United States: Protests against the budget cuts for public services

United States, October 2, 2011

On Saturday, protesters took their complaints to the Brooklyn Bridge and then the protests began to spread through other U.S. cities. The movement that organizes the protests is called “Occupy Wall Street” and has already suffered the arrest of more than 700 of its members for having blocked traffic on the bridge of the city. Boston and Los Angeles are also sources of conflict. They had been camping a few blocks from the center of financial capitalism in New York for a few weeks. 

The protests are against the fiscal cuts that the Obama administration is seeking to promote to help to rebuild the financial system, which suffered the worst credit crisis since the ’30s. “The workers’ rights are also human rights,” said one protester interviewed in New York City. The unemployment rate does not drop, and of the 14 million unemployed, 45% had been unemployed for over six months. Currently, one of every six Americans lives below the poverty line.

The wave of protests began on 17 September, with hundreds of people loosely organized. However, thanks to the effect of social networks, they had been able to mobilize thousands who seek solutions to the crisis without affecting the lower classes.

Both in Boston, Los Angeles or Albuquerque, hundreds of activists went to the streets to show solidarity with the protests in New York. Thus, thanks to the pressure from the groups, the government and municipalities of the cities released those who had been jailed for blocking the bridge in Brooklyn.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco there was a massive mobilization in front of the Chase bank, in order to criticize the operations done by large banking corporations. The events in the United States have led to the involvement of figures known for being critical of the existing order and mainly the U.S. policies, such as the documentary maker Michael Moore and the actress Susan Sarandon.

The Government wants to cutting public services to the poor and needy in order to help large financial banks rebuild their balance deficit and thus restore optimum conditions for investment, which has already raised the mass mobilizations that have occurred first in Europe and now in North America.