The obviously concerted moves being made to remove ‘Occupy’ protesters from their camps in US cities is entirely predictable. It was becoming clear that this visible criticism of capitalism was gaining a grip on the popular conscience and that threatens the greedy 1%. A growing swell of opinion is capable of creating an unstoppable momentum to challenge the world’s ruling plutocracy.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest stated in October that, while on a presidential bus tour through North Carolina, Barack Obama would make it clear that he is fighting to make certain that the "interests of 99 percent of Americans are well represented". Elsewhere President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso said that he had got the message about the ‘Occupy’ movement.  A few days ago the United Kingdom’s Business secretary Vince Cable told British television that the tent protest at St Paul's cathedral reflects a feeling that 'a small number have done extraordinarily well in the crisis'. None of these men are radicals or committed to alleviating the plight of the ordinary man or woman but they can tell which way the wind is blowing and they can identify emerging trends.

Trends are important when Capitalism is in crisis and the most significant one is undoubtedly what is now happening in the USA. There is a vibrant opposition emerging to the unequal distribution of wealth in the ‘States and what occurs at the centre of the free market system impacts across the entire system.

A momentous decade of challenge was heralded fifty years ago by events in North America. The spirit of the 1960s emerged first in the US as a refusal to accept racial discrimination by the civil rights movement encouraged a wide spread anti-war movement. The struggle of enlightened Americans was echoed across different continents during that radical period.

Might the current ‘Occupy’ movement be as important?  It’s difficult to say how that movement will develop, if at all. What is undeniable is that a new mood of defiance and conviction is evident in America. The ‘Occupy’ movement may or may not grow but the mood and the trend and the current that created it is unlikely to melt away just because a handful of rich guys in city halls across the ‘States have control of the police.

Courage Brothers and Sisters, courage. 

Tommy McKearney