Naomi Klein: Occupy Wall Street: The Most Important Thing in the World Now.

[backscatter712]

http://www.thenation.com/article/163844/occupy-wall-street-most-important-thing-world-now

I love you.

And I didn’t just say that so that hundreds of you would shout “I love you” back, though that is obviously a bonus feature of the human microphone. Say unto others what you would have them say unto you, only way louder.

Yesterday, one of the speakers at the labor rally said: “We found each other.” That sentiment captures the beauty of what is being created here. A wide-open space (as well as an idea so big it can’t be contained by any space) for all the people who want a better world to find each other. We are so grateful.

If there is one thing I know, it is that the 1 percent loves a crisis. When people are panicked and desperate and no one seems to know what to do, that is the ideal time to push through their wish list of pro-corporate policies: privatizing education and social security, slashing public services, getting rid of the last constraints on corporate power. Amidst the economic crisis, this is happening the world over.

And there is only one thing that can block this tactic, and fortunately, it’s a very big thing: the 99 percent. And that 99 percent is taking to the streets from Madison to Madrid to say “No. We will not pay for your crisis.”

[myrna minx]

1. It's exciting to see a movement form so organically. This has returned hope to my cynical

heart. :grouphug:

[chill_wind]

2. Big K & R.

[jwirr]

3. Beautifully stated. She is so good.

[closeupready]

4. Naomi Klein for president!

:D K&R

[seafan]

5. Even banned microphones will not stop the message at Occupy Wall Street.

The authoritarians do not want The People to see, hear, engage, plan, take action.

Hence, prohibiting microphones at Occupy Wall Street.


Just as disgraceful as the GOP leadership denying a meeting room to a Democratic leader in 2005, forcing John Conyers to hold meetings on the Downing Street Minutes in a basement room.

In June of 2005, John Conyers took on the US government and its complicit media lapdogs. For weeks, a media blackout had suppressed any serious coverage of the so-called Downing Street Minutes that implicated both George Bush and Tony Blair in a pre-war plot to sell their plans to invade Iraq. John Conyers took it upon himself to hold an extraordinary public hearing that would offer evidence of the Bush administration's "efforts to cook the books on pre-war intelligence. __The Downing Street Minutes had been published weeks before in the foreign press, yet the news media in the US paid little attention to the story or its importance. Despite being relegated to a tiny basement room for his hearing by the GOP leadership, Mr. Conyers refused to be deterred. He chaired a most dignified and memorable conference that included a small number of other courageous Congress persons and an array of concerned speakers. __Under the leadership of John Conyers, these true patriots brought the message of the Downing Street Minutes to the American public. ---Link

The authoritarians will not survive this.



Occupy Wall Street: The Most Important Thing in the World Now

From Naomi Klein, at Occupy Wall Street, via "the human microphone":

October 6, 2011

.....

Occupy Wall Street, on the other hand, has chosen a fixed target. And you have put no end date on your presence here. This is wise. Only when you stay put can you grow roots. This is crucial. It is a fact of the information age that too many movements spring up like beautiful flowers but quickly die off. It’s because they don’t have roots. And they don’t have long term plans for how they are going to sustain themselves. So when storms come, they get washed away.

.....

Something else this movement is doing right: You have committed yourselves to non-violence. You have refused to give the media the images of broken windows and street fights it craves so desperately. And that tremendous discipline has meant that, again and again, the story has been the disgraceful and unprovoked police brutality. Which we saw more of just last night. Meanwhile, support for this movement grows and grows. More wisdom.

.....

The point is, today everyone can see that the system is deeply unjust and careening out of control. Unfettered greed has trashed the global economy. And it is trashing the natural world as well. We are overfishing our oceans, polluting our water with fracking and deepwater drilling, turning to the dirtiest forms of energy on the planet, like the Alberta tar sands. And the atmosphere cannot absorb the amount of carbon we are putting into it, creating dangerous warming. The new normal is serial disasters: economic and ecological.

These are the facts on the ground. They are so blatant, so obvious, that it is a lot easier to connect with the public than it was in 1999, and to build the movement quickly.

.....

My favorite sign here says, “I care about you.” In a culture that trains people to avoid each other’s gaze, to say, “Let them die,” that is a deeply radical statement. ..... Let’s treat this beautiful movement as if it is most important thing in the world. Because it is. It really is.

Sir, The People are coming.

[WillyT]

6. + 1,000,000,000... What Naomi Said !!! - HUGE K & R !!!

:bounce:

:loveya:

:hi:

:kick:

[Zorra]

7. Awesome. Thanks.

Am emailing this to try to get fence sitters on the ground.