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Occupy Wall Street: Why So Many Demands for Demands?
Everybody has a piece of advice for the protesters at Occupy Wall Street. They should put their clothes on. They should stop raising their fists. They should fact-check their handwritten signs. They should appoint leaders who can give pithy quotes to reporters. They should get with an electoral program. Nicholas Kristof even offered to help them out with a neat list of demands, in case those holding signs saying “We Are the 99%” just needed to have the unfairness of the carried interest rule explained to them.
Indeed, their failure to present demands is the most frequently heard criticism of the OWS protesters, not just in the mainstream press but from veteran leftists as well. What do these wan, angry young people want, anyway?
If you spend an hour or two down at Liberty Plaza, as I did with my 8-year-old daughter this past weekend, it’s clear enough. She got the point, at least: especially from the signs that read, “You should teach your kids to share,” and, “Give my mom her money back!! A single working mom…not fair!”
It’s not that the demands being suggested by OWS’s volunteer policy advisors in the blogosphere are not worthy ideas. At a time when we desperately need to rein in financial speculation and change the incentives on Wall Street, a financial transactions tax is a terrific policy proposal. Dean Baker has been talking about it for years. The thing is, we on the left don’t have a scarcity of policy ideas. We are positively bursting with them. Create a housing trust fund! A national infrastructure bank! And, yes, sure, eliminate the carried interest loophole so fat cats don’t get a bigger tax break than working people. (Some even have more radical ideas, which are quite sensible too.) But at best, we get a polite hearing for these ideas, which then fade away or are hopelessly watered down. We simply lack the power to put them into practice.
And in the recent past, even the most smoothly organized, expertly messaged mass demonstrations have not made a whit of difference in this regard. Consider the last big march on Wall Street this past May 12. The coalition behind it was admirably diverse, including unions like the teachers and SEIU’s 1199, as well as local community organizations such as Citizen Action NY, Coalition for the Homeless and Community Voices Heard. The “May 12 Coalition,” which turned out thousands of protesters on the appointed day, presented the Bloomberg administration with a proposal that exhibited great thoughtfulness in its rigor and detail, asking banks like JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley to take a 20 percent cut in their contracts to handle functions like child support disbursements or income tax remittances for the city. This would have saved $120 million, part of $1.5 billion that could have been extracted from the banking sector to prevent the city from having to slash education and social services, according to the coalition.
The May 12 marchers were many things the OWS protesters are not. They were orderly; they truly represented ordinary New Yorkers. They were concrete: they had a plan. But needless to say, the Bloomberg administration did not immediately recognize their plan’s superior logic and fairness and adopt it as a new template. In fact, it received no attention in the wake of the march. It was such a nonstarter that the city didn’t even bother to respond to it. And the media snoozed.
Or consider another very well thought-out mass action in the age of Obama: the “One Nation Working Together for Jobs, Justice and Education” mobilization, which brought throngs of protesters to Washington, DC, on October 2, 2010. Garnering a turnout organizers estimated at 175,000, the march won endorsements from 400 groups, including all the major national unions, the NAACP, environmental organizations, gay groups and progressive religious forces. Organizers were explicit that their goal was to fire up the liberal base and showcase the diversity of the progressive movement. They also came brandishing a plethora of proposals. Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, told the Washington Post, “The truth is there is a lot of focus on the march itself, but a march without a plan of action … is simply a one-day event. What this is about is using this march as a launching pad for policy change.” Shortly thereafter, of course, would come the devastating midterm elections, and President Obama’s cave on the Bush tax cut extension. In terms of media impact, One Nation was almost entirely eclipsed by both Glenn Beck’s rage fest a month prior and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s jokey “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” later the same month.
Of course, we need policy ideas. And the progressive groups that have staged previous rallies—like the ones that are sponsoring the “American Dream Movement” spearheaded by Van Jones, convening in Washington, DC, at this moment—are the crucial building blocks of the coalitions necessary to make long-term campaigns around real policy proposals work.
But sometimes, you also need a spark. “Occupy Wall Street,” as an idea and an action, is a stroke of brilliance. It’s not poll-tested or focus-grouped, but it expresses perfectly the outrage that is the appropriate response to the maddening political situation we find ourselves in today. It succeeds as symbolic politics: taking back the square is just what we need to do. And it’s wonderful that unions and community groups that have been working in the trenches will be linking arms with the denizens of OWS this Wednesday.
