Wall Street Protests: Which Side Are You On?

By Van Jones
Progressive America Rising via
RebuildtheDream.com

September 30, 2011

http://progressivesforobama.blogspot.com/

Wall Street has long been the home of the biggest
threat to American Democracy. Now it has become home to
what may be our best hope for rescuing it.

For everyone who loves this country, for everyone whose
heart is breaking for the growing ranks of the poor,
for everyone who is seething at the unopposed
demolition of America's working and middle class: the
time has come to get off the fence.

A new generation has gone to the scene of the crimes
committed against our future. The time has come for all
people of good will to give our full-throated backing
to the young people of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The young heroes on Wall Street today baffle the world
because they have issued no demands. The villains of
Wall Street had their demands -- insisting upon a
massive bailout for themselves in 2008, while they
pocketed million dollar bonuses. The Wall Street
protesters are not seeking a bailout for themselves;
they are working to bail out democracy.

The American experiment in self-governance is at a
moment of crisis. The political system thus far has
proven itself incapable of responding to a once in a
lifetime economic calamity. With income inequality and
unemployment at the highest rates since the Great
Depression, it's no wonder that almost 80 percent of
the country thinks we're on the wrong track.

But the crisis of American Democracy did not start with
the financial collapse. For at least 30 years, the
system has been rigged by the wealthy and privileged to
acquire more wealth and privilege. At this point, 400
families control more wealth than 180 million
Americans.

This great wealth divergence has resulted in an unjust
and dangerous concentration of economic and political
power in the hands of the few. It has pushed millions
-- especially the rising generation and communities of
color -- into the shadows of our society. The middle
class continues to shrink, and the ranks of the poor
have swelled. The political elite has failed to take
the necessary steps to provide opportunity to the
majority of Americans.

A movement was born after Madison, Wisconsin, to oppose
these injustices. It has now spread to every
Congressional District. We call ourselves the American
Dream Movement. We engaged 130,000 people to crowd-
source our own jobs agenda -- the Contract for the
American Dream. In August, tens of thousands
demonstrated for jobs in rallies across the nation.
Next week in DC, we host our first national gathering:
the Take Back The American Dream conference.

The Occupation of Wall Street -- and the occupations
throughout the country -- are expressions of the same
spirit and dynamic. And these particular
demonstrations, perhaps uniquely, contain the spark to
grow into a movement that can be transformative. They
are the first, small step in the creation of a movement
that can restore American Democracy, and renew the
American Dream.

The hundreds of young people from all five boroughs
that camp out every night, in the heart of the
financial district, in the rain and the cold, at risk
of arrest, are providing the inspiration to draw more
and more out of the shadows and into the bright light
of the public square. The occupation grows larger and
more diverse every day. Young people, the majority of
whom are under 25 and have never before engaged in
activism, are managing the arduous task of a consensus
rules meeting with no sound system. The nightly general
assemblies are attracting crowds in the thousands to
stand amongst a group of their peers and debate our
path forward as a people.

The occupation is a revival of a proud tradition of
authentic, people-powered movements that have been
dormant -- and that we need now more than ever. It is
building into the kind of massive public demonstrations
-- like those in Egypt, Madison, and Santiago -- that
can shake the foundation of a system of power that has
lost sight of the public good.

Now is our time to choose. Will we keep rewarding those
whose financial manipulations have brought us to ruin?
Or will we stand with those whose democratic
innovations are breathing life into our finest ideals?
Both groups are within blocks of each other in downtown
Manhattan.

For the past 30 years, the country has stood behind the
titans on Wall Street and their values. We listened
when they said that their banks were too big too fail.
Today, there is only one thing that's too big to fail:
the dreams of this new generation, finding its voice in
Liberty Park. All of America should now stand with
them.

Authored by Van Jones, President of Rebuild The Dream,
and Max Berger, a youth organizer with the American
Dream Movement.

Follow Van Jones on Twitter: www.twitter.com/VanJones68
________________________________

Join Van Jones in Taking Back the American Dream

Alternet
September 30, 2011

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/673875/join_van_jones_in_taking_back_the_american_dream/#paragraph3

Progressive activists will converge next week in
Washington, D.C., for the Take Back the American Dream
conference, to be headlined by Van Jones -- and you
can, too. Walk-up registration is still available. But
if you can't make it to the conference, be sure to tune
into AlterNet for livestreaming coverage by Free Speech
TV; AlterNet's own Adele M. Stan will anchor the
coverage along with Chris Rabb, Latoya Peterson and
David Pakman.

The conference, taking place October 3-5 at the
Washington Hilton, is more than just an opportunity to
meet progressive leaders and media figures: it's an
opportunity to do real movement-building work.

As Robert Borosage of the Campaign for America's Future
and Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation write:

    A movement tells its story through the battles it
    fights, the tactics it employs, the messages it
    projects. The right has spent decades training the
    members of its choir. They know the gospel; they
    can sing the words to the songs. Progressives have
    done less well, particularly on core economic
    issues. Democratic presidents too often mislead,
    touting financial deregulation, corporate trade
    accords and capital gains tax cuts. A central task
    of the American Dream Movement -- like the Populist
    movement of the late nineteenth century -- will be
    popular education, convening the modern equivalent
    of barnyard gatherings, the next wave of teach-ins,
    to spread the word. Progressive leaders can help
    lay out now-excluded alternatives. No movement can
    grow unless citizens are convinced that there is a
    better way.

Take Back the American Dream, organized by Campaign for
America's Future, and co-sponsored by The Nation, aims
to do just that: help progressives tell their story in
a way that is compelling, and to combine that
storytelling with smart, strategic organizing. We hope
to see you there -- or in TVland!

___________________________________________

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