Occupy Movement-Can You Hear Me Now?

Projection on Verizon Building, NYC  Photo: Amy McLinn

Last night as the Occupy Wall Street Movement marked its two months of street theater in lower Manhattan (and other locales). Along with the  provocative unpermitted marches on the New York Stock Exchange, there was also an outdoor movie on the Verizon Building.

Showing the triumphant Occupy agitprop on the Verizon Building was no random act.  The 45,000  Communication Workers of America workers walked off their jobs at Verizon for 18 days in August but settled for essentially the same terms as before the strike.  So the CWA could show their solidarity with the Occupy Movement by projecting their support on their employer “oppressor”’s building.



Aside from the irrational exuberant exclamations of “We Are Winning”, the point of this propaganda is that it is a widespread “movement”.  While it is tempting to treat the Occupy Wall Street Movement as being a political parallel of Charlie Sheen’s moonstruck megalomania, the coordination seems more sinister.

While the useful idiots can not articulate coherent messages, it seems organized in accords to Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.  Incorporating the muscle of radicalized unions along with the funky street theater of the i-Pad carrying hippie wanna-bes could indicate agents of change that circumvent the rule of law and our constitutional Republic government.

Ironically, government officials in liberal localities have aided and abetted both the expansion of the Occupy Movement as well as coordinated with other mayors in cracking down on the protestors. Oakland, California  Mayor Jean Quan (D-Oakland) had voiced support for her city’s Occupy protestors and countenanced a blue flu by teachers to show solidarity by striking for the Occupiers.  Yet as Oakland was forced to crack down after a rape in the Occupy Oakland encampment,  Quan noted that she consulted with 18 mayors who were simultaneously dealing with Occupy protests.  Strangely, the cities all began to clean up the Occupy Movement at the same time.  Perhaps polling numbers looked bad and Second City campaign winds of change began to blow.  Or maybe sparking conflict in multiple places at once was part of a larger overall plan.

Suddenly the Tin Foil hats of Glenn Beck seem more appealing and practical than a fashionably controversial Benetton sweater.

h/t AmyMcLinn