Portside

' In the post-war economic boom years, prosperity and the giving hand of social welfare went a long way to closing the gap between rich and poor in Western democracies. But since the 1970s - or the 1980s at the latest - the gulf has been widening again. That doesn't mean the societies in question are home to rampant poverty, but that many people - those with minimum qualifications and training, and who often work in the service industry with no job security - are running on the spot. And as they run, others, such as academics and the self-employed are striding ahead, and incomes and fortunes at the very top of society reach unimaginable proportions.

'If one were to imagine the social structure of a society as a pyramid, it would be like watching the tip grow ever higher. The Occupy movement fights against this small minority at the very pinnacle of society; against the 1 percent that has cut free from the other 99 percent, yet which still rules over its fortunes.

'It is not only a matter of social inequality and justice, but of power and political dominance. That the Occupy movement bangs its drum in the name of democracy is no coincidence, for democracy means equality, equal rights and influence. An elite leadership will undermine the credibility of democratic institutions, including elections and parliament, if the global dominance of the very capital that politicians push about at will has not already done so.'

Paul Nolte,  professor of history
at the Free University of Berlin