Steve Aoki Joins OWS Video
LA superstar DJ Steve Aoki has made a cameo appearance in Atari Teenage Riot’s new video, Black Flag, in which fans are invited to show their support for the Occupy Wall Street protests by waving black flags.
His brave decision to join the fast growing protests came despite his own massive commercial success as a DJ and even more privileged background growing up as the son of self-made multi-millionaire Rocky Aoki, a former wrestler who founded the uber-expensive Benihama restaurant chain.
Steve Aoki’s status as one of America’s 1% elite contrasted markedly with the circumstances of those posting their details on WeArethe99percent, a fast growing blog on which hundreds of Americans are posing with placards detailing their plights.
We Are the 99%: click for more
“We are the 99 percent,” the site’s statement of intent declares, “We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we’re working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.”
Brought to you by the people who occupy Wall Street. Why will YOU occupy?”
The political philosopher who developed many of the key ideas behind the protests, US historian Howard Zinn, sadly died in January 2010, 30 years after he outlined his manifesto in ‘A People’s History of the United States’ a seminal textbook on US history written from the perspective on ordinary people instead of leaders.
A People's History: click on the picture to read in full
“One percent of the nation owns a third of the wealth. The rest of the wealth is distributed in such a way as to turn those in the 99 percent against one another: small property owners against the propertyless, black against white, native-born against foreign-born, intellectuals and professionals against the uneducated and unskilled,” the self declared ‘quiet revolutionary’ wrote.
“These groups have resented one another and warred against one another with such vehemence and violence as to obscure their common position as sharers of leftovers in a very wealthy country.
Against the reality of that desperate, bitter battle for resources made scarce by elite control, I am taking the liberty of uniting those 99 percent as “the people”, he added.
http://bit.ly/aNLyJl (Howard Zinn, “If those in charge of our society – politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television – can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves . . .”)
Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff
