Occupy Wall Street: Five Years Later

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which sought to rein in the financial sector and restore economic fairness and justice to America.

Here's a list of the things the Occupy Wall Street movement has accomplished:

If you give me some time, I might be able to think of more. :-p  

Occupy Nothing At All

To divide and conquer is how you defeat your enemy. The Occupy Wall Street movement can now be conquered quite easily, for it has divided itself.

Since many of the round-the-clock encampments have been disbanded, the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators have been fragmented and splintered, according to Amy Westfeldt of the Associated Press. Instead of speaking with one voice, the protesters have had their tongues confounded by being split into different groups and diverted to working on different issues. According to Westfeldt's article, several protesters say the smaller factions are getting in the way of the larger message about reversing the economic inequality that persists in the United States. The movement has become very democratic in addressing concerns about issues but very ineffective in getting anything accomplished.

"Are they all on the same page?" union organizer Mario Rodriguez asks rhetorically. "In terms of strategy and tactics, I don't think they are."

They're roadkill for the right.

And so the Occupy Wall Street movement has ended before it's begun, And life goes on. And no one cares.

Occupy Again?

Last week I wrote that the Occupy Wall Street movement was dead. This week I think my declaration may have been premature, or maybe even dead wrong.

Ed Schultz interviewed members of the Occupy movement, including Scott Olsen, the Iraq War veteran who was severely injured during a run-in with police at an Occupy protest in Oakland. They told Schultz that the movement is just getting started, with new protests planned, and Olsen has said that he will continue to keep demonstrating himself.  In fact,  there's a massive encampment on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol next month.

Meanwhile, however, the demonstrations at Zuccotti Park in New York seemed to have diminished to nothing, or next to it, in the wake of the dismantling of the encampment. And the mainstream media seem to be paying little or no attention to any protests now. Ed Schultz and other progressive broadcasters seem to be alone in this assessment that the movement will continue.

Ironically, my pessimism was validated by stories the media have covered. CBS's "60 Minutes" has done stories on the explosion of child poverty in America and on the lack of prosecutions against greedy bankers and investors. So how much is being done in response to that? It almost makes me pine for the days when Ronald Reagan was President - because he always wanted to follow up with his aides on Monday mornings about doing something about what he'd seen on "60 Minutes" the previous night.

Occupy Nothing

The Occupy Wall Street movement is pretty much over. Stick a fork in it, boys, it's done. And the end hasn't come because of the evictions most of the "occupiers" have faced in different cities. It's mostly because no one - least of all the media - pays attention to them anymore.

A lot of Occupy Wall Street groups tried to make a statement about the conspicuous spending on Black Friday; some of them showed up as flash mobs in Wal-Marts expressing solidarity with the exploited and underpaid workers who were forced to work from midnight to 8 A.M. and possibly later that morning. Guess what: Retail sales for the day after Thanksgiving set a new record in 2011 - $11.4 billion. The truth of the matter is, even in a recessionary period like this one, to be against shopping is like being against America.

Also, new polls suggest that while most Americans still approve of Occupy Wall Street's objectives - making the rich pay their fair share - they increasingly disapprove of their methods and tactics, which include camping in public plazas, disrupting traffic in the general area (generated by people trying to get to work) and, presumably, playing bongo drums. (Middle America prefers melody to rhythm.)

Oh yeah, although many of the protesters are unable to find employment, right-wingers like Newt Gingrich are exhorting them to get a job as soon as they've washed up. The joke's on him; they're already washed up. Success in America is defined by hard work and playing by the rules, and conservatives have convinced Americans that the Occupy Wall Street crowd is capable of neither. Democrats, which hoped to catch of some of Occupy Wall Street's energy, are now being warned that an association with OWS could cost them the White House and Congress in 2012.

The Occupy Wall Street protests have become the sociopolitical equivalent of the grunge rock revolt; it's shaken the established order, but has pretty much failed to bring it down . . . and collapsed in the attempt.

Liberate Wall Street?

