As Occupy protests against inequality and corporate greed continue across the United States and around the world, we’re joined by Michael Moore, Academy Award-winning filmmaker and activist, and Princeton University Professor Cornel West. “We expect [President Obama] to do the work of the people,” M…
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Please do your part today.DonateRelatedTopicsGuestsLinksTranscriptTopicsOccupy Wall StreetBarack ObamaMichael MooreStop-and-FriskGuestsMichael MooreAcademy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and activist. His new book is a memoir titled Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life.Cornel WestPrinceton University professor.LinksSee Democracy Now!’s Archive of Video Reports on Occupy Wall Street and the Global Occupy Movement Michael Moore’s Official WebsiteCornel West’s Official WebsiteThis is viewer supported news. Please do your part today.DonateAs Occupy protests against inequality and corporate greed continue across the United States and around the world, we’re joined by Michael Moore, Academy Award-winning filmmaker and activist, and Princeton University Professor Cornel West. “We expect [President Obama] to do the work of the people,” Moore says. “The people are not going to go away. So he can either go down as a historic president, who become the FDR of this century, or he can be remembered as the man who was in the pocket of Goldman Sachs.” West added, “What we’re trying to do is connect what’s going on on Wall Street with what’s going on in Harlem… If in fact we continue to have this kind of magnificent movement here and around the world, we want to be able to connect the corporate greed not just on Wall Street, but in the military-industrial complex, the prison-industrial complex, and the corporate-media multiplex.” [includes rush transcript]This is viewer supported news. Please do your part today.DonateRelated Story StoryNov 25, 2011Occupy Everywhere: Michael Moore, Naomi Klein on Next Steps for the Movement Against Corporate PowerTopicsOccupy Wall StreetBarack ObamaMichael MooreStop-and-FriskGuestsMichael MooreAcademy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and activist. His new book is a memoir titled Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life.Cornel WestPrinceton University professor.LinksSee Democracy Now!’s Archive of Video Reports on Occupy Wall Street and the Global Occupy Movement Michael Moore’s Official WebsiteCornel West’s Official WebsiteTranscriptThis is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.AMY GOODMAN: Occupy protests against inequality and corporate greed continue across the country and across the world. Just this morning, the Portland Press Herald reported police are looking for the person who threw a chemical bomb at the Occupy Maine encampment in Portland. Police responded to a call around 4:00 a.m. this morning and found a homemade bomb, which consisted of chemicals poured into a plastic Gatorade container. Police say the chemicals could have caused serious injury. Meanwhile, on Sunday, police arrested about 130 protesters at the Occupy Chicago protest. This is the second mass arrest of Occupy Chicago demonstrators in the past week. About 175 protesters were arrested a week ago. According to the Occupy movement, there have been more than 2,300 arrests in the past six weeks. In London Sunday, the city’s historic St. Paul’s Cathedral had to close its doors to thousands of Sunday worshippers because of protesters taking part in the Occupy London campaign outside the building. One of the protesters said that politics no longer made change possible. OCCUPY LONDON PROTESTER: There is a political vacuum in the country at the moment. It doesn’t matter who you vote for, doesn’t matter what party gets in. The essential decisions are made, and what’s decided really is the same, no matter if it’s Labour or left, right, middle. You know, it’s all just middle now. So when there is no real choice there, because everything is the same, the people, I believe, feel like their voice has been taken away. And when you’re in a situation where your voice has been taken away, you have to make your voice AMY GOODMAN: As the Occupy protests continue to spread overseas, the China Digital Times confirms that a list of search terms have been banned that combine “Occupy” with a location inside China. All but two provincial capitals are on the list. To talk about more about Occupy Wall Street, in a moment we’re going to be joined by Princeton Professor Cornel West. But right now, Michael Moore is with us, Academy Award-winning filmmaker and activist, who’s been down to Zucotti Park, spoken to Occupy Wall Street protesters there. His new book is called Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life. Michael Moore was supposed to be doing an interview on CNBC today, but yesterday he tweeted this, quote: “I was to appear live Mon on CNBC @ 11am on Wall St. in front of the NYSE. I’ve just been told the NYSE will not allow this. On a public st.” Well, now he’s told them he will show up anyway. Michael Moore, welcome to Democracy Now! MICHAEL MOORE: Thank you, Amy. They’ve—CNBC has just called