Occupy Wall Street Protest

The Arab Spring that swept across North Africa was generally hailed by freedom loving peoples all over the world as a positive step forward. Whether it will end in good or bad is still to be determined.

Some are comparing protests now taking place in the streets of North America and elsewhere with the Arab Spring while other commentators suggest there is no genuine comparison.

I do not agree with those latter Commentators. The Arab Spring was an uprising against political dictatorship and economic corruption. I believe the Occupy Wall Street movement is similarly motivated.

The economic power concentrated in the hands of a few on Wall Street can be compared to the total power exercised by a Mohamar Gaddafi and his clan or a Hasni Mubarak and his cronies. We all know Wall Street sold the world securities they knew were bad, causing untold financial suffering - and yet those that profited handsomely from their wrongdoing went unprosecuted and unpunished.

Some call themselves the Tea Party Movement. Others call themselves the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. Both are trying to reclaim a democracy “of the people, by the people, for the people.”

Both are examples of a populist democracy at work. This is not a bad thing in my opinion. If big business can spend billions a year lobbying Congress why should not ordinary citizens publicly voice their opinion of big business in the streets. All democracies guarantee freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

Is it undemocratic to be angry at the state of America and other western nations.

America is broken. Both sides of the political spectrum recognize that. Wealth in America, like wealth in Egypt and Libya, is concentrated in an economic and political elite. An elite that has the money and political power to have stacked the game in their favor.

In our history classes we learned about the “Robber Barons” of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the 21st Century, Robber Barons still exist. Their names are Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and others. Unlike the Robber Barons of the past, they don’t build railroads, or factories, or search for oil. Instead they trade paper back and forth as derivatives or currencies or asset backed securities.

It is time for a change. I expect this Populist movement to spread across the western world.