By Haider Ali.
With the people finally waking up to the inner workings of the economic mechanisms, people from all political spectrums have galvanised to challenge the financial terrorists on Wall Street. Yes financial terrorists who have held the country to ransom by threatening to collapse the world markets if the “stimulus” package wasn’t paid. The people have woken up and smelt the coffee after three decades of subjugation at the hands of corporations and banking cronies who via loopholes and influence have managed to wean policy completely in their favour. This has led to the abhorrent austerity measures being imposed on the masses, hence the Wall Street Occupation.
The protesters who are camped out in Wall Street are not the stereotypical protesters that many right-wingers would like you to think. Young, rebellious, pot-smoking individuals who seem hell bent on causing anarchy for the sake of quenching an uncontrollable desire for mayhem. They are people from all creeds, race and different class backgrounds, all mobilised for one goal and that is to end the tyranny that is Wall Street; a tyranny that has slowly amassed a great amount of wealth via fraud and back-handed measures at the expense of social securities, saving and soon pension funds.
Another key issue during the occupation has been the excessive use of sheer brutality by police forces, which has certainly been startling. One cannot dismiss out of hand that some protesters are looking for trouble but the general consensus is the protests against Wall Street and the capitalist cronies residing on the street has been peaceful. Unless you’re a viewer of FOX “news,” you’re unlikely to deviate from this position.
But to get to the crux of the matter, one has to address what grievances there are and whether or not they are indeed legitimate. Many of the unemployed, particularly the young feel dejected and let down by the promises of Obama. He has virtually reneged on many of the promises he made in his manifesto, thus leaving his core support base isolated and deflated. This feeling of discontent has been encapsulated by his economic policy, which stated the creation of more jobs via a stimulus package was a top priority.
Seven hundred and eighty seven billion dollars was supposed to do this, however unemployment levels have continued to rise steadily, the deficit has increased and the only things that have not changed are the bonus’ banking executives receive or the fact no banker or trader has been arrested for help inducing this collapse.
Alessio Ratsani, a current trader stated it best in an interview with the BBC “Goldman Sachs run the world, politicians don’t”. For decades they have manipulated the trade market, profiting from economic booms and perhaps even more so during times of woe. Not only did they initiate the collapse via trading phoney derivatives (paper money with no value) but after the housing bubble burst, billions in toxic loans were dumped onto the government, who “saved” the banks by buying up these poisonous assets. Assets brought by tax money, that they have yet to see a return on. All the while the bankers have continued to operate with impunity, thus angering the general public who feel they have been given short-shrift by both the government and corporations in tandem.
This is what the Wall Street protests are about. The protestors are sick of these bankers and traders getting away with murder and lets face it they do have blood on their hands. It’s just taken a length of time to finally realise that the people are getting short-changed and they have had enough. Working longer hours for pay that is still in line with inflation dating back to the 1970’s, pensions being stretched and job losses have further helped amalgamate this growing rebellion against the economic system of exploitation.
Changes have to be made, though the hopeless pessimist within does not see this happening. The financial institutions that run the world will oversee the printing of fiat money and rescue packages will continue to be churned out as if coming off an assembly line.
