![A Tahrir Moment on Wall Street [Spanish]](http://www.adbusters.org/files/magazine/teaser/flag_spanish_guardian.png?1317158534 "A Tahrir Moment on Wall Street [Spanish]")
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We are living through a dramatic and ever-widening separation between normal state politics and power. Many citizens still believe that state politics has power. They believe that governments, elected through a parliamentary system, represent the interests of those who elect them and that governments have the power to create effective, progressive change. But they don't and they can't.
We do not live in democracies. We inhabit plutocracies: government by the rich. The corporate elites have overwhelming economic power with no political accountability. In the past decades, with the complicity and connivance of the political class, the Western world has become a kind of college of corporations linked together by money and serving only the interests of their business leaders and shareholders.
This situation has led to the disgusting and ever-growing gulf that separates the superrich from the rest of us. State politics in the West in the past four decades has become a machine for the creation of gross inequality whose patina is an ideology of ever-more vapid narcissism. As the Eurozone crisis eloquently shows, state politics in the West simply exists to serve the interests of capital in the form of international finance, which exerts a human cost that Marx could never have imagined in his wildest dreams. No matter how much people suffer and protest in the street, it is said, we must not upset the bankers. Who knows, our credit rating might drop.
It is time to take politics back from the political class through confrontation with the power of finance capital. What is so inspiring about the various social movements that we all too glibly call the Arab Spring, is their courageous determination to reclaim autonomy and political self-determination. The demands of the protesters in Tahrir Square and elsewhere are actually very classical: they refuse to live in authoritarian dictatorships propped up to serve the interests of Western capital, corporations and corrupt local elites. They want to reclaim ownership of the means of production, for example through the nationalization of major state industries.
The various movements in North Africa and the Middle East – and one is simply full of admiration for their individual and collective courage and peaceful persistence – aim at one thing: autonomy. They demand collective ownership of the places where one lives, works, thinks and plays. Let's be clear: it is not just democracy that is being demanded all across the Arab world; it is socialism. And the tactics that have been developed to bring it about are anarchist.
There is a deeply patronizing view of these protests – common among Western politicians and their intellectual epigones – namely that they want what we have: the liberal democracy and neoliberal economics of our fine regimes. On the contrary, the movements in North Africa and the Middle East should be held up as a shining example for European and North American societies of what suddenly seems not only possible, but increasingly probable: that another way of conceiving and practicing social relations is not just possible, it is practicable.
Politicians in the West should be scared, very scared. The clock is running down. What we see emerging across our societies with increasing boldness, coherence and clarity are movements that refuse the separation of politics and power and who want to take power back through the invention of new forms of political activism.
It is in this spirit that I'd like to celebrate and congratulate the protesters in the Wall Street occupations and their followers all around the world.
We should not predict the future, but I think we are entering into a period of increasingly massive social dislocations and disorder which harbors within it countless risks, dialectical inversions, defeats, dangers, false dawns and fake defeats. But I think we are all coming to the powerful and simple realization that human beings acting peacefully together in concert can do anything – and nothing can stop them.
Something is happening. Something is shifting in the relations between politics and power. We don't know where it will lead, but the four-decade ideological consensus that has simply allowed the creation of grotesque inequality has broken down, and anything and everything is suddenly possible. What we require now is solidarity, persistence and the endlessly surprising power of the political imagination.
I love this article. And I
I love this article. And I love the comment by Anonymous on December 15 2011, @07:30 am.
Thank you everyone for bringing some pragmatism to the debate.
And FUCK RON PAUL!
I am 65 years old and very
I am 65 years old and very severely limited mobility wise. I was very active
In the 60s and early 70s peace movement. After Kent and Jackson state
murders by the man I felt all was hopeless and no change would ever
happen so I dropped out and became a full time drug addict.
OWS awoke a stirring in my heart. I have spent a few hundred hours chatting,
shall we say, with the Feds and the state of florida and have finally
set up a PAC - political action committee ---
Voice of the People PAC. Voice-PAC. http://voice-pac.org
Check us out - we are real. If you like us we could use support.
