The year 2020 saw a severe recession triggered by a pandemic. This recession in turn demonstrated further the fragility of capitalism. The state spent trillions of dollars to bail out billionaires while millions nationwide faced evictions. Businesses in the midst of this pandemic chose to pursue profits at the expense of further spreading this virus. The virus has gone on to hit nonwhite communities disproportionately hard. During this disaster the prolonged need to stay indoors also brought about a rise in domestic violence. The situation got to a point that the equivalent of a 9/11 terrorist attack was occurring daily yet still the state continued to protect its own interests while billionaires saw a dramatic increase in wealth. The pandemic has served to further reveal the United States to be a despotic oligarchy. Representation does not belong to the people but merely those with the most capital.
Simultaneously the existing economic divides that have been made so apparent by this virus has served as a direct influence on the 2020 revolts against police brutality. Numerous black individuals were murdered at the hands of a bloated organization built to uphold the current failing order. These events are the results of generations of social and economic oppression perpetuated by capitalism and the state. Black communities are sadly no stranger to poverty. Through a legacy of slavery these communities often from the start where less advantaged. Capitalism has served to transform individuals who have succeeded in escaping this prison of poverty into the exploiters of their own communities. Regardless what color the capitalist is, their class interests are inherently at odds with such communities. Their goal is to generate profits for themselves first and foremost not to build up these areas. Capitalism refuses to acknowledge wider systemic influences and places an emphasis merely on the individual. Poverty under capitalism is a vicious cycle that perpetuates itself. Capitalism plays a role in systemic racism. People are born into these communities immediately less advantaged. Access to better education, healthcare, and overall opportunity is reduced. In turn this leads to a rise in crime, a rise in crime leads to an increase in cops, and an increase in cops leads to more shootings.
Police regardless under Obama, Trump, and Biden have shown they are not a force to be reformed but an organization that must be made redundant. They are repeatedly overfunded and shown to actually contribute to the cycle of violence. Often they introduce lethal force far too disproportionately upon nonwhite communities. In the process they take away fathers, mothers, and children. In their place is left scars that never truly heal. Families that become all the more broken. The police do not serve to protect the people but only the interests of those who run the state. The ones who run the state do so through their vast access to wealth extracted from the labor of the rest. In essence every moment we go out to produce a living for ourselves we are inadvertently forced to feed into this machine.
The rising threat of climate change as well is intricately tied to the failings of government and capitalism. This principle of growth for the sake of growth known as profits is a cancer cell upon the planet. Entire forests are obliterated, oceans are polluted, and materials are excessively extracted to meet this system of unsustainable consumption. Compared to the poorest half of humanity, the one percent contributes more than double the emissions. The ones who will be the first to suffer the consequences of climate change will be the most poor while these billionaires will have access to luxury panic rooms to shield themselves from any threat. While they buy yachts to enjoy the labor extracted from those below them, countless people are at risk of losing their homes to rising sea levels, erosion, and desertification.
Pandemic profiteers such as Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk saw billions gained while the working class suffered the worst impacts of both the virus and the recession. Much like the recession of 2008 we see that the government has once again protected the elites from crisis while the working class suffered hardest. Yet again we see that despite these idols of capitalism being presented as entrepreneurs deserving their hard earned cash from the risks they have taken, in truth the ones who share the risks are those below them. When essential workers wished for further compensation for their labor during this pandemic, Kroger responded by closing down their stores. In the meantime CEO of Kroger, Rodney McMullen has well over a hundred million dollars. How much longer will people tell themselves this is the way the world simply must be?
Recent years has seen a resurgence in groups opposed to statism and capitalism. Prevailing concepts surrounding mutual aid and solidarity continues to reach new individuals every day. Names such as Peter Kropotkin, Errico Malatesta, and Karl Marx continue to hold relevance. Concessions however small have been made in an attempt to quell the growth of these movements. Yet reforms and name changes do nothing to address the underlying fact that these systems regardless how they are structured are leading to these problems. When the police are supposedly reformed or better trained their brutality still remains because it is a component of their job. When a capitalist is made to pay more taxes their ability to attain their wealth to influence the implementation of these taxes and their overall reach of power through capital is not diminished. It makes no difference the identity of the person who holds power. The master may be different but the fundamental relationship stays the same.
The original Occupy Wall Street may not have overthrown these poisonous oligarchs but it did serve to signal to the establishment that the people know their game. What it served to do was awake others to how capitalism and the state serves to exploit both the individual and wider communities. It does not matter if we know change will come from these actions. Regardless of clear victory or not it is apparent that we must become angry and fight back. A diversity of tactics must be employed. Decentralized resistance and action taken directly into the hands of each and every individual. Placing posters, hanging banners, holding signs, organizing marches, blocking streets, forming strikes, expropriation from businesses. Whatever form of resistance and action can be conceived of can and should be employed. Every building that serves the state and capitalism must be occupied. The collective produce of our labor must be returned to us. If those in power feel comfortable or secure then the actions being taken are not enough.
What has been done before can be done again. Occupy Wall Street saw many forms of decentralized nonhierarchical organization employed throughout the movement. The creation of general assemblies and focus on direct action laid the groundwork for an effective movement. Action was not taken to appeal to the authority of those in power but to smash their authority. While the one percent may still exist, the Occupy Wall Street movement set forward an example of what can be done should people unite in a struggle against the few who control the many.
This is a call to each and every individual to take any form of action they can against the one percent. A statement must be made. To fight against the exploitation of capitalism and the state. To unite and struggle on behalf of others. Every conceivable form of oppression must be united into a single fight for liberation. Our environment is being slowly murdered while those responsible continue to govern us through their wealth and laws. Nonwhite communities continue to be divided and terrorized as a result of conditions perpetuated by this parasitic system. The persecution of LGBTQ individuals continues on with prominent capitalists using their wealth to fund hate groups against them. The divide between the haves and have nots has only grown. Productivity has risen while wages have stagnated and decreased in value. Our laws and regulations are written by the rich. The poorest suffer the hardest from the consequences of a system that leads to the existence of a one percent. Wall Street must be reoccupied.