Maybe this will go nowhere too. The odds are against it, after all. But what do we have to lose? We have to try something new.
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99 Comments so far
Show AllIt would be easier to upgrade the media coverage if there were clear statable objectives, but we must go with the protesters we have, not the ones I wish we had.
There are reforms that have been articulated by some of those who have gotten some TV time: having the banks that benefited from the bailout use that money to stop foreclosing on people's homes. That's an achievable goal. There are others.
I saw the local demonstration in the company of one of my wife's out-of-state relatives who is rich and who airily dissed it as: "What do they want? They're against capitalism" with a chuckle that signaled dismissive amusement. I personally would love to replace capitalism with something more humane and inclusive, but I didn't argue with our visitor because it would be discourteous to someone who is technically a relative but who I barely know. I do know from past conversations that, had I tried to argue, no minds would have changed. This relative also deals in real estate and was commenting on banks and their various bait-and-switch dealmaking tricks they try to employ. The relative did not connect the dots and could not see that this is one of the very things people are demonstrating to demand, the end of such scammy practices.
This relative and I were able to find some common ground on the subject of the current state of the banking industry but did not accept my expressed opinion that all large financial institutions are criminal conspiracies
Last night I deliberately went to rightwing websites to see how they were spinning it and to read readers comments on those sites that had a comment section. Wow, it was unbelievable, especially Glenn Beck's website. On the Beck website, the overall attitude toward a video of a protester being interviewed went something like this: "You want a revolution you little punk? Bring it on. I'll wipe that arrogant smirk off your face real quick. I'm locked and loaded and have been accumulating ammunition for just this purpose. So bring it on. Semper Fi." etc.
there is a war coming...
some will join one side, or another...some will have few allies on either side, but will need to fight to save themselves, anyway...
there is a war coming...
this Beck site posting should be seen as evidence that the buildup is occurring, even now...
at least, on some sides...
incidentally, a site is not a side, and Wall Street is not Home...
the war we're discussing will be extremely local...like, where you are, today...
Oh, and Alex Jones and his crew for example, are spinning it thus: OWS is being duped by the global elites and playing right into their hands. The spin is that OWS is being directed by secret donors and backers - like George Soros. Other spin is that people like Van Jones are going to co-opt the protest and channel it toward Obama's re-election
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In fact, some of the spin is that all of this is part of Obama's re-election strategy!
I will say this though. Those protesters who dont see obama and the democrats as part of the problem need to become more aware of the big picture. They give people like Ann coulter an opening when she reminds the protesters that Obama received more Wall St money than any candidate.
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Also, reform of the banks is not really the answer. The entire monetary system - the whole Federal Reserve System is a scam. Ron Paulistas - though burdened for the most part with an arrogant, know-it-all attitude - nevertheless rightly point out that you need to replace the entire monetary system. But there is a progressive analysis of the Fed system - see the documnentary "The Secret of Oz" - that sees the problem but has a totally different solution than the Libertarians and the Paulistas.
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I must admit I have lost respect for the Paulistas who seem to think they are the only ones who have any real solution. I fear this country is hopelessly polarized, and as I mentioned above, some of the jokers on beck's website are advocating violence against these protests. This country may well be headed for serious social turmoil, because the economic situation is only going to get worse for the majority of people. reading the comments on beck's website, i couldnt help but feel the burning hatred being directed at these people as if they were The Enemy.
Kitaj sez: " ... They give people like Ann coulter an opening when she reminds the protesters that Obama received more Wall St money than any candidate."
***
Ann Coulter told the truth?
Wow.
O.K., let's say it so a Fox news watcher can understand:
"Too Big to Fail is Too Big"
Good message.
I doubt if there will ever be any FOXY News watchers on this or any other CD thread, as most progressives are preaching to the choir; nevertheless, true message.
CD willl attract the FOX crowd only if the articles are much more simplistic and each post is limited to no more than three five word sentences.
Yeah, and make sure you do not use any arcane words in the three five word sentences! Remember FOX NEWS watchers are mostly simple people, so you must keep it simple and stupid!
