The United States Constitution begins with the words, “We the People…” and guarantees citizens the right to “peaceably…assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” (First Amendment). The growing “Occupy Wall Street” movement, begun in late September 2011, is the most recent example of mass dissent, yet key political leaders like House Majority Leader Eric Cantor refer to the angry crowds as a “mob,” reminiscent of Vice President Spiro Agnew’s characterization of anti-war protesters as “…effete…impudent snobs” in October 1969.
Causes of the Occupied Wall Street Movement
One protester, interviewed briefly on NBC News (October 7, 2011, national news), claimed that, “this is our Arab Spring.” Another protester lost a $100,000-a-year job over a year ago and has been unemployed ever since. The movement began in New York as a protest of corporate greed, but the ancillary causes of mass anger are many. The movement has sparked similar rallies across the nation and has been compared to the Tea Party movement in terms of its "grassroots" appeal.
The movement began publication of its own newspaper, the Occupied Wall Street Journal. One of the front-page articles is titled “Pushed Out of Our Homes And Into The Street,” recounting how Bank of America was evicting the writer’s mother and stepdad from a home that had been in his stepdad’s family for 100 years. The writer, David Kempa, asks, “Didn’t Bank of America get more than $100 billion in bailouts?”
Another article highlights the number of Americans unemployed, without health insurance, and living in poverty. Corporate greed, symbolized by Wall Street, is linked to real, everyday concerns. These concerns include mortgage foreclosures, large corporations hoarding profits, and the increasing “small fees” felt by Americans such as Bank of America’s decision to charge a $5.00 monthly fee for use of debit cards. Bank of America was following similar practices by other banks, but the Charlotte, NC-based bank has become the whipping boy of big banks by the public.
Critics and Responses to Occupied Wall Street
Critics of the movement, like Georgia’s Rep. Paul Broun who characterized the protests as an “attack upon freedom” (Top Line, ABC News, October 7, 2011), refuse to acknowledge that American job-loss is related to outsourcing, a practice fully condoned by Congress when it was controlled by Republicans and the President was George W. Bush.
Broun, Cantor, and Mitt Romney, who referred to the movement as “class warfare” (CBS News, October 4, 2011), fail to appreciate history. During times of stress, Americans have always availed themselves of the right to protest. The nation was born out of protest against the perceived oppression of Great Britain during the colonial period.
In 1894 Coxey’s Army marched on Washington, DC during a period of prolonged economic depression. In early 1932, Walter Waters led the “Bonus Army” to the nation’s capital to publicize veteran's grievances and to pressure Congress. It was another period of high unemployment and economic depression. The right to protest is not un-American and doesn’t pit one American against another.
The 1960’s witnessed the most recent movements of mass protest and although usually associated with opposition to the Vietnam War, they encompassed a broader range of issues including women’s rights, gay rights, and racial equality. In his book America’s Uncivil Wars, historian Mark Lytle writes that, “In a world of such tumult we were barely afloat, rushing down stream with no sense where we would end up.”
Protest and Dissent force Changes
Occupied Wall Street will be blessed, criticized, and politicized, but ultimately the movement will draw attention to the need for change. Hundreds of thousands of protesters in forty-five states – as of October 7, 2011, cannot be ignored. Republican leaders in the House have admitted that no major jobs bill will come before the session ends despite a national unemployment rate of 9.1% in September 2011 (Bureau of Labor Statistics figures).
According to the top ten national polls, Congressional disapproval was 80% or higher (Polling Report). Such figures correlate to the “enough-is-enough” mentality of ordinary common sense Americans that aren’t seeking a government dole but want decisive policies to improve the economy and thereby stimulate job growth. The Occupied Wall Street movement reflects these concerns and is attracting people who have been forced to set aside the American Dream.
The success of the movement will not mean an end to capitalism or the free enterprise system, as alluded to by Congressman Broun. It will mean, however, a reappraisal of how that system works in a global economy and with a government that has encouraged outsourcing and the bailing out of corporations deemed “too big to fail.”
References:
- Sarah B. Boxer, “Romney decries anti-Wall Street protests as ‘Class Warfare,’” CBS News, October 4, 2011
- Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Josh Lederman, “Cantor Slams Wall Street ‘Mobs’ and Democrats for egging them on,” The Hill, October 7, 2011
- Mark Hamilton Lytle, America’s Uncivil Wars (Oxford University Press, 2006)
- Occupied Wall Street Journal
- Ed Pilkington, "Occupy Wall Street: tea party leaders admit similarities - but not to many," Guardian, October 7, 2011
- PollingReport.com
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