Unions Play Major Role in 'Occupy Wall Street' Protests

[Omaha Steve]

http://nlpc.org/stories/2011/10/13/unions-play-major-role-occupy-wall-street-protests

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Thu, 10/13/2011 - 13:58

As "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations have gone national, observers are taking note of the prominent role of labor unions in this anti-business crusade. The rote denunciations of "corporate greed" at these events could have been lifted from almost any AFL-CIO convention speech. That doesn't necessarily mean union organizers are putting words in protestors' mouths. Yet it does suggest organized labor and street radicals recognize each other as natural allies. Given their overlapping worlds, it's fitting that one of the prime movers behind this far-Left, multi-city sturm und drang festival is the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), some of whose operatives literally wrote the book on wrecking the credibility of major companies. And there are plenty of other unions getting in on the action. Ironically, anti-corporate activists are being enabled by corporations themselves.



Occupy Wall Street, formally speaking, began on September 17. On that day, anti-capitalist radicals gathered in Lower Manhattan at Zuccotti Park, not far from the World Trade Center site, to voice their displeasure with what they saw as legalized robbery by the country's financial services industry, and corporations generally, of the rest of the nation's people. The protestors claimed to represent "99 percent" of America, the portion allegedly getting the shaft from the wealthiest 1 percent. They redubbed the space "Liberty Park," an informal return to the area's original name, Liberty Square Park. Organizers knew what they were doing. Because the park is privately-owned and operated (by Brookfield Office Properties), it is not subject to City of New York park curfew rules. Yet because it is public space, it must stay open 24 hours a day, a fact Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly reluctantly explained to the public.

The movement quickly captured the imagination of a loose coalition of socialists, anarchists, clergy, teachers, hackers, college students, environmentalists, union members and other activists around the nation. Here was a truly spontaneous gathering of the people, said organizers - ground zero for a real revolution! Soon enough, Occupy Wall Street inspired copycat movements elsewhere bearing names such as Occupy Atlanta, Occupy Boston and Occupy Pittsburgh. This is a nationwide phenomenon. And it's not about to go away. The illegal (and unpunished) three-week occupation of the Wisconsin Capitol from mid-February to early March, a union-driven mass protest against budget curbs proposed by Republican Governor Scott Walker, was small stuff compared to this.

Superficially, at least, Occupy Wall Street is the Left's equivalent of the Right's Tea Party. Each movement - its leadership anyway - seeks to transform widespread discontent over federal bailouts of banks and corporations into a broad populist program. Each seeks to recruit followers via carnival-style rallies. Each seeks to expose incestuous relationships between business and political elites. And each considers itself to be the essence of patriotism, a fulfillment of our Founders' vision. Vice President Joe Biden, for one, sees a parallel. Occupy Wall Street protests, he recently told Washington Ideas Forum, have "a lot in common with the Tea Party." He elucidated: "Let's be honest with each other. What is the core of that protest? The core is the bargain has been breached with the American people. The American people do not think the system is fair."

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