350.org activists join Occupy Wall Street. (photo: 350.org/flickr)
Climate Change Fight Is Down to the 99%
10 October 11
Our movement differs from previous anti-globalisation protests. To change society's values we must stay together for years.
f there is one thing I know, it's that the 1% loves a crisis. When people are panicked and desperate, that is the ideal time to push through their wishlist of pro-corporate policies: privatising 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.There is only one thing that can block this tactic, and fortunately, it's a very big thing: the 99%. And that 99% is taking to the streets from Madison to Madrid to say: "No. We will not pay for your crisis."
That slogan began in Italy in 2008. It ricocheted to Greece and France and Ireland and finally it has made its way to the square mile where the crisis began.
Many people have drawn parallels between Occupy Wall Street and the so-called anti-globalisation protests that came to world attention in Seattle in 1999. That was the last time a global, youth-led, decentralised movement took direct aim at corporate power. And I am proud to have been part of what we called "the movement of movements."
But there are important differences too. We chose summits as our targets: the World Trade Organisation, the IMF, the G8. Summits are transient, they only last a week. That made us transient too. And in the frenzy of hyper-patriotism and militarism that followed 9/11, it was easy to sweep us away completely, at least in North America.
Occupy Wall Street, on the other hand, has chosen a fixed target. And no end date. 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.
Being horizontal and deeply democratic is wonderful. These principles are compatible with the hard work of building structures and institutions that are sturdy enough to weather the storms ahead. I have great faith that this will happen.
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.
But the biggest difference a decade makes is that in 1999, we were taking on capitalism at the peak of a frenzied economic boom. Unemployment was low, stock portfolios were bulging. The media were drunk on easy money. It was all about start-ups, not shut-downs.
We pointed out that the deregulation behind the frenzy came at a price. It was damaging to labour standards. It was damaging to environmental standards. Corporations were becoming more powerful than governments and that was damaging to our democracies. But to be honest with you, while the good times rolled, taking on an economic system based on greed was a tough sell, at least in rich countries.
Ten years later, it seems as if there aren't any more rich countries. Just a whole lot of rich people. People who got rich looting the public wealth and exhausting natural resources around the world.
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 we are trashing the natural world. 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. The atmosphere can't 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.
We all know, or at least sense, that the world is upside down: we act as if there is no end to what is actually finite: fossil fuels and the atmospheric space to absorb their emissions. And we act as if there are strict and immovable limits to what is actually bountiful: the financial resources to build the kind of society we need.
The task of our time is to turn this round: to challenge this false scarcity. To insist that we can afford to build a decent, inclusive society - while at the same time respect the real limits to what the earth can take.
What climate change means is that we have to do this on a deadline. This time our movement cannot get distracted, divided, burned out or swept away by events. This time we have to succeed. And I'm not talking about regulating the banks and increasing taxes on the rich, though that's important.
I am talking about changing the underlying values that govern our society. That is hard to fit into a single media-friendly demand, and it's also hard to figure out how to do it. But it is no less urgent for being difficult.That is what I see happening in this square. In the way you are feeding each other, keeping each other warm, sharing information freely and providing health care, meditation classes and empowerment training. 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.
We have picked a fight with the most powerful economic and political forces on the planet. That's frightening. And as this movement grows from strength to strength, it will get more frightening. Always be aware that there will be a temptation to shift to smaller targets - like, say, the person next to you. Don't give into the temptation. This time, let's treat each other as if we plan to work side by side in struggle for many, many years to come. Because the task before us will demand nothing less.
Let's treat this beautiful movement as if it is the most important thing in the world. Because it is. It really is.
This is a version of a speech delivered on Thursday, that first appeared in print in the Occupied Wall Street Journal.
Hello, William
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Comments
We have got to stick together if we want the change we all crave.
And I am impressed that there is no violence or willful destruction of property. It is great.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Some politicians want to do something, but they are being blocked. And they don't really understand how serious and urgent the situation is either. If they did, they'd do something, and they’d say something.
It's not 99% of us yet who even believe anything out of the ordinary is happening. Many of us know something it coming but think it won't happen until after we are dead, or it won't happen where we live. But it's already having an effect on all of us. It's helping drive up food prices all over the world. We all eat. Some starve. High food prices is one of the causes of the recent instability (demonstrations , riots, revolutions).
We have only seen a tiny fraction of what is to come. It's sneaking up on us, and seems like it's moving slowly. But it has so much momentum, it's already very difficult to slow down. Later, it will be impossible. We have to do something now. Our leaders won't do what is needed, unless we make them. So let's make them, and do whatever else we can.
Perhaps brycenuc can provide some "actual scientific" reports, resources, citations for the robust evidence for these generalizations . I'd be interested to read such sources, also to explore where funding for robust evidence-I'm open. I'm sure bryce is a good person, but have no reason to believe is an "actual scientist" given the unscientific rhetoric.
Not just, as some said, to our country. It is to THE WORLD. We can not protect ourselves. We are not an island, who can escape diaster, if we play our cards right. The countries of the world MUST work together
That is why it is tragig that America did not take the lead in protecting the planet when it became obvious, that we are in danger. Back then we were respected. Unfortunately we are not now. We have squandered a lot of good will, since Bush took the helm of the country.
I don't know if we are too late.
But with the republicans in TOTAL DENIAL, (even those , who do understand) there is not much chance for us.
Republicans walk in lockstep, right or wrong and that is what is destroying the country. And endangering the entire world
So What Are the 99% up against? For starters, the 1% don't "make" money; they *create* it. One adopts a much different view of the world when they have unlimited resources at their disposal. It is not about 'making' money (this is a common misperception among the surfs); it is about the control of society. Unfortunately most fail to appreciate the ultimate power that comes with the authority to 'create money'. 99% of the 99% really have no clue what they are up against. False solutions and compromises will be the name of the game; until we revalue our fundamental unit of trade (the dollar) on a solid foundation, the money system will always be gamed by the 3% (1% and their hangers-on). It is not enough to be awake, we must also be paying attention.
"Nationalize money but do not nationalize banking"
- Prof. Irving Fisher, 1936.
Maybe this time we'll get it right.
You are right that the planet can take the changes we are making, just like it could take the changes that led to mass extinctions in the past. The question is, do we want to cause another mass extinction now, or do we want to avoid one? Life will go on even if billions of us suffer and die, even if humans go extinct, but that is no reason to let it happen!
A few decades from now, if we don't stop global warming, you will wish someone put you in a camp with enough food and water to survive on. Flying killer robots will be the least of your worries.
Not to worry, The Camps won't be feeding "useless eaters" very much anyway. Meanwhile, we in Michigan would like to know where all this warming is taking place so we might import some of it here.
It's not the 1% that is over consuming the fish of the sea or the fossil fuels. It's us!
Our effect on the ecosystem vary with the number of people and their level of consumption.
We need massive concentration on convincing all to moderate the population instead of admitting that IVF and surrogacy are appropriate for we Westerners while we wish constraint for others. Secondly, we need a graduated income tax that starts at the subsistence level and escalates to 100% of some very high marginal dollar.
Oh and Naomi there's no limit on the carbon dioxide teh atmoaphere can absorb.
But there is a minimum on the amount of Oxygen we need to stay alive.
so your begging for a 'right' to enslave others based upon their ability to produce.
Yea I get it::
From each slave according to their ability,
To each master according to their need.
Feeding the world? Seriously, you believe that our agriculture is meant to feed the world? The goal is PROFIT, money! It is not to reduce starvation. Feeding the world would cause the price to drop and people who want more money fight wars and kill people over that kind of result. It has never been about feeding the world. Please, abuse yourself of that illusion.
You have also not addressed the true nature of temperature change which is a cyclic natural phenomenon. This is not to say that mankind is not being forced to continue ignorantly polluting the planet by continuing to use oil-based fuels - but it paints the true picture of what is happening and helps educate a misinformed populace about what is really happening.
"We all know, or at least sense, that the world is upside down: we act as if there is no end to what is actually finite: fossil fuels and the atmospheric space to absorb their emissions. And we act as if there are strict and immovable limits to what is actually bountiful: the financial resources to build the kind of society we need."
Because that technology should have been disclosed and put to work in the public domain a long time ago, I wrote a petition on the well-hyped White House petition website to do that, which RSN graciously allowed me to link: http://wh.gov/2DH
I am disappointed but not surprised to tell you the site is a fraud. Tuesday signatures totaled 21 in the afternoon and 8 in the evening. Wednesday it totaled 9 signatures. I visited with my main soldier in the effort, and suspect the page had hundreds of hits yesterday. Clearly the site is a political tool, not an exercise in participatory democracy.
But keep trying to post a signature please, and watch the magic disappearing total. That too is visually observable.
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