Well said. 'Our' treasury secretary was in Europe the other week, encouraging their Central Bankers to take on more debt to keep Greece and the PIIGS from defaulting. Why? Because the owners of Greece's debt are 'too big to fail'. The stock markets threatened to tank if Greece's problems weren't resolved. The investor class is also 'too big to fail', so trillions of euro will be 'made up' to float all their private debts. Who will pay for all these made up moneys? The working class will, because made-up money means money from the real economy is worth less than it was before.
The protesters in WallStreet know that their governments have said, repeatedly and in actions, that the investor-class is 'too big to fail'. That public debts must be expanded, and money's invented, to keep this global finance farce from collapsing. That, basically, the working-class must pay for it all by reduced earning-power. And that we're going to have to do this again, and again, for decades to come, perhaps forever.
Apparently in the minds of Washington's politicians, the only one's *not* too big to fail are We The People.
But last time -I- checked, We The People are far bigger, and far more powerful than the 1% who are "too big to fail". I say they're too rich to exist, and we're too pissed to resist.
"Too rich to exist." I like it. There SHOULD be a ceiling. But allow those that exceed it to downsize by funneling excess wealth into approved charities.
Your suggestion echoes Carnegie's "Gospel of Wealth" that espoused giving back the wealth gained from society as the only moral option.
As a right winger, I have a different angle on that. Too big to fail is an idea which is not a good one. Companies should be allowed to fail regardless of how big they are. It is an innate signal of something fundamentally wrong with them and their failure is the market correcting itself. I hear well meaning arguments that the market does not correct itself and then I note that it's often because it's not allowed to.
"Being allowed to fail" REQUIRES a legal framework (bankruptcy reorganization, handling claims upon assets, etc...). This requires the tools of government, and the NEXT issue is WHOSE HAND controls that tool-of-gov't? The hand of "we the people" (through our reps)?...or the hand of wallstreet agents doing the dirty work for those "imperial" crime syndicates (ie. financial establishments) that are operating out of, mainly, wallstreet AND city-of-london. Government is sovereign, is the supreme power in the land. Even the free marketeers recognize this (which is why they spend so much money and effort to capture this tool-of-government). Without government, there is NO FREE MARKET; there is only an anarchic "feeding frenzy" of predators-upon-prey. Humans are called to a higher standard of behavior, than what is required by the doctrine of social Darwinism. This is a view from a left winger. We are both agreed that "too big to fail" is not acceptible. We might disagree that nation-states (which, to me, means "we the people" organized & constituted as a society) are too big to fail. I think we CANNOT ALLOW the nation to fail, in a vain attempt to "bail out" wallstreet. Mainstreet must be bailed out. Wallstreet must be declared bankrupt and reorganized and "re-policed" by the government. This was the simple essence of FDR's "New Deal". It's time again for it.
12 points by Saul Olinsky in the classic: Rules for radicals
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/alinsky.htm
1) Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have (Alinsky 1972: 127).
2) Never go outside the experience of your people (Alinsky 1972: 127).
3) Wherever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy (Alinsky 1972: 127).
4) Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules (Alinsky 1972: 128).
5) Ridicule is man's most potent weapon (Alinsky 1972: 128).
6) A good tactic is one that your people enjoy (Alinsky 1972: 128).
7) A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag (Alinsky 1972: 128).
8) Keep the pressure on (Alinsky 1972: 128).
9) The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself (Alinsky 1972: 129).
10) The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition (Alinsky 1972: 129).
11) If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside (Alinsky 1972: 129).
12) The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative (Alinsky 1972: 130).
13) Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it (Alinsky 1972: 130).
If you can’t afford the book, its online:
http://www.filestube.com/ba0634b2318cd19503e9,g/Rules-for-Radicals-by-Saul-Alinsky-5-Star-Review.html
The demands demanding that the protesters produce something clear comes from knowing that a tiny number of collage-aged kids milling about and complaining is going to produce little outside of scorn from the people outside of the little bubble.
The "I support pointless complaining " buttons aren't much in demand.
We need both organization to focus and we need serendipity or spontaneity which is the air of the occupy Wall St. and it's sister protests.
The down side of organizing is it is boring work where you end up spending most of your time debating with fellow protestors over what to do and how to do it which dissipates a lot of creative spontaneous energy.
