Occupy Wall Street movement spreads to Australia

You do matter! That's why the government wants your vote. You do matter! That's why the banks want your money and businesses push up the prices you pay. You do matter! That's why mass media wants to control your opinion. You matter like an animal in a slaughterhouse! You are what the top predators feed on! What they own is what you used to own. Don't get hungry, weak and disabled feeding the predatory system. It can only stay fat by continuing to extort resources that are ours, the resources of our nation's environment, the resources of our labour, the resources of our knowledge and skills, our generosity and goodwill. Starve off the 1%! Get back what is ours! We are the 99%!

What Carson says is absolutely true, we all know that but ... 99% percent of people are like tamed donkeys. They won't risk rocking the boat and challenging "the authorities". Most people either believe or are too scared to act.

I'm coming from Vietnam and will be arriving a little bit late. I'd like to reserve a nice grassy spot at the Melbourne one. I'll be staying for a bit. Ta!

This is a pathetic Australian attempt. I get that the American economy is in shambles and unemployment is at 10%. But it's not the same in Australia. Are you planning to create a home-made poster? Perhaps take the $2.50 you would have spent on cardboard and glitter and give it to World Vision or someone who needs it. Stop whinging about not being in the top 1% of the richest people in the world and, if you want to do something, do something for the people who are really suffering. It's not you, Ms/Mr "I am the 99%".

Dragged screaming , sure, on many different levels across the globe... some harder than others ....... My wish that we can work together ! May goodwill, persistance & patience be with you all ......This is not a sprint ,, its going to be a marathon if we are to be taken seriously ... OCCUPY CAIRNS ..... xo

"Printing more money and bringing us into more debt". Ummm - what planet are you from? Noforkenideaanus?

So what is yours? Please enlighten me and others who see this as a slacker's way of engineering wealth distribution? I would direct you to Michelle Malkin's blog to see the idiocy of this 'movement'. Read the latest about how the crowd will move to protest out front of houses of rich men. Something doesn't gel with what the 'movement' are trying to achieve.

" They are telling you we are not Americans here. But the conservative fundamentalists who claim they are really American have to be reminded of something. What is Christianity? It’s the Holy Spirit. What’s the Holy Spirit? It’s an egalitarian community of believers who are linked by love for each other. And who only have their own freedom and responsibility to do it. In this sense the Holy Spirit is here now. And down there on Wall Street there are pagans who are worshipping blasphemous idols. So all we need is patience. The only thing I’m afraid of is that we will someday just go home and then we will meet once a year, drinking beer, and nostalgically remembering what a nice time we had here. Promise ourselves that this will not be the case." Slavoj Zizek. http://www.occupywallst.org/ What a phenomenal, anthological and God-willingly historical speech.

No one ever claimed 99% would be participating, smartarse. Everyone doesnt have to be there in person to make the general point that the top 1% has a ridiculous amount of wealth and power to the direct detriment of everyone else.

The 1% are the people that control the system of which the 99% are controlled by. but yes it may not be all of the 99% that totally agree with what the main subject matter for the protest is, but the real point of it is that we ALL complain of inaiquitcies of our government weather its the allocation of our tax dollars and overspending, our corrupt and faulty law system, mismanagement of our "essential services" ie education,health, housing ect. yes we are lucky in this country, and western society as a whole, but at what price? Is it worth it? knowing the big corperations that are "governed" by western society governments are very rarely repremanded for their ethical and/or legal crimes against humanity. now i have no evidence if australia is involved or not, but there is plenty of evidence of corperate foul play in america (remember, our monetary system has the same framework as ie federal reserve and centeral bank of australia) but also out of the 55 "australian" banks we have... 46 are owned by overseas corperations. America went down... unbelievably fast, economically and socially, our system is mirrored to theirs, what makes u think that it wont happen here? Now England is going down in the same fashion Look up the meaning of "normality bias", the one key that has controlled the 99% and is implemented by the 1%. look for the truth or more to the point the REAL issues on the internet... because it is the last source left that isnt totally corrupted.

