Common understandings and affinity groups.

• Author: Scipes, Kim
• Position: Thinking Politically

Building the Occupy Movement

The Occupy Wall Street Movement has spread across the United States and across the world. Obviously, the best way to get an understanding of the Occupy Movement is to visit and/or join them yourself, and supplement this with reading articles/stories by them, about them, and for them. And watch the myriad related videos that have been produced and distributed across the internet.

Certainly, something powerful is going on. In the US, the Occupy movement has generated the largest public mobilizations in approximately 40 years. It's garnered the attention of newspapers, magazines, politicians, the public, and the police. According to a number of public opinion polls, the majority of Americans support the general goals of Occupy. There are already four books published or soon to be one from Verso Publishers, one from Yes! magazine, one from Alternet.com, and one from Time magazine of which I know. And now, along with protesters in a number of Arab countries (particularly Tunisia and Egypt), Greece, Israel, and England, "The Protester" [was] named as Time's "Man of the Year" for 2011.

And while the Occupy Movement "retreated" in the face of police repression and oncoming cold weather, it was still strong enough to shut three ports on the West Coast on December 12: Oakland, Portland, and Longview, WA.

Activists have been seeking to use creatively the winter months, so as to emerge with warm weather even stronger, more informed, more unified.

This is all the more important since Mayor Rahm Emanuel has secured the NATO meetings for Chicago, and they will be here in May: the need to be as clear as possible seems especially important.

I think that there's something much more going on with the Occupy Movement than just simply mobilization. Yes, mobilization is here, and it is important. But, again, more is going on.

To understand the Occupy Movement, we need to examine three levels of abstraction: the mobilization itself, the symbolic aspect, and the social power that the movement is trying to develop.

And then we need to further develop our movement.

Mobilization

The mobilization aspect is the clearest to date. Americans have rallied to this movement in ways not seen since the early 1970s. Hundreds of thousands have assembled, marched, sung, danced, cheered, shouted, etc., all repudiating the status quo, at one level or another. Perhaps most amazing has been the overall diversity of those who have mobilized: the mobilizations have included people of all ages, of all genders, of all racial groupings, all education levels, all work/occupation statuses, etc., etc. And while the particular characteristics of protesters vary by site, the simple fact is that the range of protesters has been so broad across the country that they cannot be dismissed as "the usual suspects." And for one very good reason: this mobilization in general is much larger, more sustained, and more representative of the large majority of people of our country than any since the 1930s!

A "spin-off' effort that is used to disrupt political fundraisers, reactionary political speeches, or statements by lying school board officials--referred to as a "mic check"--has given activists an offensive weapon that is quite effective. Joined with this are "occupations" of people's foreclosed homes, of gates to port docks, etc., and other places that can have a political and/or economic impact. In short, tactics developed in the larger occupations have been dispersed to groups across the society.

It seems to me there are five sets of factors that are contributing to the mobilization. First, as so many have detailed over the past several years, people's lives are getting much worse in this country. Wages and salaries have been stagnant for over 30 years. There is a lack of jobs for those without technical training or at least a bachelor's degree--and yet, neither are guarantors of getting a job, much less a good-paying job, while increasing debt burdens those who get this advanced training--and falling levels of union representation for those with jobs. Further, the social safety net is fraying, and the Republicans in particular (with help from many Democrats) are actively working to destroy it. Along...