Subject: [SocialistWorker.org] The start of Occupy's spring?
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View original article here:
http://socialistworker.org/2012/03/21/start-occupys-spring
Comment: Jen Roesch
======== THE START OF OCCUPY'S SPRING? =======================================
A core of Occupy Wall Street activists showed their commitment in protests
last weekend--but our movement faces challenges.
March 21, 2012
ON MARCH 17, the six-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, activists
organized a celebration and attempted a 24-hour re-occupation of Zuccotti
Park in downtown Manhattan.
By early evening, there were as many as 1,000 to 2,000 people in the park.
Demonstrators held a General Assembly and were buoyed by speeches by Cornel
West and Michael Moore, who had been speaking at the Left Forum conference
being held nearby.
However, by late evening, the numbers of protesters in the park had dwindled
to a few hundred. As they laid down cardboard and blankets, and prepared for
a march, the NYPD moved in--with their all-too-familiar brutality.
Police announced that the park was closed, and everyone had to leave.
Activists, who have been participating in regular trainings, pointed out that
they were in full compliance with zoning regulations. The NYPD's response was
to attack with overwhelming force and arrest scores of activists.
OWS activist Cecily McMillan was so brutalized in the process of her arrest
that her ribs were cracked, and she suffered a seizure. Police refused to
allow volunteer paramedics from Occupy get near her, and it was 15 minutes
before an ambulance arrived. She remains hospitalized as of this writing.
When protesters began a march up Broadway, they were met with similar police
violence--thrown against metal shutters, stomped in the neck and beaten with
their own megaphone. NYU student Nisha Bolsey described seeing one marcher--a
medic--thrown so hard against the door of Bolsey's dorm that the glass was
broken.
The NYPD is clearly attempting to send a message to our movement: If you
attempt to re-occupy space, even that to which you are legally entitled, we
will use any level of force necessary to stop you.
By every account, the protesters on Saturday were not only completely
peaceful, but also in full compliance with the law. We must stand in
solidarity with the protesters who were brutalized and organize against
police repression. There are planning meetings and actions throughout the
week that will culminate in an anti-police brutality march this Saturday,
which needs to be as big as possible.
At the same time, however, last weekend's actions highlight the need to
assess the state of our movement and how we can take it forward.
Many of the most committed activists, who have continued to organize through
a difficult winter, believe that last weekend represents the reemergence of
the Occupy movement of last fall. OWS activist Max Berger, writing for
Salon.com, described this as the coming of the "American Spring"--an image
that is widespread among the core of the Occupy movement in New York.
There are a series of actions planned for this spring that activists hope
will put Occupy back on the map--weekly solidarity marches, direct action
trainings, a spring "assembly of assemblies" and, most importantly, actions
for May Day are all in the works. At the start of the week, a new encampment
of a couple hundred people has been established in Union Square Park--though
as this article was being written, police were threatening to evict the
encampment, even though the park has no restriction against people being in
it 24 hours a day.
The plans for this spring are positive developments. But we need to be
realistic about the state of the movement.
Neither the actions last weekend nor the plans for the coming weeks represent
a revival of the Occupy movement on the scale we saw last fall--when several
times more people were involved on a daily basis than were at Zuccotti at the
height of the March 17 demonstration, and even larger numbers came to
demonstrations and other actions.
The actions that have taken place so far this year have been almost entirely
confined to a relatively small core of activists. We have not yet seen wider
layers of people coming into the actions. Thus, the strategic questions of
what it will take to rebuild our movement are paramount.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
IT IS certainly possible--and even likely--that we will see a higher level of
struggle this spring, at least compared to the last several months. The basic
conditions that produced Occupy Wall Street and galvanized widespread
sympathy for the struggle--above all, the pent-up anger with the greed,
corruption and power of the 1 percent--still exist.
And over the course of the winter, hundreds of Occupy activists have
continued to organize in New York City.
