Demonstrators affected by adverse US government policies against essential services have camped out near Wall Street for three days.
Press TV talks with Anna Lekas Miller, journalist and activist in New York about the demands of the protest. Following is a transcript of the interview.
Press TV: You were out on the streets in New York - What is the latest on the atmosphere you found and what you see as the main demands of those people demonstrating?
Anna Lekas Miller: I think the media has been very critical of the protesters for not having demands. I believe that protests happen when people really feel that they have nothing to lose and it's not necessary that there is a concrete set of agenda or set of demands or list of issues that we're facing, but we are looking for things like the end of corporate takeover of politics, which has had so many social effects that we're all feeling.
The end of predatory loans, which has had a huge effect on the student debt crisis and the mortgage crisis in America and these are very concrete things that we have felt and you see the protesters who have taken what is now liberty plaza and they are really the face of the social ramifications of corporate greed in America.
Press TV: How likely is this occupation of Wall Street to continue and actually become more focused perhaps focusing on one individual or one entity or aspect of the many grievances that a lot of the demonstrators may have?
Anna Lekas Miller: I think that occupied Wall Street is something we're figuring out as we go, as happens with so many regime changes and revolutions. I believe there is a point with needing to find more focus, but I believe there is a fine line between too much focus and really realizing all of our demands.
I think it is something that will happen gradually and that it is important to have one big point of focus after another and keep having those successes as we see in the Middle East right now. The protests in Tunisia and Egypt didn't end when Ben Ali fled and when Mubarak fled, but it keeps continuing - they're organizing, protesting and demonstrating as they work out each demand and realizing it as it comes and I hope that happens here.
Press TV: Do you think that you can get the changes you are seeking through the political process?
Anna Lekas Miller: No. I don't think that we can. I think there was a time that you could -- speaking of FDR (President Roosevelt) -- but right now you can't because there has been a corporate takeover of politics.
You have something called ALEC - the American Legislative Exchange Council - where corporations literally will pay huge sums of money to get together with politicians, draft model legislation that is, then put across the US through state legislation, which is easier to pass than federal legislation.
You see many right wing-type things that include the lack of regulation of labor; union busting bills; the lack of regulation of environmental productions; many other things that make it much easier for corporations to turn profits, which they then proceed to use for their own good rather than the greater good because they're not paying taxes.
So many such as GE and Bank of America are paying taxes to the federal government, which is then in turn not going to fund our social safety net and then we're getting benefits slashed right and left - Medicare, Medicade have been on the budget table with the threat of no longer servicing Americans. And that's why people are in the streets now.
Corporations run America not politicians. Politicians are the puppets of corporations.
Press TV: From what you've just said, do you think the average person on the street participating in this sit in on wall Street - do you think they feel the same way, do they have the understanding, according to what you are saying, of what is going on in the US basically that perhaps they have not defined the main problems? Or do you think they have a very good grip on what's going on?
Anna Lekas Miller: I think many of them have a grip politically of what's going on in terms of the interactions between corporations and politicians. I think the vast majority has simply felt the effects themselves and that's what is pushing them into the streets.
