Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests?
Members of the Occupy Wall Street movement take part in a protest march through the financial district of New York, October 12, 2011
Anti-Wall Street protesters say the rich are getting richer while average Americans suffer, but the group that started it all may have benefited indirectly from the largesse of one of the world’s richest men.
There has been much speculation over who is financing the disparate protest, which has spread to cities across America and lasted nearly four weeks. One name that keeps coming up is investor George Soros, who in September debuted in the top 10 list of wealthiest Americans. Conservative critics contend the movement is a Trojan horse for a secret Soros agenda.
Soros and the protesters deny any connection. But Reuters did find indirect financial links between Soros and Adbusters, an anti-capitalist group in Canada which started the protests with an inventive marketing campaign aimed at sparking an Arab Spring type uprising against Wall Street. Moreover, Soros and the protesters share some ideological ground.
“I can understand their sentiment,” Soros told reporters last week at the United Nations about the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, which are expected to spur solidarity marches globally on Saturday.
Pressed further for his views on the movement and the protesters, Soros refused to be drawn in. But conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh summed up the speculation when he told his listeners last week, “George Soros money is behind this.”
Soros, 81, is No. 7 on the Forbes 400 list with a fortune of $22 billion, which has ballooned in recent years as he deftly responded to financial market turmoil. He has pledged to give away all his wealth, half of it while he earns it and the rest when he dies.
No real surprise here. Read all of the piece.
I have noticed local coordination of the local Democratic Party with MoveOn.org here in Thousand Oaks – to Occupy Thousand Oaks. Their goal is to help re-elect Barack Obama – plain and simple.
The local Dems will be out protesting on Thousand Oaks streets on Friday.
18 Comments
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limerick4
It’s just people who are fed up with the corruption in DC and the takeover of OUR legislators by the 1$% Elite who are buying elections and legislators. Occupy Wall St. is purely bottom up ….real grassroots. It is no surprise to find that groups that lean favorably toward democracy are climbing on board.
Gregory Flap Cole
Sorry but color me skeptical….looks and smells like astroturf to me.
Jurnei
Who cares who’s behind it? It’s about time big money is out of our government and about time we stop the big tax breaks to Wall Street and the super rich….they need to pay their fair share and stop their strangle hold on our country.
Gregory Flap Cole
Who cares?
Please……
Care to elaborate on your general class warfare mantra.
Jurnei
Stuff it on the “class warfare” talking point floppy. We need corporate money out of the government., period.
Gregory Flap Cole
Please read my terms of use above and consider this a warning.
Now, do you care to elaborate on corporate money in government since corporate political contributions are already banned for federal candidates.
Jurnei
Nothing will change until we get corporate money out of politics…I hope this effort is successful. I will be joining the demonstration as well.
Dental Tourism
People are tired of the same vicious cycle which keeps repeating after some years wiping of the middle class assets and money.
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limerick4
Here are the people “behind” Occupy ThousandOaks…the early patriots: old and young…It’s all about the outsourcing of America, the loss of a government responsive to its people because “our” government is now mostly owned and run for the transnational monopolies . I’m not the grandma in this clip but I’m a grandma too and I am fighting to bring back sanity, science and brains to our government instead of purchased lackies. Just don’t watch or listen to Corporate funded news/er propaganda. I want a liveable world for my grandkids….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF4hBRfkBCg
Gregory Flap Cole
I am wondering why your Occupy group is not protesting President Obama. He is the biggest corporist there is in the government. How many $35K checks has he taken from the Wall Street financiers? Answer is VERY many.
Obama has supported big corporations over small business his entire time in office.
But, I do not hear any Occupy folks complaining about the President.
Why?
limerick4
I do not speak for anyone other than myself and that is not “my” Occupy group.
And from my perspective it is not about individuals in power or even political parties. It is about the SYSTEM that has been corrupted…to where money now rules more than ever in our history: the obscene amounts of corporate money that buys legislators and elections: (read about the NY hedge fund mgrs who almost bought a congressional seat in OR or read about the judges on the take to send people to what are now corporate owned prisons) the money that has bought out local media and is now just a few Intl. monopolies that give us our “news”: the corporate elite that are polluting our children’s future for profit today: the corporate money that now comes from International and foreign sources thanks to that 5/4 decision known as Citizens United vs FEC that said that money (a medium of exchange) is speech and that Corporations (that never die and have no allegiance to country) …are people. The only Senator I know of who does NOT take PAC money is Bernie Sanders….
It is all about we the people, the 99%, that “our” representatives are not working for when they allocate our money to Big Banks, Big Wars, Big Oil….at our expense.
What is fascinating is that our country was launched due to a major corporation that was trying to rape us back then…that was the East Bay India Company that worked hand in hand with King George (he had a lot of shares in it) and they wanted to profit at our expense.
I am not sure how to get the oligarchic money and power out of our government…but it won’t be easy because it has become so entrenched over the past 12 or so thanks to Citizen’s United, deregulation and trade law changes (NAFTA etc) over the past 12 years or so that outsourced our mfg (and mfg is THE source of wealth for any nation)…. in fact “our” legislators are currently passing another free trade bill right now…that will further decimate our nation.
When they cut taxes (and say they want “small gov”) they are really defunding the government to weaken it …so it can’t resist the corporate takeover. They are feeding rapaciously upon our poor nation.
Oh well, you get the idea.
Gregory Flap Cole
With all due respect, you have some valid points and many rants/complaints.
What do you propose to change? Specifically?
Knee Specialist Manchester
I’m not surprised this is happening. The same thing just happened in London over the weekend because people are sick of the rich getting richer and the poorer getting poorer.
Pat Moze
It is not about political parties. It is about ending corporatocracy. We are well past complaining only about the president (He is but one problem) or any other politician or party. There was at least one Libertarian and one Republican demonstrating in TO today (10/22).
The corporatocracy is responsible for many fundamental problems in our society, but it is important to note that there are many fundamental issues of the 99% that we want addressed. So, to help folks understand:
Peace and Equality for All
Simpler still? Democracy
Any contributions from George Soros, were probably negligible compared with the documented JPMorgan Chase donation ($4.6 M) to the NYC police department. The Tea Party movement was much smaller than the Occupy Wall Street movement, and they got Koch Brothers funds to boost them into the mainstream media. The OWS movement was ignored as long as the mainstream media could manage to do so, and it is being misrepresented in the mainstream media now. Soros got ripped off if he paid for that. You can learn much more about the movement online from Al Jazeera, Russia Today, The Real News Network, and direct from media the movement is producing 24/7 at hundreds of occupations around the country (and around the world). The 99% is very large and very diverse. Take off the blinders if you want to learn from the many.
Gregory Flap Cole
Polling shows little support for Occupy Wall Street. Most folks are just NOT interested: http://flapsblog.com/2011/10/20/poll-watch-who-has-more-popular-support-the-tea-party-or-occupy-wall-street/
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