Lessons for Occupy from Iowa

MITT ROMNEY may have spent his way to a narrow eight-vote victory in the traditional, first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus January 3 splitting the GOP base in Iowa between big business Republicans, conservative Christians, and Tea Party libertarians, but the real news coming out of Iowa is what happened in the streets, not the ballot box.

For a week prior to the vote, hundreds of everyday Iowans were joined by dozens of people from Occupy movements in 23 different states and seven different countries for a series of direct-action street protests targeting big banks, corporate campaign contributors, presidential campaign offices, political party headquarters and candidate speaking events.

Demonstrators marched to the campaign offices of President Obama and the major Republican candidates, performed sit-in occupations inside the offices, and blockaded the entrances outside until their grievances were addressed or they were hauled away in handcuffs.

The Obama campaign even closed their office for the week, rather than deal with Occupy protesters, and both the Iowa Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee arrested dozens of protesters.

In total, 62 people were ultimately arrested during the weeklong campaign--billed the "Occupy Iowa Caucus" by Occupy Des Moines, the local incarnation of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Many people outside of Iowa may have thought there was meaningful interaction going on here between the general public and the Republican candidates, but their wasn't. The weeks leading up to the Iowa caucus were filled with nothing but massive TV and radio ads, 20-minute stump speeches and five-second handshakes.

The only meaningful democratic process that happened here was in the streets and inside the Occupy Iowa Caucus HQ--where Occupy Des Moines hosted its own "People's Caucus" and straw poll.

At a time in our country's history when the Republican presidential candidates, SuperPACs and other corporate interest groups dumped tens of millions of dollars into Iowa in the final weeks of the campaign, spending as much as $200 per voter to influence the more than 100,000 Iowans who turned out for the caucuses (Romney's SuperPAC outspent his campaign 2-1), Occupy Des Moines mobilized hundreds of people to elevate the bread-and-butter issues that matter most to the 99 percent into the national spotlight--issues like the jobs, housing and revenue crises and the corrosive influence of big money in politics that has our democracy in a chokehold. And they did all this while spending less than $2,000.

The direct-action civil disobedience model we created in Iowa--taking on Wall Street greed and corruption by going after the political parties and politicians that serve the corporate agenda--is one path forward for the Occupy Wall Street movement as the eyes of the nation now turn to New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, Nevada and the Super Tuesday primary states.

The political system in this country must put communities before corporations and people before profits--or prepare to be occupied.