Defeating the one per cent to save the 99pc

Abdullah Shahed Miaji Most western thinkers denoted the Middle East uprising as the "Arab Spring" which indicate that it was the right time and right place for agitation against the old rulers. But they failed to give a suitable name to the on-going agitation in the western economies. This scribe has taken the onus to term it as "Occidental Summer" (because summer is a more valuable season in the western countries) that refers to the just protest against unjust policy by the just people. The agitation in the western countries is not too much with inequality in the political and legal arenas, as it was in Arab countries; although those are concerns too .Here the critical issue is economic inequality. The common chant by 'Occupy Wall Street' protesters, "We Are the 99 per cent" -- a shot across the bow at the wealthiest 1.0 per cent of the USA, which includes the financial predators and confidence gamers who crashed the global economy with impunity. According to the CIA's own ranking of countries by income inequality, the United States is more an unequal country than either Tunisia or Egypt. The report also reveals that the 400 wealthiest Americans have a greater combined net worth than the bottom 150 million Americans. It also discloses that the top 1.0 per cent of Americans possess more than the bottom 90 per cent. All these data prove that America has become a country of one per cent people and everything is on behalf of the ultra rich. Impoverished and middle class people are nothing but scapegoats of the situation. Paul Krugman, in his article in New York Times (NYT) blamed the Wall Street for making a large direct contribution to economic polarization and mentioned it as a root cause of soaring income in finance. It accounted for a significant fraction of the increasing wealth of the top 1.0 per cent (and the top 0.1 per cent, which accounts for most of the top 1.0 per cent's gains) in the nation's income. The American horse-like economy is turning into a tortoise-like one because of the 1.0 per cent people of that country. Though it is the largest economy in the world its privileged few are getting all sorts of advantages from the government. Under the Bush expansion from 2002 to 2007, 65 per cent of economic gains went to the richest 1.0 per cent. When the Wall street protesters say they represent 99 per cent of Americans, they refer to the concentration of income in today's deeply unequal and unjust society and they are raising their voice, blaming the top 1.0 per cent for the economic recession and for the shrinking job market, higher taxation and overall economic meltdown. But the bad news for the protesters is that the top 1.0 per cent is predominant in state affairs, too; they define US politics by their donation. Neither the Democratic nor the Republican candidates can win without the support of the wealthiest 1.0 per cent. The agitation may not radically annihilate the dominance of 1.0 per cent people or may not stop the concentration of wealth. But the message of their movement could be reached to the dominators. They should listen to the 'commoners'. The result could be a full-scale revolution in the near future. Another message that has been reached to the US authority is that the time has gone now to speak on behalf of the capitalist economy. American consumerist society at last is waking up to the nature of their capitalist economy. Under the umbrella of human rights and democratic policy, their loud voice, advising the outer world on privatization and free market economy, may now become weak. As Asians it is our earnest request to ordinary Americans not to stop their agitation and to go ahead and smash the vicious circle of 1.0 per cent people. That will give us the opportunity to say- Hurrah! The Wall Street Protesters have defeated 1.0 per cent people and saved the rights of 99%. The writer is a post-graduate student of the Department of Political Science at the University of Dhaka and can be reached at miajidu87@hotmail.com