Naomi Klein is demanding that we the people get off of our collective butts and voice opposition before this deal gets signed and our money gets ripped off.
From www.naomiklein.org:
This week the White House is going to try to push through the biggest robbery in world history with nary a stitch of debate to bail out the Wall Street bastards who created this economic apocalypse in the first place.
This is the financial equivalent of September 11. They think, just like with the Patriot Act, they can use the shock to force through the "therapy," and we’ll just roll over! [snip]
This is a historic moment. We need to act now while we can influence the debate. Let’s demonstrate this Thursday at 4pm in Wall Street.
It's a party, everybody, bring your signs!
When: 4pm – ? Thursday, September 25.
Where: Southern end of Bowling Green Park, in the plaza area
What to bring: Banners, noisemakers, signs, leaflets, etc.
Why: To say we won’t pay for the Wall Street bailout
Who: Everyone!
There is no organizing group here. Many people on this site have read the Shock Doctrine and been influenced by her thesis: that "shock" situations, whether real or manufactured, are used and manipulated to push through reactionary legislation that would never be tolerated in a "normal" environment. She has shown that the same group of players, out of ideological fanaticism or just pure greed, have created some of the most horrific situations on the planet for ordinary people:
the dumping of private debt into the public coffers is only stage one of the current shock. The second comes when the debt crisis currently being created by this bailout becomes the excuse to privatize social security, lower corporate taxes and cut spending on the poor. [snip]
We have seen this many times before, in this country and around the world. But here's the thing: these opportunistic tactics can only work if we let them. They work when we respond to crisis by regressing, wanting to believe in "strong leaders" - even if they are the same strong leaders who used the September 11 attacks to push through the Patriot Act and launch the illegal war in Iraq.
So let's be absolutely clear: there are no saviors who are going to look out for us in this crisis. [emphasis mine]Certainly not Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the companies that will benefit most from his proposed bailout (which is actually a stick up). The only hope of preventing another dose of shock politics is loud, organized grassroots pressure on all political parties: they have to know right now that after seven years of Bush, Americans are becoming shock resistant.
$800,000,000,000 is $3,200 for every person in America. $11,000 for a family of four, and sadly about what many impoverished people earn in a year. It is money that will be taken from other funds: food for hungry people, new school buildings, parks, roads, bridges, sewers, water plants, electricity grids, homeless shelters, library books, neighborhoods, police, hospitals, student loans, cancer research, health care for all of us. And this is just the beginning.
So if you can show up, please do it. Please tell friends and neighbors.
Wall Street, 4pm, Thursday. Tell them no, thank you.