6 thoughts on “You can help OWS”

  1. I’m part of the 99%. Where am I going to get disposable income to send free goods to a bunch of people camping in the city? And you want me to buy this stuff off amazon? Why, so the 1% is certain to get their cut?

  3. Unconstructiveness aside, Crude’s comment at least contains a seed or two – or points us in the direction – of something substantive. First, the notion of supporting OWS by using large corporations to send goods that could only be produced by other corporations hints at an irony that may be more than superficial – inevitably someone will object that OWS is not anti-corporation but anti-corporate crime, but people who live in cities with an OWS presence could be forgiven for questioning the effectiveness with which this important distinction (or any other distinction) has been imparted to the rank-and-file. (I can confidently state that it’s not a distinction that will be drawn by some of the protesters who will wear the winter coats you charitably buy from Amazon.com, although that doesn’t devalue the charitable act in itself.) Second, for those who have observed privately or publicly that a free-lunch ethic appears to prevail among many of those rank-and-file, this is likely to reinforce that perception.

  4. yes, and someone will inevitably object that OWS is organized using social media sites like facebook that make a ton of money and are evil corporations, but what. ever. the ethics/politics of purity are purely destructive, there are ways to donate that don’t involve amazon, and not everyone must donate. democracy! awesome.

  5. SK, I agree. Perhaps we could send them honest, plain pasta from struggling business in the area, but what if the pasta they use is imported? Omigod. And anyway, there they are protesting and so not supporting themselves with wage paying labor.

    Perhaps what we should try to do is to convince wealthy spouses that protesting is a really good workout, and shouting exercises face muscles in a way that reduces one’s use of botox. Then the 99% could go work in the fields and the supported members of the one percent could have exercise classes in the park to the tune of historically valid protest songs. And everything would look much the same, except there’s be less need for immigrant labor. O joy!

  6. Also, while we are on the subject of donating emergency cold weather supplies (whether in the New York area or elsewhere), please remember that this is also an urgent time for such donations for many local shelters and so forth, especially with winter coming early as it seems to have done in the northeast US. (A quick Google search should turn up the donation information.) So please bear those organizations in mind as well! Many of them depend entirely or chiefly on donations.

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