Well, that didn't prove to be much of a hiatus. I'm back.
I'll be back with book talk soon, as soon as I finish one of the books I'm
currently reading, an important exposé of one wing of agribusiness. I couldn't
wait till then, however, so I'm reviving Read Red after its brief subsidence to
say: Hurray for Occupy Wall Street!
And for the many many other occupations that are springing
up around the country.
I haven't gotten to spend much time at the occupation—I'll
head there again today after work for the aftermath of the big labor solidarity
march—but I've heard and read and seen enough to know that it is a Very Good
Thing. Don't let anyone, fake left or unabashed right or phony neutral, tell
you otherwise. Yes, the people taking part in this occupation have a range of
political ideas, from liberal-reformist to libertarian to anarchist to
socialist revolutionary. So yes, there's
no one unified program. Yes, some of them are inconsistent or confused. Yes,
their various tactics run the gamut from inspired to not so much. None of this matters.
What matters is that a group of young people are in motion in a protest that,
whatever its contradictions, focuses on the symbol of the capitalist system of
exploitation and oppression. Wall Street. And calls for a reversal of the
robbery of the planet's wealth and resources.
It will be good to watch the occupation grow more
multinational, although if you've been told it's overwhelmingly white you've
been lied to as there are many people of color taking part; their numbers are
growing and will continue to grow. It will be good to see its class character
turn more proletarian, although if you've been told it's a bunch of privileged
middle-class kids you've been lied to as there are many working-class students
and unemployed people taking part; their numbers are growing and will continue
to grow. It will be good to see the protesters continue claiming their right to
take to the streets no matter how violently the NYPD attacks and brutalizes
them, as it has several times now, with nearly a thousand arrests on record. It
will also be good to watch support expand, as the cops' vicious maneuvers are
exposed over and over despite the bourgeois media's best efforts to cover them up, a lá
The Times has been relentless in its campaign to ridicule,
demean and belittle the Wall Street protesters. One of my favorite, most
bizarre and laughably specious digs, made not only by the Times but by many
other bourgeois sources, goes something like this. 'These protesters claim to
be against Wall Street companies, against the system that manufactures goods
for profit. And yet look at them using these very goods, look at them with
their laptops and their smartphones, look at them utilizing the very high-tech
goods made by the very companies they target as the enemy. Ha ha aren't these kids
silly hypocrites.' Really, New York Times? Really, that's your case? That
someone who doesn't like the capitalist mode of production ought not to own or
use anything thus manufactured? Which is everything, every item of clothing,
every toothbrush, sock, scissors, pen, every low-tech thing along with every
high-tech gadget—every thing is a capitalist commodity, so I guess we're all supposed
to go wander the streets naked and starving rather than handle any commodity
produced by this vile system. You've got it backward, silly bourgeois stooges.
We will, as someone you'll be hearing about a lot once said, use your very
tools to dig your system's grave.
All of which we'll be talking about a lot this weekend at
the Workers World Party national conference. Where I hope to see many participants
from the Occupy Wall Street movement.
