The discontent with the current economic system in the US is growing as labor unions took to the streets to demand jobs and economic justice. An activist told RT that the Occupy movement is set to become a real force in US politics.
Occupy Wall Street’s website says that farmers are also set to join the movement in order to fight and expose “corporate control of the food supply.” Activists plan to hold an OWS Farmers’ March on Sunday with food justice activists and occupiers traveling from as far as Colorado, Iowa, Maine and upstate New York.
Some 20,000 members of various labor unions marched in Manhattan on Thursday. Earlier, police cleared two of the longest-standing Occupy camps in Los Angeles and Philadelphia, arresting some 350 people.
Rob Wohl, an activist with the Occupy DC Action Team, told RT the unions are now ready to become “a real vector for popular power” in America.
Critics of the Occupy movement say it lacks a clear message. But Wohl explained to RT that the movement is not trying to elect any particular politicians but is just trying to get global attention to what is going on in America today.
“Right now we want to say that the economic system in America that has allowed the wealthiest 1 per cent to take command of 60 per cent of wage gains in the past 30 years and created the highest unemployment since the Great Depression is unacceptable,” he said.
“We will do what’s necessary to interrupt this system. We want the members of Congress to know that we demand meaningful, powerful, overwhelming change in this country.”
According to the activist, the Occupy movement is about “taking back public space and creating true participatory democracy.”
Rowl said the OWS wants to become “a megaphone for the people of America to stand up and make demands to their leaders.”
“Our goal is to be a true authentic movement that is not going to be in the news just for six to eight months. It’s to be a powerful force in American politics for years and years to come,” he concluded.