America's own "Arab Spring"

As the "Occupy Wall Street" protest enters into 28th day the whole world watches with unabated breath the consequences of this protest. What started out as a small protest in New York City has grown on to the other cities of US. More interestingly, this protest is slowly taking the shape of a global movement having spread across to various cities of Europe, Japan, Australia & New Zealand. Comparisons are already being made to what we have seen this year in the Arab world, Egypt and Anna's anti-corruption movement in India. This makes me wonder whether the ongoing protests will turn out be America's own "Arab spring"?

Occupy Wall Street

Essentially, i see this movement as a common man's expression against corporate greed, economic inequalities, corporate influence on political representatives. In simple terms, the man on the street is crying out loud and clear - Give me my life back! However, the group calls themselves "99 percenters" implying that they belong to the 99% of the people who are suffering from economic inequalities, leaving aside the 1% super rich millionaires. What is unique about this movement is that it is still leaderless, the specific objectives are quite hazy yet it is spreading like wildfire. This is contrast with what we saw recently in India where Anna Hazare led a strong anti corruption movement with a clear objective of parliament ushering in a Lok Pal bill.

In US the dominant feeling is of being let down by the current Obama administration. In Obama, they believed to have a leader who offered great hope & change, one who could restore America's privileged position of pride and prosperity. However, three years down the line with approx 10% unemployment rate and a looming double dip recession Obama's popularity remains low.


What Next?

As the globalisation of this movement is on the anvil it is very interesting to see what shape this movement will eventually take. So far the movement has been largely peaceful barring some clashes reported in Rome. In countries like Greece, Portugal etc., which are literally on the verge of a collapse unless saved by the more stronger EU nations like Germany & France the timing of this movement is significant. Will this lead to a subtle change from capitalist to more socialist policies?

In an expression of solidarity with these protests emanating from US some of the world leaders have already started pointing fingers at US. History is replete with facts that whenever such populist movements have occurred in the other parts of world the US has supported such movements and encouraged regime change. It is almost with blatant glee that some of these nations like China, Venezuela are waiting for the mighty US to taste it's own medicine. It will be very interesting to see the US reaction to this movement- both the people & the government. Will the American's unite for a cause or will the country of "I", "Me", "Myself" give it a cold shoulder? The common man would like to see what steps have been taken to prevent another financial crisis. What judicial amendments can be done to book the guilty? Will the tax payer's money be used to dole out failing banks and other businesses? Will Obama see this as an adversity or opportunity? Can he use this movement to push his agenda on the passage of "Jobs bill" in Congress or will the Republicans use this to corner Obama further? As we are close to entering the election year in US this movement, if sustained, is surely going to influence the outcome.

There's an underlying feeling that this movement should help bring the change which people expected to see with the elevation of Obama to the top post. The role of media is going to be critical. So far the US media has largely shown lot of restraint in the coverage of this event but it will be difficult to keep this event low profile for long. I would not be surprised if this news occupies the headlines for a long time now. Surely, this movement resonates with the common man and has the potential to stir the passions of millions of people. Only time will tell whether "Occupy Wall street" is going to turn out to be America's own "Arab spring"