$20 - $30 $10~ What ever you can spare. Your group in say
Montana, can raise money for your federal elections thru Voice -
legally then buy what ads you want paid for by your money at
Voice-PAC! I have done the legwork for your small group in any state
and your group does not have to
The World Must Know What Is
The World Must Know What Is Going On!!!
Please post to your facebook, twitter email your friends repost this please!
Egypt - Woman protestor beaten, top tore off and kicked in chest by Egyptian military
http://freedividual.com/2011/12/20/egypt-woman-beaten-top-tore-off-kicke...
Tell me something NEW,
Tell me something NEW, please..., just once, one thing; I'm sick to death of hearing/reading the same god-damned revelations, aha moments preached to me over and over and over again
Tell me something NEW, please..., just once, one thing; I'm sick to death of hearing/reading the same god-damned revelations, aha moments preached to me over and over and over again
Tell me something NEW, please..., just once, one thing; I'm sick to death of hearing/reading the same god-damned revelations, aha moments preached to me over and over and over again
Tell me something NEW, please..., just once, one thing; I'm sick to death of hearing/reading the same god-damned revelations, aha moments preached to me over and over and over again
DO YOU GET IT? One sure way to fall into irrelevance is byrepeating byrepeating byrepeating byrepeating and buy repeating and then once again just to still be out there doin' it because you got nothing else. I KNOW... why don't you be a little fresh by saying/writing something about your guilty pleasures... I've got a bunch of my own; I like scamming thrift shops and eating Reeses peanut butter cups!! I'm too cheap to buy organic ( I think the whole idea of organic is kinda fag anyways) and I love porn and I think protesting is a useless endeavour because talk minus action = zero (0). I want global warming to wipe out 90% of us all so I therefore think carbon trading is fine.
In the olden days people would die for something they believed in ( unions, civil rights...) but if you're not ready to die for your beliefs right f#n NOW ( not tomorrow ) then shut up and go away, and by you; I mean the clowns who feel vindicated by writing instead of doing something. Without blood and death and other horrors this world we diagree with will continue continuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinuecontinue...
So you're the voice all of us
So you're the voice all of us have been born with, that voice that sometimes says "you are gonna fail, you suck, you loser, fuck your life and don't ever change, boo-ya"?
That, sir, is "gay". In fact, it's pathetic and defeatist.
It's all rhetoric but at
It's all rhetoric but at least the rhetoric we want to hear.
Ron Paul the only way...Or
Ron Paul the only way...Or say hello to Iranian nuclear winter on election day.
Um, no. Ron Paul is finding
Um, no. Ron Paul is finding his followers in the uneducated, the bankers, the wannabe bankers, the CEOs of major corporations, and the wanna-be CEOs of major corporations. Screw Ron Paul, Screw neoclassical economics. If the government is minimized so much that it'ss forced to end its wars, as Ron Paul proposes, you can bet that the power that he shifts to markets will allow the oil industry to continue the war job. Free the markets, right? I bet you a thousand bucks that YOU will be unhappy in a free market economy. Hope you like McDonalds and Wal-Mart. How's that for freedom, moron?
"finding his followers in the
"finding his followers in the uneducated, the bankers, the wannabe bankers, the CEOs of major corporations" etc...
All politics aside, you can't make this argument. You've named both educated and uneducated people so therefore he is finding his support in "just people" as people can be split into the two groups of "educated" and "uneducated". Now they may not be people whose politics you agree with but they are just "people" if you try to signify them like that.
You've also tried to say that everybody who likes McDonalds and Wal-Mart are morons...you don't like Happy Meals or buy Great Value because they come from big corporations?
Michele Bachmann the only
Michele Bachmann the only way...Or say hello to another Israeli 9/11 on election day.
Former Israeli Mossad chief Meir Dogan says Iran will not have a neclear bomb before 2015.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/meir-dagan-from-hero-to-traitor/
Good that way they can defend
Good that way they can defend themselves against Israel who has hundreds of nukes that we provided. That is why we don't fuck with North Korea---cause we know they got nukes. If you ain't go no nukes--you better get some nukes or end up like Iraq and Libya.
I caught bits of the
I caught bits of the documentary "Fool on the Hill," and in one of the fragments the author suggests that rather than subjecting representatives to bills without giving them any time to look to them over and even then attaching a bunch of last minute riders and ear marks... that we give the public a period of time to look them over and even then find a way to get the Reps to read them before voting.
