Letter to the Occupy Wall Street Movement : Fight Racism, Sexism, LGBTQ oppression

These are hard times. There doesn’t appear to be any respite coming soon. The political atmosphere has shifted in response to the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression. This crisis, because of how the changes in technology, communication and production have made the world smaller, is global in its impact.

Corporations and financial institutions on Wall Street have become profitable again. Their profits were made possible by the more than $16 trillion in tax money doled out to them by Washington and because they have shed millions of jobs, ripped up workers’ contracts, forced concessions down the workers’ throats and because they make those left with a job work harder and produce more in less time.

Jobless figures mean crisis for young people

Larry Hales FIST photo: Larry Hales

Excerpted from a talk given by Larry Hales, FIST National Leader, at the WWP National Conference in New York City, Oct. 8-9.

We have been talking about the crisis and that, eventually, people’s consciousness will lead them into action in response to the deepening crisis that we see as intractable and continuing. The release of the job figures for last month shows that they are nowhere near being able to replace the 8 million jobs that were bled from the system because of the crisis, and they can’t keep up with the new workers entering into employment age. I think last month 400,000 people became of age to enter into the job market.

In the U.S., the conditions are especially hitting young people. The occupiers down on Wall Street and in other places are majority white but young. The reason is because a lot of young people that have graduated from high school or college and have never had a job, have no prospects for a job. So, you enter into your adult life, hoping to have a family, wanting to strike out on your own, but you don’t have the means and resources for which to do so.

Big antiwar turnout rocks Boston’s business district

Occupy Boston youth join union members and veterans to denounce U.S. wars. WW photo: Stevan Kirschbaum

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By Gerry Scoppettuolo & Frank Neisser
Boston

Occupy Boston and the United National Antiwar Committee rocked the city’s business district as 5,000 protesters marched on Oct. 15 with cries of “Whose streets? Our streets!” A contingent from Steelworkers Local 8751 representing Boston school bus drivers led the march from a union sound truck festooned with placards declaring “Wall Street = War Street.” The truck was ringed by a steadfast security contingent from Vets for Peace/Smedley Butler Brigade.

Bloomberg, NYPD: Hands off Occupy Wall Street! Hands off the Muslim community!

Statement from the International Action Center — http://www.iacenter.org

Billionaire Bloomberg has announced that tomorrow he wants to “clean” Zucotti Park, the site of Occupy Wall Street.

Interesting how when the righteous protest against banks gains massive popularity, Bloomberg suddenly becomes concerned about health and safety.

Where was Bloomberg when New Yorkers needed him to “clean” the city streets after an average winter snowstorm just before New Year’s Eve?

What steps does he ever take against absentee slumlords, who allow their building to fall into dangerous disrepair? Where was his concern when the MTA laid off station agents and closed bus lines?