Whatever Occupy Wall Street once was long ago (i.e., three weeks ago), the revolution has been seized by big labor, particularly public employee unions, as proudly reported yesterday in left-wing Mother Jones magazine, Occupy Wall Street, Powered by Big Labor:
In late September, major labor unions mostly watched from the sidelines as the Occupy Wall Street protests grew from a ragtag band of diehards camping in a park into a fledgling movement grabbing national headlines and sparking similar protests around the country. Now, Big Labor is going to work: endorsing the protests, offering manpower and resources, and helping stage a major march in New York City’s financial district on Wednesday. They are adding organizing muscle, fresh energy, and greater numbers to the boisterous demonstrations that began in downtown Manhattan more than two weeks ago.
Among those now jumping in is the New York State United Teachers, the Empire State’s largest union, representing 600,000 educators….
The New York educators join labor unions representing more than 2 million additional workers that have recently broadcast their support: the American Federation for State, County, and Municipal Workers (1.6 million members); Service Employees International Union’s 1199 chapter (300,000 members); Transport Workers Union Local 100 (64,000 members); and more. AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, who personally endorsed the protests, told In These Times that he’s meeting with his union’s executive board on Wednesday to discuss a union-wide endorsement. The executive board for the Communications Workers of America (700,000 members) declared in its own statement that Occupy Wall Street “is an appropriate expression of anger for all Americans, but especially for those who have been left behind by Wall Street.” ….
[UPDATE: On Wednesday, several more national unions officially endorsed the Occupy Wall Street protests, including the AFL-CIO, SEIU, and the Teamsters.]
The irony, of course, will be lost on the original protesters.
The original protesters will be drowned out by people whose pensions and benefits have strangled municipal budgets, resulting in the cuts they are protesting, and will be locking arms with the people they subsidize with astronomical local property taxes which make owning and keeping a home so difficult.
Few among the crowd will doubt that “Wall Street” is to blame for high college tuitions, even though there is no connection, as they exit the university buildings donated by the barons of Wall Street. How many will ask, where are the buildings donated by the unions, and how much did the unions donate to our school’s annual campaign?
How many of the unemployed in the crowd will make the connection between exclusive union shops and lack of right to work laws, and diminished job opportunities? How many will understand that trade unions exist to protect members of the unions, even if it means driving up the cost of products and services to consumers?
As they tearfully mourn the loss of Steve Jobs, how many will wonder why Jobs was so against unions, and fought a long battle to keep unions out of Apple? As they tweet the revolution from their iPhones and iPads, how many will realize that these devices may not ever have come into being but for Apple’s fight against some of the very unions marching along side them?
The revolution has been seized by the very people against whom the protests should be directed.
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Oh dear, big labor and the Van Jones types have been talking about exactly this for ages. It wasn’t seized, it was manufactured from the get-go. The “original” useful idiots were . . . just that.
This >> “as they exit the university buildings donated by the barons of Wall Street.”
What more needs to be said?
I would guess the memo went out to the professional agitators: “don’t wear the purple SEIU shirts … we want to march undercover”.
So I guess they are going with the grunge look.
“For those who have left behind by wallstreet”. What does Wallstreet have to do with my problems? If anything my family is being strangled by property taxes that fund the salaries, benefits, and pensions of teachers and other public employees. While we contribute nothing to our retirement, we fund the pension of a teacher. While we pay $13,000 per year (soon to be $15,000) for health insurance, we fund the insurance of a teacher and they complain if they have to contribute a few hundred per year. Then we go to church and get an earful about how teachers are saints and businesses are bad. Well, they should think about who’s cheating who. Teachers wonder why people are fed up with them. Well to start they are completely ungrateful for the cushy deal that they have at the expense of their neighbors. In capitalism, if a wallstreeter gets rich it is not at your expense. In socialism, when a public employee gets paid it is at their neighbors expense. We probably won’t be able to afford to send our kids to college someday, yet we will pay enough in property taxes that we could have sent our children to private school, college, and then retire. The public school system has become more of a drain on families than a benefit and we don’t even have a choice in the matter. Who are the bullies?
Now there will be plenty of goons available. NYC unions have the best goons.
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Every time I fill up my gas tank to take my kids to the Drs. or to get groceries, a portion of the gas tax that I pay funds public transportation which I don’t even have the option to use. The tranport workers union is gaining from my necessity, while I gain nothing from them. Who’s cheating who? They want to hold responsible those who have hurt our economy. They need to look in the mirror. Public employee unions are destroying municipalties across the country. While I am not a big fan of private sector unions either since they do tend to kill their host, they are not nearly the problem the public ones are. If anything the private sector unions should be against the rainbow and unicorn green utopian vision which these protesters hold. Killing vital industries is killing their jobs. It just depends which industry they are in. The auto unions should be cautious who they support, Obama may have bailed them out, but the mandates will kill the industry if the consumers don’t buy it. Do they want jobs or do they want fantasies?
“or do they want fantasies?”
There is no question about it: fantasies. As do most people these days.
May as well start preparing for the next big protests:
The place: Chicago, Illinois
The time: May, 2012
The event: The G8 Summit AND The NATO Summit
Grab a friend, and come watch Chicago burn! http://wp.me/p1ipEz-Bw
(Wonder how much money is going to be coming in from other countries “under the table” to help out Obama’s 2012 Campaign….)
In California the unions pay for elections. Just sayin’.
We tell young folks: The only way to succeed in America is to have a college education.
We jack up college tuition because of the increased demand.
Years ago, former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett said that the Education/Industrial Complex can absorb as much money as the government or private sector can throw at it.
Start with a financial aid system that requires that you tell them about every asset you or your family own. They can tweak your loan/grant/payment plan to get every last dollar you own. This makes for an “inverted market” where you have absolutely no bargaining power.
