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occupyGGY Final
occupyGGY Final
government. It was against this backdrop that a blog post appeared on the anti-consumerist website Adbusters urging people to flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street1. On 17th September, up to one thousand activists heeded their call and moved to occupy Wall Street hoping to have their own Tahrir moment. Although the local police department ensured that the activists did not reach their
commentators who were keen to understand the purpose of the protests and what the Occupiers hoped to achieve. However, the Occupy movement did not issue a set of demands as such but put out a call for solidarity to other likeminded individuals to [e]xercise [their] right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face.3 This led many to criticise the movement for not presenting a clear list of demands, including former president of the USA, Bill Clinton, who stated that those involved with the Occupy movement need to be for something specific and not just against something (cited in iek 2011). However, others have suggested that the movement should not issue any demands to policy makers (Graeber 2011, iek 2011, Langman 2012). Furthermore, 2 David Graeber, an
institutions (2011: 2). Similarly, it has been argued that the Occupy movement is predominantly moral social movement seeking the country to change its moral focus (Lakoff 2011). Therefore, in this view the purpose of the Occupy movement should be to create a Gramscian passive revolution i.e. a revolution based on morals and ideas rather than any direct physical confrontation with the hegemonic power (1971). As Langman states, the conditions of our times require not new policies, but hope, new visions and a resurrection of utopian thinking (2012: 163). Although, the aims of the movement have yet to be formally codified and communicated to the wider public, some voices from within the movement have been more specific. In an article published online, activists Arun Gupta and Michelle Fawcett have stated that [a]nyone 3
Furthermore, in their initial statement, Occupy activists in London declared; [T]he current system is unsustainable. It is undemocratic and unjust. We need alternatives; this is where we work towards themwe want structural change towards authentic global equality4. This shows that those involved in the Occupy movement are not simply also
calling for structural change. This has been noted by Hardt & Negri, who have argued that this new constituent process, should be viewed as a protest against the
inadequacies of the current political system, rather than simply a protest against corporate greed (2011:1).
Methods
As stated above, the Occupy movement is not organised on a global level, however, broadly speaking, each camp adopts similar methods or repertoires of contention (Tilly 1995). These include non-violent 4 protest, organised
properties to evict residents after repossession orders had been granted. Typically, commentators have described these forms of protest as civil disobedience. However, Bernard Harcourt has suggested that the Occupy
movement is representative of a new paradigm of political resistance and that we should consider the methods used by the Occupiers as forms of political disobedience. He argues that [c]ivil disobedience
accepted the legitimacy of political institutions, but resisted the moral authority of resulting laws. Political disobedience, by contrast, resists the very way in which we are governed (Harcourt 2012). Similarly, Graeber argues that the Occupy movement should not be
characterised as a protest i.e. an appeal to the authorities to act differently but rather the tactics of the 5
differently. However, arguably the most significant method adopted by the Occupy movement is its symbolic claiming or occupation of public spaces. Although activists in New York and London were prevented from setting up camp at their chosen locations -Wall Street and the London Stock Exchange respectivelyboth sites were chosen
strategically to highlight the source of the financial crisis (and the source of much of the activists grievance). In this way, the Occupy movement has put the issue of space at the core of its agenda by reassert[ing] the power of the tactic to camp and identify[ing] the geography of
Organisation
Although Occupy encampments have appeared in various cities across the world and activists from various camps communicate and exchange ideas with each other on 7
have in common is that we are the 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. In addition, David Graeber argues that Occupy activists have quite deliberately tried to create a de-centralised movement with no formal leadership structure to ensure that the movement cannot be co-opted or coerced (2011). However, although the movement is not coordinated at a global scale the various camps use the same slogans (e.g. We are the 99%) and discourse to foster a sense of solidarity.
Furthermore, one of the defining characteristics of the movement is the way each camp is organised at a local level. All camps have adopted the same consensus-based 8
interrupting the speaker. Everyone present has a right to block any proposal, however, this does not mean an issue is dropped once it has been blocked but rather it creates an opportunity to amend the proposal until it is acceptable to all participants. Whilst they may seem like an unwieldy way to organise, Graeber argues that it matters less how a final decision is reached providing everyone was able to play a part in helping to shape and reshape it (2012: 23).
extremely difficult to answer this question. However, with media reports claiming that Occupy movement is as good as dead5 and others hailing the fantastic success of
Occupy Wall Street (Wallerstein 2011), it is fair to suggest that real answer lies somewhere between these two
opinions. If you view the Occupy movement as an attempt to make those in power mend their wicked ways then it would be easy to side with those commentators believe that Occupy failed to achieve its goals. However, I believe
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experiment with this new form of prefigurative politics, this is crucial as it allows people to envision how the institutions of a new society could operate (Graeber 2011: 3). In addition, many activists involved with the movement that this form of participatory democracy has enabled them to feel empowered that their actions can make a 11
discourse. They have introduced into public view crucial concerns that had been hidden (2012). This is reflected in the fact that during the 2nd Presidential Debate, President Obama paraphrased the Occupy movements rallying call (We are the 99%) to attack his rival Mitt Romney7. Similarly, in the UK, leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband has argued that the systems not working for the 99%8 which is clear indication that Occupys message is resonating with many people. So whilst it may be easy to dismiss the Occupy movement as a failure, it is important to remember that the movement has only existed for little over a year and already it has caught the attention of those in power. In fact just recently a senior official at the Bank of England has admitted that Occupy's voice had been loud and persuasive and that policymakers have 12
References
Chomsky, N. (2012). Occupy. London: Penguin Books. Graeber, D. (2011) Occupy Wall Streets anarchist roots. Published online at Aljazeera.com. Accessed on 10/06/12 at: www.aljazeera.com /indepth/opinion/2011/11 (2012) Enacting the Impossible: Making Decisions By Consensus) In Van Gelder, S. (ed.) This changes everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% movement. San Francisco :Berrett-Koehler Publishing. Gramsci, Antonio (1971). Selections from prison notebooks. London: Lawrence and Wishart. Gupta, A. & Fawcett, M. (2012) Inside the Occupy Movement. Published on The Progressive. Accessed online on 01/11/12 at: http://www.progressive.org/inside_occupy_movem ent.html Harcourt, B.E. (2012) Occupy Wall Streets Political Disobedience. Accessed online on 13/11/12 at:
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Notes
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http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-
blog/occupywallstreet.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/oct/17/occupyprotests-world-list-map#data
2
http://occupywallst.org/forum/first-official-release-from-occupy-wallstreet/
3
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-ostroy/the-failure-of-occupywal_b_1558787.html
5
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/14/chomsky_occupy_wall_stre et _ has_created
6
http://useconomy.about.com/od/2012-Campaign/p/Second-2012Presidential-Debate-Summary.htm
7
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/video/2011/nov/17/ed-miliband99-percent-speech-video
8
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/29/bank-of-englandoccupy-movement
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