In some cases, they have successfully infused existing struggles with new
energy and excitement. So, for example, housing activists have been deepening
and expanding their efforts, with successful blockades of foreclosure
auctions and ongoing plans for eviction defense. Housing activists from
several different community groups are coming together in an attempt to form
a new citywide coalition and develop new leadership.
Similarly, the Rank-And-File Labor Committee and the Labor Outreach Committee
of Occupy Wall Street have organized important actions in solidarity with
workers at Verizon and Sotheby's and members of the Transport Workers Union
on New York's buses and subways.
Some activists in the May Day and Immigrant Workers Justice groups have built
new connections. And there have been important campaigns against police
harassment and school closures.
These examples represent only some of the organizing that has been taking
place in the last several months. Throughout the movement, there is a high
level of dedication and commitment, which is critical to taking new steps
forward.
But this work has not yet been connected to an overall strategy for how to
advance the struggle. And unfortunately, the movement remains largely
inaccessible to new people who might want to get involved. For those who are
already connected to activist circles or a working group, there is plenty of
organizing getting done. But there is nothing yet that serves to bring in
those not already participating.
The idea that we are entering a new American Spring is based on the hope that
if we continue to pursue the tactics that worked in the fall, we will
eventually re-connect with the mass sympathy that existed then as well. In
particular, activists look to the inspirational example of occupations and a
radical vision (not tied down by demands) as catalysts for the movement.
But there are two problems with this view. First, the specific activities
that created the initial success of Occupy Wall Street won't be easily
reproduced--especially now that the forces of the state are prepared to do
everything they can to prevent the reoccupation of public spaces, as the NYPD
showed last weekend.
Attempts to recreate the Occupy of last fall through attempts at renewed
occupations will exhaust our forces as we face mass arrests and repression,
and the resulting need for jailhouse solidarity, medical support and legal
defense. In a growing movement, these can help to galvanize people and draw
in new activists. But at a moment like this, they can easily become very
draining on the limited number of activists able to sustain them.
Even more problematic, the insistence on militant tactics like occupations as
the key to rebuilding the movement can point Occupy activists away from the
type of organizing work that needs to be done right now.
The challenge facing us is to find a way to reconnect with the broader layers
of working-class people which gave Occupy Wall Street its mass character. At
best, the overemphasis on militant tactics--as a result of which,
confrontations with police and the threat of violence are constant threats in
the current circumstances--means that we will miss opportunities to build
more modest struggles around issues people care about, like housing, school
closures and police brutality. At worst, by setting the bar for participating
in the movement so high, we could push away the people we most need to reach.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
MOST OCCUPY activists are sincerely committed to rebuilding a mass movement,
but aren't sure how to do so. However, there are sections within the movement
that have embraced our marginalization. These activists see themselves as the
"radicals," who must oppose anything that dilutes struggle.
So, for example, as planning for a spring "assembly of assemblies" got
underway, one activist expressed concern over the focus of reaching out to
labor and community organizations. Writing on an OWS listserve, he argued,
"Most, maybe all, of these are of course going to be the traditional,
irrelevant, failed Old Left and liberal organizations and professional
activists that OWS should be blasting away with a cleansing stream."
In an article for Truthout, J.A. Meyerson echoed such ideas when he argued
that the protests last weekend set the stage for a "radical spring" that will
be more militant and confrontational than ever.
But this analysis doesn't account for the fact that the numbers at Occupy
events are still small compared to last fall--and it doesn't offer a way for
the movement to grow. The question for us shouldn't be how "radical" the
movement is, but what is the best way to bring into action those who are most
directly affected by the abuses of the 1 percent.
What we need is a strategic reorientation. First of all, we need to recognize
that the police have the ability and the will to use overwhelming force
against us. For a period last fall, the cops were thrown onto the defensive
by the size of the movement and the widespread support it had. But they have
clearly regained their confidence to crack heads. No amount of street actions
or legal training will be enough to overcome this, until the size of the
movement grows substantially.
