By MARK OPPENHEIMER
New York Times
The old leftist dream was for everyone to abandon regional and ethnic allegiances to play for a common team, the working class. But as anyone attending a demonstration knows, many activists demand to be counted as representatives of smaller groups: home teams.
At Occupy Wall Street and the allied events, there are police officers in the symbolic 99 percent, wearing uniforms. There are self-proclaimed mothers in the 99 percent. There are Marines. There are Muslims and Jews, yoginis and puppeteers. Sometimes they proclaim their tribes on signs in protest-movement Magic Marker; other times their meaningful headgear speaks loud enough: firefighter’s hat, bus driver’s cap, yarmulke.
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