Occupy Wall Street Ends Capitalism's Alibi
This protest pinpoints how dysfunctional our economic system is: we must refashion it for human needs, not corporate aims

by Richard Wolff
Occupy Wall Street has already weathered the usual early storms. The kept media ignored the protest, but that failed to end it. The partisans of inequality mocked it, but that failed to end it. The police servants of the status quo over-reacted and that failed to end it – indeed, it fueled the fire. And millions looking on said, "Wow!" And now, ever more people are organizing local, parallel demonstrations – from Boston to San Francisco and many places between.

Let me urge the occupiers to ignore the usual carping that besets powerful social movements in their earliest phases. Yes, you could be better organized, your demands more focused, your priorities clearer. All true, but in this moment, mostly irrelevant. Here is the key: if we want a mass and deep-rooted social movement of the left to re-emerge and transform the United States, we must welcome the many different streams, needs, desires, goals, energies and enthusiasms that inspire and sustain social movements. Now is the time to invite, welcome and gather them, in all their profusion and confusion.
It is long overdue in the US for us to have a genuine conversation and struggle over our current economic system. Capitalism has gotten a free pass for far too long. (photo: pfarnac1)

The next step – and we are not there yet – will be to fashion the program and the organization to realize it. It's fine to talk about that now, to propose, debate and argue. But it is foolish and self-defeating to compromise achieving inclusive growth – now within our reach – for the sake of program and organization. The history of the US left is littered with such programs and organizations without a mass movement behind them or at their core.

So permit me, in the spirit of honoring and contributing something to this historic movement, to propose yet another dimension, another item to add to your agenda for social change. To achieve the goals of this renewed movement, we must finally change the organization of production that sustains and reproduces inequality and injustice. We need to replace the failed structure of our corporate enterprises that now deliver profits to so few, pollute the environment we all depend on, and corrupt our political system.

We need to end stock markets and boards of directors. The capacity to produce the goods and services we need should belong to everyone – just like the air, water, healthcare, education and security on which we likewise depend. We need to bring democracy to our enterprises. The workers within and the communities around enterprises can and should collectively shape how work is organized, what gets produced, and how we make use of the fruits of our collective efforts.

If we believe democracy is the best way to govern our residential communities, then it likewise deserves to govern our workplaces. Democracy at work is a goal that can help build this movement.

We all know that moving in this direction will elicit the screams of "socialism" from the usual predictable corners. The tired rhetoric lives on long after the cold war that orchestrated it fades out of memory. The audience for that rhetoric is fast fading, too. It is long overdue in the US for us to have a genuine conversation and struggle over our current economic system. Capitalism has gotten a free pass for far too long.

We take pride in questioning, challenging, criticizing and debating our health, education, military, transportation and other basic social institutions. We argue whether their current structures and functioning serve our needs. We work our way to changing them so they perform better. And so it should be.

Yet, for decades now, we have failed to similarly question, challenge, criticize and debate our economic system: capitalism. Because a taboo protected capitalism, cheerleading and celebrating it became obligatory. Criticism and questions got banished as heresy, disloyalty or worse. Behind the protective taboo, capitalism degenerated into the ineffective, unequal, crisis-ridden social disaster we all now bear.

Capitalism is the problem – and the joblessness, homelessness, insecurity, and austerity it now imposes everywhere are the costs we bear. We have the people, the skills and the tools to produce the goods and services needed for a just society to prosper. We just need to reorganize our producing units differently, to go beyond a capitalist economic system that no longer serves our needs.

Humanity learned to do without kings and emperors and slave masters. We found our way to a democratic alternative, however partial and unfinished the democratic project remains. We can now take the next step to realize that democratic project. We can bring democracy to our enterprises – by transforming them into cooperatives owned, operated and governed by democratic assemblies composed of all who work in them and all the residents of the communities who are interdependent with them.

