To casual observers, it would appear as if the Occupy movement faded
away this winter almost as suddenly as it burst onto the scene in
September. With most of its encampments swept aside with the last of
autumn's dead leaves, Occupy has little steady physical presence.
There are no mass marches disrupting traffic, few rousing speeches
from the human microphone, no late-night drum circle to annoy the
neighbors. At Occupy Wall Street, the movement's first spark,
activists report that they'll likely be out of money by the end of
March. And the mainstream media, both less charmed and less horrified
by Occupy's existence, have devoted less airtime to it, focusing
instead on the latest inane comment to emerge from the GOP primary.
About the Author
Richard Kim
Richard Kim is the executive editor of TheNation.com. He is co-editor,
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all winter landscapes, this surface stillness conceals something more
complicated. In people's living rooms, in donated office spaces and in
indoor parks, Occupy's working groups are as busy as they were in the
fall. Occupy Our Homes has resisted foreclosures and evictions in
dozens of cities across the country. Occupy the SEC filed a public
comment on the Volcker Rule urging regulators to strengthen this
aspect of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act. Other groups have
been hard at work on issues ranging from student debt to alternative
banking to worker-owned cooperatives. Meanwhile, protests—against
police brutality; against corporations like Bank of America, Pfizer
and Walmart; against budget cuts; and against institutions like the
Whitney Museum—have continued at an almost frenetic pace. Organizers
have also been using the winter to incubate grander plans, among them
a May 1 Day of Action that may turn into a call for a nationwide
general strike and proposals to occupy corporate shareholder meetings,
the NATO summit in Chicago, and the Democratic and Republican
conventions at the end of the summer.
There's no question that Occupy will be back this spring—it never
really went away. But what will this second stage look like? Will it
continue to function largely as a set of loosely connected,
issue-based campaigns? Or will it retake public space and re-establish
physical encampments and general assemblies as the heart of the
movement? How much attention will it pay to the upcoming elections? Is
Occupy's chief value as a branding device to focus the attention of
the 99 percent on the issue of inequality? Or is it the leading edge
of what will become a more radically anti-capitalist revolution?
Nobody knows the answers to these questions, and all paths forward
come with pitfalls. Obsessing about public space and protests risks
turning the movement into one long street battle with cops. But
continuing to organize primarily within working groups may lead the
movement to degrade into its component parts, reduplicating the left
we already know. And of course, Occupy picked a fight with the biggest
bully in the world—corporate America—and you can bet the bully hasn't
spent the winter in hibernation.
But rather than dwell on the danger, we asked eleven Occupy observers
to focus on the possible, to speculate about what comes next for
Occupy with the same vista-opening spirit that animated the fall.
Their responses follow.
IN THIS FORUM
Michael Moore: "The Purpose of Occupy Wall Street Is to Occupy Wall Street"
Ilyse Hogue: "Occupy is Dead! Long Live Occupy!"
Bill Fletcher Jr.: "Occupy the Imagination"
Marina Sitrin: "Occupy: This Is What Democracy Looks Like"
Todd Gitlin: "More Than a Protest Movement"
Frances Fox Piven: "Occupy! and Make Them Do It"
Stephen Lerner: "Horizontal Meets Vertical; Occupy Meets Establishment"
Jeremy Brecher: "Occupy Climate Change"
Jonathan Schell: "If Vaclav Havel Met Occupy's Human Mic..."
Arun Gupta and Michelle Fawcett: "Occupying the Unexpected"
Links and more here:
http://www.thenation.com/article/166828/occupy-spring
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
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