When her President Barak Obama seeks re-election in November this year he may find an opponent nominated by a movement called “we are the 99 per cent.”

The Presidential candidate or candidates of the ‘we are the 99 per cent movement’ would be defeated without any doubt. But the movement with a deep commitment to left-wing policies is definitely going to grow in strength and pose a great challenge to the corrupt nexuses of politicians, businessmen and bank and insurance people across the world. The movement opposes free-market capitalism and supports radical redistribution of wealth, and intense regulation for the private sector.

“We are suffering and getting nothing, while the other one per cent is getting everything. We are the 99 per cent.” This is the most common quote from the supporters of the movement across the globe.

Observers, who are following the movement, feel that the concept is spreading fast everywhere where the Governments, financial institutions and businessmen have conspired to indulge in corruption in the name of reforms to strengthen market economy. “The common people are victims of corruption and ruthless reforms. No one can create or sustain a movement if the basis is not there,” they said.

“They are the one per cent. They are the banks, the mortgage industry and the insurance industry. They connived with the businessmen and the politicians and indulge in corruption. They are the important ones. They need help and get bailed out and are praised as job creators. We need help and get nothing. We live in a society made for them, not for us. It’s their world, not ours,” that is the feeling of the most of the common people in capitalist world.

“America and western Europe have been in the grip of accelerating inequality for decades. Politicians have been supporting policies that benefit the few at the expense of everyone else. You may call it trickle-down economics, free market fundamentalism or crony capitalism. But the root of the idea is that if you take care of the people at the very top, everyone benefits. This idea and its roots need to be changed,” a senior Marxist leader observed.

“We reject this idea of taking care of the people at the very top. We are the 99 per cent. And we will no longer be silent.” The movement started with these kinds of slogans and grew in strength.

In Rome, the protests turned violent, but they were mostly peaceful throughout the world. Thousands of people marched in cities across several continents, including Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Toronto, Chicago and Los Angeles. In England, the Government employees participated in a nation-wide strike foregoing a day’s salary. “We preferred to forego a day’s salary because we don’t want to suffer because of bank’s fault,” a school teacher from England said.

Observers felt that increasing numbers of social groups from across the globe had been supporting the movement because of the long-term deterioration in people’s living standards, an acceleration of job layoffs and increased poverty since the bank crash of 2008. 

“The mass support for the Occupy protests is not going to fade away, since a much greater banking crisis is on the horizon. Bank failures in Europe and the euro’s convulsions threaten to hit the entire world. What is even more unfortunate is that the wealthiest one per cent of the planet’s citizens has delinked from the rest of humanity in terms of wealth, opportunity, life expectancy, and quality of life,” they pointed out.

The Marxist leader said there had always been economic inequality in the world. But the period of extreme inequality started since the late 1970s with the rules of the economy being changed to benefit asset owners at the expense of wage earners. “These rule changes have benefited global corporations at the expense of local businesses and there has been a triumph of capital and a betrayal of work,” he observed.

He emphasized the need for change in rules and policies to lift the floor, level the playing field and break up the overconcentration of wealth and unbridled corporate power. “Such rules and policies should lift the poor, reduce poverty and establish a fundamental minimum standard that no one will fall below,” he said.

These rules and policies should ensure a minimum living wage,universal health care and basic labour standards and protections. Those should also ensure more investment in education, reduce the influence of money in politics, besides Fair trade rules, elimination of advantages for one per cent global companies over 99 percent domestic businesses, he pointed out.

“Without a bold program to address the concentration of wealth and corporate power, efforts to raise the floor and level the playing field will not be sufficient to reverse a generation of inequality,” he asserted.

He said phenomena such as globalization, the concentration of capital, the exploitation of labour under the guise of modern technology were not only predicted by Marx but explained scientifically long ago.

“There is a world to win. A world freed from poverty, disease, hunger, illiteracy and despair. A world where the true potential of humanity is released and can flourish. That is the greatest end to which anyone can aspire. Marxism is a science and one needs a scientific method to understand the problems of the modern world,” he observed.

Marx died 120 years ago. But his ideas continue to live on to educate and inspire a new generation of class fighters all over the world.