Jarrow's 2011 marchers take the long road to an uncertain future
75 years after the original crusade for jobs, young people are again taking their protest from the north-east to Westminster
Esther Addley on the A167, guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 5 October 2011 20.49 BST
Four days and barely 45 miles into the trek, Ben Robinson could already boast of having learned some new skills. Another marcher who was acting as the group's unofficial medic had had to duck out, "but thankfully she trained me up in foot doctoring before she left". He had already had to apply a butterfly ("where the blister is between the toes, and you have to cut the plaster") and an armadillo ("it's a way of applying the tape so you don't get more blisters – it's more technical than you think").
Most grateful for his skills was Bobbie Cranney, 26, from Newcastle, who had had to take the support minibus for a day or two, to her enormous frustration, so bad were her blisters. She was hoping to be back on the road when she could, she said, though she'd have to nip home in a day or two to sign on....
Also read the Jarrow march daily blog here: http://jarrowmarch11.com/
Friday, 7 October 2011
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Protest at Tory conference
Tories gathering for conference faced large protest demonstration
By Alec Price, Chester & Wirral Socialist Party
35,000 people travelled to Manchester city centre on Sunday 2nd October to march against the anti-working class policies of the Conservative party.
The Tory conference usually attracts a protest - but not on this scale. Last year for example, 7,000 protested in Birmingham.
The reason for the dramatic increase in numbers is surely down to the increasing reaction to the £81 billioncuts package that the Con-Dem coalition is trying to push through, but also the decision of the Trades Union Congress to organise the march this year.
By Alec Price, Chester & Wirral Socialist Party
35,000 people travelled to Manchester city centre on Sunday 2nd October to march against the anti-working class policies of the Conservative party.
The Tory conference usually attracts a protest - but not on this scale. Last year for example, 7,000 protested in Birmingham.
The reason for the dramatic increase in numbers is surely down to the increasing reaction to the £81 billioncuts package that the Con-Dem coalition is trying to push through, but also the decision of the Trades Union Congress to organise the march this year.
Monday, 3 October 2011
Excellent coverage of Jarrow March 2011 in Mirror
Jarrow March 2011: Kevin Maguire on the road for historic repeat
by Kevin Maguire, Daily Mirror 3/10/2011
Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/columnists/maguire/2011/10/03/jarrow-march-2011-kevin-maguire-on-the-road-for-historic-repeat-115875-23462922/#ixzz1ZhtA9yQa
THE 330-mile walk for work from Tyneside to London is history repeating itself for James Allison. The retired labourer was a young boy when he skipped alongside his dad, also called James, one of the marchers on the 1936 Jarrow Crusade. He was also there, 75 years on, to watch a group of young people leave town in the footsteps of the most famous protest trek of them all.
“I was going along, holding my dad’s hand,” he recalled. “And one of the others grumbled that I was putting them out of step.”
Now 84, Mr Allison went on: “It was terrible in the 1930s during the Depression. Everybody was out of work up here, you had no money and you were always hungry.
“I went to school in my bare feet and drank out of a jam jar – you couldn’t pour in hot water or it’d crack. If you had a chair, you had to sell it before you got help from the unemployment board.”
Nobody claims the jobless are as badly off today as the means-tested destitute of 1930s Depression Britain. Half of a poverty-stricken Jarrow was out of work and struggling to stave off malnutrition. Yet there are signs the great British public is stirring. As the procession makes its way round town, with a brass band near the front, shoppers applaud, bus drivers toot their horns and lunchtime drinkers spill out of the pub to watch. Ordinary people are increasingly resentful of the unjust austerity of Tory Cameronomics.
One in every 10 workers in North East England is dumped on the dole. Youth unemployment at just over one in five is at a record national high. The dreams of young people are destroyed by education cuts and £9,000 university fees. Insecurity is terrorising workers; plummeting living standards the curse of a growing number of families. Those in work, such as the cleaners on the minimum wage at Tyneside’s Metro, risk losing their paid meal breaks.
