Nelson adds its voice to Occupy Wall Street movement with overnight gathering planned
By Timothy Schafer
People are standing up across North America protesting capitalism, the government’s corporate policy and the failing of economy — and they could be standing up in Nelson now, as well.
With dissatisfaction over the one per cent who just get keep getting richer, “occupy” Occupy Wall Street rallies are being held across North America, with a Nelson rally now slated for an over night event from Oct. 15, 1 p.m. to Oct. 16 4 p.m. at City Hall, according to a Facebook posting.
People are asked to join in the “solidarity with protests across Canada and around the world against corporate greed and for a sustainable future,” read a posting on the Facebook site at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Nelson-BC/183522835057825.
“Catch the wave, be a part of it. We are our own media, we create owe own news,” the site proclaimed.
What are Occupy Wall Street rallies and movements like them?
Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colours, genders and political persuasions.
The one thing they all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the one per cent. They are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve their ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.
Bands of mostly young adults are gathering in normally peaceful settings to generally express their outrage over the inequity between the haves and have-nots.
At New York City’s Zuccotti Park, talk among the Occupy Wall Street protesters repeated similar themes from the start of the effort last month: the gap between rich and poor in the U.S. and how the 2008 bailout of Wall Street didn’t really help Main Street, and the lack of jobs and opportunity afflicting the shrinking middle class.
What they want to do about it is unclear just yet. There is no specific agenda. There isn’t a hierarchy.
But the numbers getting involved in the movement seem to be growing. Protesters also claim similar actions are taking place in more than 200 cities around the U.S., Canada and the world.
The unrest
Almost two-thirds of people surveyed in recent polls support raising taxes on those earning more than $1 million a year.
Last week, U.S. Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama supported such a tax, less than a year after the president backed an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
The rage behind the anti-Wall Street protests is similar to the Tea Party’s backlash two years ago against giant government bailouts of big corporations in response to the financial crisis, although the new movement is dominated by liberals instead of conservatives.
Other related reading:
- http://www.facebook.com/OccupyWallSt
- http://occupywallst.org/
- http://www.occupytogether.org/
- http://www.facebook.com/OccupyTogether
Other Canadian and International events for October 15th that we stand in solidarity with:
Occupy Calgary
Occupy Vancouver
Occupy Montreal
Occupy Victoria
- http://occupyvictoria.ca/
- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-VictoriaTake-the-Square-October-15th-United-for-Global-Change/167933659958067
Occupy Toronto / Bay Street
Occupy Australia
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