Having fun is important, maybe more important than too much emphasis on the "big message". Keeping the powers of conformity guessing and off balance is the only way to deal with this national security police state who will know what you are planning with other activists before you agree on the plan.
Another thing is most organization bores the hell out of main street media, they are looking for blood and excitement not a list of demands.
The recent protests are aware of the usual pitfalls of planning demonstrations with amazing results.
Not having permits is a good way of saying we have had enough and civil disobedience is a long fought for right that we will keep.
Good article... makes me think... revolution needs no permit.
A revolution with a permit is just a parade.
"We simply lack the power to put them into practice" - And this is all about acquiring power. It is more important that people are demonstrating, are seen, and their diverse demands are heard. Now is the time to get attention. But, if you need clarity, listen to Van Jones. He has the message!
anyone has the power to throttle the neck of, or poison, or infect, or stab, or shoot, or drown, or shove down a stairwell, or bomb, or blackmail, or extort, an other...
it is desire that is lacking, not power...desire might be bolstered if one felt one was on a team...a large team...a team that included the whole world...
such an action could occur, by agreement...
say, on September 22, 2012...
of course, those in power often handle the 'unpleasantness' problem by hiring out...
They have shown themselves smart enough not to be suckered into leaving by such things as politicians' promises to enact a transaction tax that would have enough loopholes to be as effective as a sieve is for holding water. They remind us every day that the problem is Wall Street, not its dutiful Democratic and Republican agents in Washington in Congress, in the White House, and on the Supreme Court. Stay focused.
To my family in the struggle/occupation, do us and yourselves a favor. Whatever you do, don't give them your demands! They're asking for what you want because they want to know just how far they have to go to placate you. Don't let them placate you! Don't give them any demands. Keep on occupying until they just give up and go the fuck home.
Exactly. Don't play into their hands. Especially in response to a journalist paid by the "Nation" rag.
you got a problem with journalists? or with journalists who get paid?
Since the "they" are living quite comfortably in their homes, rather than squatting in some park, they can well afford to meet a list of no demands with an amused indifference.
It gets cold in New York City and even yesterdays rain served to limit the "occupiers" to about 100 people.
the giving up and going home thing ain't going to be done by anyone except the rather puny forces of the self-selected self-righteous straggle/occupation if they can't actually think ....of something that people might want to endorse.
I'd love to see Wall Street or DC try to placate my simple demands:
End Corporate Personhood. It's a fraud.
Dismantle the Fed. It's neither Federal, or has reserves. It's a fraud.
Destroy all Diebold machines. They do not help the electorate. They help election fraud.
Privatization is THEFT!
Deregulation is CORRUPTION!
Corporate Personhood is A WEAPON AGAINST WE THE PEOPLE!
Long Live the Occupation of Wall Street!
And visit MoveToAmend.org!
----I'd love to see Wall Street or DC try to placate my simple demands:-----
why would they care enough to do more than read them and chuckle after the "destroy all machines" thingee?
Why don't you tell me your address, at least then I can give them some good coordinates for where they should drop 'em.
Privatization is THEFT!
Deregulation is CORRUPTION!
Corporate Personhood is A WEAPON AGAINST WE THE PEOPLE!
fuster cluck
Office of the Warden
Ervin Prison.
Tehran.
Now thats what I call a Real List of demands. I would add: Halt globalist neo-liberal, disaster-capitalist, sovereignty infringing - institutions & agreements IE: NAFTA, GATT, CAFTA, WTO, IMF, World Bank, etc. Roll-back the Military Industrial Intel Security Complex, the war economy, imperial neo-colonial wars & military base outposts- abroad -&- halt the expansion of the national security state & roll-back the Corporatized Prison Industrial Complex & the Corp leveraged take-over & give-away of the Public Assets & institutions [IE: via NCLB & RTTT phony school reforms & the privitization = profitization of the PO]. End all home fore-closures based on bankster fraud. Investigate & Prosecute all of Wall St Banksters' fraud, War Criminal poly-tricians & all of those 'mysterious' Put-Options on 9-11!
re: "Halt globalist neo-liberal, disaster-capitalist, sovereignty infringing - institutions & agreements"
Hear Hear!
re: "End all home fore-closures based on bankster fraud. Investigate & Prosecute Wall St's Banksters, War Criminal poly-tricians & all of those 'mysterious' Put-Options on 9-11!"
