All across the world people are rising up against the attacks of the bankers and the bosses and the politicians who do their bidding. Here in this country, we are losing our jobs, being kicked out of our homes, seeing our retirements stolen, our health care benefits slashed, our wages cut, and our lives ripped apart. From Tokyo, to Berlin, to Paris, to Oakland – people are beginning to stand up.
At the same time, in this country, Democrats and Republicans in Congress are planning trillions of dollars in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid – which would mean a death sentence to some people who can’t afford health care. The social services we rely on are getting gutted.
States across the country are slashing services for the poor and elderly. Education is being dismantled as teachers are being laid off, schools shut down, and tuition and fees for college skyrocket. Public housing, transportation, park services and more are being cut to the bone.
The richest one percent are making us pay for their crisis. And we are right to be angry about these never-ending attacks coming down on our lives. And we are right to stand up!
It is becoming clear that we cannot rely on the politicians, whether Democrats or Republicans, who do the bidding of the banks and corporations. These same politicians are willing to send their police against us, jail us, and try to stop this outpouring of anger from growing into a movement. In New York, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Oakland, and now Denver, armed riot police were called in to break up these protests. In Oakland, as the city faces a $76 million budget deficit, is closing schools and libraries and making other cuts, city officials didn’t hesitate to spend over $1 million to bring police officers from 18 different departments to attack protesters and clear out Oscar Grant Plaza.
Anger is beginning to boil over in the form of protests and occupations in major cities and small towns all over the place. This could be a beginning with the potential to grow into a massive and powerful movement across the country and possibly the world. But the protests and occupations we’ve seen so far are not enough.
The actual number of people who’ve begun to participate in these protests are still in the tens of thousands. But at the same time, millions of people share in this same anger. Many are outraged but are at work, struggling to put food on the table, or are at home taking care of their kids, or some just don’t yet feel ready to go down to a protest or camp out at an occupation. But the vast majority of the population, of working people, most of the 99 percent – are bearing the brunt of these attacks and only if we organize these forces do we have the potential to wage a real fightback.
Our immediate task right now is to organize the rest of us. In our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our schools, our families – we need to begin to tap into the anger that is growing.
We are the ones who make society run. We are the ones who power the cities, bring water to the homes, give the care in the hospitals, drive the busses, work the airports, build the buildings – it is our work that makes this system run. And if we come together and organize our forces, we can unleash our power to fight for own interests.
Now is the time to begin this organizing. Now is the time to say enough is enough. Now is the time to come together and say in one clear voice:
It’s their system, run in their interests that created this crisis – and we will not pay for it!
It is beyond time that we take our society out of the hands of the bankers and the bosses and the super rich!
