by the El Reportero staff
Protests against the Federal Reserve Bank growing. (PHOTO BY DAVID BACON)
While local television news stations, excepting Channel 2, refuse to air Occupy Wall Street (OWS) coverage; as OWS embarks upon its third week of its protest, there can be no denying that this political movement against what the Wall Street financial investment banking institution has come to symbolize and stand for is gaining in credibility.
As of late, there are OWS startups springing up in nearby Oakland, Berkeley and Fresno, with others in the making. This new political movement is proving to have wide far reaching social and cultural appeal as is being witnesses by groups like the Chinese Progressive Association and the International Socialist Organization are hitching on.
In this vein, Chinese Progressive participated in a march in front of the Federal Reserve and down Market Street, where members chanted, “We are the 99 percent!”
This reference to the ratio of Americans who don’t make up the 1 percent who control the bulk of the wealth in this country has become the OWS rallying cry of solitary and it seems to capture the spirit of many Americans from all walks of life in this country.
Needless to say, OWS has far reaching appeal among immigrants, especially undocumented ones, because of the disparity between the ultra-rich and the poor.
“Are we returning to the revolution of the 60’s?” Psychologist Nathan Hare queries.
As the OWS struggle gains in momentum and validity, it becomes to symbolize the voices of all those who feel downtrodden upon by the rich, i.e., the homeless, those with little or no access to education…
As of late, groups like Just Cause and Oakland Teachers Association are planning actions in support of OWS, as is more progressive ones like Homes Not Jails, who as of late have taken to occupying unused real estate in San Francisco.
As of yesterday, in part, in a show of support for the OWS movement, Homes Not Jails took over the unoccupied former Cathedral Hill and Charlie’s hotels.
However, this hotel takeover action proved to be merely symbolic in nature because as of today when San Francisco police moved in to throw them out, Homes Not Jails members had abandoned both sites.
The International Socialist Organization issued this statement about OWS: “Millions of people have come to the understanding that capitalism is no longer working. And millions of people around the world—from Athens to Cairo to San Francisco—are fighting back. Marxism provides a revolutionary understanding and strategy for ridding society of exploitation and oppression once and for all.”
OWS actions were originally inspired by the Egyptian political movement that resulted in the Egyptian people, with the aid of social media amassing and toppling their government.
