Forum Post: My Diagnosis and Prescription for the OWS Movement
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 23, 2011, 7:12 p.m. EST by DoctorX
(11)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Hello, OWS-ers, 99%ers, or whatever you choose to call yourselves.
It seems to me that the OWS "movement", is not in the best of conditions, and judging by the threads here, quite a few people agree. They are worried about the possible decline in public approval, about how it is high time some demands are laid out, and so forth. Here is my two cents on this matter.
The image problem is not easily under OWS control to begin with, so it'll take a smart strategy to bring it under control. If the problem is that OWS is identified as a bunch of spoiled college students who just need to get the jobs that the Republicans are doing their best to obstruct the creation of, the only real strategy IMO is to tough it out through the winter. Some stoic endurance is going to be necessary to change minds here.
If the image problem is that there are elements of the so-called ideological fringe within OWS, there is a clear way NOT to solve that problem; namely by squashing those elements in a desperate attempt to try to prove that the OWS movement is as American as mom and apple pie. It isn't going to work. ANY political position outside a very narrowly defined band is automatically a fringe position. As to who defines that band, it's the Village of Very Serious People that some of you may have heard about. So, by default, OWS is fringe. Its job is to raise the level of consciousness of more and more people. There is no point in actively suppressing or silencing currents within the movement that are at variance with Middle America, they will have to be persuaded.
OWS, as a movement, has something of an identity crisis. Absent of a reasonably clearly defined identity, the success and viability of OWS is in question.
OWS is a revolutionary movement, in the broadest use of the term, it seeks to change power structures, or at least is trying to raise issues that will facilitate such change. It is addressing inequality issues, it is touching the social question. That is why the Right is going completely batshit over it. OWS is opposed to the only real party the United States has ever had - the Property Party, as Gore Vidal calls it.
The entire country is destabilizing politically, as the debt ceiling issue should make abundantly clear. History has shown that when a certain co-occurence of factors occurs, the result is the collapse of the older order. When elites serve only themselves, when the common people are in dire staits economically, when an attack is made by the elites on the rights and freedoms of the people, are some such factors.
A more alarming sign is the incapacity of the elite to actually govern. With the inevitable failure of the Supercommittee, it is harder and harder to doubt that threshold has been passed. This is not good news. By any reasonable standard, the United States is in deep, deep trouble and seems to be approaching a revolutionary situation.
So I recommend that OWS at least be candid about the bed it has, willy nilly, chosen to lie on. The rest of OWS' identity however, seems pretty much up for grabs and the prime task of oWS, is to define its own identity in more certain terms, before its identity is resolved from the outside, by its enemies.
Since one of the main barriers being the OWS-ers and the actual 99% seems to be a lack of demands, I suggest that some demands be chosen at once. The criteria ought to be ones that are broadly acceptable to the masses for which OWS claims to speak, yet of a nature that they will not be immediately addressed, so that the occupations may be prolonged at least until January.
Secondly, leaders. Some sort of spokepeople with offical status must be elected on the ground. If you guys are hung up on remaining leaderless, this could be a big problem, but I am looking into the matter of how things can be conducted and a list of demands can be generated without leaders, as you seem to insist on.
I was going to add a list of what the attitude of the OWS movement should have towards this, that, and the other ought to be, but (a) I don't really want to go off on a rant, (b) this post is long enough as it is. There are a great many aspects of OWS that I am necessarily critical of (mostly stuff I think the OWS consensus position constitutes a thoroughly naive attitute), but as the movement seems to be going into a critical phase, I don't want to ruffle more feathers than I have to. I will limit it to saying, don't seek popularity too cheaply.
Your questions and comments go to the heart of building popular support for the movement. You are right about letting the power structure define us. However, they will do whatever it takes to muddle the issues and defame participants. It must be assumed that several government agencies have large numbers of infiltrators operating within-and, of course, scanning this website. By ensuring that the message continues to be one of compassion for the economically dispossessed, solidarity with those living in fear of their futures, and by reaching out to other progressive organizations, such as labor unions, the environmental and anti-war movements, we can bolster our numbers and help deflect attacks on who we are. We don't need leaders yet. But we do need a strong contingent of people at every protest who are clear about the movement's goals. In the same way that candidates for office speak only in high-minded generalizations, we should save the details until we have the political clout to do back them up. We are on the precipice of something potentially really big here. As we continue to make our presence known, suffer abuse at the hands of the state, and develop the message of absolute change, there is no question that the movement will add adherents and sympathy from the public. It may take a series of critical events in the economy to give us a really big push. But those are occurring even as we speak! It is probably a long way down the road, but if and when something happens to suddenly break the bonds between the people and their government, hopefully we will not be in the untenable position the Egyptian people were only a few months ago--regime change without the outline and/or people to replace it. Thanks for reading.
The real problem is organization and lack of vision. Your right about there frustration but it's more than just college kids. And at least they had the balls to stand up where most of the older and so called wiser elders did nothing. The problems we face are huge. The problem is, no one has any answers, especially not government. So of course things are going to come to a boiling point and erupt. But that still leaves us with no answers, no plans, no progress and no hope. I think the only thing to fear from ows and the other eruptions that will occur in the future is the instability it will cause on top of all the other problems that we are already have. And like the tea party, it always seems that these movements start out well and then they get taken over by the dark side.
The Osixs plan and vision makes the best sense to me. Everyone else is just angry or venting.
FIGHT THE CAUSE - NOT THE SYMPTOM Read “Common Sense 3.1” at ( www.revolution2.osixs.org )
The identity crisis is caused by OWS's obsession with comparing itself to other protests around the world. It's a mix match of references to "Days of Rage", Egypt protests, Syrian protests, Tiananmen Square protests, anarchic protests in last century Spain, Russian communist protests of the last century, etc... It doesn't digest these influences, so it remains absolutely confused. It needs to throw this lame postmodernity out by cuting the cords with all the other protests, and become All American with it's own 100% American imagery. It needs to be modern instead of postmodern. America is about creating an image for itself, not taking it from others. That's how it's always been. Superman doesn't reference his predecessors Hercules or Samson in a clear way; he has digested them and become All American. Occupy needs to do the same.