Those who say the Wall Street protests have failed or are doomed to failure ....

[markpkessinger]

... seem to have missed a very important lesson from the history of the Civil Rights demonstrations and marches. Taken in isolation from one another, any one of those early civil rights demonstrations could have been deemed a failure, in so far as they did not usually result in immediate change and were often brutally put down by the police. But it is the aggregate effect of multiple protest actions, which collectively become a movement which can exert tremendous social pressure for change. That's why criticisms of the Wall Street protesters' lack of focus or organization are off the mark. These protesters are not hoping to fix a system in need of repair. They are hoping to generate a complete rethinking of our financial system(s) because they have realized the current one is broken beyond repair and corrupt beyond redemption.

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. K&R!

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. Thank you for stating the obvious

because for far too many it is not obvious at all.

[markpkessinger]

5. Alas, one would think it would be obvious, wouldn't one? n/t

[abq e streeter]

3. Well put.....And couldn't agree more...

[lunatica]

4. The early feminist movement was the laughing stock of the world

Both when it started before the Civil War and when it had a resurgence in the 1960s being part of the Civil Rights Movement. We're still fighting for equal pay for equal work even though President Obama signed the Lilly Leadbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilly_Ledbetter_Fair_Pay_Act_of_2009

and right up to this year there were nay sayers about the DADT repeal. DUers argued the LGBT community would never, ever be allowed to serve in the military openly. Who gets the last laugh on that one now?

[customerserviceguy]

6. That was my first thought, too

But I can think of only one set of protests in recent history that have resulted in positive change, and that was the civil rights protests of the early 1960's, which resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As we know, that law did not end racism, but was an important step along the way to its eventual eradication.

Contrast that success with the violence of the race riots of the late 1960's. Those produced nothing but burned inner city neighborhoods, and Richard Nixon coming along with his "Law and Order" campaign. The Vietnam antiwar protests didn't stop that war anytime soon either, although I will admit that they helped America get tired of fighting a no-win war.

The right wing has learned how to control and contain the "damage" that protest movements have caused, they aren't as effective as they used to be.

[markpkessinger]

7. Then again, we have the example of ACT-UP . . .

. . . whose demonstrations were ultimately successful in pressuring the FDA to make clinical trials of AIDS treatments much more widely available at a time when there wasn't much by way of treatment options.

[customerserviceguy]

8. True, they had some influence on the FDA

but it can be argued that they also inspired a backlash that saw a large majority of states seeing fit to stain their constitutions with laws that codified marriage inequality.

The AIDS crisis put a human face on gay people, the ACT-UP folks kinda soured that...

[chill_wind]

9. K & R. n/t

[louslobbs]

10. K&R n/t

Lou

[RainDog]

11. you're right - this protest is sparking the ENTIRE NATION

people across the country are finding groups within their states and this is the most positive action that I have seen from people in this nation in a long time.

those who were dragged away by the police in Birmingham had a singular message - but the message received by the public was that INJUSTICE is acted upon those who act against the powerful.

that's what peaceful civil disobedience is all about - showing the disregard for those who have legitimate problems with the way in which power is wielded.

This protest is a good thing and those who try to dismiss it are either in collusion with the horrid status quo since the 1980s or are clueless.

[pipi_k]

12. One huge problem...

Their goal, as you stated...

"They are hoping to generate a complete rethinking of our financial system(s) because they have realized the current one is broken beyond repair and corrupt beyond redemption."

The problem...

financial systems are comprised of people. People were, are, and will always BE corrupt.


We can't even manage to elect non-corrupt politicians, for petes sake!

How do we chase the corrupt people out of the financial systems when we don't, and likely never will, know who many of them are? How do we get rid of them when they're enabled by the very same corrupt politicians we don't know about until it's too late?


What do we do...round them up in the streets and shoot them? Build prison camps for corrupt people?


Get rid of one corrupt person and another one will take his place.

A person would have to have spent his life in a cave not to know that corruption permeates our society. So it's not like pointing it out is a huge revelation or anything.

OK fine. Big business and huge corporations and most capitalists are greedy and corrupt.

Now what? Unless people are directly affected by it, not too many are going to give a shit while they're struggling to hold onto their jobs and pay their bills so their families don't starve.

[Enthusiast]

13. Thanks for reminding us.

It is all too easy to forget.

More than anything we need boots on the ground in NYC.