Progressive Radio Network Host Danny Schechter - What Will The Next Phase of Occupy Wall Street Take Us?

By Danny Schechter

Host of The News Dissector
Fridays @ 1pm (EDT) 

Author of The Crime Of Our Time

A week ago, I produced a TV documentary on inside the Occupy Wall Street encampment in New York.

It was already somewhat obsolete by the time it aired.

The Park, once a buzzing center of debate and open-air meetings has gone residential in the sense that virtually every square inch of what was a half-acre political terrarium is now dominated by tents, an effort to insure more protection from the elements and some better level of personal security. As private spaces proliferated, public space shrunk.

Now, public health officials are raising the prospect of the spread of germs while violent incidents in other cities have police nationwide threatening to shut down the occupations in the name, of course, of preserving public safety.

The first happened in Oakland, a town with a long history of police violence that was on display when cops overran the camp, seriously hurting an Iraq veteran, and triggering a call for a General Strike. Now the gendarmerie are hoping to shut it all down. 

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"Danny Schechter" - Unions Promise Support As #OccupyWallStreet Enters Third Week

#OccupyWallStreet has yet to attract the 20,000 militants they had hoped for but its growing and, more importantly retaining its sense of community, non-violence, and sense of a tolerant community. Most important is that similar actions are already taking place in other cities like a March on Friday in Boston against the Bank of America. An even bigger one is being planned for Washington in October. Other organizations are supporting this emerging movement. Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union say they “applaud the courage of the young people on Wall Street,” and are planning to turn out their members next week. I saw T Shirts of UAW members and met some activists from the Salvadorian community. Already #OccupyWallStreet sent over a hundred people to back a protest by postal workers trying to save their jobs and the Post Office. The longer this lasts, and is allowed to last, the more it is likely to grow.

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