How (and Why) to Co-opt Those Cops on Wall Street
Madison protests built a middle-class movement
Without articulating a clear set of demands, they have nevertheless voiced the frustration felt by millions of ordinary people who have lost homes, jobs, income and security in the post-crash economy and see little help coming from government offices or corporate suites. Soon, however, someone will have to decide whether Occupy Wall Street eventually concludes in mere symbolic success, which would be little more than glorified failure, or evolves into a powerful political current that can rival the tea party.
If the pivotal moment of this protest continues to be a video of a high-ranking police officer brutally "macing" innocent women, then it is unlikely to grow far from its anarcho-bohemian roots. There are simply too many Americans who will never side with "hippies" against cops, no matter how wrong the cops may be. But if the sympathetic statements from labor leaders of the past few days turn into supportive action—and if teachers, bus drivers, firefighters, nurses and, yes, police officers show up to demand change—then this could be the beginning of something very, very big.
Don't scoff too quickly: Last winter, hundreds of off-duty law enforcement officers from around Wisconsin repeatedly joined the statehouse sit-in against Gov. Scott Walker's attack on labor, even though their own unions were exempt from his proposed law—and even as their fellow officers were standing guard over the protesters.
In those circumstances, the cops were just as capable of understanding the stakes behind the protest as any other workers, or the students who supported them. A policeman who had retired from the Madison Police Department after 20 years on the force explained to USA Today that "we all see this as union busting and wage suppression. This is a long-term, downward spiral of wages for working families."
Link Protests to Families' Struggles
Such progressive insights probably don't fit the anarchist stereotype of the cop, whose enmity is cherished as a token of the alienated lifestyle. But not all of those who have flocked to Zuccotti Park and the other protest sites that have sprung up around the country are committed to political irrelevance as proof of authenticity. Many, perhaps even a majority, might be intrigued by an opportunity to provoke something more significant than a cloud of tear gas or a court summons.
The protesters have serious grievances, from mass youth unemployment to burdensome student loans that cannot begin to be paid off if there are no decent jobs.
What would happen if they began to articulate the connections between their own problems and the assault on the living standards of public employees and unionized workers? How would the angry middle class respond if the "kids" made common cause with those downwardly mobile working families—demanding debt relief for everyone, a special prosecutor for the financial crooks and higher taxes on those who have profited from the crisis? Why shouldn't the students (and former students) stand with teachers against cuts in education and for rebuilding public schools and colleges? Even those who understandably disdain partisan politics, with its endemic money corruption, could swiftly change the direction of the national debate.
It is encouraging that many young activists came down to Wall Street from Wisconsin, where they have conducted themselves with impeccable style and effectiveness. Four decades ago, the goons in Richard Nixon's White House egged on construction workers in downtown Manhattan to beat up antiwar students, who had allowed themselves to be portrayed as enemies of working-class soldiers and cops. Repeating that same mistake now would be tragic for everyone—except the 1%.
© 2011 Creators.com
Whatever happened to "United we stand, Divided we fall"? An idea since Aesop's fables, repeated famously in John Dickinson's "The Liberty Song" in 1768, and Patrick Henry in 1799.
How about Mathew 12:25 where Jesus said "... Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. ...". Or Mark 3:25 where He said "And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand." -- Why does the evangelistic christian right side with the Republicans when the New Testament is filled with left-wing, socialist and anti-capitalist ideas?
Oh, the Republicans and capitalists stopped reading at Genesis 1:28 "... Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." - like "Heck yeah, He gave us license to do anything we want down here!" Funny how they skipped over the "replenish the earth" part and went right to "subdue it".
Or at the signing of our Declaration of Independence, where Benjamin Franklin said: "Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
The top 1% will make damn sure that this movement will remain divided. Instead of making it a battle of the top 1% against the lower 99%, the top 1% will just spend the bare minimum of their money to keep the focus on suburb taxpayer vs inner city welfare/EIC recipient, or Public sector vs Private sector, or black vs white, or morally righteous christian vs godless secular humanist.
It comes down to patching up our diverse "cultural differences", and begin pulling together. "Labor" is no longer allowed to organize, but "Corporate Management" is fully allowed to merge and combine their forces to a common agenda. Go figure!
Instead, we got each little narrow-minded community pulling in their own self-serving direction. And we no longer have control of the communication media to get out a combined, "Pro 99%" message. -- When is "Pro-owner AGAINST Pro-worker" going to change to "Pro-commerce WITH Pro-commerce"?
Remember that every laid-off or underemployed "reduced labor cost" is also the removal of consumer demand that we need so desperately,
... the removal of another "work and spend consumer" from our economy!
Oops... "Pro-commerce WITH Pro-consumer".