[OccupyComms] Fwd: The year of occupation

[Mark Barrett]

 this may be of interest


 4 May 2012
[image: Le Monde diplomatique] <http://mondediplo.com/>
 What happened to the global anger?
The year of occupation <http://mondediplo.com/2012/05/12ows>
by Raphaël Kempf
It began when angry Spaniards took over a square in Madrid and experimented
with the democracy that had been taken away from them. In New York, it was
a park; in London, the churchyard of St Paul's Cathedral

It's now a year since thousands of angry Spaniards filled the square at
Puerta del Sol in Madrid on 15 May. Carlos Paredes helped organise that
initial demonstration, as spokesman for the *¡Democracia real YA!* (Real
Democracy Now) movement, started a few months earlier around proposals
including the removal of politicians' privileges and implementing the
"right to housing" law and electoral reforms.

Paredes is 32 and works in IT services. He explained: "In Spain a glass
ceiling prevents people from achieving personal or professional
satisfaction. Those at the top stay there and those at the bottom just keep
falling further down. Because it's impossible to advance economically and
socially, I started to look for alternatives and I found *¡Democracia real
YA!*." He does not belong to any political party or trade union, or have
any ideology. Besides objecting to an inegalitarian economic system and a
"democracy" that no longer represents anyone in Spain, he also resents the
"financial coups" that have put unelected men from the financial sector
into important political positions: Mario Draghi, president of the European
Central Bank; Lucas Papademos, the Greek prime minister; and Mario Monti,
Italian prime minister.

The crisis in representation explains why that first protest, by the *
indignados* (Paredes was astonished by just how angry they were), went to
such trouble to invent inclusive voting techniques. On the first evening,
15 May, some demonstrators had suggested remaining in the square, and stay
they did; the initial "occupation" - although they didn't call it that -
lasted for more than a month and general assemblies, discussions and
working groups were held on a wide range of topics. Everyone I met in
Madrid then, and over the last year at other Occupy events, spoke
emotionally about the assemblies, which attracted thousands of people. The
philosopher José Luis Moreno Pestaña described it as "the enjoyment of
public debate".
A mass movement

Ivan Ayala, 31, is working on his thesis on neo-classical economics at
Madrid's Complutense University. "I took part in the movement full-time. In
the beginning it was impressive, there were working groups with 500
members. And it was very moving to arrive in the square and see 4,000
people holding an assembly and discussions as though they were in a Greek
agora." Because the movement that came out of the demonstrations, called
15-M after its start date, rejects the partisan political system, it
refuses to define itself as leftwing, but Ayala says its criticism of
bankers, politicians, neoliberal policies and speculators are a leftwing
analysis: 15-M's real success lies in the fact that "it is a deliberative,
popular and mass movement. Now assemblies are being set up in all the
neighbourhoods and villages."

After 15-M decided to end the permanent occupation of the square on 12 June
2011 it reinvented itself, and expanded to reach a broader, more
working-class public by putting down local roots. After the camp was
dismantled, the many notes posted all over the square were replaced with a
large banner "*Nos vemos en los barrios*" (We'll meet up in the
neighbourhoods).

Geographical spread was accompanied by diversification of action. A
platform was set up to help residents threatened with mortgage foreclosure:
when contacted by families the indignados arrive in large numbers on the
appointed day and sometimes succeed in preventing or postponing the
eviction for months. They also take over empty buildings to house needy
families. The movement has mobilised people and drawn attention to issues
that were less visible before. Lawyer Liliana Pineda is now involved in a
fight for water management because Madrid is considering privatising a
public utility, Canal de Isabel II. She said: "This campaign is an example
of collaboration between 15-M and political parties on a common platform.
We had already done a great deal before 15 May, but thanks to the
indignados there were far more people at the 8 October demonstration ...
And political parties, such as Izquierda Unidad, and Equo, also took part."
That is an important advance because 15-M had previously refused any
contact with political parties, even those with similar opinions.

Relations with mainstream politics became difficult before the 20 November
2011 legislative elections, carried by Mariano Rajoy's conservative Popular
Party. There were problems about what position a non-partisan social
movement should adopt for such an important election, whether it should
create a new party to "end bipartisanship" or call for abstention. "We
never called on people to abstain," said Paredes. "But we did ask people to
vote for minority parties because we were against the bipartisan Popular
Party/Spanish Socialist Workers' Party situation." 15-M carefully
identified the minority parties in each constituency that had the best
chance of beating the mainstream candidate. This did not prevent the right
from winning, but did highlight the weaknesses in the Spanish democratic
system. Paredes and his comrades are now trying to change this with the
"democracy 4.0" project, under which citizens would cast internet votes on
draft laws submitted to parliament.

