Occupy Wall Street's weakness may be its strength
Non-stop organizing at Zuccotti Park. Photo by Paul Hodara
There is no identifiable leadership. There is are no stated goals. Detractors remind us of this constantly. Facts that prove the Occupy Wall Street movement is doomed to failure. That the lack of focus is its greatest weakness.
Perhaps so. But today, after spending hours here at Zuccotti Park, Ground Zero of the movement, I'm left with the impression that this weakness is the movement's strength.
No leaders means no personalities and no clashes for power.
No stated goals means that none of those participating feel left out - for fear that their goals will be deemed unimportant.
Another point. This is not a mob. This is not an unruly bunch. There are sections set up in the park where different "departments" are headquartered to keep things orderly. For example, there's a Sanitation Department, where one can get a trash bag to keep one's claimed space clean.
Many points of view are being expressed here. All are welcome - save attacks on others.
Which brings us to the issue of antisemitism. First, there are many people identifiably Jewish participating. It's highly unlikely they would if there were an undercurrent of antisemitism. Secondly, a Jewish woman who has been down here nearly everyday says that yesterday, a guy holding an anti-Jewish sign was surrounded by a large group chanting, "He's not with us!" He didn't stick around long after that. she said.
Finally, some critics have suggested that the people here ought to get jobs and do something useful with their lives. Yes, there are a lot of unemployed people here. That's the point, they argue. They're out of work and want jobs. But the economy isn't working for them. The economy that's controlled, they say, on nearby Wall Street.
But not everyone here is young, or unemployed. Some come after work or even on their lunch breaks. Others are retired, and have the time to contribute to the cause.
Heck, I even met a retired banker who runs a whistleblower site for those in the game who want to report financial impropriety and SEC violations - which - she says from first hand experience - is common in the banking industry.
This is the one-month anniversary of the start of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. Some who have been here from the start aren't as frustrated as critics who keep pointing out it's unfocused. It'll find its own equilibrium, they predict. Naturally.
For now, they are just looking forward to what month two may bring.
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Julie Morse
Ande Bliss
Barbara Joanne
Marilyn Sands
Susie Lindau
RomanticPoetess
Salon.com
Comments
By the way Professor Keck has a post here on OS that deals with the perceived weakness you also identify as a strength.
http://open.salon.com/blog/profkeck/2011/10/11/ows_a_21st_century_revolution
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"
--sinclair louis
"One withstands the invasion of armies; one does not withstand the invasion of ideas."
--victor hugo
occupy wall street, my speech to the masses
The anti-war movement began as marches, rallies, sit-ins and teach-ins. We learned our chops from those who learned them Martin Luther King during the earlier years of the civil rights movement. We learned organizing by the seats of our pants.
We also learned, to our anguish, that our demonstrations accomplished nothing, except to spread the word and radicalize others....and that was their lasting contribution.
A real political movement is spawned by polarization. The political process known as consensus is accomplished through exclusion, not inclusion.
Do we need a political movement? Yes, we do. Is this it? Not yet.
What is going to happen...and I assure you all it will....is a polarizing event. Maybe someone will shoot up a #OWS gathering. Maybe it will be a cop. Or, someone who is fed up with everything will blow something up.
We sat down in the middle of highways. We sat down in front of troop trains. (I am using the collective we generously; I was an organizer, not a participant. Organizers ought not participate.) We poured blood on selective service records. On a few rare occasions, we committed suicide to focus attention on our issues.
The war went on. Soldiers continued to fight, and continued to come home in body bags.
The anti-war movement was an emotional success and a political failure.
The leaders that the movement thrust into the spotlight didn't last. Most died badly. A few gained public office, but none of them ever did very much with their political power to make them memorable.
The stakes today are incomparably higher than they were during the Vietnam era. The whole shooting match is up for grabs and we have to decide, individually and collectively, what kind of civilization we want.
Do we want to be Greece....or Switzerland. Those are the choices.
Personally, I would prefer to visit Greece but live in Switzerland, and I think most of us would say the same.
The problem for us is that the media is out of control, the political parties are intellectually bankrupt, and the nay sayers are out in force corrupting the public conversation by injecting their false facts and their innuendos.
There will be violence because there is no such thing as peaceful change. Ask the 50,000 people who died in Ghandi's peaceful resistance movement.
The only solution I see is disengagement, the creation of our own separate society that refuses to have anything to do with their society.
The bottom line is that we were right all the time. Go back to the land. Feed yourselves and then feed each other.
And this is me on a good day.
Still, all in all, I think the leaderless goalless state is interesting, and fits the situation that has spawned the movement: Beyond "Wall Street", the problems and complaints are legion and the feeling seems to be that only a real change in *everything* will do. Which, I suppose, just ain't in the cards...or if it were, it would be a mighty unpleasant business...
yet they are extremely wise: ...locusts have no king,
yet they advance together in ranks." The Republicans shall be cursed with a plague of locusts, this coming election.