"Maybe Occupy Wall Street Wasn't Such A Failure After All"

[applegrove]

Maybe Occupy Wall Street Wasn't Such A Failure After All

by Aaron Taube at Business Insider


http://www.businessinsider.com/reconsidering-the-failure-of-occupy-wall-street-2013-9

"SNIP...................................


But today is time to reconsider this assessment. While it's true that the loose collection of left-wing protestors has not coalesced behind individual candidates in the manner of OWS' right-wing counterpart, the Tea Party, the movement's success in creating heightened awareness of income inequality and stoking populist anger toward Wall Street is beginning to pay dividends.

In no place has this success been more apparent than the race to succeed Wall Street champion Mike Bloomberg as mayor of New York City. After a Democratic primary campaign that served in large part as a referendum on Bloomberg's three terms as the city's chief executive, the nomination ultimately went to NYC public advocate Bill de Blasio, whose "Tale of Two Cities" campaign focused extensively on New York's widening gap between the rich and poor.

In banging the drum for higher taxes on the wealthy, de Blasio latched on to an anger that may have been simmering, but had yet to catch fire before Occupy Wall Street launched its attacks on the so-called "one percent" two years ago and brought income inequality to the forefront of the national debate.

At a rally leading up to last week's Democratic primary elections, de Blasio supporters chanted "we are the 99 percent!" in a declaration of class solidarity that had not yet expressed itself until OWS gave people a vernacular with which to describe their frustrations and a target at which to direct them.



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[applegrove]

1. I would add that 'waking people up to inequality' helped Obama win in 2012.

Many who liked what Occupy was saying at first were moderates. They were the ones who had been asleep to inequality.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

2. Those are all fine examples

of Occupy's direct influence on politics. A good summary in the Guardian today also added:

The crackdown on Occupy began a diaspora that continues to this day: protesters returned to their community deeply affected by the experience. Those who once shared food in the OWS kitchen now feed the hungry of the 99% in their hometowns. When Hurricane Sandy hit New York City in October 2012, Occupy Sandy organized 70,000 volunteers to provide critical aid to survivors, leading the New York Times to note that Occupy is "capable of summoning an army with the posting of a tweet".

A new generation of game-changers has found its calling, and isn't waiting for the political establishment to give them the go-ahead to take initiative.

But changing the conversation is just part of the story. When politicians fail to protect the needy from predatory lending, we buy up distressed debt and cancel it. When banks threaten "underwater" homeowners with eviction, we occupy their homes, ratcheting up pressure on the banks to renegotiate. When local agricultural jobs are threatened by agribusiness behemoths that inject GMOs into our crops, we join with innovative groups like the Coalition of Immokalee Farmworkers, occupying farms and demanding fair pay and safe food.

And we're not just protesting. We're also building new economic models. The Occupy Money Co-operative is just one example. Formed by Occupy's Alternative Banking Group, it will provide low-cost financial services that return profits to communities rather than Wall Street, thereby shifting the balance of power from bankers to depositors.

excerpt from: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/17/occupy-wall-street-99-percent

(IMO) I don't like to view Occupy as an event that came and went, but rather as an indicator of where things may go as the millennial generation, world-over, wakes up and grapples with the legacy of 30+ years of neoconservatism and neoliberlism, and begins to question the false dichotomies and predetermined solutions that we been conditioned to accept.

[applegrove]

3. Thanks.

[Earth_First]

4. This.

'Occupy' as itself may not be a physical, tangible being as it was when actual Occupations were occuring, however Occupy was never solely about placing a tent or structure in public just for the sake of doing so. It was never about that. Many on the left even had their own hangups on Occupy, using the structure and tactics of the Occupy Movement on issues of vanity as a challenge of protest methods that were a generation old.

What Occupy 'became' was a mass of younger 'Millenials' who took the experience in directions far beyond the typical weekend 'mobilizations' and gave life to new and already existing groups in their own communitites and challenge the system on a daily basis.

Take Back the Land, Food Not Bombs and many others have seen their ranks swell in local communities after Occupy participants returned to their communities with a newly found sense of empowerment.

Occupy still lives to this day, those who claim otherwise are foolish and very well are the same individuals who called for its demise, even some who frequent this very website.

Thanks for the link...

[ellenrr]

6. so true,

and don't forget Occupy Sandy, which out-performed all the govt agencies and ngo's.

[ellenrr]

7. as someone said..

(I forget who) recently about Occupy:

something that you think about your whole life, and work toward your whole life, altho you think it can't really happen,
and then it happens!

that's how I feel too.

and don't forget that Occupy like the Arab Spring energized activists all around the globe.

[sabrina 1]

8. OWS far exceeded its initial goals which were mainly to

plan a protest that would not go home after just one day. They hoped to remain on the street for at most, two weeks and only in one city, NY. They had planned the event for three months, realizing that to get any attention they would have to do something different to all the other protests which no matter how big they were, were mostly ignored.

The fact that they spread across the country and even the world so rapidly and remained far longer than intended, shows how much this movement was needed.

That is a great article, Joe and far more accurate than most on OWS. They have not gone away, they have evolved as most successful movements do over time.

Thanks for the link.

[ellenrr]

9. +

[ellenrr]

5. surprising analysis considering the source! nt