Amen Nixakliel! Re-investigate the entire sham of 9-11!
Wonder why polls that reflect the people's demands are so often the opposite of what politicians do?
"One demand--DIRECT DEMOCRACY", means that We the People would be empowered to make laws and rescind onerous laws continually, not corporate politicians every twenty years or so.
A "tyranny of the majority"? Hardly, when an aggrieved person is able to amend or change a law equitably in a continuous process greatly enhanced by today's technology. http://ni4d.us/
We waited for three years to see what the Obama administration would do. What have they done except extend the Bush tax cuts and pass an individual mandate for all us to purchase insurance?
That May 12rh rally how many of us ever heard of that well organized event? And the October thing...I am thinking it was a real non-starter. I watched Cobert's rally. I believed in it. What was that October thing about?
This is really a common, personal event, it hasn't been planned or organized by a lot of consultants. It's not following an outline. It's not demanding some marketting context. It's probably not even being tracked for marketting purposes.
The "October thing" starts tomorrow, Freedom Plaza - between DC City Hall and the National Theater, on Pennsylvania Avenue. Convienient walking distance to White House (or as close as you can get to it these days) Fed. Traingle, Capital, Senate and House Office buildings.
They know perfectly well what these people want, which is to snuff the corporatism in US politics, but damned if they'll give an articulate demonstrator national airtime.
"...like the ones that are sponsoring the “American Dream Movement” spearheaded by Van Jones, convening in Washington, DC, at this moment--are the crucial building blocks of the coalitions necessary to make long-term campaigns around real policy proposals work."
Please be very wary of this group. E.J. Dionne was praising them in his column at Truthdig, and that should be all you need to know. The worst thing that can happen is to allow a group like this to usurp the movement and turn it into an Obama/Democrats election rally.
That is a very real possibility, and should surprise no one, We saw it happen in Madison.
What do they want...PEACE AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. That's simple enough for even the media to quote it right.
Anyone who does not get that can call me on the phone. It would be fun to explain it to the 'just-don't-get-it crowd'. (If they ever read Bill Blum's books, they would understand.)
what they're gonna get ain't ......PEACE AND JUSTICE FOR ALL....unless they can explain how to go get it.
a wish doesn't come true without fairy godmothers or a wand ....or some clue as to how to make it happen.
how about we forego the phone call and you go ahead and type out how to achieve .....PEACE AND JUSTICE FOR ALL....... in a world where few people even agree as to what ........PEACE AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.....even means.
fuster... I already did that. The book was published months ago.
You're a good writer.
Here is my slogan for these times.
Please steal it.
truth before justice, justice before peace... love folk
give me the name of the book and I'll give it a look.
fuster... Title is BANNED IN VERMONT. The book has lived up to its title, and has been banned in some places. All of the reviews have been good. Some are up on various sites on the Internet. The book is available on Amazon.
P.S. Is this banned book week? Buy a banned book and support a starving author... a starving anti-capitalist author.
thank you, rosemarie.
Rosemarie,
I don't know about fuster but I am going to check out your book at Amazon.
Thomas Gilbert-
Is there any other way to get it other than Amazon? I don't want to do business with this anti-union, near-monopoly sweatshop.
Who is the publisher? Can I ask for it at my local radical bookstore (Big Idea Bookstore, Pittsburgh)?
Found it. Boycott Amazon and buy it directly from the publiser/bookstore here:
http://www.northshire.com/siteinfo/bookinfo/9781605711003/0/
Thanks all... Yes, it is better to order BANNED IN VERMONT from the Northshire Book store. Amazon seems to impress some here, but I am glad that some others are more informed. The Publisher is Shires Press in Vermont. Independent radical bookstores can order it also. I have no money for advertising so I am depending on all of you to spread the word. Publishing is a tough business these days, except for people like Don Rumsfeld and Bush. See what happens if you try to donate a copy of the book to a local school. Getting it past the censors is big accomplishment for anyone who succeeds. Every high school/college student and every one who will ever vote should read this book. This book will not change your life, but if enough people read it, it could change the result in the next election.