Posts Tagged ‘west’

Cornel West Gets OWS

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

Professor and philosophical giant Cornel West understands and supports Occupy Wall Street. He’s lent his voice to the movement in the mainstream media, and spent time speaking to and encouraging the New York protesters themselves.

On Bill Maher this week the discussion turned to the lack of big ideas coming from any of the Republican presidential candidates, when Cornel West shared the following gem:

If you want to know real big ideas you have got to go to the Occupy Wall Street movement. If you look at it… we got Monarchy- American revolution- birth of the new nation, Slavery- birth of new freedom, now we got Oligarchy.

The movement is not saying we hate slave holders, we hate slavery. We don’t hate kings, like king George III, we hate Monarchy. It’s not that we hate oligarchs on Wall street, we hate Oligarchy.

This is exactly what the impending global insurrection is all about, rising up against not just the American oligarchy, but the global oligarchy.

From riots in Europe, mass demonstrations in South America, Occupations in North America, and revolutions across the Arab World, humans everywhere are forming the vanguard for a monumental clash between the vast majority of the world’s population and a fraction of one percent of the human race who’ve been hoarding the fruits of humankind’s labor.

The people’s uprising is not about stripping these 70,000 or so super-rich individuals of all their wealth (or bringing out the guillotine for a little French justice).

Instead, this great struggle is about enforcing democratic accountability for those at the top. Otherwise, left to their own devices, the world’s wealthiest will just continue to expand their fortunes and influence at the expense of everyone else. And that is something we simply cannot afford.

Ventura and West Weigh In

Saturday, April 9th, 2011

Two vids for you today. First up, Jesse Ventura talking US politics and the world. Best part? Around the 9 min mark, responding to a point about the huge, yet unsuccessful uprising in Wisconsin, to which Ventura replies “It’s easy. Stop voting democracy or republican”. Nice to see my own sentiments echoed by The Body.

 

Second video stems from Dr. Cornell West who parallels Ventura’s points, saying “Obama aligned himself with forces that promote the abandonment of poor people and the neglect of working people. Internally, he is a centrist now leaning towards the right and has sadly become a pawn of big finance and a puppet of big business.”

Squeaky Wheels Get More Grease

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

“We are tired of the Wall Street oligarchs and corporate elites having such a disproportionate amount of influence and power, and the only way we can deal with organized greed at the top is with organized people power below.”Cornell West

Just like esteemed Professor West says, the best way to shift the balance of power back into the hands of the people is with cooperation and coordination from millions of engaged individuals.

This is why it is so important that we collectively demand more from the establishment. We may not get everything we ask for, but the mere act of asking makes it likely that we’ll get more than if we don’t say anything at all.

Just look what has been happening with all the uprisings across the Middle East. Fearful of revolutions spreading to their own countries, several Arab leaders have pledged huge sums to help appease their populations.

How effective these payoffs will be remains to be seen. But one thing is certain – if there were no revolutions and uprisings, these billion dollar kick-backs would have never even been on the table.

The louder our voice, the more the system should reflect the will of the people. When populations are empowered, mega-institutions, like corporations and banks, will no longer be free to steal trillions from the public.

This is precisely what happened in the Netherlands this week. Upset with the big bonuses the financial sector gave themselves after being bailed out by the public, Dutch citizens took to Twitter and Facebook and mobilized a successful uprising. Now, politicians have voted to implement a 100% retrospective tax, effectively eliminating all the banker’s bonuses. Booyah!

When humans work together, there is nothing we cannot do. We can reclaim our systems from the corruption caused by a few powerful interests. We can ensure democracy throughout all levels of government. We can make our world everthing we know it can be.

All it takes is for you to take action. Speak out, tweet, Facebook. Get involved in the movement. Join up with millions of like-minded individuals and embrace people power to get everything you want from the establishment.