Culturally, politically and artistically, Vancouver doesnt have great influence on the East Coast. We like to think of ourselves as being on the cutting edge of Pacific Rim cool, but for the most part our province is a damp dominion of wood-hewing, land-flipping, and pot-smoking. When it comes to progressive movements and creative initiatives, we leave the heavy lifting to others.
The direction of influence was reversed a bit this month when the Vancouver-published magazine Adbusters kicked off a campaign to Occupy Wall Street. The idea was to turn New Yorks financial district into North Americas Tahrir Square, starting on Sept. 17. The tag line of the protest, We Are the Ninety-nine Per Cent, refers to the Americans who dont belong to the one per cent of the population that control 42 per cent of all privately held wealth.
There were an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 protesters on the first day, with the numbers hovering in the hundreds thereafter. Small protests in solidarity with the Wall Street occupation have spread across to other U.S. cities, including Chicago and Denver. Although revolution seems highly unlikely south of the border, similar modest turnouts prefaced the mass uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. What plutocrats everywhere fear is a real black swan event originating in people power.
On my trip last week to New York, timed serendipitously with the protests, I discovered Wall Street is a surprisingly short stretch, just a few blocks long. It literally ends with buried bodies. Trinity Church, visible as a gothic spire down the canyon of marble and glass, is bracketed by a graveyard containing the remains of past financial giants including first secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton.
Manhattans yellow brick road has the feel of past glories and ancient superstitions. Thats fitting, considering that the hi-tech Ponzi schemes that robbed nearly a million Americans of their homes were about as far removed from the working world as medieval theology. Needless to say, there has been no jail time for the perps, just a $10 trillion bailout and a mainstream press still singing from the hymnbook of fat cat capitalism.
By Sept. 18, hundreds of protesters were camped out in Liberty Plaza. I asked two young men holding placards at the edge of the Plaza what inspired them to attend the protest. Its very personal for me, actually, said Greg, from Hartford, Connecticut. He did not disclose his last name. I work in the finance field and Ive seen people I work with have their dreams destroyed right in front of them ever since 2008.
No major party candidate will ever do anything besides what the people who write his cheque will tell him to do, and thats the bottom line, said Ryan, a senior at Rutgers University, who also kept his last name to himself.
Obama is a puppet, it wouldnt matter if its him or John McCain, hes got so many hands up his butt, Greg added. Both protesters believe nonviolent resistance is one of the few democratic options left in the U.S. Every single one of us has to be put up with getting arrested. We cant be scared of that. They displayed their forearms, with phone numbers written in marker for the National Lawyers Guild.
Over the next few days, the activists penetrated Wall Street, engaged in street theatre, and posted their updates to the Internet. The demonstrations put Mayor Bloomberg in something of a bind. With the UN General Assembly in process, he couldnt risk coming off like a mini-Mubarek through a police crackdown. But as the floor manager for hypercapitalisms chop shop, he wasnt about to allow the protest to persist indefinitely, and risk losing control of Manhattans barricaded streets.
The first police assaults began Sept. 24. You can find videos online of NYPD dragging women in the streets and macing other peacefully demonstrating females in the face. True to form, for a week the national press in both the U.S. and Canada succeeded in sweeping images and information from Occupy Wall Street under the carpet.
This is where the hope of America lies, said former New York Times war correspondent Chris Hedges from Liberty Plaza, in video posted to YouTube. The protesters are conservatives in this sense, they call for the rule of law. The real radicals are the rapacious oligarchic class.
As of this writing, Occupy Wall Street is ongoing.
www.geoffolson.com
