Santa Fe got a taste of the Occupy Wall Street protests when around 75 people demonstrated at a local Bank of America on Oct. 1.
Though the turnout paled in size and effect to the Manhattan protests, at least one city resident made it to the big show recently.
Santa Fean Mark Jacobs, who operates Many Paths World Service, a nonprofit advocacy group, joined the Wall Street protests after being inspired by the Arab Spring. Jacobs says it’s only a matter of time before something similar happens in the US.
“I think we’re a little too complacent and a little tired after three years of economic collapse,” he tells SFR. “It’s time to put our voice into action.”
Occupy Wall Street has been underway for almost a month. Its protests against corporate greed and the wealth gap have spread to dozens of other cities.
While protesting, Jacobs was arrested and detained for six hours for walking in the street instead of on sidewalks, he says. But he’s not discouraged. He’s tentatively planning a march from Wall Street to Washington, DC, to “symbolically link these two seats of power,” he says.
Closer to home, another Occupy Santa Fe protest is planned for the same Bank of America location, on the corner of St. Francis Drive and Paseo de Peralta, at 10 am Saturday, Oct. 8.
Perhaps Mark Jacobs should actually study what "Arab Spring" accomplished before he decides how inspiring it was. What DID it accomplis? Basically, swapping one dictator for another. Hooray! Military strongman Mubarak is gone! Now who's in charge in Egypt? The same army brass who propped up Mubarak in the first place. Can you smell the freedom and liberty in the air? In Libya, no civilized person will miss Khaddafy, but who is his replacement? We don't know yet. It could either be another military strongman, or a crazed imam. Either way, there is no real benefit, and if the "crazed imam" takes over, things could actually be worse. In any of the countries swept by all this "Arab Spring" talk, has there been a democratic election? Is there any real new freedoms? Are women in those countries no longer treated like farm animals? No, no, and no. The connecting thread is that all of these countries are overwhelmingly Islamic, and Islam does not "do" freedom and democracy. In other words, throughout the Arab world, it's the same circus, but there are now a few different colored tents. THIS is the model that Jacobs wishes to aspire to?
Let's give Mark Jacobs a break and focus on the part of Arab Spring I assume he identifies with: not "crazed imans", but taking citizens' initiative to the streets.
Good choice: Bank of America is the posterchild of greed. Next we need to wipe out the greedball attorneys that buy up old creditcard accounts and sue poor people that can't hire an attorney and get "murdered" in the courts (Wright Law Firm in ABQ is a good example.)Where do I sign up for the next protest?
The Occupiers sound like the Obama campaign…no clear goals, people making it up for themselves as they go along, a thirst for PR, slogans and grand gestures…tons of rigthteous and determined emotion though…and for what?
Changing something, not clear what or how or what to. The NYC dippies are not posting any more demands because “it hurts our cause”. What is the “cause”, then?
Is Trumka going to run them up into Piven’s “popular uprising”? Can they even get there without running the whole thing from Trumka’s office with lots of union boots on the ground? Or even then?
The WSO has very clear goals. Saying otherwise doesn't make it so.
Did the French peasants who marched on the Bastille have clear goals? Their goals weren't in the form of published legislative proposals, but we have to admit that their purpose was clear and unambiguous. And so it is with the WSO. If you don't understand their goals, you really haven't been paying attention.