Yet at this week’s Tory conference in Manchester, our Government of millionaires will blame the jobless for their plight. A big stick will be waved at the jobless while big tax cuts are dangled before the wealthy. Lizi Gray, the great granddaughter of another of the original marchers, will walk parts of the route between studying at college. The 17-year-old, from nearby Gateshead, explained: “If you go to university you’ll be saddled with a huge debt that you might never be able to pay it off.
“Is that what we want? Britain’s getting unfairer, more unequal. It doesn’t have to be like that. This march is about an alternative.”
About 30 marchers will cover all or most of the miles, compared with the 200 three-quarters of a century ago. Unemployed chef Rhys Harris, from Pontypridd, South Wales, intends to take a few days off to watch Cardiff play Burnley in the fourth round of the Carling Cup.
I’m pretty sure that didn’t happen in 1936.
Trainers and blue T-shirts have replaced hobnail boots and oilskins. The elderly may also be amused to learn they will take five weeks compared with the four weeks of the originals. Indeed, I heard the first jokey, “Are we nearly there yet?” in the very first mile.
The route, however, is broadly similar to that followed in the year of Edward VIII’s abdication. Last night the marchers were due to reach Durham and then on to London by way of Harrogate, Sheffield, Leicester, Coventry, Northampton and Luton before a rally in Trafalgar Square on Saturday, November 5.
Youth Fight for Jobs, the group behind the trek, is an offshoot of the Socialist Party, formerly part of the Militant Tendency, which Neil Kinnock devoted much energy in the 1980s to expelling from the Labour Party. Half a dozen unions including the biggest, Unite, PCS civil servants and RMT rail workers back the march.
On Saturday, I addressed a rally alongside trade unionists to send the walkers on their way on Saturday. Dave Nellist, the ex-Labour MP kicked out over his Militant links, has lost none of his combative rhetoric. Now a Socialist Party councillor in Coventry, he warned that smashing windows and rioting will achieve nothing. Even Mr Cameron may agree with that sentiment – if not Mr Nellist’s call for revolutionary action to overthrow the Tories.
Having grown up on South Tyneside, I can attest to the hold the Jarrow Crusade has on the town. It’s as much a part of the North East’s identity as the soaring Angel of the North or the magnificent Tyne Bridge. Local lad Stephen Hepburn, Jarrow’s Labour MP, was inspired as a kid by tales of the marchers. In 2001, on the 65th anniversary of the Crusade, he unveiled “The Spirit of Jarrow” statue to honour the marchers.
It’s outside Morrisons – not a spot art snobs would pick. But it guarantees a daily audience for Hepburn’s predecessor “Red Ellen” Wilkinson, two banner-carrying marchers and a couple of kids running alongside.
“We’ve massive local pride in the Jarrow Crusade,” Hepburn told me. “But it’s more than a piece of history. It’s a warning about what the Tories will do, turning their backs on the unemployed. And a rallying cry to good people everywhere to stand up and be counted.”
History has repeated itself too for pensioner Emma Madsen. Back in 1936, when she was a jobless teenager, she stood near Jarrow Town Hall to cheer the leaving marchers.
Fast forward to 2011 and the former barmaid was in Jarrow Park, curious to see this group. “Everybody was much poorer than today,” she remembered. “But good luck to them. At least they’re having a go.”
Then, with a twinkle in her eyes, she showed Jarrow’s true grit. “I might have gone with them if I had the legs,” she said. “As it is, I’d have just slowed them up.”
I’m not so sure, although she is 94.
by Kevin Maguire, Daily Mirror 3/10/2011
Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/columnists/maguire/2011/10/03/jarrow-march-2011-kevin-maguire-on-the-road-for-historic-repeat-115875-23462922/#ixzz1ZhtA9yQa
THE 330-mile walk for work from Tyneside to London is history repeating itself for James Allison. The retired labourer was a young boy when he skipped alongside his dad, also called James, one of the marchers on the 1936 Jarrow Crusade. He was also there, 75 years on, to watch a group of young people leave town in the footsteps of the most famous protest trek of them all.