The World Bank, The World Health Organization, The EU, The United Nations, The IMF: these organizations are the enemy of any real attempt to tackle climate change. Their solutions are stupid! Carbon tax? Ha! Behind The World Bank and the IMF are the SAME people and institutions that brought about the demise of the world's financial system, who planned and orchestrated the collapse of the European national economies. Many of these people and organizations are inseparably connected to the Federal Reserve System (a consortium of private banks i.e. Wall Street). These organizations, whilst pretending concern for climate change, are busy shifting 'resources' from what they call the 'developed' world to the 'developing' world. The instrument for this shift is the United Nations, who transfer funds from the developed world (carbon tax and other money levied supposedly to fight climate change) to the developing world where it is not used to fight climate change but to support the development of those same industries and lifestyles that have helped to create climate change in the first place! How stupid is that? Well, not really, its just good business. Its a case of having your cake and wanting to eat it too...That's capitalism for you, and the Left have swallowed it, hook, line and sinker So, what's the solution? Firstly, we tell the private banks to shove their 'debts' and establish a Bank Protection Act and a Fixed Exchange Rate Credit System. These debts are not real, they are 'virtual' and are used to hold countries to ransom. Secondly, by establishing a National Bank of Australia. Thirdly, by utilizing our resources based on infusions of money from the NBA at very low interest, with a focus on developing clean industries and technologies. By refusing to sell our resources to countries who have not pledged to use them for the development of clean technologies. By establishing massive infrastructure changes based on national projects which would create full employment. By a more equitable redistribution of the world's food resources. By re-establishing our now defunct manufacturing base industries based on clean technologies, from food and clothing to building materials and so on, which would create full employment. By Scrapping the UN and the EU and all parasitical, anti-democratic subsidiary bodies and setting up a US-RUSSIA-CHINA COMMISSION for global recovery, providing they are willing to give up the old way of doing things and set up THE FIRST 'International' Fixed Exchange Rate Credit System and a Bank Protection Act. By further utilizing and developing internet technologies with a view to bringing the peoples of the world together and to disseminate new ideas the spread of democratic ideals and beliefs. I realize of course, that before these changes come into being our planet may need to experience a few near extinction level events to wake everyone up from the spell 'carbon tax' (bourgeois/ruling class) propaganda has cast over their rational minds. Perhaps then, our decision to hand the problem to the banks, the industrialists and politicians to solve will be seen for what it is - a sham! sinker...

Not everybody can be in the top 1%, in fact get this.... only 1% can be.. so get over it

copying Wall Street's in-gathering of the seriously dispossessed is, here in Oz more than just a little silly. I am all for equitable distribution of everything but I can think of better ways than occupying Martin Plaza[sic]. Must we be so slavish yet again? The Arab Spring is original. Occupy Wall Street is totally misconceived given that it is the US govt that allowed this idiocy to happen. And Americans are so self centred they can't see their own mess for what it is: social compliance. We all deserve what we get. Protesting specifically at Tony Abbot's office or the opposition's minister of labour asphixiation might be more to the point. Letters to the editors, mass blogging, concerts, poetry readings, getting into street theatre-oh this is so 1960 something. And bring a joint.

Youre Naive, Its not about Holding up Signs,its about Educating the Population,also its exactly how the Libyan Revolution started,same in Egypt,same as Syria now,same in Greece,France,USA,Ireland,Italy and now Australia etc...... "The World Population" are sick of all Governments and their lies,the Governments are owned by World Bank and were sick of World Bank Running the World.The 'System is set up by the Few Rich who get Richer at the Earths Peril money,money,money :(.Why would any Government bail out Banks with taxpayer money ?? Thats already happened worldwide at Banks insistence.Now they want all countries to do it again,why ? To take all the Money from the People,obviously,and governments are all playing along

