ON WALL STREET: 99% versus 1%

The Wall Street Occupation by protesters began on 17 September. US corporate media are giving the protesters minimal, if any, publicity. Unions are now rallying support, and relatively modest numbers, in hundreds up to now, will soon swell to many thousands. The movement is spreading to other US cities too.

Some of the protesters have documented their complaints in photographs accessible at:
WE ARE THE 99%

The protesters' website is at Occupy Wall Street. A "Donate" button is at bar at the top of the page.

Below, a recent letter of support by Noam Chomsky:

Anyone with eyes open knows that the gangsterism of Wall Street -- financial institutions generally -- has caused severe damage to the people of the United States (and the world). And should also know that it has been doing so increasingly for over 30 years, as their power in the economy has radically increased, and with it their political power. That has set in motion a vicious cycle that has concentrated immense wealth, and with it political power, in a tiny sector of the population, a fraction of 1%, while the rest increasingly become what is sometimes called "a precariat" -- seeking to survive in a precarious existence. They also carry out these ugly activities with almost complete impunity -- not only too big to fail, but also "too big to jail."
The courageous and honorable protests underway in Wall Street should serve to bring this calamity to public attention, and to lead to dedicated efforts to overcome it and set the society on a more healthy course.

http://socialistaotearoa.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-zealander-on-wall-street-occupation.html



Echoing down the years, from 1936, an excerpt from Carl Sandburg's wonderful long poem: The People, Yes (at pages 277-9):

When was it long ago the murmerings began
and the joined murmerings
became a moving wall
moving with the authority of a great sea
whose Yes and No
stood in an awful script
in a new unheard-of handwriting?

"No longer," began the murmerings,
"shall the king be king................................................


...............Shall a robber be named a robber when he is one
even though bespoken and anointed he is?
Shall a shame and a crime be mentioned when it is so plainly there,
when day by day it draws toil, blood and hunger,
enough of slow death and personal tragedy to certify
the kings who sit today as entrenched kings
are far too far from their people?




What does justice say?
Or if justice is become an abstraction or a harlot
what does her harder sister, necessity, say?
Their ears are so far from us,
so far from our wants and small belongings
we must trim these kings of our time
into something less than kings.
Of these too it will be written:
these kings shrank."

What is it now the people are beginning
to say - is it this?
And if so
whither away and
where do we go from here?

(from pages 277/9 of Carl Sandburg's The People, Yes.)

Postcript: Astrologer Robert Phoenix was there. His 29 September piece is a good read on the topic, with some astrology included:
Wall Street Ground Zero, A Personal View, Massive Cardinal T-Square Off In Action

Peterloo ~ Birth of The Guardian Newspaper

Following yesterday's theme and pondering famous examples of mass protest by ordinary people in days gone by, my thoughts turned to another such event, this from the history of the north of England city of Manchester, county of Lancashire, during the years of the Industrial Revolution: The Peterloo Massacre of 1819.

In early 19th century England only wealthy property owners were allowed to vote. Ordinary people began to feel the same anger as their cousins in the USA had felt in the previous century about taxation without representation. Manchester was one centre where the Industrial Revolution, via the cotton trade, had spawned a a large population, few of whom had the right to vote. Attempts to persuade the government to broaden the right to vote had been continually resisted. The wealthy had much to lose. Memories of the French Revolution, 30 years earlier, still hovered.

On 16 August 1819 Henry Hunt, a well-known campaigner for voting reform was to speak at a meeting in Manchester. In order to avert problems those in power brought in 400 special constables, 1500 infantry 100 cavalry, Hussars and Yeomanry, and Royal horse Artillery with a 6-pounder cannon. Pretty heavy-handed considering the meeting was to be a peaceful gathering of unarmed working-class folk from Manchester and surrounding towns and villages.

A crowd of around 60,000 is reported to have gathered, including some all-female contingents dressed all in white, supporting universal suffrage for males (their own time was to come in the years that followed).

Before the speeches were properly underway, magistrates decided, at the very last minute to ban the meeting, and first sent 60 cavalry in to arrest the speakers, then more and more troops advanced as the first 60 became engulfed in the crush. Cavalry galloped into the crowd wielding sabres. At the same time the infantry, with bayonets fixed, positioned themselves at the main exits and blocked escape routes. Those who did escape were pursued through the streets.
Around 15 people were killed and between 400 and 700 injured - trampled by horses, or cut by the wildly swinging sabres of the militia.

From the chart (above right) showing planetary positions at noon on 16 August 1819 in Manchester it's easy to see a challenging situation existed, formed by square and opposition aspects between Mars (aggression), Mercury (communication), Pluto/Saturn (death/restriction) and Uranus/Neptune (rebellion/dreams).