The movement's greatest success is its growing influence in the political
debate. The indignados claim that that their proposals are now being talked
about publicly, and Paredes said they had "succeeded in internationalising
the movement. To some extent, Occupy Wall Street and the Israeli movement
derive from 15-M." (In turn, the Madrid demonstrations owe a lot to Arab
Spring that preceded them.)

The indignados of Madrid were soon joined in protest by those in Chile who
began last May to demand free public education. (The universities had been
privatised under General Pinochet's regime in 1981, making education an
expensive consumer commodity.) The student movement staged some of the
biggest popular demonstrations since Chile returned to democracy; it spread
to families and high schools and raised questions about inequalities and
tax reforms as well as representation in the political system. It was local
anger over local problems, yet it also went far beyond national boundaries.
Andrés Muñoz Cárcamo, an activist, said: "It is a global movement against
the way the economic system gets its profits and destroys social
structures. In Chile it's education." His friend Vicente Saiz said there
was a common basis among such protests around the world: "People are
fighting to be allowed to make their own decisions."
Principles in the park

That feeling of unease about a political system slipping from the control
of citizens, and even more of wealth being monopolised by an oligarchy,
provoked the launch of the Occupy movement, with Occupy Wall Street (OWS),
in New York on 17 September. It came as a surprise in the United States,
where popular protest seemed to have been consigned to history. An OWS
supporter, lawyer Alexander C Penley, recalled previous events, such as the
trade union protests early last year in Wisconsin, which made Occupy
possible. The Arab Spring also set an example. "If something like that had
happened in France it wouldn't have had the same impact, because Americans
know that in France, in Europe, demonstrations are normal, whereas in the
Middle East... Those countries were closed, blocked up. So if they were
marching there, something could happen here."

The call to occupy Wall Street, launched online by the Canadian magazine *
Adbusters*, known for its radical views, had considerable impact. On
17 September several hundred people demonstrated in Manhattan's financial
district and then found themselves, almost by chance, in Zuccotti Park, a
small square hemmed in by skyscrapers, close to Wall Street and Ground
Zero. "Someone suggested holding a general assembly there, as in Greece or
Spain," said David Graeber, an anthropologist who had taught at Yale, and
got involved in planning the occupation. People started talking politics in
the streets and public places, which is rare in the US. During the first
OWS general assembly, they talked about reversing the "Citizens United"
supreme court ruling that gives corporations greater freedom to influence
politics, and bringing back the Glass-Steagall Act, which President Clinton
had repealed, leading to the uncontrolled development of finance.

Over days and weeks, the number of demonstrators grew and tents were
pitched in Zuccotti Park. There were more general assemblies and working
groups, and a "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City" was drawn
up. People from all walks of life were drawn there, not just educated young
white men, but the jobless, homeless, minorities and marginalised voices
excluded from US society. Some claimed to be communists or socialists, or
called capitalism the enemy. Other wanted to keep the market economy and
only demanded regulation.

Occupying public space was the only way for them to make themselves heard.
For some that was justification enough, a concrete manifestation of the
society they want. Occupation is a political act, sufficient in itself, and
the violent eviction of the Zuccotti Park campers by the New York police on
the night of 15 November could be said to have had a positive effect. As
Michael Levitin, a journalist who briefly edited *The Occupied Wall Street
Journal*, said: "We no longer needed Zuccotti Park. It was the right moment
to stop. And the way the mayor evicted us was perfect: he was violent,
people were hit and arrested, books were thrown, and the eviction was
closed to journalists." Police violence bought greater sympathy for OWS -
this happened in Madrid, too - and the eviction obliged the occupants to
think of other forms of action and take the movement into a new phase.
'We are the 99%'

Ties were formed between OWS and other community organisations active in
working class areas in New York and elsewhere. On 6 December a joint
platform, Occupy Our Homes, organised a US-wide event to reclaim empty
houses that had been foreclosed by banks. In New York, the target was the
poor neighbourhood of East New York in Brooklyn. The demonstrators (mostly
white at the start of the march) handed out leaflets as they went, on
subway platforms and in trains, and told people about the rate of
foreclosures in East New York, the highest in NYC. People spontaneously
joined the march, chanting the OWS slogan: "We are the 99%". In all there
were 2,000 marchers, including the minority rights activist Charles Barron,
a former Black Panther and now a NYC council member. Another council
member, Ydanis Rodriguez, told the crowd how important the event was,
because it showed that OWS was getting "more coloured" - there were now
more blacks, Hispanics and other minorities.**

Movement members took over empty houses in 40 cities in the US that day:
Alfredo Carrasquillo and his family moved into one at 702 Vermont Street,
Brooklyn. When I returned there a few days later, there were a dozen people
squatting permanently in the house to protect the family from eviction. Max
Berger, who quit his job in an NGO to join the movement, said: "We are
occupying this house in the name of one family. I always wanted to commit
to actions that change power relations and to fight for those who are most
excluded in society. This housing issue is great, it's the natural
extension of the OWS movement ... OWS has the capacity to create a huge
mass movement that will change politics in this country."

