(Sign seen at OWS last week: “Keep Undocumented Workers — Deport Republicans!”)
But the Democratic Party is, in a way, worse. They promise reform only to stab reformers in the back. The Dems will try to co-opt the OWS movement. Don’t let them do it!
So OWS is good because it is the beginning of a fight against exploitation. This consciousness needs to be clarified and sharpened. Evil as Wall Street is, it is just the tip of the iceberg.
The youth of today need to make the 21st century the era when capitalism — the exploitation of the overwhelming majority by the evil few — is buried for once and for all.
Let’s make OWS the beginning of that powerful movement we so desperately need.
Grover Furr
Please keep more than signs, threats and standing outside at the heart of OWS. Without real activity protestors get itchy and restless. Don’t let this lead to violence. Real revolutionaries don’t bomb buildings!
OWS is largely a students’ movement. Don’t allow the movement to be labelled as all show, all trend. The media is portraying OWS as a glorified flash mob. Everyone is waiting to see what you will DO.
Utilize your collective education. No one will remember funny signs with stupid cats in twenty years.
Occupy a blood donation event, or a food and clothing drive. Occupy a soup kitchen. Occupy elementary schools; volunteer. Help unemployed people write resumes, or get funding for higher education. We are the ones that know how!
Vote all the time. Especially during local elections.
Boycott consumerism. Who needs an iPhone 4s?! No one can force you to buy consumer goods made overseas, they can only convince you that you need them. Students and women are the most targeted by advertising. Just don’t buy their shit!
This might be one of those times where your example can affect discourse for the next generation. Don’t tell your grandson you sat outside. Tell him you took real action, that you did right by your fellow man, that you embodied every ideal you held.
Wall Street Protests Spill Into near by Little Falls, New Jersey
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Wall_Street_Protests_Spill_Into_New_Jersey_New_York-131493903.html
Almost no truth to this letter, just a lot of madness.