Blog: Occupy Wall Street: Get Involved, Not Arrested

According to their web site, Occupy Wall Street is a horizontally organized resistance movement employing the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to restore democracy in America. They’re using a tool known as a “people’s assembly” to facilitate collective decision making in an open, participatory and non-binding manner.

OWS has sprung from frustration with the collusion between corporations and elected officials, and people are uniting all over the country to take a stand. The movement is attracting ordinary Americans through concrete action that conveys a clear message. The message is that working Americans want Wall Street to be accountable. The message is that working Americans want a fair tax system, limits to corporate rights and influence, and a government that prioritizes people above markets.

While opinions vary widely on both the efficacy and strategy of the OWS movement, the ‘force to be reckoned with’ moniker generally holds consensus.

Rep. Keith Ellison, Co-Chair, Congressional Progressive Caucus reports that Occupy Wall Street activism is gaining strength daily, but pundits and politicians are struggling to understand the emergence of this movement. Almost as soon as it formed, the protesters were criticized for not having concrete demands. No one could identify the group’s “leader.” Even the media didn’t take the New York occupation seriously until YouTube videos showed people being arrested. Now in their sixth week, the protests are proving that it is not the concreteness of their demands but the staying power and resonance of their anger that have caught our attention.

Ordinary Americans understand that Wall Street’s transgressions are clear. Wall Street set off the global financial crisis by gambling with our retirement savings and mortgages. Companies like Goldman Sachs bet against the very mortgages they were selling, knowing these investments, and the people who made them, would fail while they made millions. After taking billions in taxpayer bailout funds, banks cut small business’s credit lines and, in the case of Bank of America, laid off 30,000 American workers. They’ve increased consumers’ fees and won’t lend to worthy customers. Years after the crisis hit, the mortgage industry was still using fake signatures to sign documents and the foreclosure crisis persists. The Occupy movement seeks accountability.

Author Naomi Klein recently said, the “sky is the limit” for the OWS movement. This is our opportunity to draw the line, take back democracy so people, not corporations are fairly represented. So let’s get be really clear: Our challenge is to go beyond Occupy Wall Street, it’s got to be bigger than that, we need to engage, vote with our dollars, hold our elected officials accountable.

Environmental leader Frances Moore Lappe adds, We need to tell every legislator in Washington or wannabe that our support depends on their support for Fair Elections Now legislation — now pending in both chambers. With 70-plus co-sponsors in the House, the law would allow a viable candidate to run for office with public financing and therefore not bought and paid for by Big Money.

But simply naming the problem is only half the battle. Americans also need a positive, do-able vision of where this movement can take us. And that vision needs to be determined by a clear majority, in true democratic fashion. Occupy Wall Street has no policy agenda, but it has utter moral clarity. In writer Robert Borosage‘s words “The demonstrators have built an island of democracy in the belly of Wall Street. The bankers looking down on them would be on the street had not taxpayers bailed them out. No one is confused about the message. Wall Street got bailed out; Main Street was abandoned. The top 1% rigs the rules and pockets the rewards. And 99% get sent the bill for the party they weren’t even invited to”.

So far without an agenda, without an electoral operation, without a slate of candidates, if the Occupy movement continues to grow, it will force every national politician to decide whose side he or she is on. Are you with the banks or with the 99%? And prove it. Reporters will ensure the question gets posed; voters will be interested in the answer.

More info: www.occupysantacruz.org