[D66] Impressions from Occupy Wall Street

[Antid Oto]

http://forum.permanent-revolution.org/2011/10/occupy-wall-street.html

Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Impressions from Occupy Wall Street
By Alex Steiner
Oct 6, 2011


Wall Street in downtown Manhattan is pregnant with the history of the United
States.  Although today Wall St. is known as the financial heart of American
capitalism, it began as a fortified wall, the Northern boundary of the original
Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam.  The young protesters who are now in the
third week of their occupation of  Zuccotti Park chose their encampment well.
Barely three blocks from their tent city stands the grounds of that symbol of
American capitalism, the New York Stock Exchange.  Diagonally across the street
from the marble columns of the Stock Exchange is a giant statue of the founder
of the American Republic, George Washington.  He is standing on the steps of
Federal Hall,  the site where he was sworn in as the first President of this
Republic. Another founding father lies buried even closer to the site of the
protesters camp -  Alexander Hamilton, architect of the United States first
National Bank, is resting in the churchyard of Trinity Church. Another block or
so down the street and around the corner from the Stock Exchange stands the
massive fortified walls of the New York Federal Reserve, home of what is perhaps
the largest hoard of gold bullion in the world,  approximately 7000 tons worth.
More to the point, this is where much of the economic policy of the United
States is implemented,  from the setting of exchange rates with foreign
currencies to the transfer of trillions of dollars between banks on a daily
basis. The building also hosted, along with the Treasury Department in
Washington, some of the meetings that brought together the heads of the Fed and
the Treasury with the CEO's of the largest banks in the country to work out the
terms of what eventually became the TARP bailout of the banks following the
crisis precipitated by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

This takes us back to a consideration of what is going on at Zuccotti Park.
Several thousand protesters are saying that they have had enough.  They are
tired of seeing trillions of dollars being used to bail out the banks whose
fraudulent practices in the preceding years left them holding massive assets
whose value suddenly went to zero.  The other side of the bank bailout by both
the Bush and Obama Administrations has been the impoverishment of tens of
millions of people, particularly young people.  My impression as a result of
talking with some of the protesters and hearing them interviewed is that the
vast majority of those occupying Wall Street do not see any future for
themselves under this economic system known as capitalism.

I was also struck by the inventiveness and fighting spirit of these young
people.  They have, against great odds, been able to maintain a tent city in the
middle of Manhattan, in an inhospitable "park" that is actually a concrete plaza
with little in the way of amenities such as grass and trees and no public
bathrooms or water fountains. What it does have are some tables and chairs that
are normally occupied by office workers sipping their morning coffee or chess
players taking on Wall Street tycoons for quarters. Somehow this group has
managed to feed itself, with the help of neighbors donating food.  They managed
to keep dry in the face of New York's relentless autumn rains thanks to some
tarps (no pun intended) they sequestered from somewhere.  Without electricity
they have managed to create a communications center, powered by a portable
generator, where several people are busy on lap tops round the clock, rain or
shine, spreading their message to social network sites all over the globe.  They
have created committees in charge of making posters, printing a satirical
version of the Wall Street Journal, and organizing their marches and acts of
civil disobedience.  There is a constant thump of drums and other instruments in
one corner where you can find revelers transfixed by the rhythmic sounds.  There
is even a free library stocked with donated books, available for anyone who
wants to read them. The highlight of each evening is what they call a "General
Assembly" an experiment in participatory democracy wherein everyone who wishes
to can speak and contribute to the discussion.  Decisions are arrived at through
a torturous consensus process.


The police have banned the use of megaphones or other audio equipment making it
extremely difficult to hold meetings in the open air. But the protesters have
once again found an ingenious way to get around this legal obstacle to
participatory democracy.  One person speaks who is in turn closely surrounded by
hundreds of facilitators.  The facilitators then echo back in one voice the
words of the speaker so that the huge crowd surrounding them can hear the
proceedings.  The proceedings reminded me of the brilliant movie by Truffaut,
Fahrenheit 451, (based on an equally brilliant story by Ray Bradbury) where in a
future when the reading or printing of books are banned,  a core group of people
dedicate themselves to preserving literature by memorizing entire books that can
no longer be printed or accessed physically. They have become living books just
as the facilitators at Occupy Wall Street have become living megaphones.

The politics of the protesters, insofar as they articulate one,  is certainly
naive and contradictory. I saw signs that at once sounded very radical, calling
for an end to the plutocracy that runs this country, along with other signs
("Pass the F____ Jobs Bill Already") indicating that the honeymoon with Obama
than many young people had in 2008, although badly bruised, may not be entirely
over for some.  The OWS protesters have emphasized that they are contemptuous of
the political process and have deliberately avoided putting forward a set of
demands. They have clearly been inspired by the example of the massive
demonstrations in Tahrir Square in Cairo earlier this year and Syntagma Square
in Athens.  They see their action as the spark of the American Revolution.

