March in Solidarity With Occupy Wall Street Protesters Wednesday, October 5th at 4:30pm

Don’t wait to vote. Get out in the streets and take direct action.

This Wednesday at 4:30 pm, several unions and community groups will be joining Occupy Wall Street to protest the concentration of immense amounts of wealth in the hands of so few, made possible by the American banking system, which has brought this country and the entire world to the brink of financial collapse.

The solidarity march will begin at City Hall at 4:30pm this Wednesday and finish a few blocks south at Zuccoti Park, now called Liberty Plaza.

The United Federation of Teachers, 32BJ SEIU, 1199 SEIU, Workers United and Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 will be there, and the march will also be supported by The Working Families Party, MoveOn.org, Make the Road New York, the Coalition for the Homeless, the Alliance for Quality Education, Community Voices Heard, United New York and Strong Economy For All.

Here is a little personal anecdote that might help you decide whether or not to march in solidarity:

I was corresponding with a dear friend the other day, a Libertarian who questioned the efficacy of the protests. He contends that protesting is useless and self-serving, suggesting that the only way that things can be changed is by voting for someone who would go after reserve backing—namely, Ron Paul.

He, of course, is right that reserve banking and the bailout culture have given rise to irresponsible (and I’d say sociopathic) banking and investment practices; but to simply wait for elections to roll around and cast a vote for a candidate will not change things.

I stated, “We can’t get tied up in petty ideological squabbling… That, in fact, is what financial and political power count on. They’ve made a perfect simulated game in which we yell at each other from partisan positions, when in fact they hardly even believe in party themselves. At the rarified atmosphere in which financial and political power move, there is no party. The overriding ideology is money, or capital.”

All else is scenery.

I noted that the masses of people are powerful, but change can’t simply come “by casting a vote—we need to take direct action and demonstrate the sheer power of numbers.”

Politicians, bankers, corporate titans and investors have for too long relied on our votes, and they’ve used it to systematically enrich themselves at the expense of the majority of this country. The evidence of it is everywhere. It has been an ongoing war; and if this must be termed “class warfare,” then let it be known that they were the ones who launched the opening salvo—not just in the last few years, but long ago, back through hundreds and even thousands of years.

People forget that we outnumber the powerful. We’ve been subdued like cattle, but if we awaken, our power is unstoppable.

They say that the rich should not be forced to care for the poor, under-privileged, unfortunate, unemployed and those who are in other ways scraping to get by. This, of course, is nonsense.

Being human is not simply a Darwinian conceit: It took communal methods to even get humanity this far—this cannot be denied. For many hundreds of thousands of years humankind did not have an idea called capitalism. But, once we’d gotten this far (the age of Kings, of agriculture, the age of industrialism and everything after), some clever and manipulative individuals realized they could get everything they needed (all basic necessities) and then even more—much, much more. 1000x times more than was necessary to sustain an individual’s life.

If you find this way of thinking utterly broken, false and downright inhuman, you should be at the protest Wednesday at 4:30pm.

And I therefore challenge those on the right who are equally disgusted with American banking and investment practices to see the common ground between themselves and the Occupy Wall Street protesters and join forces. Everyone is there for different reasons and you will be welcomed with kindness.

If they can continue dividing us, they will continue to win. Solidarity must extend beyond petty partisan ideology.

As Gil Scott-Heron stated in a 1982 performance of  poem/song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”: “The first revolution is when you change your mind about how you look at things, and see there might be another way to look at it that you have not been shown.”

See you there.