Now combine that with the ignorance of those going to college after degrees that just don’t pay in either the government or private sector, and you have a “perfect storm” to suck every dollar out of you and leave you holding nothing but your ….
Oddly enough, the banks (and Wall Street) have been taken out at least part of this loop by President Obama already. All new federally guaranteed loans are now administered by the federal government and not the banks. This may not help with the older loans, and isn’t helping with the newer loans either (especially when the government can go after any money you make even better than the banks could).
Now as we flounder about looking for “evil doers,” take notice that nobody is blaming the colleges who have jacked up college tuition. Why is that ?
Do the unions understand that their already unsustainable bloodsucking economy detroying pensions will be even more unsustainable if they kill Wallstreet. Oh I forgot, they can’t think critically enough to understand the concept that killing your host will lead to your own demise. Then again would we expect that from unions. You don’t need knowledge, skills, and intelligence to gain as a union employee, you just need a pumping fist, marching boots, and a sense of entitlement to take what you demand to be yours.
Sometimes it is not what you see but what you don’t see that tells a lot
At #occupywallstreet – the ultra anarchists seem to be absent.
None of the violent protestors like the Black Block and so forth. Code Pink not to be seen, none of the names that might scare the ‘moderates.’
Somebody had to arrange for them to stay away, at least for now.
Who?
And, more importantly – WHY?
jsut because they don’t wear purple or pink doesn’t mean they are not there
Frankly, it’s probably a shrewd move by Big Labor. The question is why didn’t conservatives do more to embrace the movement and object to this trickle up economy that bails out the elites and just keeps bumping up the cost of everything for the rest of us.
My counter-protest Sign : STEVE CREATED JOBS. OBAMA CREATED MOBS.
I have no evidence, but little doubt, that White House advisers have been involved in this “movement” from the get go. This is what happens when you elect a community organizer to be president whose poll numbers are reaching new lows. Nobody should be surprised.
The only difference between Obama and Chavez and Castro is that Obama is better educated. Same ideology.
Deja vu to some degree if one considers the Israeli protest about the cost of housing etc., a few weeks ago when after the initial sincere protest was infiltrated by the Israel’s trade union and the NGO NIF (New Israel Fund) while being stage managed by one of Carville’s group, Greenberg I believe.
Progressive Corruption
The government spends several hundred billion dollars annually to alleviate indigence and homelessness. Despite their efforts, those conditions are progressive.
In fiscal 2011, the government, at all levels, spent $7 trillion, which is nearly 1/2 of the national GDP. After the big-ticket items (e.g., Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, Defense) they still have $5 trillion. Despite this massive revenue, they still need to increase revenue through the so-called “health care reform” and a comprehensive consumption tax.
The principal reason for our economic crisis is due to massive distortions of the market. This was perpetrated by actors in the private (for-profit and non-profit corporations, including unions, representing public and private sector workers, environmentalists, advocates, lobbyists, lawyers, etc.) and public (both elected and members of the bureaucracy) sectors, pursuing dreams of instant gratification. The market, as it exists today, does not reflect a true measure of supply and demand, nor productivity.
The correction must begin with holding authoritarian interests accountable for general incompetence and crimes against American citizens. We can no longer afford to play the game of selective history, selective science, and selective reality. Either we discuss the issues of merit or they will succeed in subverting our nation for their profit.
The root cause of the financial crisis stems from a massive distortion of the market through fraudulent and incompetent manipulation of supply and demand.
The COWS are both right and wrong. Their priorities are wrong.
Excellent post filled with excellent points, Professor.
I hope some of the bigger fish in the media sea link to it.
In August, more American troops were killed than in any other month since fighting began in Afghanistan. Guantanamo Bay is still open. I believe I read that drone strikes are five-fold under Obama’s 2-1/2 years compared to Bush’s eight. I could go on and on, but I don’t have the spare time nor all the info at my fingertips.
My question: Why are these people, the same ones who were chanting, “Support our troops … bring them home now!!!” when Bush was in office, now more concerned with money and capitalism and Wall Street etc., than they are with dead American soldiers and civilian collateral deaths?
Maureen Dowd said Cindy Sheehan had “absolute moral authority.” Does that “absolute moral authority” make a sound when it comes crashing down when the media isn’t there to prop it up nor listen to her anymore? Is it way, way, way too soon for some magazine or TV show to do a “Where is she now?” segment on Cindy Sheehan?
No blood for oil? More like:
No sweat for looking the other way.
Suddenly these war protestors have morphed into the great unwashed masses with (Jewish) bankers’ boots on their throats.
“Unwashed masses” has traditionally had a connotation denoting abject poverty … with iPad-wielding activists, it’s a lifestyle choice.
Full disclosure: When my stock of Dial soap bars drops below a dozen it is time for an immediate run to the supermarket.)
So we now have intentionally unwashed masses on the same reality wave length as Baghdad Bob. They see things that aren’t there, and don’t see things that are. And they smell.
LukeHandCool (who, like JFK before him, is capable of taking five or six showers a day … but probably for different reasons).
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The orthodox libertarians are there also…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFz1VVXsWRU
I agree with this guy on many points. The socialists walking by looked a bit glazed over by his message. The bailouts to the banks were the single most blatent slap in the face to the average taxpaying American. Obama’s sheep however have spent the past couple of years demonizing those who were against the bailouts.
You have to wonder how the rank and file union member feels about their dues being used in this manner.
Just like the arab spring shrouded the islamists whom later openly took it over, the OWS was a cover for public employee unions and democrat operatives who are now openly taking it over to support the status quo. A revolution to support the status quo, only could be hatched in the empty heads of democrat progressives.
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