You are not logged in. Please register or login.
- Topics: Active | Unanswered
Re: Who's behind the Wall St. protests?
Understand something that the best capitalists do.
The know eventually their demise will be called for.
So what do you do to survive? Adapt to changing markets and speculation and perception of what you do. So the people don't eat you and you can continue to make money.
Although it could easily change in a few years, in my lifetime I don't ever remember a time in America where this many people were open to the idea of socialism and nationalization. Although i'm told it was pretty popular in the early 1900s and 1930s.
Re: Who's behind the Wall St. protests?
Wall Street sit-in goes global Saturday
by Alastair Macdonald / Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - For an October revolution, dress warm. That's the word going out - politely - on the Web to rally street protests on Saturday around the globe from New Zealand to Alaska via London, Frankfurt, Washington and, of course, New York, where the past month's Occupy Wall Street movement has inspired a worldwide yell of anger at banks and financiers.
How many will show up, let alone stay to camp out to disrupt city centers for days, or months, to come, is anyone's guess. The hundreds at Manhattan's Zuccotti Park were calling for back-up on Friday, fearing imminent eviction. Rome expects tens of thousands at a national protest of more traditional stamp.
Few other police forces expect more than a few thousand to turn out on the day for what is billed as an exercise in social media-spread, Arab Spring-inspired, grassroots democracy with an emphasis on peaceful, homespun debate, as seen among Madrid's "indignados" in June or at the current Wall Street park sit-in.
Blogs and Facebook pages devoted to "October 15" - #O15 on Twitter - abound with exhortations to keep the peace, bring an open mind, a sleeping bag, food and warm clothing; in Britain, "Occupy London Stock Exchange" is at pains to stress it does not plan to actually, well, occupy the stock exchange.
That may turn off those with a taste for the kind of anarchic violence seen in London in August, at anti-capitalism protests of the past decade and at some rallies against spending cuts in Europe this year. But, as Karlin Younger of consultancy Control Risks said: "When there's a protest by an organization that's very grassroots, you can't be sure who will show up."
Concrete demands are few from those who proclaim "We are the 99 percent," other than a general sense that the other 1 percent - the "greedy and corrupt" rich, and especially banks - should pay more, and that elected governments are not listening.
"It's time for us to unite; it's time for them to listen; people of the world, rise up!" proclaims the Web site United for #GlobalChange. "We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers who do not represent us ... We will peacefully demonstrate, talk and organize until we make it happen."
By doing so peacefully, many hope for a wider political impact, by amplifying the chord their ideas strike with millions of voters in wealthy countries who feel ever more squeezed by the global financial crisis while the rich seem to get richer.
"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"
"We have people from all walks of life joining us every day," said Spyro, one of those behind a Facebook page in London which has grown to have some 12,000 followers in a few weeks, enthused by Occupy Wall Street. Some 5,000 have posted that they will turn out, though even some activists expect fewer will.
Spyro, a 28-year-old graduate who has a well-paid job and did not want his family name published, summed up the main target of the global protests as "the financial system."
Angry at taxpayer bailouts of banks since crisis hit in 2008 and at big bonuses still paid to some who work in them while unemployment blights the lives of many young Britons, he said: "People all over the world, we are saying 'Enough is enough'."
What the remedy would be, Spyro said, was not for him to say but should emerge from public debate - a common theme for those camping out off Wall Street since mid-September, who have stirred up U.S. political debate and, a Reuters poll found, won sympathy from over a third of Americans.
A suggestions log posted at http://15october.net ("This space is ready for YOUR idea for the revolution") range from a mass cutting up of credit cards ("hit the banks where it counts") to "use technology to make education free."
For all such utopianism, the possibility that peaceful mass action, helped by new technologies, can bring real change has been reinforced by the success of Arab uprisings this year.
"I've been waiting for this protest for a long time, since 2008," said Daniel Schreiber, 28, an editor in Berlin. "I was always wondering why people aren't outraged and why nothing has happened and finally, three years later, it's happening."
Quite what is happening, though, is hard to say. The biggest turnouts are expected where local conditions are most acute.