“I was going along, holding my dad’s hand,” he recalled. “And one of the others grumbled that I was putting them out of step.”
Now 84, Mr Allison went on: “It was terrible in the 1930s during the Depression. Everybody was out of work up here, you had no money and you were always hungry.
“I went to school in my bare feet and drank out of a jam jar – you couldn’t pour in hot water or it’d crack. If you had a chair, you had to sell it before you got help from the unemployment board.”
Nobody claims the jobless are as badly off today as the means-tested destitute of 1930s Depression Britain. Half of a poverty-stricken Jarrow was out of work and struggling to stave off malnutrition. Yet there are signs the great British public is stirring. As the procession makes its way round town, with a brass band near the front, shoppers applaud, bus drivers toot their horns and lunchtime drinkers spill out of the pub to watch. Ordinary people are increasingly resentful of the unjust austerity of Tory Cameronomics.
One in every 10 workers in North East England is dumped on the dole. Youth unemployment at just over one in five is at a record national high. The dreams of young people are destroyed by education cuts and £9,000 university fees. Insecurity is terrorising workers; plummeting living standards the curse of a growing number of families. Those in work, such as the cleaners on the minimum wage at Tyneside’s Metro, risk losing their paid meal breaks.
Yet at this week’s Tory conference in Manchester, our Government of millionaires will blame the jobless for their plight. A big stick will be waved at the jobless while big tax cuts are dangled before the wealthy. Lizi Gray, the great granddaughter of another of the original marchers, will walk parts of the route between studying at college. The 17-year-old, from nearby Gateshead, explained: “If you go to university you’ll be saddled with a huge debt that you might never be able to pay it off.
“Is that what we want? Britain’s getting unfairer, more unequal. It doesn’t have to be like that. This march is about an alternative.”
About 30 marchers will cover all or most of the miles, compared with the 200 three-quarters of a century ago. Unemployed chef Rhys Harris, from Pontypridd, South Wales, intends to take a few days off to watch Cardiff play Burnley in the fourth round of the Carling Cup.
I’m pretty sure that didn’t happen in 1936.
Trainers and blue T-shirts have replaced hobnail boots and oilskins. The elderly may also be amused to learn they will take five weeks compared with the four weeks of the originals. Indeed, I heard the first jokey, “Are we nearly there yet?” in the very first mile.
The route, however, is broadly similar to that followed in the year of Edward VIII’s abdication. Last night the marchers were due to reach Durham and then on to London by way of Harrogate, Sheffield, Leicester, Coventry, Northampton and Luton before a rally in Trafalgar Square on Saturday, November 5.
Youth Fight for Jobs, the group behind the trek, is an offshoot of the Socialist Party, formerly part of the Militant Tendency, which Neil Kinnock devoted much energy in the 1980s to expelling from the Labour Party. Half a dozen unions including the biggest, Unite, PCS civil servants and RMT rail workers back the march.
On Saturday, I addressed a rally alongside trade unionists to send the walkers on their way on Saturday. Dave Nellist, the ex-Labour MP kicked out over his Militant links, has lost none of his combative rhetoric. Now a Socialist Party councillor in Coventry, he warned that smashing windows and rioting will achieve nothing. Even Mr Cameron may agree with that sentiment – if not Mr Nellist’s call for revolutionary action to overthrow the Tories.
Having grown up on South Tyneside, I can attest to the hold the Jarrow Crusade has on the town. It’s as much a part of the North East’s identity as the soaring Angel of the North or the magnificent Tyne Bridge. Local lad Stephen Hepburn, Jarrow’s Labour MP, was inspired as a kid by tales of the marchers. In 2001, on the 65th anniversary of the Crusade, he unveiled “The Spirit of Jarrow” statue to honour the marchers.
It’s outside Morrisons – not a spot art snobs would pick. But it guarantees a daily audience for Hepburn’s predecessor “Red Ellen” Wilkinson, two banner-carrying marchers and a couple of kids running alongside.