It's nice of you to give an opinion, then give someone else's opinion (someone who obviously agrees with you) to back up your opinion. While I agree (and have previously said) that I think this movement is currently a tad redundant in Australia because we don't have such a huge gap like the U.S. (we don't yet have Republicans, but we're getting there). However, I would like to address the question, since there is so much taken for granted in that sentence I might as well as a rhetorical just as stupid: Please enlighten me and others who see your post as a bigot's way of justifying his/her work being worth more money than someone else's. So what is your equal share of this wealth? To answer what you're asking, I point out that in most reputable studies ever done on wealth, wealth distribution, tax figures and income, the top 1% does NOT share the over-all trend of 'payoffs'. That is, there is a trend (pretty accurate and consistent one), that the more educated and the more hours a person works, the more money they earn per measured period. However, the rise stagnates for the top rank of 'earners', this is true in most cases, and even more vivid if you include income earned not from work (most graphs don't even use this, because it's just too easy to prove the point that way). Now, essentially, you're saying every person who supports the Occupy Movement must, in your understanding, be a bum who totally wants to not work but still earn money. What the actual point of the wealth-distribution element is, is this: There is limited total wealth (no, really, it's not a wonderful formerly unknown form of meta-rubber, it doesn't grow and stretch on forever). Wages come out of the total wealth generated, so the more wages going to the top out of the total profits earned, the less goes to the bottom (see, I'm totally simplifying this, it's pretty easy to understand, hope the enlightenment is good to you, and I'll stop being patronising as soon as you do). So. Since salaries in the top income brackets have grown faster and faster (by dollar amount AND by percentage) in every single major, capitalist society, and bills have climbed higher in the ever-needed drive for more profits in a tougher to produce stuff world, the poor are struggling more and more to cope, with no sympathy or help from those at the top. They aren't asking people to hand them money for sitting in the park. In the U.S. People are ASKING for bloody jobs, and education to be affordable, perfectly reasonable demands. What people want in Australia (as demonstrated by the industrial action within QANTAS), is fairer wages. If a CEO of a bank can pat himself on the back to the tune of half a million quid for really doing an awful bloody job, why can't a student demand his/her student loan owner to give them a bonus for being a good customer? What the people deserve is a fair go, and that's what they are asking for. They are asking for the people in the top to stop earning $100 an hour while the people doing menial, back-breaking work at the bottom earn $15/hr. At some point, you can't explain the disparity away in education or skill. You can't tell a boy who wants to grow up to be a fireman to save lives that "sorry kid, that dooms you to be less rich than a hedge fund manager, because you chose to save lives, instead of going into banking, you deserve less for choosing that line of work". And don't argue that I'm taking you out of context. You didn't exactly ask anyone what their job was before accusing them of being a slacker. I've just finished my fifth straight day of 17 hour work because I'm self-employed and work on a project-by-project basis. Am I a slacker for not being a top-income bracket earner because I chose to go into a creative industry? Am I a slacker for choosing to charge a reasonable and affordable price for the job I do? While I'm not part of the mill anymore, I certainly can't get a loan to actually kickstart a business in the current economic environment, or get a loan for a mortgage. Is this because I'm a slacker? I don't think so. I went to Uni, I did well at high school (a selective one by the way), and I'm self-employed and working hard. I still don't believe that people should earn exponentially, stinkingly more than someone else just because they chose to go into the private sector, mining, or law. Teachers shouldn't earn peanuts when they in effect have to learn much more information than a banker or speed-investor will do in a lifetime. Thank you for being such a good example of the kind of bigotry that tries to paint the Occupy movement's supporters all as naked, dirty hippies or non-workers. Unless you're in the top income bracket, you're being stuffed in the face for every hour of work you do too, but since you're comfortable obviously, you don't mind that. Just think of people who are not so comfortable, who didn't have a good start in life (bad neighbourhood, poor family, chronic illness etc). If you were one of those people who fell through the holes in the safety net, would you feel motivated by some comfortable, middle class person saying: Hey slacker, you just want to redistribute my wealth. Knee-jerk reaction. It's not even your wealth they are talking about, unless you're Gina Rhinehart.

I have given up hope that the current system can put human wellbeing and the environment ahead of profit. Think this idea through, disposable society or quality that lasts. Nothing wrong with a profit or a product, but lets keep it sane.

France and Europe went through this in the late 1700's. Where a select few had all the power and wealth. It was the end of most monarchies and the beginning of Republics. This time it's on a global scale.... The corporations are not only greedy...they are criminal, and corrupt. Most Governments are controlled by these forces. They are in bed with each other. Politicians are not paid that well by their own Governments. They are in position of power to line their own pockets by these corporations that instruct the powers that be to set ridiculous laws and policies that benefit the few and enslave the masses. The revolution of the 21st Century has began.

it seems like yo read that somewhere, it is a very limited view of the financial systems that, like it or not keep our economies going. Now I am not saying that some pollies in some countries are NOT corrupt.

If you like butcher the English language - YOUR NEXT! For the rest of us - YOU'RE (well, WE'RE) NEXT!

Any system that wants to "Starve off" a %1 of the population is not worthy of my time, you are talking about people, not a number; I would never back a system that wants to kill off a certain type of individual, is that what you stand for?. Sounds more like old class hatred instead of new and progressive ideas.

To anyone who hasn't read his blogs,more than worthwhile!An almost Hunter S.Thompson like red eyed rage!who not only verbally shreds billionaire who buy his own artwork,he takes it to anyone,including our own government in Oz!good on ya james,even though the mainstream media censors your work,I hear you!,.(jamesdeweaver.com) for curious types!