Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer.
One event, two headlines.
From OWS News:
It’s Time to ‘Occupy the Dream:’ African-American Faith Community Joins Forces with Occupy Wall Street – First Day of Action on MLK Day, Jan 16 at Federal Reserve Bank.”
From Glen Ford at Black Agenda Report:
Occupy Wall Street Joins Occupy The Dream: Is It Cooptation, or Growing the Movement?
Can you share some goals, but differ on others, and cooperate on an event or action? Is the “Occupy the Dream” event an example of focusing on areas of agreement, sharing your strengths, and leaving disagreements for another day? Or, is this an example of “cooptation”?
From the OWS release:
Members of the African-American faith community have joined forces with Occupy Wall Street to launch a new campaign for economic justice inspired by the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. Faithful to its philosophical origin, the ‘Occupy the Dream’ coalition has called for a National Day of Action on Martin Luther King Day – Monday, January 16, 2012 – when they will ‘Occupy the Federal Reserve,’ in multiple cities nationwide, focusing attention on the gross injustice visited upon the 99% by the financial elite. This will be the first of many actions leading up to a mass gathering in Washington D.C., to be held April 4 – 7, when millions will unite in celebration of the life and legacy of Dr King.
The Occupy the Dream coalition was launched by a contemporary of Dr. King – Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. – and Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant of the Empowerment Temple Church, in partnership with Occupy Wall Street organizers. …
The Occupy Wall Street movement is about people coming together to say ‘enough is enough.’ Our families have endured economic oppression for too long. The Occupy Wall Street movement draws its strength from people of all different walks of life, with opinions across the political spectrum, coming together to find common ground and unite against the global financial interests that have bought control of our government. …
We are proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with the African-American Faith community in this campaign for economic fairness and justice. We are all in this fight together. We all want a healthy and secure future for our families. In the absence of a government that will defend and represent us, we are now taking it upon ourselves to stand up and defend our own families.
From Occupy the Dream, the call is to occupy the Federal Reserve Banks in thirteen cities: Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Kansas City, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, San Francisco, and St. Louis.
Ford writes:
The Democratic Party may have entered the Occupy Wall Street movement through the ‘Black door,’ in the form of Occupy The Dream, the Black ministers’ group led by former NAACP chief and Million Man March national director Dr. Benjamin Chavis and Baltimore mega-church pastor Rev. Jamal Bryant. Both are fervent supporters of President Obama.
Occupy The Dream’s National Steering Committee is made up entirely of clergy, as are its Members at Large, but its secular inspiration comes from media mogul … Russell Simmons, who was a frequent visitor to Manhattan’s occupied Zuccotti Park. …
Dr. Chavis said, ‘If Dr. King were alive today, he would be part of Occupy Wall Street,’ and Rev. Bryant, pastor of Baltimore’s 10,000-member Empowerment Temple AME Church, pledged that Occupy The Dream will work ‘in lock-step’ with OWS. …
The very next Sunday, Rev. Bryant was at his pulpit exhorting his congregation to get out the vote for the president. …
It appears that Occupy Wall Street’s new Black affiliate is also in ‘lock-step’ with the corporate Democrat in the White House, whose administration has funneled trillions of dollars to Wall Street and greatly expanded U.S. theaters of war. ..
Dr. Chavis is also an active Obama booster… .
Looking to the event itself, Ford continues:
It is highly unlikely … that Occupy The Dream will do anything that might embarrass this president. … Will the ministers pretend, next Monday, that the president is somehow removed from the Fed’s massive transfers of the people’s credit and cash to Wall Street over the past three years? …
Ford raises another possibility, and raises more questions:
… the OWS brand equips the ‘Dream’ ministers … to accomplish a special mission: to insulate the president from the Occupy movement and the national conversation on economic equality – or, better yet, to make him appear to be part of the solution. …
At this late stage, there is no antidote to the potential cooptation, except to rev up the movement’s confrontation with the oligarchic powers-that-be – including Wall Street’s guy in the White House. Let’s see what happens if OWS demonstrators join with Occupy The Dream at Federal Reserve sites on January 16 carrying placards unequivocally implicating Obama in the Fed’s bailouts of the banksters, as Occupy demonstrators have done so often in the past. Will the Dream’s leadership be in ‘lock-step’ with that? Maybe so – I’ve heard that miracles sometimes do happen.
Cooperation or co-optation? Just one of those alliances that occur in the world of activism, when everyone involved is aware of both agreements and disagreements, but believe that working together can be a good thing for everyone? Or maybe something else entirely. I don’t know. You?
(Occupy the Dream poster via Occupy the Dream)
Let’s all hope it’s “growing the movement.”
The discussion on Bain Capital is as if everything is coming together to blow apart what’s been in place, with Occupy providing the energy. (Yes, I’m overly optimistic!)
Your posts are always terrific, Joyce.
Occupy The Dream is a spectacular concept that is filled with synchronicity.
I’m not so sure. It’s good that other groups are getting involved and speaking in the same vain but I’m reminded of something that happened to Dr.King. The “ I have a dream ” speech was well recieved but when he gave his anti – war speech at Riverside Church it was not. It was if the uppity black boy had put his nose somewhere that was strictly the purview of white people even though plenty of “ black boys ” were dying along with the white boys. I’m wondering if something similar could happen in reverse to Occupy; meaning that a certain element in the population will see the black preachers as having their own agenda, an agenda aimed at poor black people, not middle class white people. It’s an ugly thing to propose but we are dealing with the United States. One need only look at the Republican party as it is now represented to see that it’s all still out there waiting to come in.
“It was if the uppity black boy had put his nose somewhere that was strictly the purview of white people even though plenty of “ black boys ” were dying along with the white boys. I’m wondering if something similar could happen in reverse to Occupy; meaning that a certain element in the population will see the black preachers as having their own agenda, an agenda aimed at poor black people, not middle class white people.”
The imbecilic ass monkeys who think and feel that way are already supporting repugnantklaner/teabaggers.
I’m guessing there are people who can fill the spaces across the continuum, from cooperation to co-optation, but think that there are people involved with this who are simply working to find ways to help make some changes. It’s easy for me to be cynical (which often feels like realistic), but there are some folks who are willing to step up and out and actually try to make things happen. Thank goodness somebody is trying.
From what I’ve seen, a person or group becomes co-opted when they become dependent on another person or group. Whether it’s even possible for something as amorphous as the Occupy movements to be co-opted is a question in my mind, but as long as they are determined not to become dependent on particular institutions or groups they should be able to avoid it.
Awhile back, Jane Hamsher and FireDogLake cooperated with Grover “Drown it in a bathtub” Norquist on an effort to have some of Rahm Emanuel’s alleged shenanigans at Fannie Mae investigated. The effort didn’t get terribly far, but from some of the comments at that time you’d have thought FDL had gone Dark Side or something. Well, it turns out FDL is doing pretty much what it always has, so if Jane sold her soul to PNAC it’s news to me. The point being that if you go into such an arrangement with the right expectations, it’s not going to result in Nazi troops surrounding your capital.
Speaking of FDL, I don’t know if you’ve mentioned it here, Joyce, but they’re running a fund drive called Occupy Supply, which tries to get union-made warm weather gear and clothing to Occupy movements around the country. They’ve set up a distribution network using their readers, so my guess is that most of the money contributed is turned into stuff that Occupiers need.