Some have compared the ongoing Wall Street demonstrations with the early rallies of the Tea Party. Beyond the obvious ideological differences lies the basic fact that the Tea Party assemblies continue to be orchestrated and instigated by various politicians, various groups, on a single-day basis, to promote candidates, and to improve grass-roots support for factions in the Republican Party that are notoriously pro-corporation. Trusting voters are assured they are assembling to demand less spending and more patriotism from the government.
The same organizers whom they trust and trusted are now campaigning for more battleships, more aggressive missile systems with first strike capabilities, and a greater store of defensive missiles. All of these things are costly, provide huge profits to huge corporations, and there is no explanation as to how they are to be financed. 
One might make a comparison to the development, in the 1950s, of a complex system of anti-missile missiles that time has shown would have been of little or no value had an enemy attack ensued.
The Occupy Wall Street movement, for a while called the “U.S. Days of Rage" is a true and spontaneous grass-roots movement, and most will agree it has not to this point been subject to coordination by any particular high power group or individual. It has no Rush Limbaugh, no Glenn Beck, no Sarah Palin.
Ironically the lack of sophisticated and directed mentoring is the largest potentially fatal flaw within the Occupy movement. For example, the Wall Street activists, many young and naïve, know they are "against" banks and banking, but in some cases they are at a loss when plied for specific explanation. If the student and anarchistic element of the Wall Street protests knew that the problem with the banks lies in technical issues such as non-regulation of mortgaging, and lack of accountability in the buying and selling of loans, they might well be bored to tears. It is true that the banks add fees and charges, as the Fed reduces the banks’ income possibilities, but a few fees is hardly cause for taking it “to the streets.”
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Dave Nalle
John, your naivete is so refreshing. The truth is that the Occupy Wallstreet movement was started by Marxist groups and has been coopted by unions and larger marxist groups and is about as grassroots and Harry Reid.
Dave
2 - zingzing
still going on about the reds, eh, dave? 1989 was a long time ago...
it's a different world out there, and we've got sand-devils to disagree with at this point. and a good thing too. those bogeymen don't look the same as us, so we can hate them unequivocally.
welcome to the 21st century, dave. hope it doesn't burn you.
let's look at the "grassroots" of the tea party while we're at it... ko ko ko koch-aine.
3 - Jordan Richardson
The truth is that the Occupy Wallstreet movement was started by Marxist groups
Wrong.
and has been coopted by unions
Wrong.
is about as grassroots and Harry Reid.
Wrong.
You couldn't be more wrong, unless you're working from a different definition of "truth."
The Adbusters Media Foundation, founded in 1989 in Vancouver, is not "Marxist." It was born out of a desire to provide citizens the same access to information as corporations have. The goal is to ensure the transparency of democracy and to uphold freedom of speech. They are anti-consumerist, but they are not "Marxist."
The unions did not appropriate the movement, either. They joined it, along with soccer moms, women's groups, men's groups, business groups (yes, Dave), church groups, and so on. If your political bent claims to have a finger on the pulse of the people and claims to want to move away from the dinosaur tendencies of the Republican Party, you can't afford to make the error of simplifying the Occupy Wall Street events.
In that grassroots means a movement driven by the politics of a community, how is Occupy Wall Street not grassroots? What non-grassroots group is secretly controlling the global occupations and movements?
4 - roger nowosielski
In any case, a "Marxist group" no longer carries the old kind of sting, not when capitalism is falling apart at the seams.
5 - roger nowosielski
Still got to disagree with John Lake. His presentation is naive but for different reasons, naive because seen through the old lens of liberalism, political party edition, which Mr. Lake seems unable to dispense with.
Consequently, anything that doesn't follow the Democratic party program, Mr. Lake is forced to consider unarrived and immature.
Now, that is naive.
6 - JDPineCoffin
The real failing of the OccupyEverywhere campaign is the impotence of their chosen medium. Screaming sit-in style protest is dead and I think it's the bored middle-class suburbanites who struck the fatal blow...Chronicle of Failure: Occupy Everywhere
7 - Andy Marsh
So, the movement was started in Canada? That makes it even worse! And it's been joined by the American Nazi Party, the American Socialists Party, and pretty much EVERY union group in America! And China likes it too.
They were singing Fuck the USA in Portland yesterday. Maybe they need to go back to Canada!
Ain't that special!
8 - Andy Marsh
Transparency Jordan? Really? Obama doesn't even want us to know who visits the White House!!!!
