Festive Left Friday Blogging: Happy 1-month birthday, OWS!

Occupy Wall Street is now one month old, and still going strong. It’s also spreading across the continent and around the world. Virtually all major cities in North America (and quite a few minor ones as well) now have “Occupy” movements. And, if the news is to be believed, the powers-that-be are getting mighty nervous of all this growing evidence of people power:

More than 7,000 Canadians signed an online petition Friday opposing the feared eviction of Occupy Wall Street protesters from New York’s Zuccotti Park, a property owned by a Canadian holding company.

Brookfield Office Properties, which owns the park where protesters have been camped out for four weeks, said it delayed the planned cleanup of the park at the request of local political officials.

The move came after thousands of people sent online messages to Brookfield and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and also showed up prepared to be arrested in defense of the right to protest in the park.

Among the online protesters were more than 7,000 Canadians who signed a petition at Leadnow.ca, a website run by a Canadian advocacy organization best know for sponsoring “vote mobs” in the last federal election.

[…]

“Frankly I think they backed down in the face of overwhelming public pressure,” said James Biggar, executive director of Leadnow.ca, said of Brookfield’s about-face.

“I don’t think either Brookfield or Mayor Bloomberg wanted to have a huge, messy, ridiculously violent confrontation, which would have been the only way to get them out of there,” Biggar said.

Brookfield Properties said the delay was temporary.

“At the request of a number of local political leaders, Brookfield Properties has deferred the cleaning of Zuccotti Park for a short period of time while an attempt is made to reach a resolution regarding the manner in which Zuccotti Park is being used by the protesters,” the company said in a statement.

“Any such resolution will be respectful of the laws of the City of New York and will ensure that the park is used in a way that maintains the health, safety and viability of the surrounding residential and business community.”

Viability???

Yes, heaven forfend that the viability of capitalism should be questioned, never mind compromised. That’s what this is really all about: first the questioning, then the compromising. And then what? Well, it remains to be seen. But the indignation is snowballing, and it shows no signs of a meltdown. So far, all indications are that the protests will only grow and gain in strength, and that petitions on their behalf ARE working.

BTW, the occupation was at the top of tonight’s CBC newscast. Quite the change from two or three weeks ago, when almost no one was covering it. What was it that Gandhi said? “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”, I believe it was. For the first week they ignored, for the second week they laughed, and now, in the end of the third and fourth weeks, they’re fighting, complete with police brutality. Guess what comes next.

So, happy one month, OWS. May you enjoy many more. And may you not stop fighting this fight until the people win.