Anti-Capitalism Protests Go Global

It's been sad to watch Occupy Wall Street since it was ruthlessly evicted from Zuccotti Park. The western media portrayed an image of the movement which showed it to be aimless and unfocused, a movement which only gets attention when its members are arrested. And the West tried to make the movement's gift to the political discourse - that the "1%" has an unfair advantage over the rest of us - fade away.

But the Occupy movement is coming to Davos, where the World Economic Forum has become an annual celebrity thumb-sucking ritual. OWS protesters are setting up "igloos" in the snows of the Swiss town for the Jan. 25-29 event, outside the famously exclusivist forums and panels, where attendance provides more status than getting a white badge at Cannes.

That's good news. OWS introduced a breath of fresh air into the otherwise stale, repetitious and frustratingly trivia-focused US political scene last year. Sure, it's been ignored, brushed aside and cynically exploited by charlatans. But its central message was accepted by the majority of Americans: The privileges of the 1% need to be curtailed. It was a desperately needed message, three years after a financial crisis that has never been adequately addressed by Washington.

But America's inequities reflected a global phenomenon, of income disparities growing wildly out of whack, and that's why everyone must be glad to see OWS focus on Davos. The globalization so eagerly promoted by so many at Davos has had an underside, one that is evident everywhere in the capitalist world where capitalism has largely replaced outmoded economic models. A rising middle class has left behind a desperately poor underclass, and the gap between the rich and the poor is only growing wider.

OWS can serve as a wake-up call to policymakers that fawning over the 1% is not an exclusively American phenomenon - and that government, working alongside the free markets, is fully responsible for the aggravating conditions of the underclass.

The End

It's been sad to watch Occupy Wall Street since it was ruthlessly evicted from Zuccotti Park. The western media portrayed an image of the movement which showed it to be aimless and unfocused, a movement which only gets attention when its members are arrested. And the West tried to make the movement's gift to the political discourse - that the "1%" has an unfair advantage over the rest of us - fade away. But the Occupy movement is coming to Davos, where the World Economic Forum has become an annual celebrity thumb-sucking ritual. OWS protesters are setting up "igloos" in the snows of the Swiss town for the Jan. 25-29 event, outside the famously exclusivist forums and panels, where attendance provides more status than getting a white badge at Cannes. That's good news. OWS introduced a breath of fresh air into the otherwise stale, repetitious and frustratingly trivia-focused US political scene last year. Sure, it's been ignored, brushed aside and cynically exploited by charlatans. But its central message was accepted by the majority of Americans: The privileges of the 1% need to be curtailed. It was a desperately needed message, three years after a financial crisis that has never been adequately addressed by Washington. But America's inequities reflected a global phenomenon, of income disparities growing wildly out of whack, and that's why everyone must be glad to see OWS focus on Davos. The globalization so eagerly promoted by so many at Davos has had an underside, one that is evident everywhere in the capitalist world where capitalism has largely replaced outmoded economic models. A rising middle class has left behind a desperately poor underclass, and the gap between the rich and the poor is only growing wider. OWS can serve as a wake-up call to policymakers that fawning over the 1% is not an exclusively American phenomenon - and that government, working alongside the free markets, is fully responsible for the aggravating conditions of the underclass. The End