9 - Igor
Nalle says:
"...the Occupy Wallstreet movement was started by Marxist groups..."
Really? How would anyone know anything about Marxism? We've successfully repressed any expression of Marxism in newspapers, on TV, and even on the internet there seems to be no popular and easily accessible discussion of Marxism. It seems to be verboten.
Even in the Universities there is little or no discussion of Marxism! Dr. Richard Wolff says that all his graduate education and all his advanced degrees are from Stanford, Harvard and Yale, and yet NEVER was he required to read one word of Marxism (thus giving the lie to oft expressed claims that universities like Yale, Stanford and Harvard are dominated by Marxists). He had to go outside his formal classwork to read Marxism. His formal coursework was "a celebration of capitalism", he says.
In fact, Wolff says that the reason our Republican and Democratic Economists are failing now is because they never read Marxism and we are now in a classic Marxist defined economic collapse. They all came from Harvard, Yale and Stanford!
I wouldn't know. I'm not a Marxist and never read Marxism in a college econ or history course either. I read a little outside of class, but not deeply because I was predisposed against Marxism. But I have concluded that capitalism is exhausted and worn out and either must be revivified through radical change, or superseded.
10 - roger nowosielski
Good for you, Igor. You can find Wolff's own website with all kinds of videos and lectures.
11 - roger nowosielski
Andy, have you ever been in love and the relationship went south, real south?
Well, fuck them or her or whoever the fuck is just the right thing to say.
But who am I to piss on your love parade and the relationship of everlasting bliss? so I just let you be.
12 - Costello
I am curious how many of the Occupy detractors are Tea Party enthusiasts?
13 - Jordan Richardson
Andy, the movement was originated by an idea from Canadian group Adbusters.
What do you mean by "China likes it too?" In what context? How can you say a whole country "likes it?"
The very notion that there's no transparency in the White House is the sort of thing Adbusters and OWS is against. It sounds like you'd be on the same side, too, if you weren't so purposely dense.
14 - Jordan Richardson
As for Marxism, it's a catch-all term used by Dave and Co. to umbrella define any group or individual who does not drool with love for unbridled capitalism.
It doesn't have any historical meaning or context. It's an empty scare word.
15 - roger nowosielski
Dave should know it's no longer effective, but John Lake is relatively new.
16 - El Bicho
"What do you mean by 'China likes it too?'"
He means he saw the headline on Drudge but didn't bother to read the AP article it's linked to.
17 - Andy Marsh
El bicho, [personal attack deleted by comments editor] You and [edited] like you are why I don't come around here any more.
And now I'll say good bye again. You fucking liberals can play with yourselves.
18 - roger nowosielski
Shoot, Andy, I thought this relationship was going to last longer than a day, let alone a couple of silly remarks.
Where is the love?
19 - zingzing
andy don't play that.
20 - El Bicho
So let me get this straight you regurgitate a Drudge headline that is inaccurate, but I am the bad guy for pointing it out? I guess if you can't support your position running off to be with fellow lemmings who don't disagree with you might well be the best course of action. Goodbye
21 - Jordan Richardson
I guess things are more comfortable in the echo chamber.
22 - Igor
Nalle says:
"...the Occupy Wallstreet movement was started by Marxist groups..."
Really? What Marxist arguments have they put forward? How would a guy recognize a Marxist argument?
23 - Arch Conservative
Yes there are far too many greedy people in the world but this "occupy" movement and it's supporters are proof that there are also far too many stupid people in the world.
24 - Jordan Richardson
Chris Hedges explains what Andy brushes by in #7 with his references to union groups joining OWS.
In part:
"The faux liberal reformers, whose abject failure to stand up for the rights of the poor and the working class, have signed on to this movement because they fear becoming irrelevant. Union leaders, who pull down salaries five times that of the rank and file as they bargain away rights and benefits, know the foundations are shaking. So do Democratic politicians from Barack Obama to Nancy Pelosi. So do the array of 'liberal' groups and institutions, including the press, that have worked to funnel discontented voters back into the swamp of electoral politics and mocked those who called for profound structural reform."
25 - roger nowosielski
Doubt whether Andy would bother with any complex analysis since most of his responsive are reactive. Besides, to buy into CH's narrative, he'd be required to differentiate between corrupt and not corrupt labor union practices. Again, that would require additional effort on the part of someone who doesn't think much of the labor movement at all.