to say that—to try to work out a compromise: “Could we do it just maybe two blocks away?” AMY GOODMAN: You mean, right in the middle of the Occupy Wall Street encampment? MICHAEL MOORE: No, of course, they’ll go there, because, you know, the people will allow them there. But I don’t know what the problem is. I just said, “Look, I’ll be there. We scheduled this a week ago, and they don’t own—the New York Stock Exchange doesn’t own the streets of New York. Or supposedly they don’t.” So— AMY GOODMAN: So why do they get to say, “No, you cannot be there”? MICHAEL MOORE: I don’t know. I have no idea. I’ve no idea. This actually was a problem a few years ago when I had another interview scheduled there, and it was supposed to be at their booth that they have there inside the Stock Exchange, and the Stock Exchange would not allow me into their building, and so we had to do it out on the street in front of the Stock Exchange. Now I’m being moved off the street in front of the Stock Exchange down over to somewhere on Broadway. But, you know, in their defense, about 11 years ago, I went there with this band called Rage Against the Machine, and we did this thing there in front of the Stock Exchange. AMY GOODMAN: Well, actually, you don’t have to describe it to us— MICHAEL MOORE: Oh, oh. AMY GOODMAN: —because we have it right there— MICHAEL MOORE: Oh, OK, well— AMY GOODMAN: —this music video that you directed, which features Rage Against the Machine— MICHAEL MOORE: Right. AMY GOODMAN: —in front of the New York Stock Exchange, which is interspersed with scenes from a satiric version of the popular TV game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? You were briefly arrested during the filming of this? MICHAEL MOORE: Yes, yes. We were playing on the steps of Federal Hall across the street from the Stock Exchange where George Washington took his oath of office, and the police attempted to shut it down. And when they did, they arrested me, and the band took off and headed over—and took the crowd with them to run into the New York Stock Exchange. And the Stock Exchange shut the doors to the place. AMY GOODMAN: Well, let’s go to a moment of that music video. MICHAEL MOORE: Oh, OK. AMY GOODMAN: The song is called “Sleep Now in the Fire.” RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE: [performing “Sleep Now in the Fire”] The world is my expense The cost of my desire Jesus blessed me with its future And I protect it with fire So raise your fists And march around Just don’t take what you need I’ll jail and bury those committed And smother the rest in greed Crawl with me into tomorrow Or I’ll drag you to your grave I’m deep inside your children They’ll betray you in my name Hey, hey Sleep now in the fire Hey, hey Sleep now in the fire The lie is my expense The scope of my desire The party blessed me with its future And I protect it with fire AMY GOODMAN: That was Rage Against the Machine’s “Sleep Now in the Fire.” So you were all arrested? MICHAEL MOORE: No, only the person who was the slowest runner was arrested. That would be me. And they took me away. They took me actually inside Federal Hall and—in handcuffs, and I was able, inside the hall, to talk my way out of it and to get them to take the handcuffs off and not take me downtown. So I don’t know how that happened, because I don’t know—usually that’s not the case with the NYPD. But they, though, went across the street, like I said, with the crowd. And the Stock Exchange saw them coming, and they locked the doors automatically. And then these big steel shutter doors came down over all the doors to the Stock Exchange. And they literally, even though this was still during the trading day—I don’t know if they’ve ever actually had to shut the place down while they were in the business of capitalism there. But—so that—but this was 11 years ago, and I think they still are upset about it. AMY GOODMAN: Well, speaking of the arrests, Princeton University professor, renowned civil rights activist, Cornel West, is with us, and he was arrested on Friday afternoon here in New York during a demonstration in Harlem against racial profiling. Professor West was in New York to protest the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy, which critics say disproportionately targets blacks and Latinos especially. Reports show New York City police carried out 600,000 such searches last year, with 87 percent of the targets being black or Hispanic. This is Professor West. CORNEL WEST: We stand here in front of the police department to say, in a spirit of love, we don’t hate anybody, but we love young people of all colors. But we zero in on the black and brown who are disproportionately targeted, and we simply say, “We care for you. We’re concerned about you. And we’ll go to jail for you.” AMY GOODMAN: That was Professor West. He was then arrested. Only seven percent of stop-and-frisk searches result in arrest. Some suggest the practice does little to reduce crime, is likely unconstitutional. Professor West, arrested along with 30 other people in this protest. They locked arms in front of the NYPD’s 28th Precinct, as hundreds looked on, including a contingent of supporters from