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Another week of Occupy movements around the globe has yielded a wealth of rich analysis of the movement, its implications, as well as the social and economic problems that inform the protests.
Here’s a roundup of some of the best articles I came across this week.
NOW Magazine in Toronto creates a helpful index of numbers showing who makes up Canada’s 99%.
No CommentsTags: Occupy Canada·Occupy Wall Street·Poverty and Income Inequality
There’s a splinter group in the 99% movement.
You know the people I’m talking about—those who, in the midst of the excitement generated by a growing demand for systemic change, persist in disavowing their membership in the 99%.
Perhaps you’ve read their rantifesto. It usually begins with “the 99% doesn’t represent me”, sails into “get a job!” and concludes with some or all of the following:
3 CommentsTags: Economy & Economic Indicators·Occupy Wall Street·Poverty and Income Inequality·satire
I hung out a while yesterday at the Vancouver Occupation, and was impressed with their efforts at radical democracy. Many in the mainstream press have been quick to pile on for how time-consuming decision-making can be under this model, but perhaps they have not spent enough time in legislatures and committee meetings and public consultations. Democracy takes time, so what?
Here is my commentary published in the Globe and Mail (web edition) on Sunday, regarding the wonderful Occupy Together events held in Toronto and almost 1000 other cities around the world:
It’s the political puzzle of our times: Why, in the wake of the most spectacular failure of free-enterprise in 80 years, was it the global right that became stronger, not the left?
2 CommentsTags: Democracy·Occupy Wall Street·Poverty and Income Inequality
An Open Letter from the Top 1%.
We know it’s been a while since we talked; it’s not that we haven’t wanted to, it’s just that things keep coming up. Plus we keep hearing how busy you are, working harder and longer, with less and less time for your families. So we understand that you can’t always make it down to the Embassy Club—even though it’s really the best time to catch us when we’re ready to kick back and relax over a few drinks and shoot the breeze about how to invest last year’s bonus.
1 CommentTags: Occupy Wall Street·Poverty and Income Inequality·satire·Taxes and Tax Cuts
This is not the stuff of usual protests. Over the past month, a little idea from a Vancouver outfit has mushroomed into a cross-continent movement.
Occupy Wall Street, kicked off by Adbusters in July and coming to Toronto this weekend, has already spread to 70 American cities and is going global as protestors challenge society to rethink how the economy and the government operates, and for whom.
It’s an awakening — a populist call for that “adult conversation” many thought would take place after the global economic calamity of 2008. It didn’t then. But it may now, thanks to Occupy Wall Street, in a city near you.
No CommentsTags: Democracy·Occupy Wall Street·Poverty and Income Inequality·Taxes and Tax Cuts
“We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%”..say the Occupy Wall Street protesters. This grass roots protest started on Wall Street, but is now spreading far and wide among folks who just can’t take it anymore.
The realization that something is deeply wrong in the economy is palpable: inequality, constant crisis management, poverty. It’s a very long list of everything we never wanted in an economic system.
2 CommentsTags: Democracy·Economy & Economic Indicators·Occupy Wall Street