The author said that from his experience the representatives are often quite disturbed by what is in the bills they vote for and only learn it after the fact from documentaries. I like the idea of having a final version not subject to riders being released to the public with a good leeway time for public review and comment prior to the vote.
Today bills are crafted in secret and foisted for an immediate vote. With this democratic enhancement to the process, each bill would get a Wiki page and get proper scrutiny by people with the inclination and ability to screen and amplify for the rest of us. I can see people with preset find macros and apps that set these up subjecting pieces of legislation to the find command for their favorite budget screening adjectives. It would become an empowering sport. Really Google would do that for us as bills were dumped into the general search.
I would much like to know
I would much like to know what democracy stands for.
Democracy has no values.
Democracy is only as good as the values of people that practice it. In the hands of Americans it is a disaster. They do not want to share anything.
The 1% have just about everything and the 99% just about nothing.
Americans are disgusting. We
Americans are disgusting. We consume approximately 24% of energy resources, but only make up 5% of the population of the world. It's not because we are rich, we're not. The country is up to it's neck in debt. It's cause the United States is greedy and consumes and consumes until there is nothing left. I know people who would drive half a block to a grocery store. The United States is a disgusting race of people, and we need to change.
I have complete respect for Occupy, but fighting the government is not something that the American people have ever needed to do. I see a lot of comments on this site that put down Occupy, but what those people need realize is that we have know idea what we are doing. We know we are getting screwed over, and we're trying to stop it. We just don't know how. Cut the Occupiers some slack. At least they're trying to do something.
You are so right. At least
You are so right. At least the OWS got off their ass and called a spade a spade. Every revolution starts with a small but tenacious group of trouble-makers. That's how Viet Nam was ended, civil rights, women's rights we achieved.. Everything in this country that people claim to value was all fought for--none of it was given. You want a government that works for you-- than you better be ready to fight for it. If not -- stay out of way of those who do have the brains and balls to stand up and fight back.
At 25th anniversary of the
At 25th anniversary of the Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) event in New York on April 28, 2011 - Dr. Noam Chomsky told the audience that the US doesn't want people in the Muslim world to practice democracy. Becuase, it alway brings up people who are anti-Israel.
"Across the Muslim world, an overwhelming majority of the population regards the United States as the main threat to their interests. The US and its allies will do anything they can to prevent authentic democracy in the Arab world,” said Chomsky.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/chomsky-us-considers-democratic-...
The piece of shit NDAA has
The piece of shit NDAA has another incredible rage inducing item.
Now it will be secret and a crime to disclose defense contractor campaign contributions. Remember the bullshit phrase "national security," well now it will be a bull shit national security state secret to disclose their graft. It short it will be a crime to disclose democracy undermining corruption.
That means people will be paying defense contractors to usurp or degrade their own ability to vote. People will be taxed to have defense contractors censor their vote. So in one year's budget the amount of campaign contribution needed to secretly destroy democracy in the next years election will be budgeted right into the contracts and money for individual contractors and their in the pocket legislators.
I hate this. This is corruption at its absolute maximum and as anti democratic and anti transparent as possible. Its a crime. We can't know how much money was stolen from us to silence use?
No one allows us as everyday people to tax other non rich people in order to place the stooges we want in office who will follow our commands. On this as with the disappearing it really appears that the US government has lost legitimacy and has been infiltrated and taken over in a coup and needs to be taken back. Occupy the United States and the US government in particular. Notice also how the fools failed to tax the rich again. We need a maximum annual income in the US. A lot of people are to the point that they don't want profit for these firms or rich people anymore and since its unjust enrichment would see their profit (theft) burned if it can't be taxed back to the people it was stolen from.
I agree. United States of
I agree.
United States of Israel does not want democracy anywhere.
Is (from the mythical god
Is (from the mythical god Isis--Egyptian)
Ra ( from the mythical god of the sun god Ra--Egyptian)
El (meaning "god" from-- Syria)
Is-Ra-El--you see they don't mention that in the torah or bible which are both complete fantasy anyway.
