Occupy Marin Draws 150 protesters in San Rafael

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Economic crisis like Great Depression, professor tells San Rafael protesters
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A noted economist compared the country's current economic woes to the Great Depression before a crowd of 150 protesters Saturday at the San Rafael City Plaza.

The gathering was the latest in the Occupy Marin movement, in which mostly members of MoveOn.org's Marin chapter have rallied on weekends in downtown San Rafael to support the "99 percent."

Saturday's protest featured an address by economics professor Richard Wolff, whose latest book is "Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It."

Wolff likened the economic crisis that began with a bank crash in 2008 to the Great Depression and outlined the history and coalitions formed that led to the New Deal. Pressure then was from working people and the unions, said Wolff, and he drew a comparison to the Occupy movement and the way it has shed light on the power of corporations and their sway over the economy.

"Public opinion polls consistently show majorities of Americans in sympathy with the Occupy Wall Street movement and its basic goals of correcting the inequalities of wealth, income and power in our society," says Wolff, who taught economics at the University of Massachusetts from 1973 to 2008. "Yet capitalism's distribution of wealth empowered the 1 percent to overrule those majorities. The solution for this denial of democracy is to Occupy the Corporation."

He says that with enough information and awareness, the middle and working classes can solve the major social problems they currently face.

Wolff is in the Bay Area to present a lecture Thursday in Berkeley. The Community Media Center of Marin will have a video of the talk on it's website, and it will be shown on Channel 26.

Occupy Marin has been demonstrating regularly since early in the fall. Other local Occupy groups have expanded to Fairfax, West Marin and College of Marin.