"Wall Street elites funding US-led wars": PressTV interviews Caleb Maupin

Click Here for Video

A political analyst says Wall Street elites are major initiator of US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and financially supporting the occupying regime of Israel.


Press TV has conducted an interview with Caleb Maupin from International Action Center to further discuss the US occupy movement.

The following is a rush transcription of the interview:

Press TV: Caleb Maupin, we have seen now Police brutality accruing in Berkeley, clashes there resulting in many arrests, and then the deaths of two people.

What do you think this turn of events means for the protest movement, in particular the way the police have handled it which has been cited with violence?

Maupin: Well, these accusations that are being made by the powers that be that Occupy Wall Street is violent, need to be taken in context, because the Occupy Wall Street movement is not the source of violence in this world.

The biggest occupiers in this world are the Wall Street class of bankers. They are occupying Iraq and Afghanistan; they give 18 million dollars every day to Israel to occupy Palestine. There are many people in the US, people of color who they feel their communities are being occupied, as violent police brutality goes on every day.

These are the occupiers; these are the source of violence. And it does not surprise me one bit that the ruling class who has been happy to bomb NATO, happy to threaten war against Iran, it does not surprise me that they would be threatening and they doing this kind of horrific violence against people who demonstrate against them.

They are motivated by profits. And people are standing up and saying they do not want to be sacrificed for the bankers' greed. So they are going to come down and they are going to attack because of they are the vicious banker class they are.

Press TV: Let me turn our attention to another point here Caleb Maupin, that is on something that I wasn't aware of, maybe you could shed light on it. Since we started talking about unemployment in the United States, when it reached peak levels months ago at 35 million, the figure is now up towards 45 to 50 million people in the United States, Americans who are on food stamps.

And it's come to my attention that actually the food stamps are now used by debit cards, debit cards that are issued by JP Morgan, of which JP Morgan, whether those food stamps are used or not makes the profit out of that. Isn't there something fundamentally wrong in that?

Maupin: What we are seeing now more than anything is we are seeing capitalism at a dead end, the system where profit comes before people. It is continuing the go on, and millions and millions of people have been cast a side, by this system as useless.

They've been- This system, you know, you can only survive under capitalism if you sell your labor to a boss, to a capitalist. And right now, the capitalist system through, trying to make profits, by doing everything they can- number one to produce as much as possible, and number two to hire as few people as possible, and pay them as little as they possibly can- has created a situation where people can't buy back these products they're producing, and it has been glutted with unemployment.

And they've come up with all kinds of schemes to try and save a naturally unstable system that is what we are seeing right now. JP Morgan Chase, Wall Street, they are trying to maintain their power amid a system that cannot continue to go on and that's why these uprisings continue as people see that in this situation where so much suffering is going on, JP Morgan's doing fine, the bankers are doing fine, the food stamps are being cut off, and profits keep flowing into the hands of the rich, while so much suffering continues.

They are doing everything they can to shut down this movement but this movement is a result of the crisis people are facing, and the only thing that is going to stop the suffering people face is going to be when people stand up and eventually take control of the banks and the factories and we don't have this profit run system any longer.

Press TV: Caleb Maupin, we had [another speaker on the show] Paul Street talk about the number of Americans that are at or below the poverty line, on the flip side of the coin, within the Senate Democrats, the majority party, they posses about 80% of the wealth, Republicans 78% percent.

I'm sure you know this perhaps. I didn't know it's to this extent. Doesn't this need to change some how? How can these people be sympathetic lawmakers to the 99% when they are this rich themselves? Something in that configuration needs to change, don't you think?

Maupin: Congress is just a cast of hired actors, hired by the one percent to trick us into thinking we actually have power in this country. Power lies with the bankers who own and operate the banks and the factories.

And what is so glorious about this moment is that the trick has been exposed. People are out on the streets in huge numbers, and they realize that this game they have been playing for so long of walking into the ballot box and voting for a Democrats or a Republican and thinking that is going to win them a better future, is a fixed game and they are done playing it.

And now they are voting with their feet, they are voting by occupying and taking over squares, taking over any place and they are saying they are going to continue to fight and we are not going to allow business as usual to continue, until we get the justice that we have been wanting for so long.

This is the richest- we have the richest ruling class in this country of any country in the world, yet all the money that could be used to help people goes to bomb people in other countries, goes to fund wars, goes to just lie in the pockets of the rich.

Now, people are in a fighting mood for once and it's a fighting mood that is going to keep going, because it is the only thing that's ever made a difference. Social security, all these programs they're now talking about cutting are won on the streets, things like the Flint sit down strike, you know.

These were the victories that won changes that we won in the past and we are reviving the forgotten traditions of fighting for our class, not phony patriotism, not saying my country is better that your country, but saying we are workers and we are going to stand up to these corporations and bankers and we are going to fight for our class.

The class struggle that is the glorious tradition that has been forgotten and it is being revived stronger every day.