Obama Shown the Spirit of the '60s

Melor Sturua observed the “Occupy Wall Street” protests in Washington and New York.

The situation in Washington is now like it was during the anti-war demonstrations of the 1960s. Demonstrators have chosen Freedom Plaza — two steps from the White House and the Capitol.

“A big part of the bankers should be put behind bars. These ‘fat cats’ are living it up on our accounts,” 24-year-old Andrew Kohl tells me. He graduated from Bucknell University but cannot find work.

The actress Roseanne Barr expressed the general atmosphere best, stating, “I am in favor of the return of the guillotine…. I first would allow the guilty bankers to pay, you know, the ability to pay back.… then they should, you know, go to the reeducation camps and if that doesn’t help, then being beheaded.”

The following slogans echoed from the crowd: “Marx was right!” and “Down with capitalism!”

There were many visitors.

“We’re from the state of Ohio,” said Christopher Baker. “We drove down with our tents and food, so we won’t be leaving the square until at least 10 p.m. Sunday night, while the permit for demonstrations is still valid. My friends and I are protesting against corruption and militarism.”

The rioters are fairly well-organized. In the capitol, for example, several hundred of them were able to create two “living pictures” in a few minutes before my eyes. One formed the configuration 99 percent and the other formed 1 percent. Such is the social mathematics of America: The wealthy comprise a tiny minority.

In fact, a grandiose and ironic banner which read, “We are proud to represent the 1 percent of America,” was raised onto Bank of America.

And so, the enemy has been established.

This atmosphere has been fermented by the movement by the name of “Occupy Wall Street.” Its power to rouse discontent comes primarily from the 14 million unemployed Americans and the unprecedented polarization of rich and poor.

The main actors, like in the tumultuous ‘60s, have been young people. They are mostly college graduates, many with degrees who cannot find work.

The movement, whose first protest demonstration reaching the thousands took place on September 17 in New York, is growing at a remarkable pace. It recently received strong support from various American union groups whose directors deliberated and finally decided to “join the fight.”

“The time has come to set some things straight. For us, every spark of protest is important,” the official representative of the American Federation of Labor, Dennis Mitchell, told me. “Young people stir unions, and unions provide them with financial means and large-scale participation. Just think — there are millions of us!”

Mitchell is not bothered by the so-called generational gap. He says that the presence of common goals and a common enemy engages both “fathers and children.”

The coming-together of all ages is especially noticeable in New York, the center of the “occupation” movement.

I witnessed how thousands of union workers and young people marched on its streets. They proceeded from Foley Square to the epicenter of the movement, Zuccotti Park.

It is actually this park, not Wall Street, that serves as the “occupiers’” so-called headquarters under the open sky.

October 6 was relatively calm here. Participants in the movement were arranged on the square’s lawn in picturesque form, resting, meditating, drawing signs. In the “press service” — yes, one exists here — I was told that the participants are dividing into task groups. There is a medical service, a food distribution division, an information center.

In one place, I saw a whole pile of sleeping bags — anyone in need can help themselves. They can also receive a “dry ration” — canned goods, chips, cookies.

Boxes of used books and journals are arranged along the square, forming what is being called the “People’s Library.” It is here that the latest issue of the occupiers’ newspaper can be found.

Some people have already suggested renaming the movement Z-party, after the first letter of Zuccotti Park. It is also a symbolic play on words, because it rhymes with tea party. Experts say that the “occupiers’” movement sprang up as a reaction to the appearance of this more extreme and clamorous wing of the Republican Party. A number of people have already characterized the new movement as the “tea party with brains.”

Objectively, the movement plays directly into the hands of President Barack Obama, as well as his confrontation with the majority-Republican Congress for the approaching election battle. He will be able to draw young people back under his banner after losing so many of them due to his indecisiveness in solving financial and economic problems. The same will hold true for the intelligentsia and black voters. The powerful black organization, Reclaim the Dream, has agreed to work in partnership with the movement.

Obama is recharging his own batteries. Speaking Thursday at a press conference, he said that the majority-Republican Congress has to pass his initiative on combating unemployment or “the American people will run them out of town.” That is, out of Washington.

And the main mouthpiece of the reactionary faction, radio personality Rush Limbaugh, has called participants and supporters of the movement “human debris.”