“Occupy Wall Street,” the once loosely-organized protest against Wall Street greed and corruption, has swelled in number, garnered union support and appears to be morphing into the Tea Party of the Left. Powerful unions like the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers unions are lending support.
A list of demands has surfaced. It calls for the passage of house bill HR 1489, the Return to Prudent Banking Act of 2011, which would restore some provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 that separated commercial banks from investment banks. It would also increase taxes on those earning $1 million or more per year and would bar former regulators from going to work for companies that they had previously overseen.
The “Tea Party of the Left” label is a reference to evolving opposition to a wide range of things from bank foreclosures to corporate political influence, to joblessness, to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ? not just holding Wall Street accountable.
Demonstrations have spread to cities across the United States and Europe. One slogan is “We are the 99%,” whose tax dollars bailed out Wall Street and subsidized the wealthiest 1%. Like many informed people (for example, noted authors of the excellent book, Reckless Endangerment, Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner), the protestors want individuals that commit financial crimes to be indicted.
Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson said: “It will take a massive, vibrant protest movement to bring America’s subservience to Wall Street to its overdue end.”
It is looking like “Occupy Wall Street” may be on its way to becoming that.
Page Perry is an Atlanta-based law firm with over 150 years collective experience protecting investor rights against Wall Street’s greed.