The round-the-clock occupation of Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan is over. At one o'clock this morning, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the park cleared of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators who had been camping out there for nearly two months, citing health and safety hazards that apparently hadn't existed in all the time the protesters were allowed to stay there. Bloomberg also said that the Occupy Wall Street protest can continue at the park - without the sleeping bags or tents. And if this privately-owned park is run like any public park, many of which close at dusk, no one is likely to be able to stay up in the park overnight.

The massive demonstration planned in New York for this Thursday (November 17) is likely to be the high watermark for the Occupy Wall Street crowd. Without the park in Lower Manhattan as a focal point, and with authorities cracking down on overnight occupations elsewhere, the news media are likely to mostly ignore the movement going forward and move on to the scandals and celebrity tidbits that make up the bread and butter of American broadcast journalism. Sure, some protesters have called this merely the beginning of their movement. Yeah, I heard similar statements about causes that were pretty much forgotten in a couple of months. So please forgive me - no, really, please forgive me - if I sound like I think that the Occupy Wall Street movement has had its moment in the sun already. Because I do. Remember the renewed focus on the poor after Katrina? The communitarian spirit after 9/11? The rising numbers of women in Congress after the Clarence Thomas hearings? Get the picture?

I may be wrong, and I hope I am. But the Occupy Wall Street movement, which grew in part out of a dissatisfaction with government after the debt ceiling deal, can't possibly see the focus in Washington on deficit reduction to stave off automatic spending cuts by next Wednesday as a sign that anyone in Congress is listening to them. As for the 2012 elections, I wonder if there's going to be any momentum left by the time the Obama re-election campaign is in full force. You could tell from the energy of the Tea Party rallies long before November 2010 that the right was energized and in control of the debate. Right now, despite sympathy for and solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protests, I'm not too sure that this movement has enough muscle or edge to muscle out and edge out the status quo. The Tea Party put figures like Pat Toomey and Rand Paul in the U.S. Senate; so far, there's little indication that people like Elizabeth Warren are going to benefit from the Occupy Wall Street crowd.

Yeah, I hear a lot of optimism about the Occupy Wall Street movement. Much of it mirrors the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency in 2008. But then we got the Tea Party instead.

It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like . . . Halloween?

I can't believe it - a snowstorm in October? Not just a dusting, either - northwestern New Jersey is expected to get anywhere from six to ten inches of snow, and even the urban areas closer to New York City - and the city itself! - could get enough snow to measure with a ruler.  

To add insult to injury, it's going to be heavy wet snow - the kind that can bring down tree limbs, and with many trees in the Northeast still bearing their leaves, limbs that would survive wet snow accumulations in January and February, or even early spring snowfalls, might go down this time.  Terrific - we have a red maple with a branch right over the power lines on the street.  Fortunately, I got one limb down with a long-handled saw, and I pruned some limbs from another tree hanging over the line feeding our house.  But that renegade branch I mentioned is still going to worry me.

And then there's that big oak in our backyard . . ..

Don't be surprised if you don't hear from me in the near future. This storm may not be a hurricane, but given the odd circumstances - for one thing, it's coming out of Tennessee - this is a nor'easter that could be powerful enough to qualify as Irene Mark Two.  My mother and I got through that storm unscathed only two months ago, but we likely won't be lucky twice.

Great, I forgot to buy fresh batteries for my portable radio . . .. 

If there's one good thing that may come out of this storm, it's that Occupy Wall Street now faces its first test of winter weather in New York, and if they can get through it, they're ready to take on any nasty weather.  The Occupy Wall Street crowd is already comparing this to the Valley Forge encampment.

And, as in that famous Bugs Bunny cartoon about American Revolutionary history, they'll shiver in their electric blankets.  I just hope they don't take their misery out on the ice cream man.

:-D           

I Occupied Wall Street

I finally did it.  I went to the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in Lower Manhattan today.  I was in town for a stamp show, and in the interest of killing two birds with one stone (metaphorically, of course - I'm an animal rights supporter), I went down to Zuccotti Park to join the protest.  That's right, I didn't go to take pictures, I went to lend my voice to the protests.  I even walked around carrying a sign.

