Occupy the Hood
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Lieberman of the N.Y. Civil Liberties Union.
The potential power of the labor movement was vis ible on Oct. 5, when a union-sponsored OWS support rally was held near City Hall in lower Manhattan. Ini tiated by the Transport Workers Union Local 100, it attracted some 20,000 demonstrators. Another unioninitiated protest filled Times Square on Oct. 15 and at tracted thousands as well, despite police provocations and the arrests of dozens of non-violent protesters.
As winter weather begins to set in, Occupy Wall Street has seen a fury of renewed activity (see occu pywallst.org). New, but as yet not official, is the OWS Antiwar Subcommittee, which seeks to integrate an tiwar awareness with anti-corporate mobilizing. The committee contains diverse views but will sponsor an antiwar “teach-in” in Zuccotti Park.
Blacks, Latinos hit by recession The reasons for mass support for OWS are not hard to understand. According to a recent report by the U.S. Census Bureau, the median or aver age income in 2010 was down 6.4% from prerecession levels and even lower than the average worker’s buying power back in 1978. Poverty rose to 15.1% in 2010.
Those who have been most brutally hit by the recession are the Hispanic and African American communities, still oppressed by racism. Accord ing to the Economic Policy Institute (Sept. 21, 2011), half of all Black families have wealth— homes, cars, etc.—worth under $2200 in 2009.
In contrast, though white household wealth is significantly down, it is, on average, an astound ing 44.5 times higher!
A PEW Foundation study in July based on Cen sus Bureau figures revealed that the average Hispanic household’s wealth declined by 66% between 2005 and 2009. African American aver age household wealth declined by 53%; Asians by 54%. White median household wealth fell by 16% over the same period (The New York Times, July 26, 2011). — M.G. ing contract offer that included a 10% pay cut and no health-care benefits.
OWS has disrupted several high-end Sotheby’s auc tions and has protested at restaurants owned by So theby’s boss Danny Meyers. Sotheby’s certainly can’t cry poverty. Sotheby’s CEO, William Ruprecht, has had his salary more than doubled in 2010, and it now stands at an incredible $60,000 a day!
OWS actions also included going to the homes of the rich in a “millionaires march,” which has received wide coverage in the business and mainstream press. The protesters demanded passage of the “millionaires’ tax,” a minimal tax advocated by unions but rejected ness weekly, Crain’s, said in its Oct. 18 issue, “It’s been a rough few weeks for the city’s billionaires, bankers and corporate board members.”
OWS also joined a march of some 1000 Verizon workers on Oct. 21 in lower Manhattan, ending in Zuc cotti Park. Some 45,000 Verizon workers, members of the Communication Workers of America and the Inter national Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, have been without a contract since the unions abandoned their strike and returned to work on Aug. 21. The unions have called Verizon, “The poster child of corporate greed.”
The Transport Workers Union Local 100, an OWS supporter, is beginning a contract battle. Its contract expires on Jan. 15, 2012. The 35,000-member city sub way and bus workers face straight zero raises, healthcare cuts, and possible layoffs. The union has called a demonstration at the opening of contract talks on Nov. 15 at the Sheraton Hotel in midtown Manhattan.
About 200 OWS supporters disrupted an Education Department meeting in Manhattan on Oct. 25, result ing in Bloomberg-appointee Chancellor Dennis Wal cott’s leaving the room. OWS activists, who include rank-and-file teachers, complained of massive cuts to education. Activists say that it was the first time a Board meeting was shut down.
In an important development, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), the NAACP, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement called for an Oct. 29 march in solidarity with OWS beginning at City Hall. The call, if properly advertised, could have begun to mobilize op The “Occupy the Hood” movement in New York City has spread to the oppressed communities of Brooklyn and the Bronx, although, as yet, there are no actual occupations. One Boston Occupy the Hood activist, Ife Johan Uhuru, put it this way, “I see Occupy Wall Street as putting forth demands, and a lot of times those demands don’t speak to the 99% that we all claim to be.”
An Occupy the Hood speak-out was held in Har lem at St. Mary’s church on Oct. 27 in support of OWS. A flyer by the sponsor, “Harlem Fightback Against War at Home and Abroad,” read, “Wall Street, the epicenter of international finance capital, began its financial prosperity with slave profiteering firms, JP Morgan, Lehman Broth ers, Bank of America and Wachovia Bank. In fact, Wall Street and most of the city’s financial dis trict were built on the burial ground of captured Africans forced into genocidal free labor for cen turies, a crime against humanity.” About 100-150 attended the Harlem gathering.
Speak-out organizer Nellie Bailey told Socialist Action, “The political significance of this General Assembly really signals a turn for Harlem not only for those who are fed up with Wall Street but also for those who are fed-up with the politicians of Harlem” (e-mail Harlemfightbackagainstwar@ gmail.com).
Two rallies have hit the city’s racist “stop and frisk” policies. According to one study, some 85% of those frisked are Black or Hispanic. More than 90% have been found to be doing nothing ille gal. One Harlem protest on Oct. 21 was held at the Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building on 125th Street.
OWS supporters marched to a cop precinct, where OWS supporters did civil disobedience. Dozens of activists were arrested, including Princeton Professor Cornell West, protest orga nizer Carl Dix, local clergy, and others.
— MARTY GOODMAN SOCIALIST ACTION NOVEMBER 2011 3
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Ayman Oghanna / NY Times (Left) Shiites in Baghdad protested last March in solidarity with people fighting for their rights in Bahrain. The U.S., fearing the Middle East upsurge, has increased its forces in the region.
would be the first of a series of special operations deployments to Central Af rica. Uganda already receives $45 million dollars in U.S. military aid to carry out proxy wars for the United States in Cen tral Africa.
According to Pilger, the latest U.S. mili tary intervention is designed to reward Uganda’s “president-for-life” Yoweri Museveni for his willingness to intervene against what America describes for pub lic consumption as the “Islamic threat” in Somalia.
These special ops, part of the new 60,000-soldier arm of the U.S. military revealed in Wikileaks as destined for de ployment in 75 countries, will be joining those operating the new constellation of some 60 drone bases reported upon by the Washington Post on Sept. 20. The