Turning Points?
The Occupy Movement Keeps Spreading Amid
Rapid Change
The
Occupy Wall Street movement is alive and growing rapidly. It continues to
expand and spread despite early cries of an early death. Even in the face of
ridicule and dismissal the movement continues to defy predictions. The
mainstream mass media and the punitive pundits among the 99% who’ve sided with
the 1% continue to scoff at the protesters as “stinky hippies and punk
rockers,” or “communists, socialists, anarchists,” even “racists.”
These
lackeys for the 1% ignore the masses of families with children, middle-aged professionals,
blue- collar workers, and just regular folks supporting OWS at their peril. This
mass welling up of dissent and “I’m not gonna take it anymore!” protests has
reached a tipping point where anything can happen.
People
are pissed off! More and more people are getting pissed off! Yet they’re not
retaliation in the form of mass violence and rioting. And the dismissive
chattering harpies of the mainstream media reveal their own ignorance.
Several
recent events are worth looking at as harbingers of change. These points of
note are:
· Many on the streets and on social media are already calling
it a “revolution.” It was unexpected and spontaneous, although one can point
back to the Arab Spring, the mass protests in Wisconsin, and the riots in the
European Union as inspirations.
· There is the beginning of convergence where some
police, military personnel, and war veterans have joined in the rallies and
marches with the Occupy demonstrators.
· On Saturday, October 15 the Occupy movement is
nationwide and goes worldwide. I saw photos from places as unusual as the
Alaskan tundra and Antarctica with protests signs. Violence breaks out in Rome,
Italy between anarchists and police.
· Veteran U.S. Marine Sgt. Shamar Thomas (retired)
challenged the New York City Police Department in Times Square on October 17,
challenging the cops on why they’re really
there and shouting “There’s no Honor in harming unarmed civilians.”
· On Tuesday, October 25, former Marine Lance Corporal
Scott Olsen (retired), veteran of two combat tours in Iraq, was wounded by
police officers clashing with Occupy Wall Street protesters in Oakland,
California. He suffered a fracture skull and required brain surgery from a
projectile fired by police. Many other protesters were wounded by rubber
bullets, tear gas, and flashbang grenades used by the police. These two
incidents galvanized military support for Occupy Wall Street, especially by
veterans disenchanted, even appalled by the Global War on Terror.
· Escalation of Police violence is increasing with
intimidation of protesters, selective enforcement to harass protesters, mass
arrests, the use of SWAT teams, the use of agent provocateurs to infiltrate
Occupy groups and incite or fake violence between demonstrators and police to
provoke excuses for police retaliation, and in the case of New York City, the
CIA working with the NYPD in an unconstitutional arrangement.
· Baby Boomers are in the process of passing the baton
to Generation X. Even though many people of all ages are involved in the Occupy
movement, large numbers of those actually camping in “occupied” areas tend to
be Gen X and younger.
· Aside from primarily police attacks, the Occupy
movement is a peaceful one. The majorities I’ve read about and spoke with
personally have no desire to engage in fights and battles with cops. They
simply don’t want to get injured is part of it, and while they’re willing to be
arrested they don’t want to be caught in a war. Efforts are made to urge fellow
demonstrators to stay peaceful. Much is said the quickest way to lose the
support of the Middle Class and Main Street is to engage in battles with the
police and riots that destroy homes and small businesses. Novel terms are used
such as bloodless revolution and nonviolent guerrilla warfare.
· More and more are seeing a convergence of common
themes between the Tea Party movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement. Both
share many of the same complaints and agree on the problems but different
solutions.
o
The Tea Party
began as a Libertarian upwelling with Representative Ron Paul of Texas as the
central figure, yet it was quickly coopted by the Republican Party and financed
by billionaire far right conservatives such as the Koch Brothers, allied with
Fox Media, and pumped up by celebrities such as Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and
Michelle Bachmann, leaving Ron Paul and his Libertarian crowd cut out and
ostracized. The Democratic Party, however, tried to claim the Occupy movement
and was rejected. Many in the Occupy crowd had voted for Barak Obama, felt
betrayed by him, felt he sold out to the Big Banks and the corporations, and
thus scorned him. The Occupy movement claimed to represent the 99% and declared
that included the Tea Party, too (to the horror and indignation of many Tea
Partiers) and warned the Democratic Party to back off. Exceptions were made for
people such as Jesse Ventura, Independent and former governor of Minnesota, and
Representative Dennis Kucinich, progressive Democrat from Ohio. Even so, the
Occupiers refuse to embrace any politician and have held the feet of many to
the fire. Things are rapidly mixing and gelling at the same time.
· The lack of overarching, centralized leadership, once
viewed as a weakness, is now being reframed as strength. With social media
technologies mobile bands of protesters network with a blend of spontaneity and
intention around the globe.
Clichés abound. This is
amazing. Awesome! Outrageous! Inspiring! And it continues do morph and change
even as Winter approaches in the Northern Hemisphere. Will our world tip over?
Lean into it.
By William Dudley Bass
October 29, 2011
© 2011 by William Dudley Bass
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