“No government can exist for a single moment without the cooperation of the people, willing or forced, and if people withdraw their cooperation in every detail, the government will come to a standstill.” —Gandhi
Originally appeared at HyperVocal.
The Occupy movement is now a genie that cannot be put back in its bottle.
While it has certainly gone through growing pains, and will continue to do so, the adversity faced has only forced the movement to adapt and re-focus.
After their first eviction, Occupy San Francisco decided to occupy sidewalks around the downtown financial district (the original strategy for Occupy Wall Street before the 17th, I should add.) Can’t have an encampment? Adapt and take public sidewalks. There is now a nationwide movement to also throw the gauntlet at major banks like Bank of America, and re-occupy foreclosed homes for families thrown out by the financial criminal class. The move has even prompted BofA to fire off an email to its employees. And yes, the email’s existence has indeed been confirmed by a Bank of America representative.
The financial elite are not the only ones concerned about this nonviolent peoples’ movement, of course. The Department of Homeland Security has had its feathers ruffled too. As Mayor Jean Quan mystifyingly stated during a BBC interview, DHS and other federal agencies are now coordinating raids on Occupy through the use of Orwellian “fusion centers” which collect intelligence on encampments and then share that information with local law enforcement, who are often heavily militarized and disproportionate in their response to peaceful protesters.
The contempt and cruelty often displayed by police towards this movement is shocking. Here’s what Patrick Meghan, a writer for the sitcom “Family Guy,” experienced at the hands of the LAPD:
I was arrested at about 1 a.m. Wednesday morning with 291 other people at Occupy LA. I was sitting in City Hall Park with a pillow, a blanket, and a copy of Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Being Peace” when 1,400 heavily-armed LAPD officers in paramilitary SWAT gear streamed in. I was in a group of about 50 peaceful protestors who sat Indian-style, arms interlocked, around a tent (the symbolic image of the Occupy movement). The LAPD officers encircled us, weapons drawn, while we chanted ‘We Are Peaceful’ and ‘We Are Nonviolent’ and ‘Join Us.’
It gets worse.
When the LAPD finally began arresting those of us interlocked around the symbolic tent, we were all ordered by the LAPD to unlink from each other (in order to facilitate the arrests). Each seated, nonviolent protester beside me who refused to cooperate by unlinking his arms had the following done to him: an LAPD officer would forcibly extend the protestor’s legs, grab his left foot, twist it all the way around and then stomp his boot on the insole, pinning the protestor’s left foot to the pavement, twisted backwards. Then the LAPD officer would grab the protestor’s right foot and twist it all the way the other direction until the non-violent protestor, in incredible agony, would shriek in pain and unlink from his neighbor. It was horrible to watch, and apparently designed to terrorize the rest of us.
The police state will continue to use terror to coerce this movement into backing down. It will not work, however. Myself and over 50 others were arrested the night of Occupy Philadelphia’s eviction.
My resolve, as well as those who were arrested or were outraged at the way the police handled the eviction, has only strengthened. And this movement must use love and persistence to fight back. There is no other way. The state knows only violence and fear, and this can only continue for so long in the face of what the Occupy movement offers as an alternative. This movement must continue to struggle for what dissident playwright and later president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel calls “defending the everyday aims of life.”
As Mark Kurlansky writes of Havel in Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea:
Organizations were formed to support the families of those persecuted by the government; alternative ‘universities’ taught the things excluded from official education; environmental groups were formed and cultural activities established…Increasingly citizens could live life apart from the one established by the regime. Though the actions were small, the goals were large.
Kurlansky goes on to write of Havel’s strategy:
…if people lived their lives parallel to the state system and not as a part of it–which he [Havel] termed “living within a lie”–there would always be a tension between these two realities and they would not be able to permanently coexist.
The Occupy movement has for months now been engaged in creating the very same “counter-society” Havel and the Solidarity movement used to eventually bring the Soviet empire to its knees. Occupations across the country have been stepping up to offer free food, shelter and healthcare because the state has failed to do so. There are plans underway to offer free college education in Philadelphia, as I’m sure there are similar initiatives to do so in other parts of the country.
And the movement is now standing–physically–with American families trampled on by banks who knowingly committed fraud and tossed people out of their homes.
Welcome to Occupy 2.0. What are YOU going to do now?
Originally appeared at HyperVocal.
Dustin Slaughter is the creator of The David and Goliath Project, a website celebrating and commenting on protest culture. He is a photojournalist and activist residing in Philadelphia, PA. If you would like to contribute to The Project for future research trips as the #Occupy movement continues, please consider a small donation here. Read his “What I Learned from the Occupation: Lose the Fear” here.
—Photo of the last night of Occupy Philadelphia by Dustin Slaughter
About HyperVocal
Not sure what the gender angle was supposed to be there? Well perhaps I can supply some!
I’ve been very disappointed that Occupy has embraced discrimination against men from the start. This happened under the influence of feminists early on who insisted that women have a more prominent voice than men (as usual). The clearest example is the so-called “progressive stack” system which is actually regressive in nature as it gives women — already the most advantaged group — a bigger voice in the GAs by saying that if a man and a woman are both trying to speak, the woman should get priority. Beyond feminist misandry I’ve never seen an explanation for it.
Most revolutionaries are young men. That was true in Tarhir square (something like 90% were men) but of course feminized western media endlessly trumped women as the real voice of the revolution, and Time magazine now features one of the few female activists from Egypt on its front cover. I don’t think the ratio is nearly so bad in the US but still nobody asks why women can’t do the drudge work of revolution as men do. Instead they get special privileges at every turn. The NYC Occupy had something like close to a dozen special WG for women by the time it was broken up, in many cases the groups were female exclusive — men were banned.
