Occupy Denver: March Against Neo-Feudalism: Revenge of the Wage Slave

 

 

 

 

 

In a world of finite resources, any system based on infinite growth is doomed to failure.  A few thousand years ago nobles and kings seized the commons from the peasants and called it private property.  A few thousand years later similar excuses were used to wipe native populations off of Australia and The Americas in the name of God and progress.  People were captured from their lands, and forced into Slavery.  Genocide was committed in the name of imperialist profit.  That legacy of infinite growth forces us to constantly seek out new markets to exploit and new resources to seize.  Our bodies are poisoned, our land is polluted, and we have nowhere left to go but to learn to live within our means and to rebuild our fractured relationships with the earth and our communities.

 

We stand at a crossroads.  The form of capitalism that we live under is no longer based on economics.  Neo-liberalism is a system that puts political needs over economic ones thus destroying economies in American cities and putting the third world into a system of indentured servitude to corporations.   Worst of all is how for many of us the only affordable options involve giving our money right back to the corporations that are not only funding our own oppression, but also fueling traditional feudalism that continues to ruin lives across the globe.  This system does not reward hard work, it feeds on it like a parasite.  It has come to the point where if someone does not own a means of production then they will live as wage slaves or as serfs.  Through the ever-increasing shift  towards wealth and power consolidation, it is safe to say we know how this tragic story ends if we do nothing. Our politicians keep telling us everything is fine, the economy is coming back, you need to work harder.  The average CEO makes 350 times that of their workers and that number goes up every year.  This is not the capitalist world that even Adam Smith intended, this is feudalism.   We have nothing to lose but our chains, we have nothing to gain but our freedom, we will no longer live as serfs.

 

We have worked hard enough, we have watched our loved ones be forced from their homes, our fathers and mothers laid off, our retirement plans stolen, and wars waged in our name that have bankrupted our country.  We have watched those wars come home as homeland security coordinated massive efforts to squash the non violent Occupy protests, often with violent results, yet the people responsible for destroying our economy have never had to face a line of riot cops or any prison time.   The student debt in our country has topped 1 trillion, yet PHD graduates are lucky to find a job at all, let alone in their field of expertise where they could give back their knowledge to their community in a viable way. We continue to spend billions on expensive weaponry and maintaining the largest empire ever known to man while our education system is crumbling, our cities face austerity and the public sector is in peril.  Things are bad now, but things will be even worse for the next generation.

 

In the 60’s we were told that by now we’d only be working 4 hours a day, we’d live longer and fuller lives, and that technology would solve our problems. It was a bright and beautiful future, one of clean energy, flying cars and world peace.  Technical advances are made every day, but they do not improve our lives.  The economy rewards innovations in anti-depressants that help us deal with our stressful exploited lives while we are unable to cure cancer.  Our electoral system is a marketing contest; we are asked to vote in a new captain for the titanic based on his looks and nuances yet we have no say on the direction of the ship.

 

We need a better world, one that respects the time and dignity of every human being, where the labor of the janitor is valued the same as his boss.  We need a system where the means of production are returned to the worker, and where our communities are run by those that actually listen to its people.  This system is and always has been a system based on exploitation, and that is no longer an option.  It is time to have this discussion, it is time to consider new ways to live.   We don’t want to end up like communist China or communist Russia, we want to learn from the lessons of history so as to not repeat them. We say down with feudalism.  Down with exploitation.  Another world is possible.  Other worlds ARE possible.  With all the means of technology at our disposal, is this really all we are capable of?

 

On Friday July 6th at 6pm we will meet in Alma Park, IE; The other Lincoln Park on the Corner of 13th and Mariposa.  We will march at 7PM.  Route will be determined by consensus.

 

Bring your casseroles, pots, pans and noisemakers. Wear black if you want! 

We will take to the streets, we will be heard.

“Every time history repeats itself the price goes up.” –Ronald  Wright

Hi resolution posters, please print and distribute!!!!

You can get high resolution versions of these at http://occupydenver.org/march-against-neo-feudalism-revenge-of-the-wage-slave/.