“We’ve massive local pride in the Jarrow Crusade,” Hepburn told me. “But it’s more than a piece of history. It’s a warning about what the Tories will do, turning their backs on the unemployed. And a rallying cry to good people everywhere to stand up and be counted.”
History has repeated itself too for pensioner Emma Madsen. Back in 1936, when she was a jobless teenager, she stood near Jarrow Town Hall to cheer the leaving marchers.
Fast forward to 2011 and the former barmaid was in Jarrow Park, curious to see this group. “Everybody was much poorer than today,” she remembered. “But good luck to them. At least they’re having a go.”
Then, with a twinkle in her eyes, she showed Jarrow’s true grit. “I might have gone with them if I had the legs,” she said. “As it is, I’d have just slowed them up.”
I’m not so sure, although she is 94.
Sunday, 2 October 2011
Jarrow March 2011 sets off!
A daily report and pictures to be posted here: http://jarrowmarch11.com/
The march has received a huge amount of coverage in the national and local media.
The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/feedarticle/9873893
BBC report here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-15135644
The BBC have even been encourage to look back at the historic Jarrow March, here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9604000/9604857.stm
Despair and fury: Interview with Greek socialist
As the ‘troika’ – the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – arrive in Athens, this week, to review the Greek government’s “progress” in its vicious austerity cuts in return for the latest tranche of bailout funds, the people of Greece are suffering beyond endurance.
Over the last four years, the income of the average Greek household has fallen by a staggering 50%, in what is described as as a “death spiral” by the New York Times.
Massive job losses, tax increases and rising inflation are ruining the lives of working people. Athens, which is home to one third of Greece’s 11 million people, is hit by “soaring crime and lawlessness”, according to the British Guardian newspaper (24/09/11). There has been a sharp rise in homelessness and the number of drug addicts. “Psychiatric patients are being ejected from institutions that can no longer offer them a place”, reports the paper. Many shop owners have been forced to close. People are reduced to having to “forage through municipal rubbish bins at night” and pensioners have to survive on “rejects at fruit and vegetable markets”. Suicide rates are up sharply. In desperation, larger numbers of Greeks are either returning to their “rural roots” or emigrating in the biggest exodus in over 40 years.
These sort of desperate conditions are usually associated with crisis ridden parts of the neo-colonial world or with the collapse of the former Soviet Union. But this situation is unfolding in the heart of what until recently was supposed to be the European capitalists ’success story’ of the ‘euro-project’.
Last week’s announcment by George Papandreou’s Greek PASOK government of further masses of job losses, tax hikes and pension cuts led to huge anger and frustration and a new surge of industrial action. Students are already occupying colleges over new fees and privatisation plans. But after several general strikes in recent months and big occupations of city squares, how can Greek workers and youth now halt the cuts tsunami?
Below, we carry an interview with Nikos Anastasiades, Xekinima (CWI Greece), from this week’s Socialist (newspaper of the Socialist Party - CWI England & Wales).
Could you explain, briefly, what the austerity measures will mean to the majority of Greek people?
The government recently announced some new austerity measures. “New” has become a standing joke in Greece as the government announces new measures every week!
After the destruction of living standards caused by previous attacks, the government has now announced measures that will lead to more attacks on the working class. These attacks include: the layoffs of public sector workers – they plan to sack 200,000 out of a total of 750,000 public sector workers in the next few years. This plan will start this week by putting some thousands of workers on ‘suspension’. Public sector pay will also be slashed by an average of 50%.
The government is planning to tax those workers on the lowest incomes, combined with the introduction of an annual ‘household tax’ - a poll tax. The Papandreou government intends to double the price of fuel for household use.
In addition, there are attacks on education funding, and the implementation of university tuition fees.
Before the current economic and financial crisis Greece was one of the poorest countries in the European Union. These cuts will plunge society into absolute poverty and create a ‘lost generation’ of unemployed people.
