[Editorial] Rage on Wall Street

Protests on Wall Street in New York, now in their third week, are growing in size. But the political and financial institutions they denounce show little sign of listening to them.

A small group of college students started the demonstration on Sept. 17. They were joined by unionists, other students, teachers, veterans, families and unemployed people who claim they represent “the 99 percent” that suffer under abuse of power perpetrated by Wall Street bankers and politicians fed by them.

Last Saturday, police detained more than 700 of the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters as they attempted to cross the Brooklyn Bridge. Most of them were released by Monday and the rallies at Zuccotti Park have proceeded peacefully in speeches and discussions.

The protesters’ manifesto says that their “people-powered movement for democracy” was inspired by the Egyptian Tahrir Square uprising last spring which brought down the Mubarak regime and vows to “end the moneyed corruption of our democracy.” Without offering specific objectives, they spoke against corporate greed and social inequality.

There is no way of guessing how the leaders of the protests would carry on the action as they have not set forth any kind of ultimatum for solutions or demanded an assurance of efforts from any authorities. What we hear through news dispatches are moderate statements such as this one: “We are not here to take down Wall Street. It’s not poor against rich. It’s about big money dictating which politicians get elected and what programs get funded.”

After witnessing the recent turmoil not only at the Tahrir Square but in Paris, London, Athens and elsewhere, many Americans must have felt that the economic and social conditions around them are not any better than in those places. They are seeing big corporate CEO’s running away with tens of millions of dollars in retirement pay after putting their firms into insolvency. The Wall Street-originated global financial crisis left numerous families evicted from their homes and hundreds of thousands out of work, but it is business as usual in the financial district of New York.

True, the system needs a lot of correction and “a shift of consciousness” by all players as one demonstrator remarked. Yet, finance and economics, with all their global complications, cannot be steered to a desired direction guided solely by fundamentally liberal political causes. While President Obama remains silent about “Occupy Wall Street,” negative reactions linked it to attempts to seek his reelection. Some radical commentators even branded protest leaders as socialists and communists.

The protests at Wall Street are spreading to other cities, ringing alarms in American society. Participants are cautioned against inclination to initiate a class struggle as they pursue their well-intentioned goals and they should now be ready to turn their agenda over to the legislative process. If Congress stays unresponsive, new protests may be staged at Capitol Hill.