The land of Palestine should be returned to the Arabs and the Jews should return to Europe where they originated or come to America since they control the US anyway.
Did the US state just become
Did the US state just become the outright enemy of its people? Did the Pentagon just take over in a coup? Did the US just quietly die?
What reason could they have for wanting the power to deny people life and liberty arbitrarily and in secret with total impunity? They thinking claiming this has been the rule since Bush makes it ok or justifies it?
Did the US state just become the mafia? Is this the result of Citizens United or our sponsored sponsorship run society?
Did the US government just become illegitimate or in effect announce its illegitimacy. Its as if every US citizen were now exiled into their own country. As if they all had loaded guns to their head with some although silenced going off. Now the US state is the greatest threat to its own people and apparently the world.
The notion of state secrets is absolutely laughable now, we need total transparency to see where are loved ones are or will be detained or are or will be buried. As before it seems that the people of the world although from different cultures and speaking different languages are united against the global corporatocracy.
If America failed as Berman says it was as he says because it fraud callled business, based on a fraudulent ethic.
This first part reminds me of
This first part reminds me of the lessons taught by "Mr. Jensen's" lesson in Network (1976). That visionary film, telling of our time, is what this movement is about. The influence of unilateral power over the _reality_ experienced by the powerless. What is sought, by those that sympathize with #OWS and those that marched in #Tahrir, is the autonomy mentioned here. The capacity to realize individual dreams without the influence of an overarching superstructure of controlled obsolescence, nepotism, or other such favours done by and for "the 1%." Rabid capitalism, as I've termed it previously, underlies this mode of thought -- an uncontrollable desire for profit at any cost. There are reasons to operate at a loss: education, health care, fire control, public security (including market, finance, and mental environment security), public representation and child care are essential pillars of society. They serve the public interest. They cause society to persist. They constitute a basic approach to the future. It is these things that are the final horizons for the 1% to command.
So, #Occupy. Until the power balance represents something other than the purchasing power of multinational corporations, investment banks, and pharmaceutical and insurance companies.
I think the previous comments
I think the previous comments note about "cooperatives" is really critical to all of these movements we're talking about. The Cuban Revolution was a success because of grassroots support of the people, just as the Occupy Wall Street movement is currently successful because of the support of the lower to middle class of this country. Do you believe if this wasn't a legitimate movement it would exist?
What we're facing is a conscious evolution in revolution. With the advent of the internet and mass communication, we are able to pool resources and public opinion in a way the bypasses traditional government and government controlled media (television, radio brodcasting, etc.) which is why the "Arab Spring" has been successful. We're looking at cooperatives of opinion, sentiment and freedom. This is a serious subject, but also there's a great levity to it. What we could see is a brave new world of beauty, cooperation and symbiosis with our environment through communication.
Intention people. Intention to do good by your fellow human. It's what these politicians lack. Their principle concern is the next four years, not the next four generations.
The so-called "democracy"
The so-called "democracy" like "socialism" was never invented to serve the interests of the 99% or the voters. It's sole purpose was and has been to serve the rich and powerful elites.
Many Western and non-Western movements have carried non-violent mass protests to free themselves from Capitalism, Communism and Socialism - in order to get people have their destinies in their hands. However, most of those movements were infiltrated by the elites' agents who diverted the movements from anti-Establishment to 'cooperatives'. The only non-violent movement which succeeded in the last century was Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. It threw away the capitalist democracy and established a government which is controlled by the majority of the 99%. That's the reason, Iran has been threatened by the capitalist West even after three decades.
Cuban leader Castro had called the 1979 Revolution a "symbol of people resistance".
Dr. Manning Marable, a Christian who was pro-Socialism – has judged Malcolm X according to his state of mind and not Malcolm X being a Muslim activist. Malcolm X, in an interview he gave to New York Times reporter, M.S. Handler, said: “I am not anti-American, un-American, seditious nor subversive. I don’t buy the anti-capitalist propaganda of the communist, nor do I buy the anti-communist propaganda of capitalists…I‘m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity (human beings) as a whole whether they are capitalist, communists or socialist, all have assets as well as liabilities”.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/malcolm-x-judged-by-a-christian-...
Well said.
Well said.