Last week official figures showed that the number of suicides due to economic reasons doubled in the last year....
Read the rest of the interview here: http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/5304
Over the last four years, the income of the average Greek household has fallen by a staggering 50%, in what is described as as a “death spiral” by the New York Times.
Massive job losses, tax increases and rising inflation are ruining the lives of working people. Athens, which is home to one third of Greece’s 11 million people, is hit by “soaring crime and lawlessness”, according to the British Guardian newspaper (24/09/11). There has been a sharp rise in homelessness and the number of drug addicts. “Psychiatric patients are being ejected from institutions that can no longer offer them a place”, reports the paper. Many shop owners have been forced to close. People are reduced to having to “forage through municipal rubbish bins at night” and pensioners have to survive on “rejects at fruit and vegetable markets”. Suicide rates are up sharply. In desperation, larger numbers of Greeks are either returning to their “rural roots” or emigrating in the biggest exodus in over 40 years.
These sort of desperate conditions are usually associated with crisis ridden parts of the neo-colonial world or with the collapse of the former Soviet Union. But this situation is unfolding in the heart of what until recently was supposed to be the European capitalists ’success story’ of the ‘euro-project’.
Last week’s announcment by George Papandreou’s Greek PASOK government of further masses of job losses, tax hikes and pension cuts led to huge anger and frustration and a new surge of industrial action. Students are already occupying colleges over new fees and privatisation plans. But after several general strikes in recent months and big occupations of city squares, how can Greek workers and youth now halt the cuts tsunami?
Below, we carry an interview with Nikos Anastasiades, Xekinima (CWI Greece), from this week’s Socialist (newspaper of the Socialist Party - CWI England & Wales).
Could you explain, briefly, what the austerity measures will mean to the majority of Greek people?
The government recently announced some new austerity measures. “New” has become a standing joke in Greece as the government announces new measures every week!
After the destruction of living standards caused by previous attacks, the government has now announced measures that will lead to more attacks on the working class. These attacks include: the layoffs of public sector workers – they plan to sack 200,000 out of a total of 750,000 public sector workers in the next few years. This plan will start this week by putting some thousands of workers on ‘suspension’. Public sector pay will also be slashed by an average of 50%.
The government is planning to tax those workers on the lowest incomes, combined with the introduction of an annual ‘household tax’ - a poll tax. The Papandreou government intends to double the price of fuel for household use.
In addition, there are attacks on education funding, and the implementation of university tuition fees.
Before the current economic and financial crisis Greece was one of the poorest countries in the European Union. These cuts will plunge society into absolute poverty and create a ‘lost generation’ of unemployed people.
Last week official figures showed that the number of suicides due to economic reasons doubled in the last year....
Read the rest of the interview here: http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/5304
USA: Police crackdown fails to crush Wall Street Occupation - Report from a participant
By Jesse Lessinger, Socialist Alternative (CWI USA)
http://socialistalternative.org/news/article22.php?id=1693
On Saturday, September 24, the “Occupy Wall Street” struggle set out on a march. This was the eighth day that young people, workers and activists have been occupying a plaza in Manhattan's financial district two blocks away from Wall Street. It started as a routine march. The usual slogans were chanted: “Banks got bailed out! We got sold out!” “Whose streets? Our streets!” “Tell me what democracy looks like? This is what democracy looks like!”
It was spirited and energetic from the start. This ongoing occupation has drawn national and international attention, seen as attempt to stand up to corporate greed and challenge the domination of the big banks over our economy, our government and our lives. It's drawn inspiration from the mass youth occupations in Spain and Greece, as well as the revolutionary upheavals in Tunisia, Egypt and across North Africa and the Middle East.
Many are long-time activists that have been organizing for years. Others are completely new to organizing and protesting, participating for the first time in their lives in a social struggle. While many are inexperienced, they've shown a tremendous persistence and fighting spirit. They chant: “All day. All week. Occupy Wall Street!”