Italian police are preparing for tens of thousands to march in Rome against austerity measures planned by the beleaguered government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Yet in crisis-ravaged Athens, where big protests have seen violence at times of late, a sense of fatigue and futility may limit numbers on Saturday. In Madrid, where thousands of young "indignados," or "angry ones," camped out for weeks, many also feel the movement has run out of steam since the summer.
Germans, where sympathy for southern Europe's debt troubles is patchy, the financial center of Frankfurt, and the European Central Bank in particular, is expected to be a focus of marches calling by the Spanish-inspired Real Democracy Now movement.
Complicating German sentiments, however, a series of small bombs found on trains has stirred memories of the left-wing guerrilla attacks that grew in the 1970s from frustration at a lack of change after the student protests of 1968.
CITY OF LONDON
British student protests a year ago were marked by some acts of violence by what authorities say were hard-core anarchists. Days of looting in London in August were put down to motives that mingled political discontent with criminal opportunism.
As an international center of finance, the City of London is key target. But organizers know strong police powers make setting up a Wall Street-style protest camp there far from easy.
"There's quite a bit of fatigue setting in," said one young veteran of last year's protests against higher university fees. "But if it's still going by Monday or Tuesday, I think that will excite students and they will head down. The City is much more the focus of people's anger now, compared to a year ago."
A long Saturday of rallies may start in New Zealand, where the Occupy Auckland Facebook page provides links recommending "suitable clothing ... a sleeping bag, a tent, food" -- but, in a family-friendly spirit, strictly no drugs or alcohol.
Asian authorities and businesses may have less to fear, since most of their economies are still growing strongly.
Tracking across the time zones, through towns large and small ("Occupy Norwich!" reads a website from the picturesque English city), the New York example has also prompted calls for similar occupations in dozens of U.S. cities from Saturday.
In Houston, protesters plan to tap into anger at big oil companies. As the world's day ends, hardy souls will be marching in Fairbanks. "We will be obeying traffic lights," insist the authors of OccupyAlaska.org, and they "will be dressed warm."
History suggests such actions are unlikely, of themselves, to change the world. As one anonymous poster at 15october.net writes, "Fleshing out ideas into living reality has always been the bugbear of radical politics." And while anger at corporate greed is widespread, there are plenty of voters who would agree with the Australian who posted on the OccupySydney site that those marching will be "the lazy, the paranoid, the confused."
But some analysts do see a potential for political change.
Jeff Madrick, a prominent economics writer, speaks warmly of the serious and reasonable debate he found at Zuccotti Park. Revolutions may be rare, but the protests could push lawmakers to act on some of the demands, he said last week: "It may begin to change public opinion enough to give Congress, people in Washington, the courage of their own convictions."
Re: Who's behind the Wall St. protests?
So basically theyre saying that this protest is funded by Soros to delegitimize it.
This cant be normal people who are simply mad at the way Wall Street as conducted over the last decade or so, noooooo, this must the liberals trying push their agenda on the US.
It's all part of a super secret conspiracy theory.
Re: Who's behind the Wall St. protests?
In a capitalist society like ours, any time a large even happens, such as the wall street protests, you can be 100% sure there is money being made off it.
I disagree. When people marched in the street for civil rights were they also making money from it? Hardly.
In fact they were changing the landscape of America.
Re: Who's behind the Wall St. protests?
jppgnr wrote:So basically theyre saying that this protest is funded by Soros to delegitimize it.
This cant be normal people who are simply mad at the way Wall Street as conducted over the last decade or so, noooooo, this must the liberals trying push their agenda on the US.
It's all part of a super secret conspiracy theory.
I'm SUPER SERIAL!
Re: Who's behind the Wall St. protests?
Police and demonstrators clash in Rome; teargas fired
by Catherine Hornby / Reuters
ROME (Reuters) - Hundreds of hooded, masked protesters rampaged through Rome in some of the worst violence in the Italian capital for years Saturday, torching cars and breaking windows during a larger peaceful protest against elites blamed for economic downturn.
Police repeatedly fired tear gas and water cannon in attempts to disperse them but the clashes with a minority of violent demonstrators stretched into the evening, hours after tens of thousands of people in Rome joined a global "day of rage" against bankers and politicians.