Occupy Wall Street. Professor West’s arrest in New York comes just a week after he was handcuffed on the steps of the Supreme Court, one of 19 people arrested there last Sunday during a protest against the increasing role of money in politics. There he spoke in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement. CORNEL WEST: We want to bear witness today that we know the relation between corporate greed and what goes on too often in the Supreme Court decisions. We want to send a lesson to ourselves, to our loved ones, our families, our communities, our nation and the world, that out of deep love for working and poor people, that we are willing to put whatever it takes, even if we get arrested today, and say we will not allow this day of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s memorial to go without somebody going to jail, because Martin King would be here right with us, willing to throw down out of deep love. And I want to add a special word for our brothers and sisters in the police force, because we want to let them know that we are standing with them as working people, as well. We’re here to bear witness with, to be in solidarity with the Occupy movement all around the world, because we love poor people, we love working people, and we want Martin Luther King, Jr., to smile from the grave that we haven’t forgot his movement. AMY GOODMAN: Professor West was arrested just down the road from where President Obama was dedicating the Martin Luther King Monument on the National Mall. Professor West, with Michael Moore today. Two arrests in one week—what’s happening, Professor West? CORNEL WEST: Well, let me just first say I’m blessed to be here, and congratulations on the New York Times piece. And to just be in the same room with Michael Moore, in the same country, on the same planet, is inspiring to me. The brother’s brilliance and his deep love for people just is quite—it’s just—it’s a national, international treasure. And that’s very important, because we’re right in the middle of a movement, and to see that kind of quality of sacrifice and service is a beautiful thing. It’s a sublime thing, very much so. But now, what we’re trying to do is connect what’s going on on Wall Street with what’s going on in Harlem, because if in fact we continue to have this kind of magnificent movement here and around the world, we want to be able to connect the corporate greed not just on Wall Street, but in the military-industrial complex, the prison-industrial complex, and the corporate-media multiplex, so that we have an inclusive, systemic analysis, even as we’re willing to bear witness to the love for poor and working people. AMY GOODMAN: And even as this happens, the protests here in New York, both on Wall Street and in Harlem, and all over the world, you have this announcement by President Obama that the U.S. will be pulling out of Iraq, the troops, by the end of the year. Over the weekend, I was in Louisville, Kentucky, where I spoke to demonstrators at Occupy Louisville in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement. In a moment, we’ll play some of what they had to say. But one of the people there was a vet, actually from the Persian Gulf War. His name was Bruce Smith. AMY GOODMAN: Where did you serve? BRUCE SMITH: I was—served in the Gulf War. I was in infantry, U.S. Army, Second Armored Division, First Infantry Division. Basically, we refer to it now as “Bush War One.” And it was kind of a start of all the issues that happened in Iraq, in particular. And a lot of us veterans feel that we were kind of a foil to start this entire process of the grab for the oil in the Mideast, the grab for resources, the grab for control. And we’re really disappointed with the way things have turned out. I’m disappointed that this ended with such a whimper, that the only reason we’re leaving Iraq right now is because the Iraqi parliament refused to indemnify U.S. troops from war crimes prosecution. If they had, we’d still be there for decades to come. We’re leaving because—for that reason only. So, to me, it feels that there’s been a lot of useless death and destruction, a lot of broken lives, a lot of broken soldiers coming home to a country that, you know, promised them job training, promised them—you know, promised them healthcare, promised them housing, and they’re going to come back to a different country. And I just hope that we can step up and provide them—you know, at least fulfill the promises that were made when they stepped forward. AMY GOODMAN: Gulf War vet Bruce Smith, speaking, oh, in the middle of the night on Saturday night. I was in Louisville. They were at Occupy Louisville. And we’re going to hear some more from vets and others there. But Michael Moore, you spoke out against the Iraq war, what, a few days after the war started, when you won the Academy Award for Bowling for Columbine. Let’s go back and take a listen. MICHAEL MOORE: We like nonfiction. We like nonfiction, and we live in fictitious times. We live in a time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons, whether it’s the fictition of duct tape or the fictitious of oran… truncated (18,134 more characters in archive)