Video- American Awakening

US police have cracked down on anti-corporate protesters who camped out in Oakland, California and arrested dozens while clearing out their camp site in front of the City Hall.

Some 500 police officers in riot gear were sent in to close off streets leading to the Oakland site and dismantle the camp.

Nearly 150 tents had been set up on the location during the past two weeks as protest rallies spread across the country.

The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests over poverty, high unemployment and economic inequality spread from a single camp in New York City on September 17 to dozens of cities across the US and beyond.

Press TV has interviewed with Paul Sheldon Foote, professor at California State University, to share his opinion on this issue.

Press TV: Police arrested 175 people in Chicago the other day and at least 75 now in Oakland, California Tuesday. Now hundreds of police officers clad in riot helmets and armed with flash grenades and rubber bullets, we are hearing were involved in this. So it does seem like police have decided to step up their crackdown, would you agree?

Foote: Yes and I am particularly amazed that the city have opened. Oakland California is one of the most left-wing cities in America both in terms of political leaders and in terms of protesters and for left-wing politicians to do surprise raids on tents 4:30 in the morning after the mayor recently said democracy is messy and indicating that he is going to allow is a real reversal and if it is happening there it will be interesting to see what happens in other places that do not have this extreme left-wing politics.

Press TV: The Occupy Wall Street protest movement is now spread across the US as we said it is also going beyond the US borders. We are hearing of course of support movements taking place in Britain and other European countries. Now with the tactic that the government has currently taken, is this going to do anything to prevent this spreading from happening?

Foote: Well the international dynamics are totally different and I am sure that the people in much of the world who are joining in this are delighted to see that it is time that America got its taste of stirred up trouble. America has been very successful in stirring up trouble around the world, payback is good time.

So their motives are different. In America it is a different issue, where left-wingers are trying to do a left-wing Tea Party to help put democrats in power like the Tea Party put republicans in power.

The only problem they have is their whole thing is based on a big lie. Wall Street is a major contributor and continues to be a major contributor to Obama. The Communist Party USA has already endorsed Obama the next time while at the same time they stage these demonstrations. I am going to sit back and watch the left-wings try to avoid exposing their lies in all of this.

Press TV: And as he says since elections are also near in the United States it does rather highlight how the current administration, how republicans and democrats are dealing with these protests and the stances that they are taking towards these protests.

Now do you think that the protest movement in view of this election ahead is going to be successful in bringing about some of its demands at least from the side of the government when it is trying to soften their stance?

Foote: Oh, yes. The Tea Party folks and the right are very successful in putting some of their people in and forcing republicans to start addressing some of their issues. I have no reason to doubt it.
The people on the left can do the same thing and probably even more successful considering how dishonest Obama was.

Obama ran as anti-war progressive candidate for example and he turned out to start a new war in Libya and he has become a massive war monger. He has done nothing about bringing all the troops home and closing military bases as his own deficit commission recommended. People on the left who are truly progressive and truly anti war have something to complain about with him in the other false democrats so I hope they do expose the lies of the current political leaders.