Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer.
From Adbusters:
Battle for the Soul of Occupy
… First they silenced our uprising with a media blackout… then they smashed our encampments with midnight paramilitary raids… and now they’re threatening to neutralize our insurgency with an insidious campaign of donor money and co-optation. …
Will you allow Occupy to become a project of the old left, the same cabal of old world thinkers who have blunted the possibility of revolution for decades? Will you allow MoveOn, The Nation and Ben & Jerry to put the brakes on our Spring Offensive and turn our struggle into a ‘99% Spring’ reelection campaign for President Obama?
We are now in a battle for the soul of Occupy… a fight to the finish between the impotent old left and the new vibrant, horizontal left who launched Occupy Wall Street from the bottom-up and who dreams of real democracy and another world.
Whatever else you may think of Adbusters’ take on what’s happening, they are, as usual, unambiguous in their perspective. One thing that stands out for me is the use of the term “old left.” Maybe that’s because I remember when the Democratic Party discarded “liberal” and made “progressive” the term, or brand name, of preference. How much changed, other than the designation, is a matter of various opinions. How much is changing now is wrapped up in, among other things, the 2012 elections, and in Occupy and related movements.
Also from Adbusters:
Our Spring offensive is building toward a climactic May uprising …
May 1 we leap into the new world with a mighty multinational General Strike. Wherever you are, No Work; No School; No Shopping. No illusions. No apologies. No business as usual. Into The Streets!
May 12, we intensify with three days of global action. Jammers in London, Lisbon, Paris, Marseilles, Helsinki, Cuzco, Barcelona, Quebec are already on board with more on the way. …
We scared the G8 away from Chicago and now some occupiers are planning #OCCUPYCAMPDAVID … .
Others are upping the ante with #OCCUPYCHICAGO – a mobilization of anarchic swarms to shutdown the NATO summit.
And then one of the softer aesthetic moments of our Spring offensive could well be the #LAUGHRIOT on May 18, the day the G8 leaders meet in Camp David. There is something totally ludicrous, absurd, even insane about the eight most powerful people in the world deciding to do the people’s business … behind closed doors and razor wire fences.
This veneer of legitimacy is our tragedy turned to farce. …
Then we get ready for our next big challenge: How to Occupy the U.S. Presidential Election on November 6.
There’s always been some cooperation between Occupiers and members of the “old Left,” though I’m doubtful the latter see themselves that way. Left, liberal, progressive … whatever the labels used by those identifying as Democratic, the “horizontal left” Occupy actions that became public on September 17, 2011, have continued, and the “Spring Resistance” is well underway. Some of what’s happening, and is being planned:
From OWS, a report about actually being on Wall Street:
For a full week, Wall Street … has been #Occupied. Thanks in part to a 2000 decision by a federal court in Manhattan, protesters are legally allowed to sleep on the sidewalk, as long as they don’t block building entrances or take up more than half of the sidewalk.
Regardless of the federal court ruling, however, yesterday NYPD Decides Occupy Wall Street’s Sidewalk Sleepovers Are Illegal. In the photo, barricades remain in case the scary sleepers return.
More about what’s happening, from the OWS article above,
… Occupiers in San Francisco took over a neglected property to create a vibrant community center for the 99%. Although thwarted by police, the #SFCommune has vowed to return this May Day … .
In Boston, Occupiers set up a camp on the steps of the State House to protest cuts to the public transit system. In Chicago … Occupiers joined with mental health advocates and community allies to occupy a clinic slated for closure by the city’s ruthless austerity measures … .
… in February, Occupy Atlanta occupied the headquarters of AT&T to stop mass lay-offs. …
Occupy Detroit has opened a new social center while also staging tent city protests against foreclosures and unemployment in low-income neighborhoods. …
See also NYers Blockade Home Foreclosure Auctions with Week of Sing-In Actions in Brooklyn, Queens & the Bronx; from Denver, Take Action Against Ordinance to Criminalize Homelessness; from Sarasota, On May 12, there will be a lawn chair sit in by Occupy Sarasota at 5 Points Park; from Greensboro, Occupy Greensboro joins Occupy Raleigh to reclaim an evicted family’s foreclosed home; in NYC, Occupy Wall Street … presents Run on Bank of America”; in DC, Occupy the Justice Department.
There’s more. For example, #Occupied:ReportsFromtheFrontLines, with actions at Santa Monica College, Midwest Occupy, Occupy Berkeley, Philly, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Vanderbilt, and Un. of NC, Chapel Hill.
And looking beyond the U.S., for examples, read Canadians protest proposed tuition hikes, strike paralyzes Quetta; Montreal Students Occupy Banks in 12-Hour Protest Marathon; Ireland: Occupy Dame Street Responds to Austerity & Bail-Outs With Bank Occupation; Germany: Blockupy Frankfurt; and Occupy Papua New Guinea Takes On Government, Wins.
So where does “the Left,” in its Democratic Party version, see itself in the Occupy Spring Offensive actions?
(Spring Into Streets poster via OWS Press
Wall Street Barricades via Occupy Pix)
Then there’s the definition of “progressive” as it was used in Teddy Roosevelt’s time.
I’m just not sure Occupy has proved “superior,” which is certainly the marketing they’re pushing.
I’d be happy to see anything on “the left” that was politically effective. Occupy has not proven to be so either, but it’s active, which is something and they have moved the message, that’s for sure. It’s just there is no evidence that politicians are going to enact anything from Occupy.
Is Elizabeth Warren the Occupy-esque candidate this year? Just curious, because she’s in a dogfight in Massachusetts that could go either way & will likely be this way down to the voting booth.
That definition question is obviously important.
Moving, changing the message is, I think, the most obvious Occupy success. Not a small thing, but it clearly remains to be seen what results will follow, particularly in terms of electoral politics. Since such politics are not a focus of many / most Occupiers, it’s really up in the air. Of course, the same kind of questions were asked about other movements. They seem to serve as one of the few outside forces which can provide the kind of push that, eventually, “The Establishment” has to acknowledge. That doesn’t mean, of course, The Establishment actually changes. One of the differences between Occupy and, for example, the anti-war movement related to Vietnam, is that Occupy has a much broader focus, more of the system that produces the problems than one single, big “problem,” like the Vietnam War and what it represented. The broader focus is both a plus and a challenge, I think.
And yes, Warren’s race will be particularly interesting, including in terms of what Occupy does.
So, what’s the cutoff for being part of the “old left”? Forty-five? Forty?
I guess I think of the divide among liberals and others on the left as being more along the lines of the “establishment” versus “other”. The establishment liberals the ones who are comfortable with the way things are, and would change them if they weren’t so darned difficult. The “other” are mostly past worrying about the difficulties, for one reason or another. MoveOn, etc., are establishment movements. Occupy is part of the “other”.
Me? I’ve mostly felt like part of the “other”, and I seem to get more so as a get older.
I like your analysis, Cujo. I actually don’t think “old left” is a very good term, though I guess i get what they’re going for — claiming the “horizontal left” as the new. I just think there are people of all ages who see themselves as, to use your term, “other.” I’m definitely an “other,” too.
I’ve always considered myself to be an independent voter, even though I usually vote for Democrats. The Democrats haven’t been either liberals or “the left” in so long that it’s hard to think of them that way. The Greens and Socialists, among others, would also be part of that “other” group, and they’ve both been around for a long time.
I hope that will happen in the coming years is that more people will recognize that this is the case, that despite the way the news business mostly defines things, that there really is no representation for the left in this country. That’s the first step in figuring out what to do about it, but we still seem to be a long way from there.
What you said.