http://www.openleft.com/diary/17679/a-different-kind-of-dancing-in-the-streetsA different kind of dancing in the streets
by: Mike Lux
Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 13:30
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On Tuesday, March 9th, several thousand people will be marching in Washington, DC - not to the capitol, but to the Ritz-Carlton, where the insurance industry that is still running things is meeting. There may be mass arrests, and serious disruption of the insurers' event.
On Sunday, March 21st, the immigrants' rights movement is marching in DC. I hear that there will be several tens of thousands at this one, and that immigrant advocates are extremely angry at the Congress and White House for doing nothing on the issue after all the promises that have been made.
And I'm hearing reports from community organizers working on banking issues that anger at the big banks has reached a boiling point, that with Congress listening to Wall Street more than the people, people are planning to take new kinds of demonstrations and direct action in the coming months directly to Wall Street and the K Street lobbyists running things. They will be taking demonstrations to bankers' and business lobbyists' offices, and picket their favorite lunch places and country clubs. And they will be moving their money out of the big banks and into community based banks and credit unions.
The tea partiers are not the only angry people in America. Progressives who were promised change and didn't get it are getting more and more ready to take things to the streets themselves. A lot of people gave President Obama and Congress the benefit of the doubt after the election, and they do deserve credit for trying to make progress on these huge issues, but with Wall Street and the insurers still running things, a lot of folks are running out of patience. And by the way: nobody outside of DC cares about which White House staffer is smart and which isn't. They don't a care about which Senate procedure works to pass a bill. They don't care about which power player is up or down, or in our out. People want results, and they want big business to no longer be in charge. Do you really think a recent immigrant in this country - demonized by the right, in fear that a neighbor might deported and that families might be ripped apart - that they care which politician is blocking immigration reform? They don't. They want change, the change that was promised to them. Just like the diabetic who can't get health insurance, and the guy who lost his job and his house because of Wall Street bankers.People are going to be doing a different kind of dancing in the streets over the next few weeks and months - dancing and shouting and carrying signs and risking arrests. The bankers, as Senator Durbin famously said, still own the place (along with the insurers and drug companies and businesses exploiting cheap immigrant labor). It's time to take our country back. We need to stop relying on the politicians, and confront the powers that be directly.
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