In sleeping arrangements the women said they needed extra protection despite it being men and not women who were most at risk. Women segregated themselves away and put men at the back of the bus. In effect they used their female privilege to demand and get increased security at the expense of men.
One young man at Zuccotti was accused of sexual assault (although he denied it). The Occupy’s response was an immediate assumption of his guilt. In various interviews (where again women got privileged access) accusations were endlessly made about the “sexism” women suffered which upon examination was just more of the usual feminist victim bullshit, that the corporate imperialist media just laps up.
In media coverage in the US always it appears to be the women victims of police brutality that get media attention.
I have the following problems with occupy protests:
-With a permanent protest there’s no pretense on the part of protesters that they intend to live up to the social contract and contribute to society. By protesting 24/7 they are effectively telling passers by to pay for their political voice. Protests like this should be done on a rota.
-Permanently occupying public property is theft. Protest marches and rallies temporarily take over public property to make a point. Then they move on and let other people use it again. Occupy doesn’t do this.
-It falsely claims to represent 99% of the population. In reality occupy protesters represent less than a per cent.
-Its not an effective protest. There is no clear mandate, proposed solution or even a clear list of grievances. Examine any protest that ever achieved anything and you’ll find that they worked out exactly what they wanted from the outset. Almost a year on occupy shows no signs of getting its shit together.
-Police brutality is an awful thing, and it has happened to Occupyers, but being arrested isn’t police brutality. If you’re breaking the law, expect to be arrested. If you refuse to be handcuffed you will get hurt.
-Occupyers are providing food and shelter. Who’s paying for it? If it comes out of social welfare checks then you’re still living off the government you claim isn’t living up to its responsibilities. Who is offering free healthcare and what standard does it really live up to? What kind of university education is being offered and who are the lecturers? They’re all grand claims, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
-Similar movements to this existed in the 60s and 70s. They went nowhere. The movements that actually achieved anything, like the civil rights movement, protested effectively. They knew what they were after and they went for it. When I see occupy actually making ground, I’ll consider joining. Until then, its a waste of everyone’s time.
Are you an authoritarian and so you are making up stuff to justify prior opinions of subservience, or are you one of those people that likes to sound off on topics they know nothing about to sound important?
You sound like… both.
Nope, I’m the 99%, as much as anyone is anyway.
If you have a genuine grievance with any of those points please let me know. Making assumptions about my motivation helps noone. I think theres plenty of groups out there doing fantastic work to try and change the world for the better and to fix the mess we’re in, I just don’t see occupy achieving anything other than making bits of public space inaccessible.
Also, I just read that email. Theres absolutely nothing strange or worrying about it. Storm in a teacup.
The Occupy movement is NOT non-violent.
Do a google search for the letter that Occupy Baltimore sent to its members urging them to report sexual assaults to the internal “security committee” instead of the police. Hushing-up sexual assaults is not the hallmark of a non-violent movement.
In San Francisco one of the foreclosed homes occupied had actually been placed is escrow because a purchase was pending by a young couple looking to move in. When the SF Chronicle sent a reporter, the occupiers said they weren’t leaving even if the home had been purchased because they felt it wasn’t “fit to live in.” Translation: they are brutes and vandals unconcerned with harming bystanders. The comments section of the SF Chronicle’s website used to be filled to the brim with pro-Occupy comments, about a month ago the tide turned and now every report is met with a sea of demands that the clowns go home.
As the economy continues to recover, this “movement” will become more and more of joke. The last “day of action” couldn’t muster half the numbers of the previous one. The cold and the rain will be more effective than the police ever were.
I wouldn’t bet on it. I take great exception to their methods, but they’re nothing if not dedicated. I suspect they’re here to stay.
I’ve read up on it a bit, the accusation that the movement causes violence is a little unfair.
Firstly, the rape charge was bogus, she woke up with a sore buttock and assumed it meant she’d been raped. It turns out there was no evidence of sexual activity. Probably came from sleeping on hard ground. She did have a good deal of cash robbed, but holding an $1800 wad of cash in your hand while you sleep in a tent on the street is a bit foolish.
The security committee thing looks more like inexperience and idealism than a desire to cover things up. They don’t trust the police and thought they could do a better job, turns out they couldn’t. Still, it sounds an awful lot like the beginnings of the NKVD.
I did find the fact that they feel free to exclude the press interesting, especially as they’re on public property. It suggests to me that they’re increasingly viewing their encampments as private.
All in all it looks like they’re beginning to face the problems faced by anyone who sleeps on the street night after night. I’m not sure if there’s any cure for it, and its probably not much to do with the protest’s values and policies.
Whatever the folks think they want, they’ve had hell’s own time telling the rest of us. If the news is any example, any communication longer than a sentence is pretty much information-free, unless you’re good at interpreting a verbal tantrum.
Whatever the folks think they look like, their public face is filth, feces, diseases usually associated with medieval slums, violence, death, the failure of small businesses in their area, the expropriation of public property, theft and attempted anarchy (shutting down a port, for example). Be nice if they could offset that with a message.
What do we want?
Free stuff!
When do we want it?
Now!
What do we want?
Your stuff!
When do we want it?
Now!
When I was a kid, I had a bunch of boys’ books written (possibly by committee) in series by the yard. One, “Baseball Joe” had a relative get hosed by some clown bucketing stocks. This is in the Twenties, you understand, and the author did, iirc, a pretty good job of explaining what that meant and how it worked, pretty good for the target marked of, maybe, twelve year olds.
Nice to know the traditional villains haven’t changed.
It’s a hoot, in a sad way, to find the folks whose parents have provided them with a better than average living, and the ubiquitous Ipad, wanting to take money from the less fortunate because, for some reason, The Kids think they deserve it. Pay my college debt…old folks on fixed income, blue-collar workers, single moms–because….I deserve it.