While other demonstrators went around carrying signs decrying the war, corporate greed, and the lack of jobs, I carried around a homemade sign saying, "Save AMTRAK!"  Because, you must understand, Amtrak faces a possible sixty percent cut in funding by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which could be seen as a grudge against President Obama and his oft-thwarted plans for high-speed rail, but is actually the latest in a series of attempts by Republicans to gut and liquidate the national passenger railroad.  Republicans, of course, don't like any public amenity that serves the greater good - in this case, moving people efficiently - but does not make a profit. Obama wants high-speed passenger rail, but he's dealing with Republicans on Capitol Hill who mostly don't want passenger rail at any speed.    

My sign provoked interest, and  I even got a couple of people to ask about it. I explained Amtrak's situation to them, and I convinced them quite easily that a strong Amtrak would provide more jobs to Americans and help more people travel, as well as benefiting the public realm.  As I see it, it all ties in with the demonstrations against the consolidation of power and money by private interests.

I was surprised at how small Zuccotti Park was, because television footage always seems to make it look larger. It was supposed to have been cleared yesterday for a power washing that has since been postponed.  Ironically, the last time I had been on this block was four years ago, when I was at the plaza across Broadway from the park four years ago where Isamu Noguchi's sculpture Red Cube stands, and . . . the plaza around the sculpture was being power washed.

Zuccotti Park was jammed full of protesters, though, so it was not exactly a small group of embittered misfits. These people were workers, hipsters, young professionals, and ordinary people like myself demonstrating against the growing power of corporations and making it clear that we've had enough. (There was even a theater group performing, appropriately enough, Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot.)   As for my pet cause . . .  Bill Clinton was elected President in 1992 promising to modernize Amtrak but the Republicans took over the House of Representatives two years later and tried to kill it.  So I've seen this movie before . . . and I don't want to see it again.

I stayed for about twenty minutes, taking in the protests and the sloganeering, but I had to move on, as my time in New York was limited.  I think I got enough people to see my sign and think about how Amtrak is linked to their idea of a better America.  I think I made my point.

And I may go back. :-)  

It's Only Words

The mainstream media keep going on and on and on about the lack of a clear agenda coming from Occupy Wall Street, and even though the group does indeed have one, they haven't been able to articulate it in a series of sound bites that Middle America can understand.  In this arena, the Tea Party and the Republicans clearly beat them hands down.  Republicans and their fascistic allies have been able to get away with every bad policy they've ever dreamed up because of an economy of words in selling their ideas.

Thanks to Republican word wizard Frank Luntz, they've been able to carefully choose and manipulate words to make their ideas somehow sound palatable.  They got rid of the inheritance tax by calling it the "death tax."  They watered down the health care law by calling the public option a "government takeover," and now they're calling rich, greedy oligarchs "job creators." 

So I'd like to speak directly to the Occupy Wall Street group, and here's what I have to say: You guys need your own personal Frank Luntz.  You need someone who can simplify both your demands - and your name.  You need . . . me.  Now, about your name - Occupy Wall Street? That's not a name, that's what you do! So here's what I propose: If you're going against the Tea Party, then call yourself . . . the Pure Water League! That'll tie in with your environmental concerns.

You also need your own euphemisms.  And here's the sweetest part: Your euphemisms, unlike the Republicans' euphemisms, would have a ring of truth.  Call the billionaire bankers "bank robbers!"  Call the corporate shareholders "job destroyers!" Call the hedge fund managers "money traders!"  Call all of the above "fat cats" - that term has existed for years!  It's time you adopted it.

