From Wall Street to K Street

By John Ballard

The dots are getting connected...

?From Wall St. to K Street: Protests Kick Off In Washington DC October 6
A movement called October 2011 plans to tackle injustice in the epicenter of political corruption: Washington, DC.

Beginning Thursday, October 6, the energy behind Occupy Wall Street will travel to DC�s Freedom Plaza, between the Capitol and the White House, where thousands of people will gather and follow in the footsteps of Madison, Wisconsin, to demand that America invest �in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation,� according to the October 2011 Web site. The movement calls on all who are fed up with social injustice, endless war and environmental destruction to unite to put a stop to �concentrated corporate power� through direct and nonviolent democratic action.

The organizers behind October 2011 have worked for several months to bring together a broad coalition of individuals and over 100 grassroots organizations for Thursday�s action. Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink and one of the October 2011 organizers, told me that Occupy Wall Street couldn�t have come at a better time.

�Occupy Wall Street has invigorated occupations throughout the country, and provides a great tie-in to the 'Wall Street to K Street' connection,� Benjamin said. �We have the corruption on Wall Street spilling over to the K Street lobbyists who then spill over to corrupt politicians� she said, adding that, �DC provides a more complete picture of the corrupt system the folks occupying Wall Street are rallying against.�

?From Wall Street To K Street
The Democratic Daily, October 3, 2011 By Scott Nance

The nation�s capital is about to be occupied.

The folks behind the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations plan to bring their protests to another address synonymous with corporate influence: K Street in Washington, the home to big-dollar lobbyists who often trade campaign cash for political favors on behalf of powerful pro-business interests.

Occupy K Street is expected to kick off Thursday, Liz Butler, an organizer of the Take Back The American Dream conference, announced Monday as the meeting opened.

�My understanding of what they are planning on doing is really bringing the energy of New York straight to K Street,� she told The Democratic Daily in an interview.

A flyer distributed Monday at the conference reads, �Wall Street�s servants on K Street, in the Pentagon, and in our government think Wall Street is at a safe distance. But we�re bringing the occupation to them beginning October 6, 9 a.m., in Freedom Plaza.�

?The four habits of highly successful social movements
Today's column by Ezra Klein. (On Monday, I asked Rich Yeselson for his thoughts on Occupy Wall Street. Yeselson, a research coordinator at Change to Win, is a skilled organizer and a thoughtful historian of social movements in America and Europe. On Tuesday, he sent over some notes, and I think they�re worth publishing in full. All opinions expressed here are his own. -- Ezra)

The Wall Street protests seem to be gathering strength and expanding beyond the geographic limits of downtown Manhattan. The media, too, is finally amplifying the story. Whether they will grow larger and sustain themselves beyond these initial street actions will depend upon four things:

1. the work of skilled organizers; 


2. the success of those organizers in getting people, once these events end, to meet over and over and over again; 


3. whether or not the movement can promote public policy solutions that are organically linked to the quotidian lives of its supporters; 


4. and the ability of liberalism�s infrastructure of intellectuals, writers, artists and professionals to expend an enormous amount of their cultural capital in support of the movement.

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Last night I watched a bit of the Massachusetts Democratic primary debate for Senator. I don't like the weather there, but I sure like the politics better than here in Cherokee County, Georgia.

All of the candidates expressed support for the controversial protesters who are part of the �Occupy Boston� movement downtown. They also backed medical marijuana use, money for Planned Parenthood, abortion rights, and the rights of the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at public universities.

The importance of OWS is not lost on members of Congress. I'm sure it's not necessary to explain which party would be fer or agin it, but my impression is that neither of the national parties represents what the movement is about. I've noted several Twitter messages indicating that a growing number of political types are warming up to the movement, so last night's response by the debaters may signal the start of a trend. This by Greg Sargent describes how matters look at the moment.

If anything, Occupy Wall Street�s lack of outside encouragement from bigfoot Dems has been a strength, rather than a weakness. As major progressive groups debate how they can contribute to strengthening the movement � and how to give it specific direction and a specific agenda � the need to preserve its grassroots nature will remain paramount. Who knows where this will end up, but for now, this is another reminder that the Tea Party isn�t the only voice of popular discontentment over the economy. We don�t necessarily live in Tea Party Nation, after all.