Smoke rose over many parts of the neighborhood between the Colosseum and St John's Basilica, forcing many residents and peaceful demonstrators to run into buildings and churches for shelter as militant protesters ran wild.
After police managed to push the well-organized radicals away from the St John's area, they ravaged a major thoroughfare, the Via Merulana -- building barricades with garbage cans and setting the netting of the scaffolding of a building on fire.
Discontent is smouldering in Italy over high unemployment, political paralysis and 60 billion euros ($83 billion) of austerity measures that have raised taxes and the cost of health care.
The violence at times resembled urban guerrilla warfare as protesters hurled rocks, bottles and fireworks at police, who responded by repeatedly charging the demonstrators.
Tens of people were injured, one of them critically, among the police and demonstrators, officials said.
At one point radicals surrounded a police van near St John's Basilica, pelted it with rock and bottles, and set it on fire. The two occupants managed to escape, television footage showed.
Some peaceful demonstrators also clashed with the militants and turned some of them over to police.
BERLUSCONI DEMANDS CRACKDOWN ON RIOTERS
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said those responsible for the rash of violence must be identified and punished, calling the rioting "a very worrying sign for civil society ... They (radicals) must be condemned by everyone without reservation."
Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno ordered all public museums in the capital closed for security reasons and he and politicians across Italy's political spectrum denounced the disturbances.
"Unacceptable violence and devastation is happening right now on the streets of Rome," said Pierluigi Bersani, head of the Democratic Party, the largest in the opposition.
"Those who are carrying out what is nothing less than urban guerrilla warfare are hurting the cause of people around the world who are trying to freely express their discontent with the world economic situation," he said.
Alemanno, noting that the demonstrators had called themselves "the indignant ones," said: "Those who are really indignant are the citizens of Rome."
The protest was one of many staged around the world on Saturday to show solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States, venting anger over years of economic and financial crisis since a global credit boom went bust in 2007.
The demonstration began peacefully but turned violent when hundreds of hooded radicals known as "black blocs," who had infiltrated the larger group, set cars and garbage bins on fire.
The radicals, some of whom Alemanno said probably came from elsewhere in Europe to help their Italian comrades, then charged through several streets around the Colosseum, trashing windows of stores and banks.
One building believed to be a Defense Ministry annex caught fire after the flames spread from a car. The protesters had earlier forced their way into the annex and trashed its offices.
"The violence ruined the day but I expected it to end this way," said Matteo Martini, 29. "People are tired and angry and can't take it anymore. You can start a march peacefully but unless you break or hurl something no one hears you."
Italy's fractious coalition government has been forced to push through austerity measures to try to stop the economy -- the euro zone's third largest and one of its heaviest debtors -- from being sucked into the bloc's debt crisis.
Hours after the demonstration began police were still firing tear gas canisters and training water cannon on rioters in Piazza San Giovanni, the terminus of the demonstration, where a final rally was due to be held.
Masked demonstrators assaulted police vans with rocks, bottles and clubs in the San Giovanni area, which filled up with tear gas as police helicopters hovered above.
Some of the peaceful demonstrators tried to take refuge on the steps of St. John's Basilica, one of Rome's largest churches and used by Pope Benedict in his capacity as bishop of Rome.
The streets of central Rome were littered with rocks, bottles and garbage bins that had been overturned, and fire brigades drove around the city trying to put out the fires.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Re: Who's behind the Wall St. protests?
Riad wrote:In a capitalist society like ours, any time a large even happens, such as the wall street protests, you can be 100% sure there is money being made off it.
I disagree. When people marched in the street for civil rights were they also making money from it? Hardly.
In fact they were changing the landscape of America.
My point was money was made from that one way or the other. I don't for a second think that people were purposefully trying to make a quick buck of the civil rights movement.
It's not the people doing the marching that made the money. It's the people who serviced their marching.
I can guarantee you that when MLK was making speeches in DC that the takings for restaurants and coffee shops within a 20 mile radius shot through the roof.
Is that a problem in terms of the civil rights movement? Of course not.
Is it utterly retarded in terms of an anti-capitalism movement, hell yes.
