Opinion

Occupying Wall Street and other city spaces for a month by assortments of individuals commanded broad attention and galvanized widespread apathy into action. The suppressed subtext of discontent with the exercise of economic power and its grave consequences suddenly became the text of prime time news. Although various groups such as UK/US/Uncut had spotlighted corporate conniving and tax evasion, they gained little traction among natural allies or consumers of news media because their actions were not well covered.

Video of Boston police arresting #OccupyBoston protestors at their second camp yesterday early morning.

IBEW Local 2222 members voted at their monthly meeting on Oct. 5 to support the occupations opposed to corporate greed in New York and Boston's financial districts.

Labor support for the occupations has been growing. On Oct. 4, the Greater Boston Labor Council passed a strong resolution in support of Occupy Boston. On Oct. 5, the Massachusetts Nurses Association rallied with occupation activists in downtown Boston while a large number of New York union members marched to join with the Wall Street occupation.

Unions and their allies across the country delayed cookouts and bargain shopping, at least for a few hours this Labor Day, to hold rallies promoting organized labor and workplace democracy, and call on elected representatives to support prosperity building measures rather than cuts to the social safety net.