As we began to march north up Broadway, our numbers gradually grew and the march started to move into the streets, blocking traffic. With no predetermined march route or official city permit, the police struggled to keep up, trying in vain to direct and control the march and push it back to the sidewalks.
“Whose Streets? Our Streets!”
Unlike most demonstrations in New York City, we were not penned in like animals, forced to one side of the street, isolated and marginalized from the rest of the city. Bystanders watched and waved and some joined in. We marched through Washington Square Park, where more young people joined. Our numbers were well over 1,000 marching freely through the streets of Manhattan, our voices heard loud and clear.
Since moving to New York about four years ago now and attending countless demonstrations, protests, marches, actions and speak outs, I had never been on an action that was able to freely march through the streets. We covered about 2.5 miles, arriving eventually at Union Square. We were not suffocated by the pens or sidelined by a motorcade of police bikes. For the first time in a long time people in New York were able to practice their right to free assembly without infringement or restriction.
It was a tiny victory for the working people and youth of this city, a victory that the police and city government were eager to snuff out. This occupation, now lasting over a week, is not simply a nuisance. The ruling establishment is actually very afraid that this could spread and grow and threaten “order” in the city, an order where the rich get richer and the rest of us are left behind, where the super-elite, the “top 1%,” run society while “the 99%” have no voice. This is why Occupy Wall Street has raised the slogan “We are the 99%!” in an attempt to fight back and be heard.
After rallying very briefly at Union Square, the march turned around to head back “home” to the encampment at the newly renamed Liberty Plaza. The police had amassed a bigger force behind us and unfurled large orange nets. At first it seemed like they only intended to channel the march, split us up and disrupt the action. But we quickly learned these were giant fish nets cast widely to catch as many people as possible.
The Cops Get Violent
The police turned aggressive, violently pushing protesters, grabbing them, throwing people to the ground and arresting them. We ran but they kenneled in dozens at a time, pinning them between nets and buildings. I narrowly escaped a net and we chanted on the opposite side calling for the release of our brothers and sisters.
We were peaceful. They were violent. We were exercising our freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and they brutally violated these rights. A small group of young women, who were trapped in a net, standing perfectly peacefully, were suddenly pepper-sprayed for no reason. The video of this incident has gone viral, prompting international news coverage. Around 100 were arrested, including several bystanders who were not part of the protest, held in buses and jail cells for hours, and only released at 5 a.m. the next morning.
The police had one aim: intimidation. This outrageous behavior on their part was intended to strike fear into the youth and break our spirit. Police violence may indeed make some people more fearful of protesting, but it also inspires wider outrage and solidarity. Overwhelmingly the core of the movement has stayed strong and continued the occupation.
This exposes the completely hypocritical role of the police force and the state. They brutally suppress any attempt to peacefully speak out against corporate domination. Meanwhile, the real criminals and crooks on Wall Street walk freely, making billions off our backs, demanding we pay for their economic crisis while they are protected by an oppressive regime that uses the laws when convenient and force when they choose.
Most of us made it back to the plaza exhausted but excited, shaken but angry and determined. I found out back at the plaza that one of our comrades had been arrested. Later, he compiled this video of the march, including footage from his own arrest. We were all concerned for the welfare of our brothers and sisters who had been assaulted and taken away.
Expanding the Struggle But I also began to think about where this movement was headed. The movement has captured the imagination of hundreds of people and captured the attention of perhaps hundreds of thousands around the world. There is constant discussion and debate about how it can become bigger. Many of the new people excited by the energy and strong sense of community within the occupation ask: “Why are there not more people here?”
There is no simple answer, but one thing is for sure. There are thousands out there who are very sympathetic to this movement, many of whom would like to participate but may not be able to. They have work and families and can't afford to occupy Wall Street indefinitely. They are either not able or maybe not yet prepared to make big sacrifices, but they want to support this action. The question is not simply how can we get more people to the occupation but how can we get more people involved in the movement in general.
