Wall Street protesters: We're in for the long haul

[garbon]

Those most recent photos of the protest in Seattle make me sick. Not because the police used pepper spray but because the protestors were willing to exploit a pregnant woman and elderly woman.

[The Minsky Moment]

Why?  What does that have to do with anything?

It was the original critique of the Great Society.  By a leading Democrat, God bless his soul.

You mean this guy?
http://econ161.berkeley.edu/politics/danielpatrickmoynihansspee.html

[Admiral Yi]

You mean this guy?
http://econ161.berkeley.edu/politics/danielpatrickmoynihansspee.html

Without checking the link I'm going to guess that's the Daniel Moynihan I was talking about.

[crazy canuck]

You mean this guy?
http://econ161.berkeley.edu/politics/danielpatrickmoynihansspee.html

Without checking the link I'm going to guess that's the Daniel Moynihan I was talking about.

Close.  Daniel Patrick moynihansspee.

[Razgovory]

 

[garbon]

http://news.yahoo.com/occupy-wall-streets-day-disruption-begins-150046931.html

Occupy Wall Street's Day of Disruption Begins

New York City activists, angry at having been evicted from their encampment, have vowed a "Day of Action" today including a threatened shut-down of the New York Stock Exchange, an "occupation" of 14 subway stations and, for the second time in two months, a re-occupation of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Protest organizers claim today's events, falling on the two-month anniversary of the Occupy movement, will be their biggest yet. A New York City deputy mayor said yesterday that officials are bracing for the possibility that thousands may try to clog subways and bridges. Occupy protesters in other US cities are also planning disruptions.

The group in a news release announced it would rally near the New York Stock Exchange, then head to subways and march over the Brooklyn Bridge. "Resist austerity. Rebuild the economy. Reclaim our democracy," the group wrote

"The protesters are calling for a massive event aimed at disrupting major parts of the city," New York Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson said in a news conference. "We will be prepared for that."

Amid reports that protesters would don suits and try to infiltrate the financial district, New York police this morning were asking people going to the Wall Street area to show company IDs indicating they belong there, WABC-TV reported.

Amid arrests and scattered violence, Occupy groups around the country have been evicted in recent days from campsites in Portland, Oregon; Denver, Oakland, New York, St. Louis and other cities. Meantime, the movement's system for self-governance has been evolving, and its character has grown "more militant" in the words of Adbusters, the Canadian magazine and activist organization that originally gave rise to Occupy.

Adbusters reports the change in self-governance occurred in late October, when the "structure working group" of OWS's General Assembly pushed through a "modified spokes council model" that lays the foundation for a far larger, even global spokescouncil.

"We are beginning to see," says an Adbusters member, "how the Occupy movement will elevate itself into an international force."

In the U.S., its support from organized labor is increasing, as is its willingness to engage in violence, manifested by property damage in Oakland and other cities.

Meantime, a recent survey of OWS members by Hector R. Cordero-Guzman, Ph.D, of the School of Public Affairs at New York's Baruch College, sheds new light on who they are: Young (64.2 percent are under 34), well educated, white (81.3 percent) and male (67 percent). Only half are employed full-time. Over 70 percent say they are independents politically, 27 percent are Democrats, 2.5 percent are Republicans.

Experts, taking these developments and others into account, predict varying futures for Occupy.

Vincent Schiavone, founder and chairman of ListenLogic, a company that monitors social and business trends by analyzing everything from social network chatter to the content of religious sermons, doesn't see OWS going away anytime soon. To the contrary, he says, its presence on social media is "very much growing."

More people are joining—students especially. "There's increased activity on campus." He sees an increased sophistication in how OWS communicates: "They had live blogging of Tuesday night's New York City police action, minute by minute."

There are other ways, says Schiavone, that the OWS of today differs from what the movement was a month ago: There's an increased truculence, he says, as illustrated by protesters' signs making such threats as "Rich, beware. Your days are numbered."

