With litle fanfare or notice, the Occupy Wall St. group put out an OFFICIAL list of it's positions about a week ago.
Along with a good number of statements that pretty directly relate to "Wall St." such as exorbitant bonuses , the bank bailouts, and the unholy influence of Wall St money in politics, the document also complains about the following
capital punishment
American colonialism
gender identity discrimination
torture
defense contractors
poisoning of the nation's food supply
suppression of "freedom of the press" by the military
animal mistreatment
oil dependency
invasion of privacy
and more
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Again, this is the official Declaration by the Occupy Wall St. protesters in New York City.
What ever one thinks about the merits of each of these issues, there is no doubt that they are a laundry list of liberal to far left issues. The protest is now and going forward identifiable as a left wing, and even radical left wing. operation. One of the people who has been identified by media as a leader of the group, by virtue of numerous media appearances, is a self described far leftist who claims that "a lot" of the group are "revolutionaries" who wish to completely change the United States of America.
Now, far left radicals and revolutionaries have every right to pursue their intentions and make their case, and past that, it must be noted that many of the protesters do not appear to be as radical as others ( the ideological makeup in totality seems a mixed bag), but it is difficult to see on what basis a group that can be identified as leftist is going to SUCCEED in forcing change upon Wall St.
If the base of the group was ideologically broad, it could be argued that the citizenry of the US was readying the pitchforks and torches and was on the road toward the fat cats and elites, and the politicians especially, and 'scare' them into making changes for the betterment of all the people.
As it now stands the best the movement can hope for is to become a left version of the Tea Party, and be inserted into the conversation when national issues are 'debated'.
http://nycga.cc/2011/09/30/declaration-of-the-occupation-of-new-york-city/