October 14, 2011

Naomi Klein's says "Occupy Wall Street: The Most Important Thing in the World Now "

"I was honored to be invited to speak at Occupy Wall Street on Thursday night. Since amplification is (disgracefully) banned, and everything I say will have to be repeated by hundreds of people so others can hear (aka “the human microphone”), what I actually say at Liberty Plaza will have to be very short. With that in mind, here is the longer, uncut version of the speech."

"I love you.

And I didn’t just say that so that hundreds of you would shout “I love you” back, though that is obviously a bonus feature of the human microphone. Say unto others what you would have them say unto you, only way louder.

Yesterday, one of the speakers at the labor rally said: “We found each other.” That sentiment captures the beauty of what is being created here. A wide-open space (as well as an idea so big it can’t be contained by any space) for all the people who want a better world to find each other. We are so grateful.

If there is one thing I know, it is that the 1 percent loves a crisis. When people are panicked and desperate and no one seems to know what to do, that is the ideal time to push through their wish list of pro-corporate policies: privatizing education and social security, slashing public services, getting rid of the last constraints on corporate power. Amidst the economic crisis, this is happening the world over."...
Read full article here, The Nation.com, October 6, 2011

Hear also this interview on the Nation website:
Naomi Klein: Occupy Wall Street as Shock Resistance
October 7, 2011

"Three weeks into Occupy Wall Street, many on the right and some on the left continue criticizing the occupiers for having not come up with clear demands. The movement seems to be amorphous and not all of its participants have a list of specific items on their agenda. But should that be the reason to dismiss and diminish the movement—when it's still in its cradle? After all, Occupy Wall Street is not even three weeks old.
The Nation's Naomi Klein talked with Brian Lehrer on WNYC yesterday before she spoke at Liberty Square, the epicenter of the protests. She points out that the very organic nature of the movement—people from all walks of life coming together in common frustration with a system that allows extremely unequal distribution of wealth and power—and the greedy profit-hungry "culture" it seeks to resist pretty much determines that it takes time to formulate specific demands. But beyond demands, the situation requires imagining an entirely new yet feasible alternative structure of power. The participating youth and those in the movement who are not so young deserve support, not scorn."