Yesterday marked the one-month anniversary of the movement called Occupy Wall Street, which began with less than 100 people in a small park in downtown Manhattan and has spread to dozens of cities across the world, attracting hundreds of thousands of protesters, in a remarkably short space of time.Those demonstrating over last weekend were expressing a general, but unfocused, dissatisfaction about the economic disparity between the huge wealth that is being amassed by the one per cent at the top of the economic pyramid of countries and the fact that, in many countries, the incomes of the majority (the 99 per cent) were being whittled away by higher taxes and lower government spending.The Occupy Wall Street movement may be caused by a feeling in some of the bastions of so-called Western democratic capitalism that these countries are on the losing end of the phenomenon of globalisation, which escalated in the late 20th century as a result of the collapse of Communism, the lowering of trade barriers and the spread of connectivity through the Internet, cable television and social networks like Facebook.
It is not a coincidence that those who are manning the barricades in New York, London, Rome and other cities are more than likely to be young, educated and middle class-the very people who are at risk of being consigned to lives that are not as comfortable as their parents.It is also clear that the countries that are poised to derive the most benefits from 21st century globalisation are China, India and Brazil-but only to the extent that capital continues to flow to the countries and industries where it earns the highest return for the lowest risk and trade continues to be as unfettered in the future as it has been in the recent past. The protests of the last month have been foreshadowed by the austerity-driven riots that took place in England and similar demonstrations that have taken place in major European capitals. Earlier still, these demonstrations have taken place against the backdrop of protests throughout the Arab world that had their origins in the economic concerns of the masses as well as their democratic aspirations.uite clearly, then, 2011 will go down in history as a turning point in the world.
Given what is taking place around the world, it would not be surprising if an Occupy Port-of-Spain movement breaks out here, led by some disgruntled local anti-capitalists who would obviously be keen to mimic the protests that are going on.However, the mimic men-and this does not by any means exclude the mimic women, who can be equally as angry-should be aware that there is a state of emergency on in T&T and that while the New York City police may be accommodating of protesters occupying Zuccotti Park in Manhattan, the policing of Woodford Square is likely to be less so.There would also be less justification for such a movement here given the fact that the middle class in T&T has grown tremendously in the last decade as a result of the income distribution policies of both the last administration and the current one.There is also a sense that the Government is on the right path in pushing for the public divestment of state-owned enterprises and in providing tax breaks to encourage the public listing of small and medium-sized privately held companies.Divestment is one means by which a government can ensure that the wealth that has been generated by state-owned companies can be shared by everyone-including those of meagre means.