Download PDF of this full issue: v41n2.pdf (26.6 MB)

We the People - A New Movement

By Michael and Cynthia Orange

There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear...
— From "For What It's Worth," Steven Stills and Buffalo Springfield, 1967

VVAW Members at Occupy Wall Street Saturday, October 8th, in New York City. Left to right are George Weber, Ken Dalton and founding member Jan Barry. Brother Frank Wagner is in the background making the peace sign.

For months, we felt compelled to make the trip from our home in St. Paul primarily because the focus of the gathering in Washington DC was to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the US war and occupation of Afghanistan. It was also to "connect the dots" that link our imperial wars as the root causes of our country's debilitating domestic problems.

In addition to the war economy focus, the DC Occupation embraced a broader range of interests that garner wider support and are more in harmony with the Occupy Wall Street purpose. In fact, a large majority of the American people consistently support ending the wars, creating a more equitable tax system, ending corporate welfare, protecting the social safety net and worker rights, transitioning to a clean energy economy, and reversing environmental degradation. Of absolute necessity is getting the money out of politics.

We were very impressed with the event organization. This is in contrast to some of the corporate media spin that argue that these protests are led by a bunch of angry losers or old hippies who don't have a clue. In DC, there were tents for the media, legal aid, first aid, free donated food, electronic tie-ins, and a long line of porta-potties.

The small grassy side of the totally paved plaza became a crowded campground for the hundreds who spent the night there. As the crowd grew to nearly a thousand, the buzz of hundreds of conversations from people of all ages, races, and occupations created their own energy. There was music, dancing, laughter, deep discussion, and a forest of creative signs, most of them hand lettered.

VVAW at the Occupy Pittsburgh protest October 15. Left to right: Larry Grundy, Cindy Grundy, Alynne Romo, Nick Thompson.

The women from Code Pink created a cardboard village with labels such as "Foreclosed Dream House." It served as a playground for kids during the day and shelter for the overnighters to "rest" after the Park Police banned sleeping and the use of tents on the plaza.

A display of worn combat boots carried tags that listed their now-dead owners.

The backdrop for the main stage was a twenty-foot-wide, parchment-colored banner, titled "We the People," which proclaimed the text and calligraphy of the Preamble to the Constitution. In the middle of the plaza was a companion banner titled, "We the Corporations," with a parody of the Preamble complete with a host of corporate logos.

To begin the formal program, the Raging Grannies from Madison sang original songs that we had first heard when we attended the massive pro-labor rallies there last spring.

During the evening program, we heard from an Iraq War vet and his artist friend who had biked 6,000 miles to bring attention through their music to the stupidity of our ongoing wars.

There is a striking contrast with the two-year-old Tea Party whose members are also voicing their anger at conditions for the average person. Unlike the grass-roots "Occupy" movement, the Tea Party has been co-opted by the corporate elite who have bankrolled it and used their corporate media to mold opinion and to serve their own interests and those of the Republican Party.

As David Morris of the Institute for Local Self reliance describes it, "We're mad at the devastation wrought in the last four years by the toxic combination of unrestrained greed and concentrated wealth.... We're mad at Wall Street for taking our money and giving nothing back.... We're mad at the 1 percent of the country who make decisions that enrich themselves while impoverishing the rest of us." His article, "It's Labor vs. Capital, Stupid," is rich with the facts to back up his assertions¹.

Chris Hedges², the keynote speaker for first night of the DC Occupation, has stated, "The greatest gift the occupation has given us is a blueprint for how to fight back. And this blueprint is being transferred to cities and parks across the country." As we write this in mid-October, there are nearly 1,500 occupations in the US, and many more around the world.

In his remarks in DC, Hedges challenged us all by saying, "There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history.... Either you are rebel or a slave."

There is indeed, "something happening here." But what it is, is getting clearer. The people are rising up to take back our country. We stand together in this new movement.

Michael is a member of local Chapter 27 Veterans for Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the author of Fire in the Hole: A Mortarman in Vietnam. Cynthia is also a long-time peace activist and author of Shock Waves: A Practical Guide to Living with a Loved One's PTSD.

¹http:onthecommons.org/its-labor-vs-capital-stupid
²Chris Hedges was a foreign correspondent who, for 15 years, covered wars throughout the world for the New York Times. He was an early critic of the Iraq War and left the paper to become a senior fellow at The Nation Institute, write books, and teach (see www.truthdig.com/report/category/hedges/).