Occupy Oakland and the OSW must respond to Jerry Brown's assault

Oakland:cops practicing for the future on the taxpayer's tab

The Occupy Wall Street movement has changed the debate in US society over who is at fault for the economic crisis.  It has put the bankers, speculators and other wasters on the defensive.  The police response to the movement as witnessed in Oakland and NYC is in preparation for things to come. The US capitalist class, bogged down in wars it cannot win and facing stiff competition for the plunder of the planet’s resources is forced to put the US working class on rations in order to pay for its imperial ambitions.

As the young people take to the streets, here in California, the former left wing demagogue and free speech radio talk show host Jerry Brown announced his latest plans to shift the cost of the economic crisis on to workers and youth.  Brown proposes raising the retirement age at which some workers’ can retire from 55 to 67.  As a representative of the banks and Wall Street he also proposes “increasing pension contributions by current workers” while forcing newly hired workers in to retirement plans that rely more on the stock market according to the Wall Street Journal. It is a stunning example of the arrogance (and overconfidence) of the capitalist class that they are forcing workers to depend more for our material well-being on the same market forces that brought us this far and a system that was dragged from the edge of the abyss through a taxpayer bailout. They are trying to divide older workers from young, we must not let this happen.

After significantly curtailing the rights benefits and wages of auto workers, the unelected billionaires that rule society are determined to smash the public sector Unions whose members enjoy a somewhat better living standard and work environment than our private sector counterparts, especially the youth and the millions of workers outside organized Labor. Union wages and benefits are, on average, around 35% higher than non-union and the public sector has a much higher unionization rate than the private.  Democratic and Republican state governors alike are following suit carefully gauging the mood and the best time to act.  The police are being suited up and made ready for the social unrest that will inevitably develop in response.

Here in Oakland, as our readers are aware, the police and city officials responded with savage brutality in an attempt to drive back the momentum of the Occupy Oakland movement and discourage workers from joining it. In response, the General Assembly of the Occupy Oakland movement called a general strike for Wednesday November the 2^nd and activists are in the process of mobilizing for it.  Leaving aside whether or not this approach is right at this time or not, the vote has been taken and the movement must move forward.

The heads of the local Labor movement could, if they were to change course from concessions and a defensive struggle relying on “friendly” Democrats, religious leaders and celebrities, mobilize their members, link these two forces and movements together and undoubtedly shut down Oakland which is a major port city, one of the top container ports in the country.  This makes the Occupy Oakland movement’s task somewhat harder. But there is also a major weakness within the OWS movement as far as I can see given my limited involvement, and this is how to draw in to the movement the hundreds of thousands of workers around us in the workplaces and communities. There is a strong opposition to raising demands by some influential groups within the movement

The supporters of this blog states for the record hat this is a serious weakness that lessens the possibility of the movement growing and drawing in workers and our families; older workers, younger workers etc.  What a serious mistake it is not to put the issue of pensions, retirement, jobs, Social Security, housing (some 65% of Oakland are renters, many pay rotten slumlords) police brutality (a major issue in Oakland and all inner cities) on the front of our banner.  The state’s governor, the Wall Street representative Jerry Brown, boldly announces intentions to destroy any chance of security and retirement for today’s young workers while ate the same time forcing older workers to work longer and contribute more of our already shrinking disposal income to their own retirement and the movement doesn’t make a major issue of this---that’s a mistake.  If we want workers to join this movement the movement has to fight for their bread and butter interests.

Some in the movement are philosophically opposed to raising demands.  They have said to me that they don’t have to ask politicians for anything; we need a new society as this one doesn’t work.  This is all true, but we do not make demands because we have illusions in Mitt Romney or Barack Obama who represent Wall Street and capital.  We raise our demands in order to announce to the millions of workers that are watching that our movement demands a society that provides such things---demands are an organizing tool.  We will not rid ourselves of this dysfunctional system until a considerable section of the working class comes to the conclusion that it must be so, that there is no way it can be made human friendly. And we draw this conclusion through struggle, by trying to change the world around us and resolving the immediate crises we are facing. In struggle for what workers see as just and fair demands we come up against the forces of a state that cannot provide even these; then we begin to question the nature of the state itself. It is through the struggle for reform that we learn the need for revolutionary transformation.

Jerry Brown says in today’s WSJ that his goal with these proposals “is to provide a fair but sustainable income security plan”.  Mike Genest, who has recently retired as public finance director under Schwarzenegger likes Brown’s plan.  Genest receives a pension of $125,000 a year and is a “consultant” for a capital management firm; these are the thugs we are up against mike.genest@gmail.com.

No worker believes Brown’s crap about fairness.  We must have a broad and vocal response to Brown’s proposals and alternative proposals of our own.  And for the millions of workers who are watching this movement and cautiously supporting it while differing with the methods and tactics and direction of it, we say that you cannot leave it to someone else any longer.  We are in a different historical era as the capitalist class is forced to save their rotten system on our backs and at the expense of the environment of the planet.  Join this movement, help it grow and influence its methods and direction.  What can neutralize the police is a movement of thousands of workers from all walks of life.  No one can do this for us----the emancipation of the working class can only be accomplished by the working class itself.