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While running an errand to Lowe's this afternoon I beheld this crew occupying the northeast corner of Prospect Avenue and Market View Drive in Champaign. The afternoon was crystal clear, warm, and bathed in that special gold sunlight that we get in these latitudes during the first month of autumn. I decided to visit them to get a sense of how my conservative university/corn-cob town may or may not have plugged into the national zeitgeist. Two things surprised me about the event.
First, the group's motliness impressed me as an asset, not a liability. This aggregation of 20 souls was pretty much the same demographic cross-section I'd expect to see at the Target two blocks to the north on any given weekend. The oddest guy in the crowd was the one wearing a "World's Greatest Dad" t-shirt and a home-made comparative US income bar chart drawn on poster board. Several demonstrators appeared to have participated in previous Occupy meetings, but most seemed to be first-timers judging from the chats I had. The crowd had a sort of tentative mood, not knowing exactly what they should be doing other than holding their signs and waving at cars. So they pretty much just did that, and in doing so they gave the clear appearance of unified purpose. It struck me as an organic aggregation, not one of those prefab demonstrations of lame, (usually) liberal political theater where people half-heartedly chant trite, pre-rehearsed rhymes. This group did use the "human microphone" technique to read the 29 September 20111 "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City." Their effort in this also seemed tentative---not self-consciously uptight, but sort of iffy... possibly because there was no one to hear the words except themselves (everyone else was in cars) and the Declaration is damn long to read out loud using such an approach. Nevertheless, all of this added up to an oddly touching experience for me: a not-quite-random meetup of individuals with an impulse to connect, getting to know each other on the spot, voting on whether and where to get together again.
The second, and even more interesting surprise, was how many car horns I heard honking in support while standing at that corner---possibly averaging 6 - 8 a minute at one point. The participants I talked with said it had been pretty much like that for the hour-plus they had been standing there, with only two or three rude remarks having been shouted from passing vehicles. (I heard none while I was visiting the scene.)
Is it possible that there really is some sort of self-organizing grassroots phenomenon in its early stages of nationwide formation? As long as the Occupy movement remains positive, cooperative, nonviolent, non-hierarchical, and noncommercial, maybe it has the potential to address a deep need in a society that is becoming exhausted by its alienation from itself and sick of the depravity that corporations have infected it with.
as long as there is cheap (and even $4/gallon is cheap) fuel for the car horns this movement won't get much more support than the honks. Many of those who are still fairly comfortable (employed, gassed up, healthy) aren't changing their routine in any way. When they do, as they do in Europe (widespread strikes, real pressure threatening more to come), then change might actually start to happen. Not until some corporate profits are harmed or threatened will the people needing to hear the message hear the message.
ReplyDeleteBefore the weather turns bad and shrinks this movement they really need to organize some massive, national-scale boycotts. A general boycott of Christmas spending would be an excellent start. No gifts this year. Kill retail. Turn "black Friday" into a red one-- a nightmare. Then move on to telecom and energy and restaurants, etc. A nation of consumers can't direct the govt with "votes". It can, however, influence (and defund) the corporate assholes who currently do direct the govt.
BO: I very much disagree that your general model for Occupy would be useful except as the ultimate response to systemic repression of the protests. Will be writing more on that. However, I do agree that one constructive demonstration---in the very literal sense of the term---would be to show that the "99%" could, if necessary, shut down commerce through nonviolent resistance.
ReplyDeleteThe real prospective power of this movement, if it were to gel as one, is its decentralization. If a "working group" wants to organize an assertive act of disobedience, that's up to them. But if they fuck it up or if it's infiltrated and undermined, it should not be identifiable with the "collective." Hope to get busy writing about this after I'm done inhaling ancient filth from beyond the bathroom walls.