The Revolt of the Global Middle Class

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/06/the-revolt-of-the-global-middle-class/277125/


Brazilians hold a demonstration with a banner that reads, "Villainous politician. Lower your salary," in Sao Paulo on June 22, 2013. (Reuters)

Alper, a 26-year-old Turkish corporate lawyer, has benefited enormously from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule. He is one of millions of young Turks who rode the country's economic boom to a lifestyle his grandparents could scarcely imagine.

Yet he loathes Erdogan, participated in the Taksim Square demonstrations and is taking part in the new " standing man" protests in Istanbul.

"The prime minister is continuing to blatantly lie about the demonstrations," said Alper, who asked that his last name not be used because he feared arrest. "People are actually scared that if they stop this momentum, then the government will feel free to exercise more force."

From Turkey to Brazil to Iran the global middle class is awakening politically. The size, focus and scope of protests vary, but this is not unfolding chaos -- it is nascent democracy. Citizens are demanding basic political rights, accountable governments and a fairer share of resources.

[LiberalEsto]

1. Not so much in the US, though. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. I think it is.

Occupy, moral Mondays...it is just not covered as much.

[xchrom]

3. +1

[Rod Walker]

5. The recent protests in Brazil numbered a quarter million people. How many can Occupy muster?

Whatever merits one wishes to attribute to US protests such as Occupy and Moral Mondays, they are far smaller than comparable movements in other countries.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. At it's height

Between all locations, close to five million.

Regardless, if we had a million man march, like we did with the antiwar marches in 2003, I am not sure the media will cover it. Ok, after the government went to war with the media they might.

[Rod Walker]

7. How many of those were in the US?

As per Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Occupy_movement_protest_locations_in_the_United_States

the largest single OWS protest numbered 30,000 on Sept. 17th, 2011. The next largest was about 10,000. That's only about a tenth the size of the recent protest in Turkey.

Granted, there were massive protests in the US in 2003...but are you going to get half a million people in the street to protest against drones or NSA surveillance?

[xchrom]

11. occupy occurred in several cities across the u.s. -- it has also evolved and spun off other movement

such as the debt relief movement.

different occupy folks are still quite active.

[Rod Walker]

12. But the fact remains that it's quite small (in the US) as compared to other more recent protests.

That's all I'm sayin'. Occupy couldn't muster a quarter million people in New York to save their (collective) lives.

[starroute]

20. America doesn't have large public spaces to muster the crowds

The anti-Iraq War protest in New York had to take over a major street -- which meant making arrangements with the authorities and allowing themselves to be kettled. There is no equivalent of Taksim or Syntagma or Tahrir.

It isn't just the physical absence of open spaces, either. American cities are not communal. Most of what's in them is private space -- either individual or corporate. There are no commons with a medieval legacy of being the area where the public's business is conducted. And this cramps our imaginations as well as our bodies and limits the ways in which we can conceive of ourselves as acting.

[Rod Walker]

21. Never having participated in a street protest, I handn't considered that aspect of it.

Interesting info, thanks.

[sabrina 1]

4. It was crushed, temporarily in the US, at least publicly. We were late with OWS. The Greeks and

the Spanish began the revolt several years before OWS emerged here. The French also, they went so far as to kidnap CEOs of Corporations and shut down the entire country. Canadian students also won a huge victory against the Corporate state just recently.

Turkey and Brazil are just the latest. And that is why Wall St and their puppets are so scared. They can't stop it. No sooner than they crack down in one place, it erupts somewhere else.

Maybe they should just stop cracking down, start arresting the perps who crashed the world's economies and the politicians who helped them, as Iceland did, and begin to rebuild all the countries which were destroyed by the Wall St. Criminals. Because they will have to get more and more brutal in order to try to stop the rising tide of revolt against their policies, across the globe. And the more brutal they become, the larger the revolt will be. They never learn from history so it continues to be repeated.

[90-percent]

8. The NSA chlling effect

I believe in the Occupy movement and have an Occupy bumper sticker on my tailgate. I have seen only one other Occupy sticker on any car anywhere I've been. I surmise from this scientifically invalid study that most American's have little to no understanding about the Occupy Movement.

The totalitarian police state treatment of Occupy Protesters has made me EXTREMELY RELUCTANT to participate in anyOccupy gatherings. Simply put, I don't want to go to jail, get tasered, pepper sprayed,cracked in the face with a police baton, or loose my eardrums from police noise machines.

Also, I just plain don't know how to navigate big cities like New York. And I can't stand camping out.

Not to mention Occupy on the east coast seems to have fizzled. I'm even reluctant to peruse any Occupy websites, lest I put a big drone target on my back.

I fear my own government a hell of a lot more than any terrorist, simply because the probability of my own government wrecking my life if they chose too is about 10,000% greater than being a victim of terrorism.

-90% Jimmy

[LittleGirl]

19. +1 nt

[Magoo48]

22. +1

[marmar]

9. k/r

[socialist_n_TN]

10. Well, basic Marxism posits that the petit bourgeoisie....

can go either way in a revolutionary situation. It appears at this point, that the big bourgeoisie is pushing them into the arms of the proletariat.

[Johnny Noshoes]

13. I think...

I think that what's left of the American middle class is very slowly coming to realize that they have more in common with the working class/proletariat than they ever did with "the boss". Even Americans can only be pushed around for so long before that moment arrives when they FINALLY realize how much they've been screwed over for the past 40 years.

[socialist_n_TN]

17. Quite a slow process though.........

and a frustrating process when you see it going on. However, that's why there's a need for a vanguard party. Because a situation that's coming to a head can go several way OTHER than a worker's government. Fascism, Bonapartism, barbarism. Several ways this could play out and a vanguard workers' party could show the way to avoid these other outcomes.

[FarCenter]

15. The bourgeoisie will side with whoever provides order

[socialist_n_TN]

16. Yep. That's why the petit bourgeoisie will support fascism IF....

the working class can't provide that order. And that's also why the big bourgeoisie will support fascism if they see the situation headed towards revolution. What they give up to fascism is worth it to keep the system intact. After all, they (the big bourgeoisie) always thinks that they can put the horse back in the barn at some future point.

[FarCenter]

23. There is no horse; there is no barn

The nobility and the clergy no longer exist as governing classes, so the big bourgeoisie are now at the top of the heap.

The big bourgeoisie knows that order must be kept through some combination of sticks and carrots. There exist a multitude of institutions to provide carrots and to limit the supply of uncontrolled sticks. But ultimately, the stick of government coercion will be used if the carrots don't work.

“For government consists mainly in so keeping your subjects that they shall be neither able, nor disposed to injure you. . . . ”

[socialist_n_TN]

24. The "horse and barn" reference was to the big bourgeoisie supporting...

fascism if that seems to be the ONLY way to stop a workers' revolution. Fascism (as the horse) is something they feel like they can eventually control. And they might be able to. After a while. That while WILL be hell for most of the rest of us though.

[FarCenter]

25. But facism is the political ideal of the big bourgeoisie

Or at least the oligarchical form of facism is.

[progressoid]

14. The FORMER middle class.

k/r

[Faygo Kid]

18. Exactly. The Romneys of the world are destroying the middle class.

In 20 years, there will be a tiny sliver of wealth and control (China, U.S., Brazil, Germany, et al), and widespread poverty. The rich will live in gated communities, and the rest of us (I will probably be dead) will be at each other's throats.

But they will all have to live with a planet in a climate change death spiral.

[patrice]

26. Revolt? Does this mean that they concretely actively refuse to be the bourgeoisie? and . . .

actually choose to submit themselves to authentic solidarity with the poor?

I hope so, but . . .

We'll have to see how that plays here with the USA middle class.

[HughBeaumont]

27. K & R

I haven't taken my eye off the ball.