This is not a revolution at this point but it is impossible to predict how this
movement will play itself out. There are signs that the protesters have tapped
into a vein of anger against the inequities of life in 21st century America that
has been simmering for years. Their actions have already inspired other protests
in other cities.  We saw a preview of this action in the sit-ins in Madison,
Wisconsin earlier this year. Unfortunately that movement was sidetracked by the
labor bureaucracy and the Democratic Party into abandoning their protests and
putting their energy into a worthless recall campaign. The OWS protesters will
not be so easily sidetracked. But their rejection of political action is both
their strength and their weakness.

What is considered normal politics in this country, support for one or the other
of the two bourgeois parties, certainly deserves a heady dose of contempt.  But
that by itself does little to bring about the kind of just society the
protesters envision.  It can in fact serve as an invitation for demagogues and
opportunists of various stripes to come in and fill the vacuum.  And though I
saw little evidence of the usual confluence of left groups at the encampment,
their presence swells each time there is a protest march or some other action.
The neo-Stalinist Workers World Party has been in evidence as has the
International Socialist Organization (ISO).  There was much excitement today at
the anticipation of representatives from the unions coming tomorrow to show
their support.  Of course, the flacks from the trade union bureaucracy who will
join the march tomorrow will be there to try to channel this movement back into
the safety of harmless protests and support for the Democratic Party. The
naiveté evidenced by the protesters, that they would expect anything else from
the trade union bureaucracy, is hardly surprising. They come from a generation
almost completely devoid of any political culture or historical education. What
politics they have come into contact with has been largely the protest movements
of the last decade, the anti-war movement, the global justice movement, etc.
They have picked up an education largely on their own, thanks to the social
networking sites on the Internet and the example of Egypt and Greece.  Whatever
their background, be it working class or middle class, they have now come to the
same juncture in this third year of the greatest economic crisis of the
capitalist system since the Great Depression.  They are largely unemployed or
underemployed and see no future for themselves in a society that has bombarded
them from birth with images of a consumer utopia of Iphones and home
entertainment centers. The American dream has for them become a nightmare.

They have resurrected many of the symbols and images of the 1960s counter
culture and protest movement. This is obvious to any visitor to Zuccotti Park
who is old enough to remember the aesthetics of the hippies and the slogans of
the 1960s radicals. This borrowing of the imagery of another era was practically
inevitable given that the 1960s represented the last great period of political
turmoil in this country.  Nevertheless, this is a very a different movement than
the 1960s counter culture.  They are not so much protesting the injustice that
our country inflicts on others in foreign lands - although that is not absent
either - but their primary target is the injustice inflicted on them and their
friends and family.  They are not the sons and daughters of the affluent middle
class alienated from the culture of bourgeois banality.  They are people who see
no future for themselves without a fundamental change in society and they are
willing to put their lives on the line to make that happen.

This past Saturday 700 of them were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge after
walking into a trap set by the New York City Police. (The police actually led
them on their march on the bridge, did not tell them they were walking into a
restricted traffic area, and then when they were 1/3 of the way over the bridge
they were surrounded,  trapped by nets and arrested.)  The mass arrests have
done little to dampen their spirits.

********************************************************************************
Update:
I wrote the above impressions a couple of days ago but as the situation on Wall
Street is extremely dynamic and changes daily I wanted to add a few thoughts on
the events up to today (Oct. 6).

The march to Foley Square on Wednesday, Oct 5, was massive and brought out large
number of workers and students in support of the protesters.  Some estimates had
the crowd at 20,000 or more. As predicted, the trade union bureaucracy came out
and stood with Democratic Party politicians in a pathetic attempt to channel the
fury of the marchers back to support for Obama and the Democratic Party.  From
what I could observe later that evening, a large majority of the protesters will
have none of it.  Their attitude could be summed up by one of the placards I saw
in Zuccotti Park that evening: "Class War Ahead".

The weakness of the protesters was also in evidence that evening.  A group of
anarchists suddenly announced that they were going to march to the famous statue
of the Wall Street bull and stop traffic in the process.  Several hundred young
people took off through the narrow streets of the financial district looking for
the bull.  At least as many police followed them.  When we finally got to the
bull, it was closed off by police barricades on all sides and several police
officers were assigned to stand inside the barricades and protect the bull at
all costs as if the fate of Western Civilization depended on them and their
ability to guard the bull from harm.  This was certainly one of the more amusing
episodes of the day. After a couple of the more outspoken members of the group
marching toward the bull got themselves arrested the action such as it was ran
out of steam and everyone headed back to Zuccotti Park.

