excerpts from “Occupy Wall Street: The Most Important Thing in the World Now.”

“If there is one thing I know, it is that the one percent loves a crisis. When people are panicked and desperate and no one seems to know what to do, that is the ideal time to push through their wish list of pro-corporate policies: privatizing education and social security, slashing public services, getting rid of the last constraints on corporate power. Amidst the economic crisis, this is happening the world over.

“And there is only one thing that can block this tactic, and fortunately, it’s a very big thing: the 99 percent. And that 99 percent is taking to the streets from Madison to Madrid to say ‘No. We will not pay for your crisis.’

“That slogan began in Italy in 2008. It ricocheted to Greece and France and Ireland and finally it has made its way to the square mile where the crisis began.

“’Why are they protesting?’ ask the baffled pundits on TV. Meanwhile, the rest of the world asks: ‘What took you so long?’ ‘We’ve been wondering when you were going to show up.’ And most of all: ‘Welcome.'”

Naomi Klein

Author of  The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism