Wall Street in Canton

St. Lawrence University students leading Wall St. (99%) action.

This morning, on desks and tables in classrooms across the St. Lawrence University campus, strips of paper were placed at each seat inviting students to join today’s  noon student walk out in support of those tenting, marching and getting arrested in NYC and other urban centers across the country. I caught up with this small but determined and vocal group of about 20 students, who read a prepared statement in support of the Wall Street activists and in solidarity with the “99%” of Americans who are not among the fabulously wealthy.

Some are calling this movement “the Tea Party of the left,” while others dismiss it as a ragtag pack of disgruntled and not very articulate troublemakers.

What I find interesting–and here the analogy with the early days of the Tea Party may hold–is the apparent spontaneous upsurge of support, across the country, for the original small and disorganized group of protesters who pitched tents in lower Manhattan.

What’s your take? (Check out Brian Mann’s entry about the Glens Falls “Wall St. Demonstration” today.)

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9 Comments on “Wall Street in Canton”

  1. Pete Klein says:

    99% tax rate on incomes above $1 million no matter how the income is received.
    Notice I didn’t say earned.

  2. PNElba says:

    “Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks — if you don’t have a job and you are not rich, blame yourself!” Herman Cain

  3. rockydog says:

    Really?

  4. J says:

    Private school kids protesting against the advantages of the social elite. Just a bit ironic.

  5. Pete Klein says:

    I’m willing to compromise on that, unlike the Party of NO.

  6. Bob S says:

    No confiscation without representation.

  7. dbw says:

    We will see where all this goes, but it is obviously tapping into something because of the way people seem to be responding spontaneously, and so widely. People seem to know exactly what they are talking about, the role of the financial industry in our current difficulties, the ill effects of the concentration of wealth, the compromising of our politics by big money etc.

  8. knuckleheadedliberal says:

    If you want to understand what the protests are about, please go to this site and read the testimonials and see the pictures of people who are a part of the movement.
    http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

  9. Emily says:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/opinion/sunday/protesters-against-wall-street.html?_r=3&src=tp

    Please read this New York Times article.
    And for “J”, over 85% of St Lawrence students are there because of the financial aide they receive. They go to private universities that are offering them more money because the public universities are not giving them enough aide, regardless of the initial cost of tuition. Everyone needs to stop categorizing St Lawrence students as all being part of the 1% because we CLEARLY are not.

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