Subject: [SocialistWorker.org] Possible futures for Occupy
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View original article here:
http://socialistworker.org/2012/04/26/possible-futures-for-occupy
Speech: Paul LeBlanc
======== POSSIBLE FUTURES FOR OCCUPY =========================================
April 26, 2012
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Paul LeBlanc is a veteran activist, a history professor at La Roche College
in Pittsburgh and author of numerous books, including most recently /Marx,
Lenin, and the Revolutionary Experience: Studies of Communism and Radicalism
in an Age of Globalization/ [1].
On April 21, Occupy Pittsburgh held a meeting on the topic of "Where Do We Go
from Here?" The speech below was one of several presentations made by
different activists to contribute to a discussion about the next steps for
the Occupy movement.
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THE OCCUPY movement in Pittsburgh has been central to my political
involvement since last October. I was active in various demonstrations,
camped out at People's Park (renamed from Mellon Park) for three different
nights and helped with dishwashing and garbage disposal for longer,
participated in innumerable General Assemblies, was centrally involved in a
few Working Groups (especially the Education Working Group, which organized a
couple of major teach-ins), and more.
Since the eviction, there has been an increasingly dramatic decline--leading
up to the present "Where do we go from here?" discussion. It is not clear to
me whether Occupy Pittsburgh is basically finished or whether we can have a
future--but what I have to say in my contribution to this discussion
indicates what my vision is for a possible future.
I want to start with a summary. The fundamental perspective of the Occupy
movement has been to replace the power of the wealthy and oppressive 1
percent with the power of the 99 percent (the great majority of whom are
working class, whether blue collar, white collar or unemployed). This power
shift from the wealthy few to the great majority of people is a revolutionary
goal, and it can only be achieved through the struggles of more and more of
the 99 percent for social and economic justice.
The next stage for activists of the Occupy movement, in my opinion, is to
develop a labor and community orientation, reaching out to increasing numbers
of people, to help advance such consciousness and struggles of the 99
percent. Those are the basic ideas I want to elaborate on here.
The modern-day system of corporate rule and exploitation overseen by the
wealthy 1 percent (and their servants in the upper fringe of the 99 percent)
is what some of us mean by capitalism. The heart and soul, and the great
majority, of the 99 percent are the /working-class/ majority, which
potentially has the power to bring about the fundamental goal of the Occupy
movement. That goal of establishing the democratic control of the 99 percent
over our economic and political life is what some of us mean by the word
socialism.
But labels are not as important as realities, and the reality is that this
movement of and for the 99 percent involves waging a struggle for human
rights for all, a central aspect of which is economic justice (the
possibility of a decent life for each and every person), and rule by the
people over our economic and political life.
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THIS ACTUALLY reflects radical traditions that run deep in the history of the
United States. It was, for example, Martin Luther King Jr. who emphasized
that the triple evils of racism, exploitation and war are interrelated and
deeply rooted in the very nature of the U.S. social-economic system,
insisting that the "whole structure must be changed...America must be born
again!" Whether we use vocabularies coming from socialist or anarchist or
communitarian or religious or other traditions, this is the kind of
revolutionary goal that we are all basically agreed upon.
What the Occupy movement did, and the way it defined itself--uncompromisingly
challenging the corporate power structure of the super-rich 1
percent--resonated powerfully among millions of people in the United States.
We in the Occupy movement have a responsibility to be true to that, and to
sustain and expand it to the best of our abilities.
What we are about, as defined in the Occupy Pittsburgh statement of
principles, involves winning the overwhelming majority of the 99 percent to
support and struggle for the commitments and goals of replacing the power of
the 1 percent with the power of the 99 percent.
Two things that were part of the Occupy movement at its best were essential
in freedom struggles and class struggles of the past, and are essential now.
One of those things is the absolute commitment to reaching out to the 99
percent, seeking to generate their involvement in their own liberation. The
other is the uncompromising radicalism--standing up to, calling out and
opposing the 1 percent, and being absolutely open and honest about that. That
is what the actual physical occupation represented. It is not clear to me
that we can reproduce another physical occupation anytime soon, but this
revolutionary commitment has been central to our movement's vitality.
Being committed to the self-liberation of the 99 percent means not cutting
ourselves off from the working-class majority. It means not getting all
wrapped up in specialized in-groups or focusing on utopian communities that
most people cannot participate in or make sense of. It means helping to
organize actions, protests and movements that normal working-class people can
understand and relate to.
Being honest and uncompromising in our opposition to the power structure
means being independent of the politicians. Mitt Romney and the Republicans
use phony "populist" rhetoric developed through the well-financed and
manipulated Tea Party movement. But we know that they really represent the 1
percent, and we say that out loud. In the same way, we know that Barack Obama
and the Democrats have their own friends and financiers among the corporate
capitalists of the 1 percent, and they are just as much part of this system
as the Republicans, even though they hope to use our rhetoric to get
themselves elected.
We have absolutely refused to let our movement be used for anyone's electoral
purposes. That would kill our movement and make it phony. We would be
transformed into a tool of one part of the 1 percent. Some who feel
differently about the Democrats certainly are and should be part of Occupy,
but Occupy as a whole must be politically independent.
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WHAT MAKES sense is to further something that we have been engaged in from
the start--fighting to build the consciousness and the power of the people,
mobilizing more and more of that 99 percent that we are an organic part of. I
think this means ongoing, politically independent struggle and education.
It means working with others--in coalition with unions and community
groups--helping to build mass struggles that reach out to and include more of
the 99 percent, around struggles for social and economic justice in the here
and now. Right now, that means flowing our energy and radical creativity into
such things as defending public transit, fighting to secure health care for
all as a matter of right, fighting to secure decent housing for all as a
matter of right, stepping up the struggle to end student debt, and always
building opposition to such things as racism and war.
As we do this, we should carry out ongoing radical education about the nature
of the present power structure and its destructive policies, and that this
structure and its policies must be opposed and replaced with something
better. This education and also activist training and skills development
needs to be ongoing, and permeated with the central revolutionary perspective
of the Occupy movement, for the replacement of the power of the 1 percent
with the power of the 99 percent, political and economic rule by the
working-class majority.
In regard to education, my own personal ideal is the creation of something
like the Highlander Folk School that trained so many working class, labor,
community and civil rights activists in the 1930s and 1940s and 1950s and
1960s--people who consciously changed history, made history, as we are
committed to doing. Whether we would help to set up an institution like that
or would more modestly focus on a series of teach-ins and
organizing-and-activist training sessions is something to work out later,
depending on material possibilities.
Our developing network of Working Groups--especially those involved in
education and action and outreach and communication--can lead the way. The
Occupy Pittsburgh Working Group Council that is already set up could
coordinate the effort to develop and build this community-labor orientation.
Such a community-labor Occupy could dovetail with other offshoots of the
Occupy movement--for example, those who want to be engaged in building
collective living situations and developing community networks that can at
least partially free themselves from the dynamics of consumer-capitalism. It
can also connect with international liberation struggles associated with such
efforts as the World Social Forum.
All of this can be connected to the manifestation of the Occupy movement
being urged here, a community-labor Occupy that joins with unions and
community groups, joining with sisters and brothers organizing throughout our
country, in helping to build effective struggles that include more of the 99
percent in reaching for greater social and economic justice in the here and
now, and for the rebirth of society, an economic democracy in the
foreseeable, in which all can live in freedom and dignity.
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[1] http://www.amazon.com/Marx-Lenin-Revolutionary-Experience-Globalization/dp/0415979730