However that same evening another group of protesters demonstrated more of the
remarkable ingenuity that has marked this occupation from the beginning.  A
projector located somewhere in Zuccotti Park (I could not find the exact
location) was beamed diagonally against a tall building across the street that
was devoid of windows, a feature common to many commercial buildings built
during the 1960s and 1970s in Manhattan. This attribute turned the wall of this
building into a perfect screen for a giant advertisement.  What were the words
flashed on this improvised billboard?

BREAK THE LAW OF VALUE
ABOLISH CAPITALISM



So it seems that the man most reviled and feared by the capitalist class, whose
theories were thought to be obsolete and could never gain a foothold on the
un-philosophical soil of America  - Karl Marx - has returned and has something
to say to the youth and workers of this country. I do not want to make more of
this one incident than is warranted. There is still a long way to go on the road
from repeating a few words of Marx to assimilating the full implications of his
work. But it does indicate that there is perhaps now a receptivity to the ideas
of this man, more so than at any time in our recent history.  The ironic quality
of this development can only be appreciated if we consider the reaction to the
Wall Street events of some of our radical bloggers, a subject I will get to shortly.


We are in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protesters.  Their spirit and
creativity is to be admired and we share their aims. But we would fail our
responsibility as Marxists and revolutionaries if we did not warn them of the
dangers of ignoring the political struggle and the history and theoretical
heritage of those who preceded them in the struggle for socialism. I note that a
number of radical bloggers have taken exactly the opposite tack. They are
falling over themselves with words of adulation for the protesters and damning
anyone who introduces even the mildest, well-intentioned criticism. For
instance, one radical blogger launched into a sharp criticism of the ISO for
merely mentioning that the protesters have some lessons to learn. He wrote,

"...there is a real disconnect between young activists who are seeking
fundamental social change and groups like the ISO that see themselves as somehow
better qualified to lead such struggles because they have achieved some kind of
superior understanding of Marxism or because they are consciously following the
example of Lenin or Trotsky rather than the stumbling and tentative experiments
of the young people in Liberty Park."

While we do not think the ISO will be able to educate this movement, we
certainly think that they can use an education and Marx's analysis of the crisis
of capitalism and an assimilation of the work of Lenin and Trotsky is at least a
beginning. The demagogy in this blogger's comment consists in his counterpoising
an education in the history and theory of Marxism to the natural creativity and
spontaneity of the mass movement. But this is fallacious reasoning. We expect
that even with an education in Marxism, the revolution will still face stumbles
and missteps and its participants will learn from their experiences. But not all
missteps are necessary and not all stumbles have a salutary effect on their
participants. Sometimes such missteps have disastrous consequences. Those who go
into a situation blind and bereft of theory or history will inevitably fall by
the wayside despite their courage and inventiveness. This has been the
experience of every previous revolution and we do not expect it to be any
different in the 21st century.

The critical question is how to reach these people. It will not be done by those
claiming to be Marxists lecturing at people or telling them that they "must"
join this party or read this web site. Such efforts will be laughed off and
given the rebuke they properly deserve.

Here are some ideas for the protestors to consider:

1. “Socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor” – that's a widely popular
way of characterizing the Wall Street bailout by BushObama while tens of
millions of workers and middle class people have been foreclosed on, lost jobs
or can't find work. But it makes you wonder: if socialism is good for the rich,
why not have it for everyone?

2.You need to know where you're going if you're ever going to get there.
Movements without a goal have no direction, and become easy to sidetrack or coopt.

3.Don't believe anyone who tells you the system can be fixed and the politicians
can be pressured to do the right thing. Nothing is more dangerous in a crisis
than wishful thinking. Read what Wall Street reads and you'll quickly see that
the best case scenario is for a decade of economic slump and austerity, assuming
there isn't an all-out crash. A decade! For young people this means being
condemned to blighted lives – to never having a chance at a career, a steady
job, a decent place to live. We have no stake in this system. We have nothing to
lose – and everything to gain – by getting rid of it.

4.Don't believe those who have stakes in the system, especially Democratic
politicians and business union leaders. The only people we can trust are those
on the same side of the economic divide as ourselves – the working class.

5. We need to be organized. Our enemies are. Organization is not the enemy of
democracy. On the contrary, democracy without organization means that the energy
of the movement gets dissipated, reduced to a lowest common denominator. It
means the movement will never pose a serious challenge to the system, will never
get beyond being a political sideshow.