Pyongyang, October 18 (KCNA) -- The working masses' struggle against capitalism was staged all at once across the world on Oct. 15 and 16. This was the biggest organized one ever in history of capitalism spanning more than 300 years.
Taking part in it were millions of people from all walks of life in more than 1 500 cities in 80 odd countries.
This struggle was erupted at Wall Street in Manhattan of New York in the United States, the heart of the capitalist economy and a synonym for monopolistic capital on Sept. 17. Under the slogan of "Occupy Wall Street!" dozens of protestors set up tents outside a stock exchange in New York to go into an action of protest. This turned in a twinkle to a chain movement across the U.S. including Washington, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The Occupy Wall St movement was an eruption of the exploited classes' pent-up wrath at the exploiters. It was also an expression of the will to remove the stronghold of capitalism as a whole which brings only exploitation, oppression, unemployment and poverty to the popular masses. In San Diego, California, a man in his forties jumped down from a high-rise building to death to protest against the corrupt society where the rich get ever richer and the poor get ever poorer.
Young Americans formed a mainstream of the ranks of demonstrators at first. But they were joined by people from all walks of life who varied in their ages including day laborers, poor and unemployed Americans as well as employees of companies and housewives.
Their actions included marches, sit-in strikes, occupation of bridges and various other forms of protests and non-stop protests at night.
The protesters are now expanding their ranks after setting forth such slogans clearer in nature as "equality, democracy and revolution".
Ruling quarters in the U.S. are crying in distress that the "class struggle has been launched." The authorities have arrested and cracked down upon the demonstrators with mobilization of huge armed police to soothe over the class contradiction but failed to check the spread of the struggle.
The U.S. chief executive formally recognized that this is a manifestation of feeling of frustration toward the U.S. society.
The American protestors set October 15 as "day of international movement", calling on the working people the world over to respond to it.
In response to this call anti-capitalist demos took place all at once in Britain, Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Belgium, Australia, Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, etc. on October 15 and 16.
The protestors contended that the blame for the capitalist economic crisis is on the greedy financial capital and corrupt politicians. They demanded final end to poverty and economic inequality, chanting such slogans as "Reject capitalism!" and "Give us jobs!"
In south Korea more than 400 civic and public organizations and workers' organizations launched protest, chanting "Occupy Seoul!"
These unprecedented actions of the working masses in capitalist countries are attributable to the extremely acute socio-class contradictions created after the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2007.
Various relief measures taken by the Western countries after the financial crisis eruption were, in essence, for saving the huge monopolistic capitals on the maw of bankruptcy. Those steps deepened concentration of capital only on big monopolistic enterprises while bringing the popular masses' life to worse phase.
Suffering biggest are working masses laid off due to the wholesale dismissal measure taken by the business side to make up for the loss.
401 000 people were registered as unemployed in the U.S. for first one week in October. The number of the unemployed reached 22 785 000 in EU countries in August.
The unemployment is bound to lead to the increase of the poor.
The number of people under poverty stood at 46.2 million last year, an increase of 2.6 million from the year before. The income of the U.S. families showed nearly 10 % decrease for the past four years. Economists estimate that the living conditions of Americans are the worst in scores of years and the economic slowdown has not stopped yet.
About 80 million people are living under the poverty line in EU countries.
Economist Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winner, voicing his support for the protest sweeping the capitalist world, clarified that the society is covering the losses caused by the avarice of financial capitalists while a few bankers are raking in the profits. -0-
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