In the streets they gather
screaming for a future
Lacking jobs, insurance and hope
The other side claims everything is fineYou stole their houses
Their jobsLet them bail out your bank
Laid them off to thank them
Now you send in the cops
To shut them upThey have nowhere to go
No jobs exist to occupy their time anymore
And it’s because of youYou outsourced their jobs
For cheaper wages
What were they to doYou don’t care
It doesn’t effect you
You profit from our hardship
You smile your ass to the bank
We cut and downsize as best we canENOUGH IS ENOUGH
We can’t live on less
We can’t cut any more cornersI am a political junkie. I am also a media addict. I majored in journalism and being a total liberal how could I NOT fall in love with the Occupy Wall Street movement? I am the 99 percent. We are just floating along in the water with debt up to our necks.
History is written daily. Little things impact us that we see on the news that we did not expect. Things like Columbine and Katrina, 9/11, Virginia Tech. Well, Occupy found ME. These are MY people. This is MY cause. More than 50 percent of my income goes to rent. The last few weeks we have had rent and gas money and $100.00 for groceries for two weeks – that’s it.
I
was supposed to go to the doctor a few months ago and don’t even have the money for my co-pay to get into the doctor. What’s the point of medical insurance when you can’t afford to use it?
We are all affected by the economy. According to HIVPlusMag.com: “HIV-positive residents in 39 U.S. cities may soon be facing difficulty accessing some federally supported AIDS services because of program cuts to offset steep Ryan White funding reductions. The Department of Health and Human Services awarded $595 million nationwide in Ryan White AIDS funds in March; the amount is about $5 million less than distributed in 2003. Funding cuts ranged from 3 to nearly 14 percent …”
How can we logically cut funding? If you are HIV and on meds there has to be some financial help to keep you on meds to keep US out of hospitals. We went to Occupy Seattle, took Myles to his first protest; my dad would be proud. Walked among 500 people fed up with the system. Our generation has needed a movement like this for a long time. They had a sit-in in front of a Chase bank. I hadn’t felt so much unity since AIDS Walk. We need to stand up for each other more in America.
Watching the videos of Occupy Oakland where my brother lives made me sick: police beating nonviolent protesters. Where are we, Iran? Since when did America become against free speech?
Thursday December 1st, eight people were arrested at Occupy Wall Street in New York for protesting cuts to HIV/AIDS housing and services. The cuts in New York alone were $10 million. More than 110,000 people in New York have HIV/AIDS per NY1.com.
To make this issue hit home even more: I was talking to a woman who found me on TheBody.com. She lives in Mozambique and is married, pregnant and HIV . She gets FREE medical care. Free meds at an HIV clinic all sponsored by the U.S. and the UN. She was saying when she was diagnosed her husband wanted to move them to the U.S. for better health care for her and the baby. In talking we have both realized here is NOT better. Not by any means. She gets two months off maternity leave at full pay, free meds. When I was pregnant, my out-of-pocket cost for meds alone was $500 a month.
lhiv:
The American Spring: Steps OWS must take to further the movement
With the reoccupation of Occupy Wall Street in Union Square, occupiers are reenergizing with the six-month anniversary of the protests that began on Sept. 17. While physical occupations offer a space for the disenfranchised 99 percent to gather and mobilize, the stakes have become too high to not advance the movement immediately.
Police force is continuing. Wall Street is still as destructive as ever and corporate gluttony remains an infiltrating poison in not only American lives, but in lives all over the world. Six months into the possible revolutionary force, Occupiers must think of the next step and the step that proceeds to progress the movement into even more of a vehicle for transformation.
Inclusion of everyone in the 99 percent
While the focus of OWS has been corporate greed and income inequality, occupiers must begin to include other 99 percenters in the equation. Racial minorities, women, the LGBT community, the homeless and the disabled make up the majority of the 99 percent and have a history of being disenfranchised by the 1 percent’s corporate agenda. With the inclusion of racial issues, women’s reproductive rights and income inequality, gay rights, homelessness and disability issues, the movement will only gain more momentum.
Because capitalism has not only created most of these problems, but has swept them under the American political radar, occupiers must bring them to the forefront, along with economic inequality, to show the full scope of how our financial system has completely abandoned and abused a vast majority of the American people. With the inclusion of these other 99 percenters, more people are likely to come out in support of OWS and join the fight for a better world.
Capitalism thrives off of exploited populations, not just the working class. The systematic oppression of these minority groups has gone on to subject 99 percent of the United States to financial disarray, extreme poverty and invasive and discriminatory governmental practices. There is a reason why black households earn less than any other race. American politicians have campaigned to put governmental control on women’s bodies and the marriage rights of the LGBT community. Just as OWS has brought to light the rampant corruption of Wall Street, it must also publicize how capitalism is imposing upon the rights of every part of the 99 percent.
Find the source and an alternative
In order to create large-scale change, OWS has to pinpoint the root of each issue – whether it is economic inequality, marriage inequality, income inequality or job inequality. The movement must become strictly anti-capitalist and publicize the problems created by the strictly for-profit system. Why is it that more than four million people in the United States are surviving on about $60 a month? Why is it that we have more available foreclosed homes than we have homeless people? Our capitalist system survives to make a profit, not to provide for human need.
Especially with the 2012 presidential elections in the near future, we need to see that the capitalist system has provided us with a failed and corrupt two-party electoral system – vote for millionaire A or millionaire B. Vote for an open capitalist or an open capitalist veiled in so-called “liberalism.” The treatment of American workers as commodities has opened the flood gates for exploitation of every kind. An alternative has never been presented as capitalists have created the illusion that this isn’t a system we chose; it is put in place as just the natural progression of economics.
Capitalism is often advertised as a system that fosters economic growth – economic growth for whom? As the tag line of OWS has presented, capitalism is extreme economic growth for the one percent and economic decay for the rest. While capitalists control the means of production, workers are forced to survive off of the scraps those at the top so graciously leave for the rest. This is why Wall Street bonuses swelled to more than $121,150 last year while extreme poverty has more than doubled in the last 16 years, according to the National Poverty Center.
Mobilize for change
As occupations across the country and the world reorganize against capitalism and the one percent, action is needed on a widespread scale. OWS has promoted port shut downs, strikes, boycotts, petitions and even coordinated occupiers to run for office. We need even more action now. As the messages of inequality across the board have become more visible because of OWS, action must continue to follow.
Even though naysayers and skeptics may say the Occupy Movement has yet to create change, we must recognize how deep-rooted this economic system is. It has infiltrated our politics, food industry, job market, media system, education, environment, culture and many other aspects of life. Capitalism has come to deteriorate the American people so much so that it will take massive mobilization through protest, the replacement of political figures, a shift in consciousness and values and the uprising of the working class to crumble this failed money-hungry system. It couldn’t be done in the past six months alone and perhaps not even in the next six months. But the movement cannot fizzle out. The most strenuous part of Occupy still lies ahead.
In the past six months, we’ve brought to light the disgusting, misogynistic, racist and gluttonous ways of the capitalist one percent. But that is only part of the process for change. The next six months must focus on uniting the 99 percent against the imperialist rulers of the United States.
So, welcome to the American Spring. We are the 99 percent and too big to fail.
- G.Razo
This is really good. Read and share. These are the types of conversations ows needs to be having now.
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