nature of "Occupy Wall Street"

[fractal-vortex]

hi

One of my friends now in jail in Ukraine (for political reasons) asked me a question about the Occupy movement. What is its nature in general? Who is behind it? What did it accomplish? Does it have a future?

If you can help me answer the question, I will be glad to hear from you.

fractal-vortex

[marl]

The Occupy movement was started when an anti-consumerist magazine entitled 'Adbusters' put out a call to protest Wall Street on September 17th, and it was initially organized with the help of the Spanish 15M indignant movement. This is very unimportant, however, as they had nothing to do with its success. I imagine if a different left-leaning protest had started by different people at the same time, it would of picked up speed in the same manner. The movement is completely donation-funded, and despite what right-winged rightists imply, did not receive money from George Soros (it's a long story). It started out as a hippy-like encampment in New York, but became a vanguard of radical student types. Later on, it gained organized labor support. Occupy, in my opinion, has accomplished, and is currently accomplishing, a, albeit a small one, shift in class consciousness. Due to the temperature (of the weather) and lack of energy, it fizzled out in winter. However, we've started to stage some high profile demos, and we're building for a general strike throughout the US on May 1st. Keep your eye out, this spring will be an important one.

Yesterday, there was a march of 1,000 people in NYC by OWS. The important thing to note is that it was organized in a short period of time. Of course, 1,000 people is a lot of less than the 30,000 or 50,000 we saw in the fall, but it shows people are coming back out.

[Brosa Luxemburg]

I was apart of my local Occupy movement in the U.S. For a smaller community that is usually very right wing, it actually had quite a lot of participants. Some leftists on here don't like the Occupy movement and claim that is was to reformist instead of revolutionary. While there is some merit in this claim, from my personal experience the Occupy movement accomplished much in terms of igniting people's class consciousness. It also opened people up to more radical ideas and beliefs. At my local Occupy there were some hardcore right-wingers who showed up to cause trouble and eventually became center-left. While that may not seem like a huge accomplishment, it is for the type of right-wingers they were (such as wanting to see a "birth certificate", supporting all imperialist U.S. agendas to being anti-imperialist, anti-corporate, etc.) There were also many left-center people who eventually were convinced of socialism!

[Brosa Luxemburg]

hi

One of my friends now in jail in Ukraine (for political reasons) asked me a question about the Occupy movement. What is its nature in general? Who is behind it? What did it accomplish? Does it have a future?

If you can help me answer the question, I will be glad to hear from you.

fractal-vortex
e-mail: [email protected]

It's nature: It was a left wing movement against the massive inequalities in wealth that exist in the United States and all over the world.

Who was behind it: People fed up with the above of all political backgrounds.

What did it accomplish: It showed the elitist classes of society we are sick of their rule and helped the masses gain a class conscience.

Does it have a future: I hope, and I hope it is more radical than it was.

[fractal-vortex]

thanks for your reply. But when I asked about the nature of OWS, I didn't want a baby answer, for kindergarten. I wanted an in-depth analysis of the class nature, goals, actions, numbers, future, etc. fractal-vortex

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Edited the OP's post to remove his email address as such information goes against the board rules.

[bots]

thanks for your reply. But when I asked about the nature of OWS, I didn't want a baby answer, for kindergarten. I wanted an in-depth analysis of the class nature, goals, actions, numbers, future, etc. fractal-vortex

cia?

[A Marxist Historian]

thanks for your reply. But when I asked about the nature of OWS, I didn't want a baby answer, for kindergarten. I wanted an in-depth analysis of the class nature, goals, actions, numbers, future, etc. fractal-vortex

Class nature? Well, it bills itself as the movement of "the 99%," so it is a populist movement of "the whole people" vs. the superrich rather than a working class movement.

In practice, the central Occupy activists come usually from a student-middle class background. Workers cannot in general participate in occupations for any great length of time, as they have homes, apartments, families, etc. So the bulk of the occupiers are footloose students, poeple temporarily unemployed, plus of course large numbers of the outright homeless. In Marxist terms, petty bourgeoisie plus lumpenproletariat.

Worker do however strongly sympathize with the movement, and trade unions have frequently adopted Occupy slogans as their new organizing tools. Combined of course with support for Obama, something most Occupy activists dislike, creating conflict.

Goals are very vague. The Occupy movement has deliberately refused to come up with a program, on the grounds that it doesn't want particular goals, but rather a change of the whole system. What whole system it wants is ... undefined.

