Occupiers of Wall Street: Losers or Game Changers

OCCUPIERS OF WALL STREET :

GAME CHANGERS OR LOSERS ?

Published by Bhaskar Sarkar, at Smashwords

Cover art: Sarita Sharma

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Copyright Author Bhaskar Sarkar 2012

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DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the poor and middle class Americans who have lost their jobs to outsourcing and globalization and financial losses incurred by small scale US businesses as a result the neo-liberal capitalistic policies followed by the US Governments since the presidency of Ronald Regan

CONTENTS

Prologue

Chapter 1: Occupiers of Wall Street

Chapter 2: Protest and Protesters

Chapter 3: The Tea Party

Chapter 4: The Politicians Corporate Nexus

Chapter 5: Corporate Excesses

Chapter 6: Budget Deficit and Austerity

Chapter 7: Where Have the Jobs Gone

Chapter 8: Need for a Public Sector

Chapter 9: Strategy for Bringing Change

Epilogue

PROLOGUE

"I am here to celebrate the 30th day of this protest against corporate power… We are concerned about the egregious Wall Street bonuses — particularly after the industry accepted a tax-payer bailout and the middle class continues to be squeezed — I believe it’s time for a fairer system that provides health care, education, and opportunity for all, and rejects corporate influence over government. – Karanja Gacuca, a former Wall Street analyst who is one of the organizers of the Occupy Wall Street" movement on 17 October 2011

The American people are finally showing some signs of disillusionment with the Neo-Liberal capitalism preached and followed in their country. The Ninety Nine Percent have seen their prosperity slide downwards since 1980 when Reganomics and Neo-liberalism took over. But even with 99 percent adult literacy, and 98 percent households owning television, the Ninety Nine Percent have, till now, chosen to suffer their dwindling prosperity in silence. They have agitated against wars but they have never agitated against poverty, against hunger, against dwindling facilities at public schools, against government policies which favor the rich and the corporations at the expense of the Ninety Nine Percent. They have watched in silence as budgets for education, social security and Medicare are slashed and billions of dollars are spent in providing military and economic aid to Israel, Egypt, Georgia, Ukraine, Pakistan etc and on wars to establish American hegemony across the world. They have watched without protest as corporations, in search of profits, and with government connivance, have shipped manufacturing to the third world, out sourced business processes and employed legal and illegal immigrants at home instead of Americans and left almost 20 million Americans unemployed. They have suffered in silence as corporate greed led to the Sub-prime Mortgage crisis and their homes were re-possessed. Paralyzed, they watched the economic meltdown that followed, ate into their investments and sent household incomes plummeting. They have watched in dismay as Republicans blocked increasing taxes of the rich and corporations and refused to allow the debt ceiling to be raised without cuts in government spending which hurt only the "Ninety Nine Percent.

Executive pay has risen five times the 1980 levels while the average salary for the ordinary American worker has remained what it was in 1980. Did the corporate executives and bankers become five times more productive than they were in 1980 while the worker’s productivity remained the same? The rich have been getting richer, the poor have been getting poorer, and the middle class has been getting squeezed as high paying jobs in manufacturing and technology are either shipped abroad or given to H1B visa holders and public sector jobs in education, healthcare, postal services are eliminated in the name of austerity. America ranks one of the highest in child poverty rates in the developed world. Corporate profits are at an all time high, but corporations are paying lower taxes than ever before. Some corporations are not paying any tax at all. At the same time, CEOs, are making record amounts of money. The average CEO makes $11 million a year while the median American income is around $40,000. Why is the One Percent paying taxes at a rate lower than their secretaries, their receptionists, the people who clean their offices, teachers who teach their children and health workers who attend to their medical problems?

Republicans continue to protect this twisted system. Why are Republicans including ordinary poor and middle class American Republicans advocating that the greed of Wall Street be put before the needs of the American people? The answer is simple. In the 2010 elections, corporations spent over $ 275 million in getting politicians elected. They also spent almost $3 billion lobbying the American politicians to support their cause. While some of those donations went to Democrats, the vast majority went to Republicans. It’s no wonder Republicans want less government controls over banks and businesses and more tax cuts and exemptions for the One Percent and multinational corporations. And to add insult to injury, Republican legislators and presidential candidates want to eliminate the protections the middle class gained from the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed by Democrats and signed by Obama.

I thank God that things are changing. I am glad that some of the Ninety Nine Percent are sympathetic to the farmers who are struggling, to students who face mounting debt and fewer good jobs. I am glad that people are protesting against a financial system that benefits a handful of banks at the expense of ordinary people, a system where the same people who are responsible for the financial meltdown and recession are getting away with multimillion dollar bonuses. I am glad that some of the Ninety Nine Percent have mustered the courage to get on to the streets and protest.

