Occupy Wall Street is going international and in more than 82 countries the message is clear: end the Neoliberalism that has allowed the top 1% of wealth to rob from the other 99% of people. The goal of Occupy Wall Street is to achieve a new era of democracy with shared economic prosperity, dignity, respect, and mutual aid across the globe. More specifically, Occupy Wall Street wants to clean up the system that makes us give up on fighting corruption and greed in the world’s finance system. It wants responsible CEOs of corporations to create jobs apart from boardroom greed, it wants government officials to quit being bought by special interst groups, and it wants to restore the quality of life for the middle class working people, among their other political and social objectives.
History was made on September 17, 2011 when Occupy Wall Street began as a peaceful protest in New York City’s Bowling Green Park. Mainstream media brushed it off as a leaderless political movement with no clear purpose amidst a presidential election campaign. Unlike the People’s Songs of post-war America in 1946, founded by among others, Woody Guthrie and Pete Segger, Occupy Wall Street gained worldwide momentum through the power of social media.
The People’s Songs and SingOut! movements of the 1940’s and 1950’s deserve honorable mention as the world embraces the Occupy Wall Street global financial revolution. People’s Songs and SingOut! brought musicians with a social and political cause to the protest lines and to international audiences through Bulletins, essays, book reviews, letters to the editors, magazines, and live music performances. During its four year publication period from 1946 to 1949, the People’s Songs Bulletin included more than 300 protest songs used by labor organizations, including 17 from Woody Guthrie alone.
While today’s social media networking capabilities could not save the People’s Songs effort of the 1940’s, the era of People’s Songs and SingOut! brought us a collection of some of the most classic social protest songs ever written.
Occupy Wall Street Theme Song Playlist
Wall Street Shuffle by 10cc
Gonna Get Through This World by Woody Guthrie
Running the World by Jarvis Cocker
Silas Stingy by The Who
Refugee by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Brother Can You Spare A Dime by Bing Crosby
Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash
Taxman by The Beatles
Trouble Every Day by The Mothers of Invention
Sixteen Tons by Merle Travis
Money to Blow by Birdman
How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live by Blind Alfred Reed
Ghost Town by The Specials
Aint No Rest for the Wicked by Cage the Elephant
We Can’t Make It Here Anymore by James McMurtry
This Land Is Your Land by Woody Guthrie
The River by Bruce Springsteen
Money’s Too Tight to Mention by Simply Red
Money, Money, Money by ABBA
Young Man Blues by The Who
Never Enough by LA Guns
Photo Source:
Public Domain Occupy Wall Street web site