Even the much ballyhooed bias in favor of productive capital (“actually making something”) over finance capital (“making money off of having money”) could have its uses. Frank is absolutely right that this misunderstands the nature of finance under capitalism. But there is also a valid insight here: under late neoliberal conditions, finance has become completely dysfunctional and actually is mainly making money off of money – that is, speculation – rather than coordinating the distribution of capital among producers (I made the argument in detail here). To address the crisis, the excesses of finance will have to be choked off – preferably, I think, by nationalizing the banks – and the anti-finance sentiment of the occupations could be a powerful force helping to achieve this.
Hurling critiques at the protesters, most of which they don’t even have the theoretical background to understand (abstract labor, eg, is a non-starter), is not a productive political response to the possibilities presented by Occupy Wall Street. If the occupations actually do amount to something, there’s still plenty of time to raise awareness within the movement of the complex nature of the crisis. But there’s a long way to go and many battles to be won before that will even become an issue. We have to work with the forces that are available, and I think Occupy Wall Street gives us something that, for the first time in the crisis, we can work with.
[see article for links: http://permanentcrisis.blogspot.com/2011/10/is-occupy-wall-street-progressive.html ]