"The words and images are darker, more violent. You see protesters covering their faces now, which they didn't do before." There's more talk of revolution. Increasingly, he says, the targets are conservative political figures. Just yesterday, for example, Herman Cain canceled an appearance in Iowa when his campaign learned that Occupy protesters had targeted it.

He finds it curious that Occupy Oakland chose the Port of Oakland as the prime focus for its general strike, since neither the port nor the shipping industry had figured previously as an Occupy villain. Why didn't they go after some big bank, say, or some other financial target? Schiavone believes the choice is proof of organized labor's increasing involvement in and support of the movement. Unions who support OWS now include the UAW, the SEIU, the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters.

Since Occupy's encampments are only one manifestation of the movement's strength, he doesn't see the loss of them—whether to police actions or winter and weather-related abandonment—as relevant. "It's sustainable without the encampments," he said. What's more significant, he thinks, is the growing number of people involved in the movement online around the world. "Physical encampments, it's true, may be shrinking. But the 'online' encampment, you could say, is growing dramatically."

The most surprising prediction may belong to John Friedman, a senior columnist for Dow Jones' MarketWatch, who sees ad agencies, marketing companies, and other stalwarts of mainstream U.S. business figuring out ways to make money off the very protesters now vowing to pull down the establishment. "It wouldn't surprise me," Friedman says, "to see some shrewd marketing professional on Madison Avenue hungrily eyeing the commercial potential of the rallies."

Farfetched? Not at all, he argues, pointing to how advertisers managed in the early '70s to co-opt the symbols, dress and music of '60s counter-culture radicals. In what he calls a "grotesque premonition," he imagines a future where "breathless New York City tour guides will lead groups to visit the demonstrators.

Remember when tourists flocked in the 1960s to the hippie Haight-Ashbury to 'see the freaks'?"

[Ideologue]

2.5 percent are Republicans

Huh.

[jimmy olsen]

Lol, some guy is waving a big peasant rebel flag outside of wall street.

[Ideologue]

THEY'RE NOT PEASANTS THEY'RE MINOR NOBILITY UPSET WITH YOUR POLICIES THAT'S WHY THEY HAVE THE HIGHEST LAND TECH AVAILABLE IN YOUR TECH GROUP AND OFFENSIVE AND QUALITY MAXED IT MAKES SENSE WHEN YOU DON'T THINK ABOUT WHERE 40,000 OF THEM CAME FROM

--Johann Andersson

[fhdz]

THEY'RE NOT PEASANTS THEY'RE MINOR NOBILITY UPSET WITH YOUR POLICIES THAT'S WHY THEY HAVE THE HIGHEST LAND TECH AVAILABLE IN YOUR TECH GROUP AND OFFENSIVE AND QUALITY MAXED IT MAKES SENSE WHEN YOU DON'T THINK ABOUT WHERE 40,000 OF THEM CAME FROM

--Johann Andersson

[Admiral Yi]

100 arrested.

[crazy canuck]

I earlier reported about my concern for my favourite food cart that used to be set up very near where the occupiers are now doing whatever it is they do.  The cart was forced to move because business had dropped and he was faced with constant harrassment from the protestors.

He was on the news last night along with other food cart owners in the area.  They report business is down about 70% as foot traffic has essentially died in this area (whereas it had been a central foot traffic area).  Some may go out of business if this keeps up.

Way to stand up for the 99%!

[Admiral Yi]

Heard on CNN that the UAW, Teamsters, and some other unions have expressed support for Occupy.

Tactically that doesn't sound like a very smart move.  So I'm all for it.

[Jacob]

Lol, some guy is waving a big peasant rebel flag outside of wall street.

That's an anarchist flag (CNT-FAI in the Spanish Civil War).

[Ideologue]

Heard on CNN that the UAW, Teamsters, and some other unions have expressed support for Occupy.

Tactically that doesn't sound like a very smart move.  So I'm all for it.

For whom and why?  Why wouldn't or shouldn't labor support the left?