The protests spread

The ranks of the few hundred activists who gathered at the Manhattan park close to Wall Street about a month ago to protest against economic injustices have swelled to hundreds of thousands, as the call for change is now being voiced from virtually every corner of the globe. Inspiration for the movement, perhaps, came from a rally at Madrids Puerta del Sol on May 15 expressing the same motive. Spreading like wildfire, the movement first called, Occupy Wall Street has engulfed five continents of the world and assumed the nickname of The Indignant borrowed from the Spanish word Indignados. In the United States itself, no less than two dozen states are witnessing rallies, which are getting larger by the day. The latest count shows as many as 951 cities in 82 countries with protesters growing angrier and at places even violent, as in Rome on Saturday when they torched vehicles, smashed banks and hurled stones. People in various world capitals Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, Hong Kong, Sydney, Cairo, Athens, Brussels, Rome, Madrid, London, Zurich, Geneva, Johannesburg are pouring out into the streets to join the Occupy Wall Street protesters in their demands. Wall Street 'occupiers see the egregious economic inequality between the rich and the poor stemming from the greed of large corporations, dominated by conscience-less motives, a sentiment which has found momentum not just at home but all over the world. On the way, the movement has received the support of over 100 celebrated authors and advocates of other causes or what could justifiably be termed causes related to the global economic meltdown that has affected a vast swathe of the public in the form of growing unemployment and a relentlessly rising cost of living. It would be hard to dissociate the present economic plight of the American general public, facing cut-outs in their health and old age benefits, from the reckless adventures hurried into by their governments in the form of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that have, according to an estimate, cost three to four trillion dollars, triggering the countrys economic troubles. Thus, the banner, End War in Afghanistan. The questions being posed are whether the dream behind the placards carried by demonstrators in Rome of Only One Solution: Revolution will be realised on a global scale and whether this movement has any chance of success in bridging the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots in the US and the rest of the world. Indications are that the spreading call for change is unlikely to die down without making a dent in greed practiced in the name of free market. Pakistan should also expect its government, who have always accepted American 'solutions', to learn from the rising tide of protesters shouting against the policies of the superpower, and rebel against it for the sake of their own national interests.

ePaper - Nawaiwaqt