I has been acknowledged that Peterloo was hugely influential in ordinary people winning the right the vote, as well as leading to the rise of the Chartist Movement from which grew the Trades Unions.



Another result of the Peterloo Massacre was the foundation of a reformist newspaper: The Manchester Guardian (nowadays known simply as The Guardian - or affectionatley "The Grauniad" - a nickname earned and popularised by satirical magazine Private Eye due to a history of typographical errors including the newspaper's own name .






The Manchester Guardian was founded by John Edward Taylor, a young cotton merchant, on 5 May 1821 in the wake of the Peterloo Massacre. Taylor, a reformer and religious nonconformist, aimed to produce a newspaper committed to political change and based upon truthful reporting.
The Guardian celebrated its 190th birthday a few weeks ago. I wonder if its "natal chart" is appropriate for the birth of a reformist newspaper. Let's see:



Chart is set for 6 am on the date of the first issue of the newspaper....it's birth into the world. The Manchester Guardian had Sun and Venus in down-to-earth Taurus, not perhaps the Sun sign expected, but Taurus is a very rooted sign, and its roots have become strong over more than 190 years...the newspaper certainly had had Taurus's staying power and loyalty to purpose. Theose 4 planets in Aries, including the sign's ruler, Mars gave it pioneering drive and the cource of aggression when called for. Moon in Gemini = communication (Gemini) with The People (Moon). With ourter planets Uranus (rebellion) and Neptune (dreams, creativity) exactly and appropriately conjoined in Capricorn (business) in harmonious trine to Sun/Venus in Taurus. Uranus/Neptune was also in out-of-sign opposition to Moon, which represents something of a balancing act between the need to protest or rebel/dream of rebellion and the way to present this to The People in a responsible way.

The chart describes the birth of The Manchester Guardian well.

"A Global Moment" - Being Like Water

Pluto is becoming ever more "dug-in" to its transit of Capricorn (translation from the astrologese = destruction/transformation of power structures) we are beginning to see people of the world reacting to the new atmosphere, "being water" - seeping through rapidly forming cracks.

Be like water making its way through cracks........ Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.
~~ Brue Lee.

Because Uranus is inching daily towards its upcoming transit of Aries (translation: energetic or aggressive forces of change and the unexpected) the atmosphere is set to become more intense in coming months. I believe that Tom Engelhardt's essay at Common Dreams (HERE) describes, non-astrologically of course, exactly how those planetary transits are starting to play out. I've posted just an extract below, but heartily recommend reading the essay in full.

This is a global moment unlike any in memory, perhaps in history. Yes, comparisons can be made to the wave of people power that swept Eastern Europe as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989-91. For those with longer memories, perhaps 1968 might come to mind, that abortive moment when, in the United States, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, and elsewhere, including Eastern Europe, masses of people mysteriously inspired by each other took to the streets of global cities to proclaim that change was on the way.

For those searching the history books, perhaps you’ve focused on the year 1848 when, in a time that also mixed economic gloom with novel means of disseminating the news, the winds of freedom seemed briefly to sweep across Europe. And, of course, if enough regimes fall and the turmoil goes deep enough, there’s always 1776, the American Revolution, or 1789, the French one, to consider. Both shook up the world for decades after.

But here’s the truth of it: you have to strain to fit this Middle Eastern moment into any previous paradigm, even as -- from Wisconsin to China -- it already threatens to break out of the Arab world and spread like a fever across the planet. Never in memory have so many unjust or simply despicable rulers felt quite so nervous -- or possibly quite so helpless (despite being armed to the teeth) -- in the presence of unarmed humanity. And there has to be joy and hope in that alone.

Even now, without understanding what it is we face, watching staggering numbers of people, many young and dissatisfied, take to the streets in Morocco, Mauritania, Djibouti, Oman, Algeria, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Yemen, and Libya, not to mention Bahrain, Tunisia, and Egypt, would be inspirational. Watching them face security forces using batons, tear gas, rubber bullets, and in all too many cases, real bullets (in Libya, even helicopters and planes) and somehow grow stronger is little short of unbelievable. Seeing Arabs demanding something we were convinced was the birthright and property of the West, of the United States in particular, has to send a shiver down anyone’s spine.

The nature of this potentially world-shaking phenomenon remains unknown and probably, at this point, unknowable. Are freedom and democracy about to break out all over? And if so, what will that turn out to mean? If not, what exactly are we seeing? What light bulb was it that so unexpectedly turned on in millions of Twittered and Facebooked brains -- and why now? our world?

Why now? Cycles, and cycles within cycles - astrological cycles that is.