With the attention that Occupy Wall Street is receiving and the army of full-time activists, Liberty Plaza could become a hub for organizing a wider struggle. As a next step we could call another mass demonstration on Saturday with some basic demands like: Make Wall Street Pay for the Crisis; Tax the Super-Rich; Jobs Not Cuts; Education and Health Care, Not War and Bank Bailouts; Stop Police Brutality and Defend Our Democratic Rights. This way, thousands of people could participate and help grow the movement. Occupy Wall Street should publicly call upon all progressive organizations, especially the unions, with their thousands of members and resources, to participate and mobilize for mass demonstrations.
There is also talk of spreading occupations to other cities. Already in the works is an occupation of Washington, D.C., on Oct. 6 (www.october2011.org). Something is changing in this country. Working people and youth are becoming more politicized and radicalized. There is deep anger that is growing daily in U.S. society, and it is bubbling just below the surface. It cannot be contained forever. It will explode at a certain stage.
Occupy Wall Street reflects some of this anger and radicalization that is developing. From Wisconsin to New York City we're experiencing the aftershocks of social earthquakes now rocking the planet caused by the deep subterranean tensions of an enduring global economic crisis. The epicenters of these quakes have so far been seen across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and other parts of the globe. But it may not be too long before the tremors in the U.S. become full-blown social convulsions.
http://socialistalternative.org/news/article22.php?id=1693
On Saturday, September 24, the “Occupy Wall Street” struggle set out on a march. This was the eighth day that young people, workers and activists have been occupying a plaza in Manhattan's financial district two blocks away from Wall Street. It started as a routine march. The usual slogans were chanted: “Banks got bailed out! We got sold out!” “Whose streets? Our streets!” “Tell me what democracy looks like? This is what democracy looks like!”
It was spirited and energetic from the start. This ongoing occupation has drawn national and international attention, seen as attempt to stand up to corporate greed and challenge the domination of the big banks over our economy, our government and our lives. It's drawn inspiration from the mass youth occupations in Spain and Greece, as well as the revolutionary upheavals in Tunisia, Egypt and across North Africa and the Middle East.
Many are long-time activists that have been organizing for years. Others are completely new to organizing and protesting, participating for the first time in their lives in a social struggle. While many are inexperienced, they've shown a tremendous persistence and fighting spirit. They chant: “All day. All week. Occupy Wall Street!”
As we began to march north up Broadway, our numbers gradually grew and the march started to move into the streets, blocking traffic. With no predetermined march route or official city permit, the police struggled to keep up, trying in vain to direct and control the march and push it back to the sidewalks.
“Whose Streets? Our Streets!”
Unlike most demonstrations in New York City, we were not penned in like animals, forced to one side of the street, isolated and marginalized from the rest of the city. Bystanders watched and waved and some joined in. We marched through Washington Square Park, where more young people joined. Our numbers were well over 1,000 marching freely through the streets of Manhattan, our voices heard loud and clear.
Since moving to New York about four years ago now and attending countless demonstrations, protests, marches, actions and speak outs, I had never been on an action that was able to freely march through the streets. We covered about 2.5 miles, arriving eventually at Union Square. We were not suffocated by the pens or sidelined by a motorcade of police bikes. For the first time in a long time people in New York were able to practice their right to free assembly without infringement or restriction.
It was a tiny victory for the working people and youth of this city, a victory that the police and city government were eager to snuff out. This occupation, now lasting over a week, is not simply a nuisance. The ruling establishment is actually very afraid that this could spread and grow and threaten “order” in the city, an order where the rich get richer and the rest of us are left behind, where the super-elite, the “top 1%,” run society while “the 99%” have no voice. This is why Occupy Wall Street has raised the slogan “We are the 99%!” in an attempt to fight back and be heard.
After rallying very briefly at Union Square, the march turned around to head back “home” to the encampment at the newly renamed Liberty Plaza. The police had amassed a bigger force behind us and unfurled large orange nets. At first it seemed like they only intended to channel the march, split us up and disrupt the action. But we quickly learned these were giant fish nets cast widely to catch as many people as possible.
