There is much news of the occupy movement in the USA and the west. The movement consists of people physically occupying the citadals of the capitalist movement like stock exchanges and economic centres.
Historically the first occupy movement took place in 1789 when the French people occupied the Bastlle the symbol of opression of the government at that time and heralded the French Revolution
The present movement is a follow up of that revolution.Why did this movement take place ? The roots are in capitalism itself. When affluence was there the governments created a welfare state and even the weekly work time like in France was made 36 hours. The welfare state also insured free medical and a dole if you were not employed. Thus it brought out a group of people who got used to these social benefits and did not want to work. With the economy stagnating, the welfare measures were cut and that led to the present resentment. People felt that this was being done to save the big business and industrialists.
People brought up on free sops and less work were bound to revolt once the same measures were cut or denied. That is the essense of the occupy movement and it is not likely to go away soon. In fact in the time to come it will intensify. One can now see that Karl Marx was not nuts after all. He is as relevent today as when he lived.
No comments:
Post a Comment