Three progressive minds attempt to capture the zeitgeist of the #OccupyWallStreet protests, which have moved with tremendous speed from the margins to the mainstream.
For evidence of this look no further than the protest coverage that made the front and editorial pages of today's New York Times. For the first two weeks of these protests the Times' editors for the most part had joined with other establishment media in a communal snub of the "Occupy" activism and its relevance.
There's a reason for the rapid, organic spread of the Wall Street actions, write Glenn Greenwald, Matt Stoller and Micah Sifry, three passionate thinkers on the evolution of movements in the age of open networks.
In his Wednesday commentary for Salon, Greenwald blasted the media and establishment Democrats for their smug dismissal of the protests, diagnosing their scorn as a form of self hatred that strikes those who "feign populist opposition to Wall Street for political gain."
Greenwald writes:
"A significant aspect of this progressive disdain is grounded in the belief that the only valid form of political activism is support for Democratic Party candidates, and a corresponding desire to undermine anything that distracts from that goal. Indeed, the loyalists of both parties have an interest in marginalizing anything that might serve as a vehicle for activism outside of fealty to one of the two parties..."[T]the people willing to engage in protests like these at the start may lack (or reject the need for) media strategies, organizational hierarchies, and messaging theories. But they're among the very few people trying to channel widespread anger into activism rather than resignation, and thus deserve support and encouragement -- and help."
On Thursday Stoller wrote that the movement had taken on religious dimensions, which makes this protest a different animal than other politicized gatherings. "No one knows what to expect," he writes, adding:"What these people are doing is building, for lack of a better word, a church of dissent. It's not a march, though marches are spinning off of the campground. It's not even a protest, really. It is a group of people, gathered together, to create a public space seeking meaning in their culture. They are asserting, together, to each other and to themselves, 'we matter'."Sifry chimed in on Saturday with a Tech President article describing the networked power of the spreading protests. "This thing is growing in Internet time and no wonder, for it is built on networked culture," he writes. (I discuss the importance of preserving these networks in an earlier article for Huffington Post).
Sifry casts the Occupy Wall Street protests in a different light as well. To him they're connected to the new political dissent that's sweeping the world:
"[W]e're no longer in a what veteran activist Myles Horton would have called an organizational phase of political activity, where meetings have walls around them, messages have managers, advocacy is centrally paid for and done by professional lobbyists, marches have beginnings and endings, and the story line goes neatly gives from petition to legislation to reform..."I don't pretend to know where the 'Occupy' movement is going to go, though its main purpose appears to be to show first of all that it is here to stay, and to force a different perspective into a national discourse that up until now has marginalized and ignored grassroots anti-corporate social justice advocacy."
At the moment I'm seated near the shore of the Hudson River watching the sunrise break through the clouds over Manhattan.
I was awakened at 3:30 a.m. to the sound of heavy rain on the streets and immediately thought of those huddled under blue tarps in Zuccotti Square, three miles away, and of others who may have spent the night in cells following Saturday's mass arrest on the Brooklyn Bridge.
By inserting themselves in the midst of the problem, holding their ground against the elements both natural and man made, and applying their network strength against the establishment greed that has sunk our democracy to an historical low, the "Occupy" protesters have struck upon something that connects the concerns of many.
As more people learn of their sacrifice it seems only natural that the support will grow.
(Photos: Timothy Karr)
Follow Timothy Karr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TimKarr
Phil Aroneanu: Why Environmentalists Should Occupy Wall Street
Chris Weigant: Wall Street Protest, Circa 1967
Question. Why do you think all bank services, particularly those that provide a great convenience, should be free? The simple question is whether the facility of using a debit card is worth $5 a month. If it isn't - don't use one. If you don't think the convenience of using an ATM any time, day or night, is worth the fee - don't use one. You can still use checks (paper and electronic), credit cards or cash. I pay a fee for none of these. Shop around.
Why is the government involved in setting prices? The banks aren't going to reduce their profits. They are just going to find other ways to charge. So now I am subsidizing their debit card business.
Secondly: If you listen to them, the government just changed it BECAUSE. That's not a reason. That's a red flag.
Thirdly: The actual reason is because banks were essentially forcing fees down the throats of people via monopoly powers. Interchange and swipe-fees slammed merchants every time a debit or credit card was used. The fee seems invisible to you, so you never notice how badly it can hit businesses. Overdraft fees were used to stick people with usurious late fees and interest rates ($1.19 big gulp? $35 overdraft charge!) You can argue that it only hits people who are 'financially incompetent' or whatever, but at least some of that comes down to people who are desperate.
Oh, and they've discovered overall that there's so much more money in fee-based ambush banking and playing the Wall Street Ponies then old-fashioned loans. I can't even get a credit card because I have 'no credit' as a recent graduate. Despite having 10x my requested credit limit sitting in my bank account right now.
If I didn't trust my bank why would I put my life savings in their vaults?
Foreclosures are at a record high, the gap between the rich and poor has never been higher, government can't seem to get anything done (mostly because they are corrupted by the money of rich people and large corporations).
The top 10% of the population accounts for 50% of the nations wealth. Which means that you probably have at least 80% of people that are extremely unhappy with what's going on in this country. That is a massive amount of unhappy people.
This whole thing, to be honest, has a similar basis to the type of civil unrest seen in areas of Europe and the Middle East.
Mayer Bloomberg in NYC actually predicted more than a month ago that there would be protests and unrest if things didn't improve quickly.
It is time for some change. Obama has made things worse, not better.
I hope this movement will serve to wake up the sleeping masses to the fact that they really do have the power to change things. Let's change the laws, too, to stop letting corporations off the hook for their "crimes against humanity" committed against the very citizens whom they employ!
As the "Count of Monte Cristo" guy said: (paraphrase) "the most important words are: Wait and Hope." I have been waiting without hope for a long time for something like this to wake up the young people (and the rest of us) to the possibility of a government that actually is what the first Republican President called America, "of the people, by the people and for the people." Right now it is of the people, and by the people, but for the CEOs and their flunkies and lackeys.
Let's hope this is a first step toward a renewed democracy in this country.
The Democrats kowtow to every constituency; right or wrong. The refusal to enforce ALL laws equally with favor to those they "support" has reached grievous levels. They controlled the entire government at one point, but waited before taking action and not always the correct action.
As sure as I am writing this, we will see a corporate tax holiday while "we the people" get very little relief from the economic disaster foisted upon us by the bought politicians who still have not protected the nation from another "Too big too fail" event. We are being primed for the announcement even as Apple and Google have waded in as though they alone are the political majority of this country!
The people have awakened and while they are still a bit sluggish, they are starting to bring their energies to bear on changing the status quo and good for them; good for all of us who aren't in the upper echelons!
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The OWS has a chance of succeeding because it is highly unorganized with no single point of control that can be thwarted.
Our tightly controlled media and double punch surveillance funded by the businesses such as GE/Comcast and Big Oil has so far been able to undermine the usual types of dissent.
Good luck OWS! Your efforts and resolve may very well be what's needed to save our species from the the blind greed and fear of the 1%.
Ü~