OWS did seem extremely diverse, with a wide range of initiatives and
targets including housing, the power of the multinationals, international
arms sales, student debt and the right to a free education. It very quickly
brought important issues to the forefront of American public debate,
especially inequalities and the crisis in representation in the political
system, and was a "movement of movements", able to draw attention to other
campaigns that would not have had as much impact without OWS support.
Nashville, Tennessee

The movement spread beyond the big cities. In Nashville, Tennessee, a
protest camp was set up in front of the State Capitol and lasted until it
was forcibly dismantled this March, probably the longest occupation in the
US. The idea of appropriating a public space had a deeper significance in
Nashville than pedestrian Manhattan, for in this conglomeration of
highways, skyscrapers, vast churches and car dealerships, public space is
entirely devoted to cars. Nobody wants to walk anywhere, and certainly not
camp. The protesters claimed they were able to re-form ties that inhuman
urbanisation had destroyed.

Nashville lies in the heart of the Bible Belt in the southern US where
religious edifices look more like shopping malls. Jim Palmer used to be a
pastor in one of them but left in search of a more spiritual Christianity:
"Rather than concentrate on the poorest 10%, the churches are caught in a
spiral that makes them build ever bigger churches and create even more
programmes to beat the competition. Since the mid-1970s they have imposed a
corporate model on the pastors, so the churches are managed like companies
where the pastor is the CEO, supported by a board of directors, and the
parishioners hardly get a look in." He has launched a multi-faith group,
Occupy Religion, to remind people that "Jesus was part of the 99%".

Many US protestors had been disappointed with President Barack Obama.
Lawyer William P York told me in Nashville: "In 2008 I worked for Obama's
campaign in Cleveland, Ohio. It was an important stage in the election
battle. I became very active politically and I worked a lot for the
campaign. But once he got into power, I soon realised that he was pretty
much like the other candidates. Basically the two parties are one and the
same. They are both co-opted by corporations that donate as much money as
they want to their candidates. In fact they are owned by those companies,
the major multinationals."

Occupy London specifically targeted the London Stock Exchange on
15 October. The Exchange is on private ground, so the protestors occupied,
and established a tented camp in the nearest public area, around the steps
of St Paul's Cathedral. The camp was finally evicted on 28 February, after
provoking schisms in the Church of England hierarchy and among cathedral
clerics. Amir Imran, 24, a journalism student, slept in the camp, complete
with technical services, press and kitchen tents, for the duration, only
leaving two days a week for his classes. He had arrived in London a few
months earlier from Malaysia where "the draconian laws allow the government
to imprison anyone suspected of disturbing the peace. Over there I take
part in movements demanding the right to demonstrate. You need a permit to
do it. Here it's much easier."

The global protests are not yet over. In Chile, "during our campaign we
took up the OWS '99%' slogan," said law student Gabriel Boric of the
Creando Izquierda (Creating the Left) party who had just been elected
president of the University of Chile Student Federation. "We are on the
left but we say that the left has failed in the 20th century. The world we
imagined did not happen and we need to learn lessons from that." His own
protest movement "is not over. We haven't won but we haven't been beaten
either."

 Translated by Krystyna Horko

Raphaël Kempf is a journalist
  <http://mondediplo.com/2012/05/>
May 2012 <http://mondediplo.com/2012/05/>
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 Articles & blog <http://mondediplo.com/tag/open-access>

   - Africa's biggest landfill site: the case of Bisasar
Road<http://mondediplo.com/blogs/africa-s-biggest-landfill-site-the-case-of>
   (2012/04)
   - From clash to alliance: why the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation
   is an indispensable partner for western
diplomacy<http://mondediplo.com/blogs/from-clash-to-alliance-why-the-organisation-for>
   (2012/04)
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   - Europe fuzzy borders <http://mondediplo.com/maps/europeborders>(2012/03)

  Podcasts <http://mondediplo.com/tag/podcasts>

   - The dismantling of Greece
<http://mondediplo.com/2011/12/03podcast>(2011/12)
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   - Europe's far right <http://mondediplo.com/2011/09/08podcast> (2011/09)

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   - A room of her own: women's bedrooms in Hanoi,
Vietnam<http://mondediplo.com/blogs/a-room-of-her-own-women-s-bedrooms-in-hanoi>(2011/07)

  Open page <http://mondediplo.com/openpage/>

   - Wars of attrition
<http://mondediplo.com/openpage/wars-of-attrition>(2012/05)
   - Word order <http://mondediplo.com/openpage/word-order> (2012/05)
   - Locking down an American
workforce<http://mondediplo.com/openpage/locking-down-an-american-workforce>(2012/04)

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