In the early weeks and months of 2011, the Arab Spring
erupted, surprising, inspiring and delighting millions of people around the
world. Who would have thought that popular uprisings could overthrow the
regimes of Tunisia and Egypt? Who knows who’s next to topple in the “Arab
Awakening”?
Now, almost a year later, the Occupy Wall Street movement
has carried on the awakening, and in a way that may prove much more
sustainable, and harder for NATO to bomb.
And while the movement is still in infancy, the criticism of
its leaderless, almost formless nature is misplaced or even pernicious.
Political movements, no matter what stripe, take time to find cohesiveness.
Despite some hand-wringing about Occupy Wall Street's supposed lack of focus, it
does have a simple-to-understand message that fits neatly on a
bumper sticker: "We Are the Other 99 Percent."
What matters most is that the American middle class---and
increasingly unionized workers, the poor, and even members of the
military---has awoken. Our own Arab Spring might have just begun.
Of course, there are important questions, which X-Ray’s deep politics columnist Stephen
James Kerr poses in this issue. Is a better world possible? Stephen would
say “yes”, but there are some burning questions that we need to ask ourselves,
and the Occupy movement, in order for us to find our way toward that better
world.
Reporting from the heart of Occupy Wall Street, Alternet.org
writer and editor Kristen Gwynne
reveals what life is really like at Zuccotti Park
(hint: it’s complicated and inspiring).
And the legendary
progressive journalist and host of Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman, looks at how OWS can and should influence the Obama
Administration, which, as it turns out, looks an awful lot like an
expansion of the Bush Era.
Another well-known journo, John Pilger, looks at the fate of Julian
Assange and the current state of the US war against him and whistleblowers
like Bradley Manning, while X-Ray “godfather” Ted Rushton wonders what Barack Obama’s License to Kill looks
like.
Enjoy, and as always, please let us know what you think.
Cheers,
David Julian Wightman
Publisher slash editor
davidjwightman [at] xraymagazine [dot]
ca
Cover art is a poster created for Occupy
Wall Street by Eric Drooker (The
New Yorker, Howl)
UPDATED (Friday October 14): Since publishing this issue yesterday I have come across Naomi Klein's incredible speech to the crowd at Liberty Plaza/Zucotti Park on October 6. It's an amazing speech, and I've decided to reprint the text here in X-Ray.