By Surendra Ajit Rupasinghe –

The “Occupy Wall St” social movement has begun to grown in leaps and bounds. What began as a relatively small protest in Zucotti Park, Manhattan, has begun to spread to major cities throughout the US, and to connect with similar movements in  major cities in Europe, and elsewhere. What is clear is that this protest against the robber barons of Finance Capital headquartered in Wall St has struck a ringing chord in the hearts of tens of millions of people around the world.  These people not only include the millions who have been thrown out of work and the millions who have lost their homes due to the financial meltdown, but also those who have some understanding of the horrendous

Whether the movement shall grow into a sustained anti-establishment/ anti-war movement as in the raging Sixties in the US; whether it shall be effectively co-opted by the establishment; or whether it will simply wither away

global consequences of this financial system propping up the  world imperialist order. Whatever the case, this occupation has focused attention on the robber barons, and exposed the massive  financial fraud and manipulations they have engaged in and the horrible consequences brought upon the world by their criminal actions. Worse, the fact that the Obama administration had bailed out these very same robber barons to the tune of 14.7 trillion dollars of tax payers money, has brought about the sense of righteous, raging outrage among growing masses of people across the world. It has served to expose the extreme parasitism of Finance Capital and the frightening grip it has on the State and the economy.

This simple truth is now being grasped by the masses, as exemplified in the “Occupy Wall St” movement, and gives focused expression to their seething anger and frustration at being played out. Whether the movement shall grow into a sustained anti-establishment/ anti-war movement as in the raging Sixties in the US; whether it shall be effectively co-opted by the establishment; or whether it will simply wither away, the fact remains that the entire establishment and the system itself has been opened up to question in a very serious manner, striking at the rotting core of the Capitalist-Imperialist order. It gains even more international significance in the context of the growing global movement against Corporate Capitalism and its fatal devastation of the global environment, threatening the very existence of Planet Earth and Humankind.

It is quite unlikely that this movement would serve to bring down the system, or even to democratize it by restraining these robber barons through new legislation. Some cosmetic reforms will have to be introduced to stem the tide. This will be more to score electoral gains and ride the popular wave by both the Democrats and the Republicans. However, nothing will be done to effectively control the operations of Finance Capital, since this is the foundation of the Capitalist-Imperialist global order.

What is far more ominous is the very real threat that this form of mass protest movements may set the stage for sustained police repression, and pave the way for the rise of Fascism in the US. This is no alarmist exaggeration. These trends are already at work, given the steady erosion of constitutional rights and guarantees, as each successive government in the US intensifies repression under the guise of the “War on Terror”. The Patriotic Act, the legalizing of rendition and torture and massive wire-tapping and surveillance, are already in full swing. It is reported that there have been incidents of police brutality and mass arrests of protestors already. Recall that the anti-war movement and the Afro-American liberation struggle  in the Sixties were confronted by the State with massive police repression and the mobilization of the National Guard, leading to the killing of four students at Kent State university, along with the wholesale armed repression of the Black Panthers.  The US economy is in the throes of a spiraling,  systemic crisis where it is losing ground as the world’s top nuclear super power. Emerging rival blocs, such as the Shanghai Corporation, bringing Russia and China together, with other partners, have begun to challenge US global hegemony. These combined developments – domestic crisis and challenge to hegemony- have already given rise to wars of aggression and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with plans to wage war against Iran, in order to seize and maintain control over the vast energy resources in the Middle-East and Caspian region. The relentless genocidal war of occupation of Palestine waged by Israel, is the centerpiece of this game plan. This imperialist global agenda cannot be sustained without effectively suppressing all democratic protest and rebellion within the US, leading to Fascism. This is the logic of the historical development of Capitalism, at its final, moribund stage of Imperialism. Finally, the “Occupation of Wall St” is symptomatic of a parasitic and moribund system in the process of extreme decay and disintegration. The system is rapidly losing legitimacy and is increasingly seen as the source of all the human misery, degradation, violence and War! The only way to bring this system down and to achieve a new world order where the people of the world would learn to share the Earth and together build  their freedom as one, indivisible human community, is by building the revolutionary international unity, organizational strength and fighting capacity of the workers and oppressed masses of the world.