Let me conclude by offering a slogan: "The US can do better than corporate capitalism." Let that be an idea and a debate that this renewed movement can engage. Doing so would give an immense gift to the US and the world. It would break through the taboo, finally subjecting capitalism to the critiques and debates it has evaded for far too long – and at far too great a cost to all of us.

Occupy Wall Street Ends Capitalism's Alibi | Common Dreams

Protestors’ Message Pretty Simple and Clear: Enough Is Enough
by Donna Smith

No matter how the media folks seem befuddled by what they claim is a lack of clarity from those at the Occupy Wall Street and its solidarity events throughout the nation, I hear one clear and concise message from them all. I am not speaking for them, but I live where they live in life and in spirit. And there are millions more like me out here. Enough is enough.

Working people in this nation have always given themselves to a hard day’s work for honest pay at a living wage and decent benefits and modest time off for a brief annual vacation or to stay home sick when needed. But as the decades of assault on the working class have continued from the 1980s forward, workers have had to do more with less both at work and at home and have been expected to be cheerful, even grateful, while doing so. Enough is enough.
The demand is for an end to the near domination of every human endeavor in this nation by the forces on Wall Street and their loyalists in government and elsewhere. Enough is enough. (photo: Sasha Kimel)

Working class young people and college students who used to have choices about their futures based on their own desires about what they wanted to do as adults and as a their vocations and avocations have now been forced to take on massive debt to attend college or to begin their adult work lives searching for jobs that tens of thousands of unemployed older adults need too. Enough is enough.

Meanwhile, CEO salaries escalated. Corporate profits skyrocketed. Enough is enough.

In Washington, D.C., and in the individual states too, politicians of every stripe sought big money donors and promised they’d deliver for those donors – even played the working class voters for fools as they promised them they cared about issues like education and healthcare and housing and clean air and water, public safety and poverty. They didn’t really care about anything except what the big money donors paid them to care about. Enough is enough.

You took working class sons and daughters to war – sometimes for reasons clearly in your own self interests – and taught them to crave your world view and to see their own families as failures even as you paid them terrible wages and slashed their benefits. You didn’t really care about honor and country. You spoke of love of America and love of soldiers but really loved only one thing over all else: profit, power and privilege and using all means to achieve those things you valued. Enough is enough.

Meanwhile, the bankers and Wall Street traders speculated and bought and sold everything that could be bought or sold. Richer and richer, more brazen and more broad, the power and control Wall Street interests held over everything and everyone grew exponentially. Real estate loans were made and inflated then dumped. Corporations became people, said the highest court in the land. People became fodder for profit, Wall Street positioned. Most of the politicians nodded in ready appreciation of the power you held over the land – the world. Enough is enough.

“What are the occupiers’ demands?” ask many in the media and those otherwise paid to be confused by the clarity? The demand is for an end to the near domination of every human endeavor in this nation by the forces on Wall Street and their loyalists in government and elsewhere. Enough is enough.

Gordon Gecko (and his writers) said it clearly for the Wall Street crowd years ago, “Greed is good.” Even if it was a line in a movie, it was a classic and a rallying cry and solemn prayer for a generation of greedy profiteers. Enough is enough.

The occupiers on Wall Street and those occupiers in solidarity all over America (and the world) are finally answering, “Greed is not so good. Greed kills. Greed steals homes. Greed steals health. Greed steals future dreams. Greed steals study time. Greed steals time away from building a life, getting married, having babies and someday retiring in dignity. Greed is not good. And the changes of policy and in practice need to occur to reverse the advancement of unbridled greed must be done and done as forcefully and clearly as is possible. Just as you all knew how best to protect and advance the systems for your friends in the greedy 1 percent, you know those policies and practices which would benefit those in the 99 percent. Enough is enough.

We’ve told you over and over again. We want an equal shot at decent lives -- not a handout or free rides. The working class has never asked for that – but Wall Street lovers sure have. What you’ve given us is no choice but to take to the streets as you’ve closed the hearing rooms and the board rooms and even the break rooms (no worker deserves any breaks do they?). Enough is enough.

