Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Occupations: Wall Street, Washington – and Newark
28 Sep 2011
🖨️ Print Article

 

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

It is the season of “occupations” – open-ended protests designed to “liberate” very finite bits of space that represent a larger world that has been alienated from humanity by the greedy grasp of a usurping class.” Three somewhat different occupations hope to “set off a chain of human reaction” that will wrest power from the denizens of Wall Street and their servants in Washington. Meanwhile, Newark, New Jersey, activists are busy occupying their own turf.

 

Occupations: Wall Street, Washington – and Newark

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The conditions that are inflicted on the people of Newark and every other American inner city have their source in those who rule from Washington in the service of Wall Street – the sites of those other occupations.”

Three “occupations” of significance are underway or about to begin in the United States. These people’s actions share overlapping themes of resistance to the oppression of the many by the few, and attempt to focus the minds of the many on very finite bits of space that represent a larger world that has been alienated from humanity by the greedy grasp of a usurping class. It is hoped that the symbolic liberation of those spaces, through physical occupation by the people, will set off a chain of human reaction culminating in a kind of Big Bang that gives birth to a new social universe.

Big Bangs have happened before; human progress depends on them, which is why people spend their entire lives trying to light the fuse.

The attempt to occupy ground on Manhattan’s Wall Street, the figurative and literal belly of the global finance capitalist beast, has been harassed and, increasingly, brutalized by police – as must occur if the protest is to crystallize into a narrative of struggle. The Wall Street protesters appear to be as they describe themselves, a “leaderless resistance” that is united against the “greed and corruption” of the “one percent” of the population that lords it over the rest of us. The protesters were, at least in the beginning, very young, very white, and transparently upscale in social background – just the kind of cohort in need of introduction to the blunt instruments underpinning the rule of the rich. The NYPD soon obliged them.

“The protesters were, at least in the beginning, very young, very white, and transparently upscale in social background.”

On October 6, a coalition of organizations with many veteran leaders will descend on Freedom Square in Washington, DC, for an open-ended, non-violent occupation of federal space. Drawn from social and economic justice, environmental and peace groups, the activists say they “will demand changes that shift power away from concentrated corporate capital and free us to create solutions that lead to a just and sustainable future.”

In Newark, New Jersey, the People’s Organization for Progress, or P.O.P., has launched a different kind of occupation, claiming public space at two busy intersections of the city for daily demonstrations that they plan to continue for 381 days, the duration of the 1955 Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott. P.O.P. is, in my estimation, the most effective grassroots, Black-based outfit in the country, with hundreds of dues paying members and many more active associates. The demands of their “People’s Daily Action for Peace, Jobs, Equality and Justice” are as comprehensive as those of a national organization – as they must be, since the conditions that are inflicted on the people of Newark and every other American inner city have their source in those who rule from Washington in the service of Wall Street – the sites of those other occupations.

The activists in Newark are intent on occupying public space in their own city, for more than a year or as long as necessary. That is the most profound kind of occupation: a non-stop mobilization of people embedded in their own communities, yet consciously connected to the larger world. A struggle in which there will be no change of venue, until all the people’s venues are liberated.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20110928_gf_Occupations.mp3

More Stories


  • Erica Caines
    Bound by Imperialism: Trinidad’s Role in U.S. Agenda
    08 Jan 2025
    Trinidad is experiencing an unprecedented crime wave. The state has responded by militarizing the police and loosening restrictions on their actions. To understand these mechanisms, one must look at…
  • Janvieve Williams Comrie
    The Unrelenting Violence Against Black Youth in Latin America: a Focus on Ecuador
    08 Jan 2025
    The murder of four Afro-Ecuadorian boys is another tragic example of the long history of racism in Latin America. The utter disregard for the lives of Black youth and the refusal to seek justice for…
  • Arnold August
    Liberal Media and Personalities: The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Fall
    08 Jan 2025
    On Dec 11, 2024, it was reported that the post-election audiences for the leading liberal media, MSNBC and CNN, continued to drop: 46% and 33%, respectively. Some of MSNBC’s biggest stars, including…
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    F Train Lynching: Papa Cop’s wink and nod
    08 Jan 2025
    "F Train Lynching: Papa Cop’s wink and nod" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Ali Abunimah
    Israel still can’t find any 7 October rape victims, prosecutor admits
    08 Jan 2025
    Well over a year after Al Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023, an Israeli prosector admitted that there was no credible evidence that any sexual violence occurred. The narrative of rape had already been…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us