By all accounts, a substantial majority of Americans and Canadians have supported the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. A vast majority of us also have short attention spans. Andy Warhol over-estimated everyone's power of concentration, by five minutes at least, when he made his famous quip that in the post-modern world we could all expect fifteen minutes of celebrity. So, while some might have thought that a rolling series of protests might take place for years, as they did in opposition to the Vietnam War, none of us really thought this protest could be sustained as it was laid out. Winter alone has compromised the Occupy protestors in a way that cannot be mitigated. Will the Occupy protest be forgotten as quickly as our fifteen minutes of fame?
What can be done? What visible presence can be brought in order to sustain and further the peaceful protests that have begun? I believe there is a visible method of protesting that could continue for years, and have real effect. Instead of trying to maintain one camp in every city and town, might it not be possible to have from two to a dozen people volunteer to represent the protest for a half a day or a full day in selected locations in any given urban area. These volunteers might be assigned to stand and picket in front of a bank or brokerage firm, for example. If enough volunteers can be mustered, as they could in our larger cities, Occupy protestors would be present at several venues every day. Some venues, such as a strategic location in view of Wall Street (or, rather, in the view of Wall Street operatives), could be womaned and manned every day of the year for many years.
The virtue of this plan is that it only takes a few people with picket signs to perpetuate the idea of the 99% versus the 1% and .1%. It will not be "news" for the media, at least not after a few minutes, but it will be a steady reminder of reforms needed and policies not taken. Common people, for want of a better term for who we are, will not forget and might even be heartened by the knowledge that someone is keeping the cause alive. In the mass societies in which we live today, attempting to impress politicians, legislators, and the economic movers-and-shakers with numbers of protestors in one place at one time is only possible with a scale of protest numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Tahrir Square has been remarkable in regard to this old style protest, but it cannot be a model for this kind of protest, where the metropolitan center of Manhattan does not carry the central symbolism of Tahrir Square in Cairo, and where the issue is one that resonates with all of us locally across a very big continent.
Permanent protestors, brought out daily on a rotating volunteer basis, has a secondary value. It allows us all to participate in a meaningful way. I joined the "Occupy" march in my home town but I was not the only one who left wondering if such a brief symbolic act was worth very much. Over my lifetime, I have also done volunteer work for political parties. Because political parties do not want you for your ideas or your views on policies (unless you are among the .1% elite in the party), they generally want you to lick stamps, deliver leaflets, or put up campaign signs. Standing in front of Bank of America with a few like-minded protestors is much more rewarding. Unlike "MoveOn," for example, an elite cadre would not simply ask you to sign a petition and to contribute money; you would have to inform yourself well about issues and possible policies because you might be asked important questions during your volunteer picketing, or worse, accosted by opponents.
Finally, organizing for this kind of permanent protest can lead to a larger pool of reform-minded people than will remain if the current method of protest is allowed to fizzle. People like you and me, standing in front of Wells Fargo, might even find other important things that could bind us together in opposition to the world of alienation that has now displaced what used to be called the "democratic people out of doors."
15 years ago