We’ve had to act grateful for crumbs but then you even scooped those crumbs up for yourselves and your Wall Street cronies. We’ve had to act cheerful though every policy decision in favor of the wealthy and powerful few felt like another beating and yet another tamping down of our ability to ever get out of our economic slumps. “Be grateful you even have a job. If you don’t want it, someone else will.” Isn’t that your mantra to us? Pit worker against worker, neighbor against neighbor. Enough is enough.

Having your crumbs is not enough. Working class people in increasing numbers have absolutely no reserves left upon which to draw. Our wealth was funneled to all of you on Wall Street and your friends. We do not wish to be you. We wish to be fully human and free of your greedy domination. Enough is enough.

We do not look at you with the wide-eyed stares of those who admire your accomplishments. You squashed people. You stepped on whoever and whatever was in your way to get your wealth and position. We abhor what you represent about the human condition and your desire to prove your superiority. We can see it when you look at us like you might be ill if you have to suffer being in our presence. Enough is enough.

The demand? Our human dignity back. Our chances to work decent jobs for a living wage with decent benefits in safe workplaces. Our chances to look forward to growing old in a dignified retirement with those we love. Decent homes in safe communities with clean air and water and good schools for our kids. Access to a single standard of high quality healthcare should we get sick or hurt without being forced into bankruptcy. In short, we demand those decencies and common goods a civilized society affords itself through shared effort and funding. Taxing the rich isn’t unfair class warfare, but taxing the working class at a much higher rate to keep the rich happy sure is. Enough is enough.

For you enough was never and will never be enough. For us, your unwashed masses and the fodder for your profits and continued greed, enough has become enough. Finally.

Protestors? Message Pretty Simple and Clear: Enough Is Enough | Common Dreams

Originally Posted by contracycle

I am not speaking for them....

... but I'll speak for them anyway.

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Enough is enough.

Fair enough, I am tired of it too.

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Working people in this nation have always given themselves to a hard day’s work for honest pay at a living wage and decent benefits and modest time off for a brief annual vacation or to stay home sick when needed.

What? Not in other nations?

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“Be grateful you even have a job. If you don’t want it, someone else will.” Isn’t that your mantra to us? Pit worker against worker, neighbor against neighbor. Enough is enough.

Well, now that you mention it, Chinese workers still want those jobs. What are you going to tell them? Let me guess... Enough is enough? It might not work. They got guns too.

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We do not look at you with the wide-eyed stares of those who admire your accomplishments. You squashed people. You stepped on whoever and whatever was in your way to get your wealth and position.

I thought it was stolen over centuries and decades of capitalist theft?

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We abhor what you represent about the human condition and your desire to prove your superiority.

Maybe you do. How many people buy OK Magazine and fantasize about that supposedly perfect, glamorous life they see?

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The demand? Our human dignity back. Our chances to work decent jobs for a living wage with decent benefits in safe workplaces. Our chances to look forward to growing old in a dignified retirement with those we love. Decent homes in safe communities with clean air and water and good schools for our kids. Access to a single standard of high quality healthcare should we get sick or hurt without being forced into bankruptcy.

Okay, you know, I agree. However, in my most sober moment, I do wonder about one thing. Could we really do that across the planet? Across the western world, that's obvious enough - We used to have it, pretty much. We can squabble about how clean the water was. But across the world? I'd like to see some numbers. I'd hope we can (else, it implies some people have to live badly or die, which I don't like because there are no guarantees we'd win that fight, despite the odds being in our favour) but I'd like to be sure.

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Enough Is Enough

Bisigna cambiare tutto per non cambiare nulla...

Otherwise, what Gilles said.

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What exactly was the point of all that?

That, while saying "Enough is enough" is easy enough, it doesn't give us much to go on. So you're pissed off. Join the club.

And the OP pathetically fail to address the core sticking point she correctly identified. The fact that other people can do our jobs for cheaper. The rest is nice poetry and powerful emotional display but it isn't anything real.