And what do you stand for? Health care for all, quality public transit, unions, an end to voter suppression . . ..  Wait! That's too much!  Fox News will cut to the Conrad Murray trial before you get the first point listed. Remember on "Happy Days," how Richie Cunningham, while running for high school student body president, bored teenagers with his twenty-two points? Even President Woodrow Wilson had only fourteen!  You only need two points.  The Tea Party has two points - small government and lower taxes.  Your two points should be, tax the rich and fight for the little guy!  (No, feminists, "little guy and gal" takes to long so say - for the sake of this argument, "guy" is gender-neutral, like on the last episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," where the station boss kept Ted Baxter on the job as news anchor, and said to the remainder of the news staff, "I'm going to have the let the rest of you guys go" - including Mary.)

There, Occupy Wall Street - I mean, Pure Water League, no you know what to do.  Now you know what to say.  Get out there and say it!  

Discovering America

Not too many people in what Sarah Palin calls the "lamestream" media think the Occupy Wall Street protests can last, so long as they don't have a clear agenda, even though their agenda is perfectly clear; they're demonstrating against corporate hegemony and a concentration of wealth that benefits only a few of us.  Since the "lamestream" - er, mainstream media are part of that coporate culture, of course the media are going to say they don't know what they stand for.

Right now, the one thing keeping Occupy Wall Street from making further inroads is the inability of the young, socially liberal people behind the movement to rally others who are not so young or socially broadminded to the cause.  A recent protest in Lower Manhattan attracted  attention from some construction workers who did not harass the protesters, as happened in the antiwar demonstrations of the 1960s and 1970s, but those same hard-hats did not join them either.  This was despite the fact that these construction workers are the same blue-collar workers the protesters in Occupy Wall Street are trying to reach.  And the reason for that can be boiled down to the federal holiday being observed today.

Columbus Day.

The Occupy Wall Street protesters are trying to create an America where exploitation not only isn't tolerated, it's not celebrated either.  Columbus, of course, is now viewed as a genocidal colonialist who was instrumental in ravaging the Western Hemisphere and destroying its indigenous cultures.  But blue-collar guys like those construction workers - many of whom, I'm sure, are Italian - think of the Columbus they learned about in grade school, the intrepid explorer who discovered new lands and whose actions led to the settling and founding of America.  And when you contemplate that, you understand why conservatives refer to abortion, school prayer, and Shari'a law, issues that have nothing to with economic well-being - to divide people and keep God-fearing white ethnic working stiffs from joining the rainbow coalition of Occupy Wall Street protesters they have much more in common with economically.

So it all comes down to an Italian navigator who's been celebrated on side and scorned on the other.

I know how to make the two sides reconcile their cultural differences.  Working-class whites should agree to let Columbus Day be abolished if the left and the black nationalists agree to give up Kwanzaa.

Speaking of holidays, I'd like to wish my Canadian neighbors a happy Thanksgiving.  Be thankful for your single-payer health care system.                  

Wall Street: Activism Never Sleeps

Like the grunge revolt of twenty years ago in popular music, no one knows exactly what sparked the Occupy Wall Street movement, which started in September and has been growing ever since.  But the main cause boils down to one simple condition: Americans have seen their socioeconomic standing undermined by corporate greed, and they're not going to take it anymore.  Now they're fighting back.

Occupy Wall Street held a demonstration in New York this past Saturday that threatened to shut down the Brooklyn Bridge and today they held a march in Lower Manhattan.  Occupying a pocket park near the World Trade Center site, they've brought a diverse array of grievances ranging from diminished wages and merciless creditors to poor health care options and lack of economic opportunity. They're not as well-organized as the Tea Party, but they are a more universal and more unifying message of social and economic justice.  It's not just Woodstock hippie types; teachers and construction workers have joined the movement in New York, and similar demonstrations with a similar mix of people have sprouted up nationwide.  It won't be long before Middle America realize that this movement is their movement too.

Right now, many pundits are predicting that Occupy Wall Street is too unformed and too unfocused to last.  The media have treated the Tea Party more seriously despite their bad principles and bad ideas, and they're laughing off Occupy Wall Street as if it were a fad, like, say, Beatlemania.  As with those who scoffed at that phenomenon nearly half a century ago, they laugh at this movement at their own peril. This movement isn't a movement launched by a loudmouth TV business reporter ranting on the air.  This movement is for real.