“So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week it was the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence.
(so it’s not really a war but perhaps she meant it will be a precursor to a civil war)
It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they represent.
Occupy has touched a third rail: personal congressional profits streams.
Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy
The three demands she says we had based on an internet survey are
“The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process”.
“No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks.
This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.
No 3: was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.
++++
In Canada the protestors who camped would know very little of this…
the enmeshment of state and business cannot be avoided in a capitalistic system where money de facto buys power, land and people.
2. The debt in the system has structurally shifted from asset backed to debt backed…the debt is further removed from underlying assets in ways Wolfe does not see clear.
The separation of investment banks and commercial banks cannot occur again without structural damage to the current system.
3. No one doubts the politicians are enriching themselves.
*****
Another example how far removed the professional activists are from understanding the crisis…they blather inanely around some NGO fuelled trend…lets reform the banks and close loopholes…microfinance, remittance, bankable frontiers etc. etc. etc. while the world burns and Iran is about to get bombed to Timbuktu…
What do you expect from Americans who believe they are part of the solution while all can see they are adding to the mess yet it is important they not stop…
but their attitude must change…
views from the top down are inaccurate and impotent, the push will come form the street…once that number hits critical mass and the sooner the better as surveillance and technology create a tighter and tighter world…militarization will only increase…the revolution will not be blogged…but the rebellion should be.
they must believe they will be leaders of great reform but not insight and somehow the ship will be righted…
human nature should not be governed or controlled…
ha!ha! i scream at the sun who whispers give me time…
the occupy movement was outside the confines of current constructs
we did not need external policing…that’s when the professionals left
we carved out space and made room for ourselves with nothing and gifts…
though we believed in our cause we believed in each other more…
Wolfe cannot know this through her symbolic way of thinking…
Liberal liberal liberal
womens movement and gay rights are pushed in Egypt
the games keep getting worse and just repeated
with cultural diversions allowing the lock down
to continue…unabated
security and comfort
is all you deserve.
60’s anyone?