Z was just being a bit more negative. The translation of her quote is something like "we need to change everything so that nothing changes".

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Originally Posted by Gilles de Rais

That, while saying "Enough is enough" is easy enough, it doesn't give us much to go on. So you're pissed off. Join the club.

Well, yes. This is just a person stating her position and motives. It's not a policy document.

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And the OP pathetically fail to address the core sticking point she correctly identified. The fact that other people can do our jobs for cheaper. The rest is nice poetry and powerful emotional display but it isn't anything real.

That's not the "core sticking point", that's just one of many problems with capitalism. All you're saying again is that the present system obliges us to scrape and bow to the real holders of powers, the capitalists, and they are asking the question, why should we? Why why should they support a status quo that is not to their benefit?

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Z was just being a bit more negative. The translation of her quote is something like "we need to change everything so that nothing changes".

A better observation would be that EVERYTHING needs to be changed at once.

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Well, yes. This is just a person stating her position and motives. It's not a policy document.

So why the bollocks should we pay her any attention then? I can scream that "Something must be done!" too.

So they want more borrowing. Then what?

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A better observation would be that EVERYTHING needs to be changed at once.

That's what I said.

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Originally Posted by Zichao

So why the bollocks should we pay her any attention then? I can scream that "Something must be done!" too.

Mainly because everyone tends to think they know what people on demos think, and also to treat them as a single mass. I've seen a lot of comments to the effect that these are all witless unemployed bums who don't know what they want.

Plus, this is more than "something must done": this is a demand for the change of which Obama offered the hope. Capitalism is losing consent.

The US left is broken and fragmented, and its a long way from articulating a programme, but on the other hand they're on a well trodden road. Soon enough they will find the marks of those who have gone before.

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So they want more borrowing. Then what?

She didn't say that. She said she wants to not be robbed by capitalist crooks.

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That's what I said.

Quite so:

The machinery of government, entrusted with the maintenance of the existing order, continues to function, but at every turn of its deteriorated gears it slips and stops. Its working becomes more and more difficult, and the dissatisfaction caused by its defects grows continuously. Every day gives rise to a new demand. "Reform this," "reform that," is heard from all sides. "War, finance, taxes, courts. police, everything must be remodeled, reorganized, established on a new basis," say the reformers. And vet all know that it is impossible to make things over, to remodel anything at all because everything is interrelated; everything would have to be remade at once; and how can society be remodeled when it is divided into two openly hostile camps? To satisfy the discontented would be only to create new malcontents.

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Mainly because everyone tends to think they know what people on demos think, and also to treat them as a single mass. I've seen a lot of comments to the effect that these are all witless unemployed bums who don't know what they want. Plus, this is more than "something must done": this is a demand for the change of which Obama offered the hope. Capitalism is losing consent. The US left is broken and fragmented, and its a long way from articulating a programme, but on the other hand they're on a well trodden road. Soon enough they will find the marks of those who have gone before.

Well I guess that shows them what not to do if they don't want their utopia to turn into totalitarian genocide. It still doesn't provide them with many concrete policies, though.

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She didn't say that. She said she wants to not be robbed by capitalist crooks.

And if you want it hard enough it'll happen, just like that. Ah, no. I'm thinking of turning into a real boy.

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Quite so: The machinery of government, entrusted with the maintenance of the existing order, continues to function, but at every turn of its deteriorated gears it slips and stops. Its working becomes more and more difficult, and the dissatisfaction caused by its defects grows continuously. Every day gives rise to a new demand. "Reform this," "reform that," is heard from all sides. "War, finance, taxes, courts. police, everything must be remodeled, reorganized, established on a new basis," say the reformers. And vet all know that it is impossible to make things over, to remodel anything at all because everything is interrelated; everything would have to be remade at once; and how can society be remodeled when it is divided into two openly hostile camps? To satisfy the discontented would be only to create new malcontents.

Don't the malcontents get put in a zoo à la that scifi story you were talking about last night?

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