Tea Party, which many people felt was a movement backed and even sponsored by the big business, being unabashedly pro-capitalist and rightist, was generally perceived by the minorities to be a racist movement.
By Dr. Sawraj Singh
During the last couple of years, America saw the rise of a populist movement led by leaders such as Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. Many people felt that this movement was backed and even sponsored by the big business. This pro-capitalist and rightist movement was generally perceived by the minorities to be a racist movement. This movement seems to have lost much of its steam. Sarah Palin, who was touted as the most popular republican, has lost popularity even among the republicans; 72% of the republicans did not want her to be the candidate for the Presidency. She has just announced that she is not running for the presidential primary as a republican candidate and has no intention of running as a third party candidate because that will ensure Obama’s victory.
While the populist movement is fizzling out, a peoples’ movement seems to be rising: the anti-Wall Street movement. This movement is against the capitalist system with slogans like, “Eat the Elite” and “We can do better than capitalism.” This movement claims to represent the interests of the lower 99% against the upper 1%. The movement is against social inequality and injustice. It opposes the corporate greed and the ill treatment and exploitation of the minorities.
Thousands of people are gathering in Zuccotti Park, next to Wall Street. The movement is gaining support among the teachers, transport workers and other trade union members, college students, and nurses. Thousands marched from Brooklyn to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge and more than 700 were arrested. The movement is spreading to the other cities besides New York. Protests were held in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
Finally, the American people are realizing that the American consumerist capitalism has done tremendous harm to them and to America. The corporate greed has dehumanized the people and has converted them into commodities. People are saying that they are people and are not commodities. As the undeclared leader of the economic-only globalization, without any ethical aspect, the American capitalism continues to increase the gap between the haves and the have-nots. The assets of the top 1% have continued to grow at the expense of the lower 99%. While people are losing their homes to foreclosures, the banks are making big profits and giving big bonuses to their executives. The American people are waking up to the fact that American capitalism has failed them.
Over the last several years, I have tried to expose the true nature of the present globalization and its leader, the American consumerist capitalism, in my writings. I feel that now, many Americans are beginning to agree with me. Even people such as George Soros, who is a billionaire, writer and thinker, has thrown his support to the anti-Wall Street movement. I feel that a true peoples’ movement, instead of a populist movement, is on the rise in America.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected] or 509-962-3652.