The Occupy movement has a right wing, strongest in New York, which ultimately orients to reform, and will doubtless end up voting for Obama in the fall, and a left wing, based on the West Coast, especially in Oakland, heavily influenced by anarchism.

What is its future? Nobody knows. It has declined considerably since its peak. But it definitely captured the imagination of a lot of Americans for a while, and pushed American political discourse to the left in a general sense. Before the Occupy movement, it looked like Obama would lose, now it looks like he will win, and this is not accidental.

It has become less popular now however, and may be dribbling away. We will see.

Its main intended action is the plan to have a general strike on Mayday. But, as Occupy has no real roots in the organizations of the working class, this cannot possibly succeed.

We will be able to tell much more about the future of Occupy after the inevitable May 1 fiasco.

-M.H.-

[Ele'ill]

The nature of the Occupy movement is as a generalized call to unending action against 'power' or at least 'until things change'. Kind of vague? This brought a mix of ideologies together and offered a rather lengthy standing opportunity for radicals to agitate within it- which they did- which has defined perspective on strategy (tactics) and helped propell a lot of the liberal elements forward into actual action. It basically forced discussion and action on issues ranging from the environment (both global issues as well as local issues) to issues in the work place (global as well as local). One of the most important things in my opinion to come out of the Occupy movement are the mass solidarity actions and marches that we've seen and I don't even think we've seen the full potential yet. I think that seed has been planted.




What did it accomplish? Does it have a future?

It brought a lot of people together by giving them an excuse to. I think it was really that simple. It was the non-contested project proposed to us. There wasn't anything elaborate about it which was key as well. I think most of us are tired of getting burned out before projects even start to come alive and with this one it was just like a freebie at first and there was very little pressure on anyone. It allowed people to help where and when they could rather than demanding that they stay attentive all the time so it allowed for a kind of shift rotation.

It brought people together- to stand with other people. The solidarity aspect here is huge because I don't think a lot of the people, liberal or other, had any idea the extent of what we'd go through for each other. I don't think they realized just how brave we are (and how brave they could be) and just how serious the problems we're facing are. We took ourselves seriously and other people started to also. This is evident when looking at where mainstream conversations have ended at their relatively full conclusion on things like confrontation and the role of the police as well as how many people are willing to march in a confrontational unpermitted solidarity march for say Oakland, or with OWS itself or with the ILWU. Those aren't old veteran radicals anymore. There are a lot of new faces.

Does it have a future? I think it does. No mercy May 1st.

[Paulappaul]

In practice, the central Occupy activists come usually from a student-middle class background. Workers cannot in general participate in occupations for any great length of time, as they have homes, apartments, families, etc. So the bulk of the occupiers are footloose students, poeple temporarily unemployed, plus of course large numbers of the outright homeless. In Marxist terms, petty bourgeoisie plus lumpenproletariat.

Not from experience at all in Seattle, Olympia or Portland. Infact this is straight up main stream media rhetoric. The actual "base" of Occupy who organize events, run the offices, make the food, etc. are Veterans, Workers and the freshly Unemployed still working off some welfare either from the state or parents. Depending on the march, the class composition is different. I've been to marches where the ILWU makes up a large bloc along other unions and I've been to marches where the Homeless make up a large bloc.


The Occupy movement has a right wing, strongest in New York, which ultimately orients to reform, and will doubtless end up voting for Obama in the fall, and a left wing, based on the West Coast, especially in Oakland, heavily influenced by anarchism.

Another bullshit. Occupy Wall St sings "Anti - Capitalista" and "Real Democracy now" every time they ring the "People's Bell". They have a strong Labor - Occupy Working group which recently participated in a fair strike and is organizing actively for a General Strike. Oakland is a mix bag. I wouldn't say Anarchism, it's broader then that really, Libertarian Socialist is better. There is a strong current of this all along the west coast that came out of the wood work with the call to General Strike and the shutdown of the ports.


What is its future? Nobody knows. It has declined considerably since its peak. But it definitely captured the imagination of a lot of Americans for a while, and pushed American political discourse to the left in a general sense. Before the Occupy movement, it looked like Obama would lose, now it looks like he will win, and this is not accidental.

What world do you live in?


Its main intended action is the plan to have a general strike on Mayday. But, as Occupy has no real roots in the organizations of the working class, this cannot possibly succeed.

Cause the Working Class has no organizations. It has been left unorganized for 60+ years