I've been on too many marches where we end up running from street to street,
as the police separate us into smaller groups, and then beat and arrest us.
We can't compete on that terrain right now. So we need to think about how to
build the confidence and organization among larger numbers of people to
participate in Occupy actions.
This means connecting to immediate struggles around housing, school closures,
budget cuts, police brutality, workplace struggles and many other issues, to
provide support and also to offer a broader vision of radical change.
One important opportunity to do this is May Day, which has taken on an
important prominence among Occupy activists. However, all of the discussions
about how to take our movement forward have arisen in the planning for May 1.
Here in New York City, there were long and frequently heated debates about
whether to endorse a call for a general strike on May Day. Broadly speaking,
there were three basic positions on the question.
The position that represented the largest number of people was that an actual
general strike was not possible on May 1, but that we needed a big, bold
action to excite people, and therefore, we should support the general strike
call. A second position, largely advanced by labor and immigrant rights
activists, as well as members of the International Socialist Organization,
was that the general strike call was a mistake because it would make it more
difficult to bring in other forces like unions. A third position, supported
by insurrectionary anarchists, was that we shouldn't care what unions think,
and that the general strike had to be "re-conceptualized" to mean not workers
withholding their labor, but any kind of radical action.
Because the organizing meetings were run on consensus, there was no way to
fully resolve this debate. Instead, a compromise was reached in which OWS
committed to "stand in solidarity with calls for a general strike, a day
without the 99 percent and more."
Most activists were relieved to be able to move beyond the contentious
discussion and begin organizing. But because the underlying issues weren't
resolved, they continue to emerge on practical questions, and have to be
decided at that level.
One of the most positive developments is that a coalition of labor, immigrant
rights and Occupy activists have come together to plan for a mass solidarity
march on May 1. The initial slogan for this march is "Legalize, unionize,
organize to fight the 1 percent." This represents a tremendous opportunity to
bring together activists from a wide array of struggles and unite them in a
demonstration based around the Occupy slogan of the 99 percent versus the 1
percent.
However, there are a large number of activists who see the march as a
secondary priority--and who believe that a permitted, mass march is "boring"
and doesn't represent the new energy of Occupy. Attitudes about whether to
participate or not vary, but these activists share a sense that Occupy Wall
Street's contribution to the struggle is to escalate and radicalize through
civil disobedience actions that directly target the 1 percent.
There are a number of problems with this position. At the most basic level,
it means that many Occupy activists won't commit themselves fully to building
the demonstration. OWS activists have energy, creativity and a range of
connections that could help make this protest large and successful.
More problematically, the attitudes of these activists open the door to
actions that could undermine our efforts on the day. For example, if there is
an attempt to lead more militant actions out of the mass march, this could
put more vulnerable participants such as undocumented immigrants at risk of
arrest. Or if small groups of individuals decide to block workers from
getting to work as part of the "general strike," it could alienate potential
supporters.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
THE CONDITIONS for an "American Spring" most certainly exist. There are deep
reserves of anger at the unremitting assault on our living conditions and
most basic rights--and a continuing sympathy for Occupy Wall Street and what
it represents, although it remains passive. And there is a core of hundreds
of dedicated organizers that has emerged from this struggle.
But the road to renewing the movement on a mass scale isn't clear or easy.
Simply repeating the tactics of September and October won't accomplish the
task. It may be that the revival of the movement will revolve around some
unexpected event or action that has the power galvanize support on the level
of last fall.
The most important step we can take for now is to increase our own organizing
capacity. This will require patience and a willingness to employ a range of
tactics, even those that many activists consider a step backwards. Above all,
it will require participating in the concrete struggles by working-class
people around immediate issues and building coalitions with organizations,
including unions, that working-class people look to.
None of these are simple tasks, and they will require discussion, debate and
mutual collaboration. But together, they constitute a process we have to go
through to build the mass, militant movement we all want to see.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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