The Cops Get Violent
The police turned aggressive, violently pushing protesters, grabbing them, throwing people to the ground and arresting them. We ran but they kenneled in dozens at a time, pinning them between nets and buildings. I narrowly escaped a net and we chanted on the opposite side calling for the release of our brothers and sisters.
We were peaceful. They were violent. We were exercising our freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and they brutally violated these rights. A small group of young women, who were trapped in a net, standing perfectly peacefully, were suddenly pepper-sprayed for no reason. The video of this incident has gone viral, prompting international news coverage. Around 100 were arrested, including several bystanders who were not part of the protest, held in buses and jail cells for hours, and only released at 5 a.m. the next morning.
The police had one aim: intimidation. This outrageous behavior on their part was intended to strike fear into the youth and break our spirit. Police violence may indeed make some people more fearful of protesting, but it also inspires wider outrage and solidarity. Overwhelmingly the core of the movement has stayed strong and continued the occupation.
This exposes the completely hypocritical role of the police force and the state. They brutally suppress any attempt to peacefully speak out against corporate domination. Meanwhile, the real criminals and crooks on Wall Street walk freely, making billions off our backs, demanding we pay for their economic crisis while they are protected by an oppressive regime that uses the laws when convenient and force when they choose.
Most of us made it back to the plaza exhausted but excited, shaken but angry and determined. I found out back at the plaza that one of our comrades had been arrested. Later, he compiled this video of the march, including footage from his own arrest. We were all concerned for the welfare of our brothers and sisters who had been assaulted and taken away.
Expanding the Struggle But I also began to think about where this movement was headed. The movement has captured the imagination of hundreds of people and captured the attention of perhaps hundreds of thousands around the world. There is constant discussion and debate about how it can become bigger. Many of the new people excited by the energy and strong sense of community within the occupation ask: “Why are there not more people here?”
There is no simple answer, but one thing is for sure. There are thousands out there who are very sympathetic to this movement, many of whom would like to participate but may not be able to. They have work and families and can't afford to occupy Wall Street indefinitely. They are either not able or maybe not yet prepared to make big sacrifices, but they want to support this action. The question is not simply how can we get more people to the occupation but how can we get more people involved in the movement in general.
With the attention that Occupy Wall Street is receiving and the army of full-time activists, Liberty Plaza could become a hub for organizing a wider struggle. As a next step we could call another mass demonstration on Saturday with some basic demands like: Make Wall Street Pay for the Crisis; Tax the Super-Rich; Jobs Not Cuts; Education and Health Care, Not War and Bank Bailouts; Stop Police Brutality and Defend Our Democratic Rights. This way, thousands of people could participate and help grow the movement. Occupy Wall Street should publicly call upon all progressive organizations, especially the unions, with their thousands of members and resources, to participate and mobilize for mass demonstrations.
There is also talk of spreading occupations to other cities. Already in the works is an occupation of Washington, D.C., on Oct. 6 (www.october2011.org). Something is changing in this country. Working people and youth are becoming more politicized and radicalized. There is deep anger that is growing daily in U.S. society, and it is bubbling just below the surface. It cannot be contained forever. It will explode at a certain stage.
Occupy Wall Street reflects some of this anger and radicalization that is developing. From Wisconsin to New York City we're experiencing the aftershocks of social earthquakes now rocking the planet caused by the deep subterranean tensions of an enduring global economic crisis. The epicenters of these quakes have so far been seen across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and other parts of the globe. But it may not be too long before the tremors in the U.S. become full-blown social convulsions.
Can Labour be reclaimed?
As public sector workers prepare for the planned 30 November one-day strike, the question of a political voice of opposition to cuts, along with their strength in the union, is posed.
Here we reflect some of the debates that take place by reproducing correspondence between a reader of the Socialist, Tim Hayward, and Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary. Read the exchange here:
Here we reflect some of the debates that take place by reproducing correspondence between a reader of the Socialist, Tim Hayward, and Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary. Read the exchange here:
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