---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Marx Laboratory <[email protected]> Date: Sun, Dec 4, 2011 at 10:13 PM Subject: We Are All Occupiers - by Arundhati Roy To: Marx Laboratory <[email protected]>
We Are All Occupiers People the world over salute the "Occupy" movement for standing up to injustice and fighting for equality at the heart of empire ** *by Arundhati Roy* *Speech given by Arundhati Roy at the People's* *University in Washington Square, NYC on November* *16th, 2011.* *Tuesday morning, the police cleared Zuccotti* *Park, but today the people are back. The police should* *know that this protest is not a battle for territory. We're* *not fighting for the right to occupy a park here or* *there. We are fighting for justice. Justice, not just for* *the people of the United States, but for everybody.* *What you have achieved since September 17th,* *when the Occupy movement began in the United* *States, is to introduce a new imagination, a new political* *language into the heart of empire. You have* *reintroduced the right to dream into a system that* *tried to turn everybody into zombies mesmerized into* *equating mindless consumerism with happiness and* *fulfillment.* *We were talking about justice. Today, as we speak,* *the army of the United States is waging a war of occupation* *in Iraq and Afghanistan. US drones are killing* *civilians in Pakistan and beyond. Tens of thousands* *of US troops and death squads are moving* *into Africa. If spending trillions of dollars of your money* *to administer occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan is* *not enough, a war against Iran is being talked up.* *Ever since the Great Depression, the manufacture* *of weapons and the export of war have* *been key ways in which the United States has* *stimulated its economy. Just recently, under* *President Obama, the United States made a $60* *billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia - moderate* *Muslims, right? It hopes to sell thousands of* *bunker busters to the UAE. It has sold $5 billionworth* *of military aircraft to my country, India,* *which has more poor people than all the poorest* *countries of Africa put together. All these* *wars, from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki* *to Vietnam, Korea, Latin America, have* *claimed millions of lives – all of them fought to* *secure the "American way of life". Today, we* *know that the "American way of life" – the model* *that the rest of the world is meant to aspire towards* *– has resulted in 400 people owning the* *wealth of half of the population of the United* *States. It has meant thousands of people being* *turned out of their homes and their jobs while* *the US government bailed out banks and corporations* *– American International Group (AIG)* *alone was given $182 billion.* *The Indian government worships US economic* *policy. As a result of 20 years of the free market* *economy, today, 100 of India's richest people own* *assets worth one-quarter of the country's GDP while* *more than 80% of the people live on less than 50* *cents a day; 250,000 farmers, driven into a spiral of* *death, have committed suicide. We call this progress,* *and now think of ourselves as a superpower. Like* *you, we are well-qualified: we have nuclear bombs* *and obscene inequality.* *The good news is that people have had enough* *and are not going to take it any more. The Occupy* *movement has joined thousands of other resistance* *movements all over the world in which the poorest of* *people are standing up and stopping the richest corporations* *in their tracks. Few of us dreamed that we* *would see you, the people of the United States on* *our side, trying to do this in the heart of Empire. I* *don't know how to communicate the enormity of what* *this means. They (the 1%) say that we don't have* *demands… perhaps they don't know, that our anger* *alone would be enough to destroy them. But here* *are some things – a few "pre-revolutionary" thoughts* *I had – for us to think about together:* *We want to put a lid on this system that manufactures* *inequality. We want to put a cap on the unfettered* *accumulation of wealth and property by individuals* *as well as corporations. As "cap-ists" and "lidites",* *we demand:* *• An end to cross-ownership in businesses.* *For example, weapons manufacturers cannot* *own TV stations; mining corporations* *cannot run newspapers; business houses* *cannot fund universities; drug companies* *cannot control public health funds.* *• Two, natural resources and essential infrastructure* *– water supply, electricity, health,* *and education – cannot be privatized.* *• Three, everybody must have the right to shelter,* *education and healthcare.* *• Four, the children of the rich cannot inherit* *their parents' wealth.* *This struggle has re-awakened our imagination.* *Somewhere along the way, capitalism reduced the* *idea of justice to mean just "human rights", and the* *idea of dreaming of equality became blasphemous.* *We are not fighting to just tinker with reforming a* *system that needs to be replaced.* *As a cap-ist and a lid-ite, I salute your struggle.* *Salaam and Zindabad* Source:Flashes from WFTU - -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. 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