A STAND FOR PEACE & HOPE

On 16 December military veterans, along with some high-profile activists: Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, Medea Benjamin, Ray McGovern and Robert Shetterly and others will Take a Stand for Peace at the White House Fence.

Thank goodness for men of integrity and principle. They shine out among the dross!

Last week Chris Hedges wrote that they will "protest the futile and endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of us will, after our rally in Lafayette Park, attempt to chain ourselves to the fence outside the White House. It is a pretty good bet we will all spend a night in jail. Hope, from now on, will look like this."

Chris Hedges' full essay is HERE. He went on:

Hope is not trusting in the ultimate goodness of Barack Obama, who, like Herod of old, sold out his people. It is not having a positive attitude or pretending that happy thoughts and false optimism will make the world better. Hope is not about chanting packaged campaign slogans or trusting in the better nature of the Democratic Party. Hope does not mean that our protests will suddenly awaken the dead consciences, the atrophied souls, of the plutocrats running Halliburton, Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil or the government.

Hope does not mean we will halt the firing in Afghanistan of the next Hellfire missile, whose explosive blast sucks the oxygen out of the air and leaves the dead, including children, scattered like limp rag dolls on the ground. Hope does not mean we will reform Wall Street swindlers and speculators, or halt the pillaging of our economy as we print $600 billion in new money with the desperation of all collapsing states. Hope does not mean that the nation’s ministers and rabbis, who know the words of the great Hebrew prophets, will leave their houses of worship to practice the religious beliefs they preach. Most clerics like fine, abstract words about justice and full collection plates, but know little of real hope.

Hope knows that unless we physically defy government control we are complicit in the violence of the state. All who resist keep hope alive. All who succumb to fear, despair and apathy become enemies of hope. They become, in their passivity, agents of injustice. If the enemies of hope are finally victorious, the poison of violence will become not only the language of power but the language of opposition. And those who resist with nonviolence are in times like these the thin line of defense between a civil society and its disintegration.

"As above, so below" - as the people conjoin to protest, the astrological chart for tomorrow in Washington shows some appropriate planetary conjunctions:



Uranus/Jupiter in Pisces ~ here's the peaceful but rebellious demonstration.

Chiron/Neptune in Aquarius ~ here's the socially conscious and creative attempt to heal the wound of endless war.

Pluto/Mars/Mercury/North node in Capricorn ~ here's anger being communicated via very down to earth means.

Sun in Sagittarius in harmonious trine to Moon in Aries at 10:00 am as the demonstration begins.




UPDATE 16 December

Honk if..........

One week from today, 9th October 2007, according to my American Ephemeris, the planets will shape up with a Grand Trine in Water signs : Mars (energy) at 4 Cancer, trining Mercury(communication) at 8 Scorpio widely trine Uranus(rebellion) at 15 Pisces. Saturn conjunct Venus in Virgo sextiles Mercury and Mars adding further harmonious assistance. At around 1pm the Moon will be at 00 Libra, the Sun is of course already in that sign of balance and fairness. Passing readers may wonder why this examination of next Tuesday's astrology.

In an article Let's Honk Our Horns As a "Last Resort", by Hank Edson he writes about the way in which President G.W. Bush declared in 2002/3 that war with Iraq was to be considered a "last resort", but blatantly disregarded ways in which it could have been avoided.

Hank Edson puts forward a plan that bloggers can publicise, and that they, their readers, and others who, like him, are disgusted with the state of affairs in which America currently finds itself, can declare their displeasure by honking their car horns at exactly the same time next Tuesday, 9 October....see below for an explanation, or even better, read the entire article at the link above.

"On October 9th, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, 1:00 p.m. Central Time, 12:00 noon Mountain, and 11:00 a.m. Pacific, let us all vote on the presidency of George W. Bush with our car horns. For five minutes, let us voice an unremitting protest. Let’s make it so that every public TV station in America, every network news hour, every cable talking head news show has to show footage that is still but for the blare of our anger, our scorn, our outrage, our disgust, our sorrow, our grief, our pain at being a party to such unnecessary slaughter. Put it on your calendar. Drive around the corner from your work if you have to. Take five minutes out of your life for the 1.2 million whose lives are no more.

We, the people, voted in a Democratic Congress to end this war. Our votes have apparently meant nothing. It is time to vote with our car horns. It may be pathetic in a once democratic nation, but it is, for the powerless people of the United States of America, our “last resort.”

1.2 million human beings have been slaughtered by the war our government started unprovoked even after an opportunity to achieve its objective peacefully was offered. Are we really unwilling to make a little noise for just five minutes?"

I think the astrology of the date chosen seems quite beneficial to Mr. Edson's plan. It's not clear yet how much support will be forthcoming, but this is something in which most people could easily take part. And all that honking is bound to feel quite theraputic!