Occupy Wall Street is a people powered movement that began on September 17, 2011. About 2,000 people rallied in Lower Manhattan and marched up Broadway. Stopping at Zuccotti Park, an estimated 150 stayed the night and began an encampment. Renaming the space Liberty Square, they kicked off a protest against bank bailouts, corporate greed, and the unchecked power of Wall Street in Washington. As per a recent Time magazine survey, the message of We are the 99% has won the hearts and minds of over half of the American People since the movement started and is gaining ground globally. There were 1500 protests in 82 countries till October 15, 2011. Protests filled streets of financial districts from Berlin to Athens, Auckland to Mumbai, Tokyo to Seoul. In the UK over 3,000 people attempted to occupy the London Stock Exchange. 600 people have begun an occupation of Confederation Park in Ottawa, Canada. In Australia, about 800 people gathered in Sydney’s central business district, carrying cardboard banners and chanting Human need, not corporate greed. Some are shouting Get corporate money out of our leader’s pockets

Critics are calling the movement class warfare and socialism. If it is class warfare, so be it. America always had class warfare. The native Indians (99%) fought the European settlers (1%). The One Percent won. The super rich (1%) have always exploited the slaves and the workers (99%). The One Percent won. The critics of the movement decry the attacks on the corporations or so called job creators. But the reality is that jobs are not being created by the big corporations. The majority of jobs are created from small businesses, none of which are raking in the salaries of the top 1% of wealthy Americans. So asking the top 1% of wealthy Americans to pay their fair share and pay at least as high a tax rate as their workers is not class warfare or an attack on job creators or socialism. It is in fact the American way. The One Percent will try their best to preserve this unjust system. It is now time to stand up and fight for fairness for the middle class and a balanced approach for working class families.

The moot question that now arises is whether the movement can survive and win its battle against the One Percent? There are huge problems. The people on the streets are too few to really worry Wall Street. There are no identifiable leaders or organization. There are no specific goals to be achieved. There is no action plans to bring Wall Street under control and bring about a fair system. Occupiers of Wall Street have been evicted from Liberty Square and other sites they occupied. If the movement is to succeed a lot must change.

This book seeks to suggest what needs to be done and an action plan to achieve the goals. It is an offering of a member of the Ninety Nine Percent to the American people.

The Author

Back to Contents

CHAPTER 1: OCCUPIERS OF WALL STREET

".... You don’t need an economist or the Federal Reserve to tell the American people that the economy is in trouble because they have been experiencing it for years now... We have to stop giving tax breaks to companies that are shipping jobs overseas and invest those tax breaks in companies that are investing in the US," – Barack Obama, American Democrat President in waiting at a debate at University of Texas, Austin on Thursday 21 February 2008.

The Movement

More than three years have passed since Barack Obama became the President of United States. But the economic situation in the United States, in spite of the much publicized upswing, is still grim. Federal and State Government debts are soaring. GDP growth is slow. Unemployment is still very high. Poverty and inequality levels are rising.

The protests against inequality and corporate excesses in New York called Occupy Wall Street were initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters. The protesters gathered at Zucotti Park, New York which was private property. Hence police, who have the authority to remove protesters without protest permits from city parks could not legally force them to move off of it. The participants’ slogan We are the Ninety Nine Percent indicated that the protesters claimed to represent the economically backwards 99 percent of the American people.

The Adbusters floated the idea of a peaceful occupation of Wall Street in mid 2011 to protest corporate influence on the politicians, address a growing disparity in wealth between the top 1 percent and others, and protest against the absence of legal action against the greedy financial institutions that were behind the recent global financial crisis. The idea was spontaneously taken up by a large number of people in the U.S. It just kind of gathered momentum from there. The demonstrations are leaderless. Other groups like the New York City General Assembly and U.S. Day of Rage joined the protest. The protests brought together people of various political views. The protesters included persons of a variety of political orientations, including liberals, political independents, Democrats, Republicans, anarchists, socialists etc. At the start of the protests, the majority of the demonstrators were young. However, as the protest grew the age of the protesters became more diverse. Some news organizations have compared the protesters to a left leaning version opposite of the Tea Party. Some left leaning academics and activists expressed concern that the movement may be co-opted by the Democratic Party. On October 10 and 11, 2012, the polling firm Penn, Schoen and Borland interviewed nearly 200 protesters. Their report indicated that:

98 percent of the protesters would support civil disobedience to achieve their goals.

31 percent would support violence to advance their agenda

Most of the protesters interviewed were employed. Only 15 percent of those interviewed were unemployed

Most had supported Obama

65 percent of people interviewed said that government has a responsibility to