Picture copyright Euronews.com
PATRICK SMYTH
WORLDVIEW: WHEN RADICAL sociologist Naomi Klein addressed the Occupy Wall Street camp in Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan last week, she echoed in a rhetorical question what many have asked of Ireland's passivity in the face of the recent economic crisis. The baffled TV pundits ask why they are protesting, she said. “Meanwhile, the rest of the world asks: ‘What took you so long?'”
Now the tented camps, inspired by movements in places like Argentina, Egypt's Tahrir Square, Madrid's Puerta del Sol, and Athens, have sprung up in public spaces in as many as 1,000 cities around the world, including Dublin . The young self-described “99 percenters” are protesting mainly against the banks and the financial system, which they hold responsible for the crisis; against poverty and inequality; and against the powerlessness felt by the majority of society.