Opinion

Andy Piascik: Occupy Wall Street becomes Occupy Everywhere

Finally the tables are staring to turn

Talking about a revolution.

Tracy Chapman

The explosion of the Occupy movement is the most important political development in the United States in decades. Emerging against the backdrop of a presidential campaign that is something straight out of the worst B horror movie, the movement that began on Sept. 17 on Wall Street has, in just several months, grown to where it now has a presence in all 50 states as well as the disenfranchised District of Columbia. Inspired in part by global upheaval in Egypt, Greece, Spain, Liberia and Chile, a brave band of mostly young people full of an optimistic belief in direct democracy that's a refreshing counter to the never-ending cynicism of political, corporate and media elites decided simply that enough is enough.

Enough of having a tiny percentage of the population vastly increase its wealth while what used to be the middle class falls into poverty. Enough of the incarceration of millions of young people through the bogus War on Drugs. Enough of union-busting and welfare for billionaires. Enough of blaming overworked, underpaid and under-appreciated public school teachers for the financial crisis. Enough of the super-rich buying elections. Enough of working class youth fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan to secure Exxon-Mobil's pipelines and profits. Enough, in short, of the 1 percent running roughshod over the rest of us.

Elites and their well-paid attack dogs have denounced the movement from the outset. As detached from reality as it is possible to be, the super-rich and their hired guns assail the Occupiers for daring to take a stand against the most radical upward re-distribution of wealth in human history. Elites know better than anyone that they got theirs at the expense of the rest of us, and an informed, galvanized public frightens them more than anything. They also know that the only way they can keep the movement from growing is to pit a segment of the population against the Occupiers through lies about who they are and what they want.

That the Occupiers have struck a chord with millions is undeniable, as polls show the movement has strong support. Overwhelming majorities who believe the economic system unfairly benefits the super-rich point to the possibility that the movement may grow far larger. Further indication of the movement's resonance is the fact that there have been encampments and actions not only in the usual centers like New York, San Francisco and Boston but also in Toledo, Nashville, Boise, Tulsa, Hartford, New Haven, and hundreds of other locales. In addition, the movement is thriving despite the violent dispersal of some of the largest encampments, including the one in New York City. Foreclosed-upon families around the country have been put into vacant homes and three of the nation's largest ports were shut down on Dec. 12.

And much as spirited resistance internationally has inspired people here, the Occupy movement has sparked allies around the world to stand up to the onslaught of global capital that much more diligently. Encampments have sprung up in hundreds of places around the world and there have been thousands of solidarity events including massive protests at the recent G20 summit of corporate elites in France.

Whether the Occupy movement is a revolution in the sense that word is generally used, it is thoroughly revolutionary in that U.S. society will never be the same. Millions of people now understand they possess power they didn't previously realize they had. Never again will they be atomized as they were before Sept. 17, and never again will they believe that things can be changed by voting for Humpty or Dumpty. Instead, they know that the only way forward is for the 99 percent to take on entrenched power directly.

In that sense, Occupy is thoroughly in the tradition of centuries-long endeavors to democratize the United States. It carries forward the work of the militant working class organizing of the 1930s, the black liberation movement of the 1960s and the women's movement of the 1970s, to name just three of many efforts that propelled our country to higher ground. Occupy, in stark contrast to the paper-thin, elite-bankrolled tea party, is doing likewise. Perhaps equally significant is the space it has created for future movements and the inspiration it provides young people that things can be better.

One of the most common attacks on the Occupy movement is that it has no clear goals. That is an intentional distortion, as anyone paying attention knows. Able to think only in the narrowest of terms, elites demand to see blueprints. The movement understands intuitively that blueprints are for totalitarians. What the Occupiers have are desires and dreams, and what they desire and dream of is a world where the 99 percent live for each other and not to serve the 1 percent. That's as lofty a goal as there is and it speaks to anyone who believes there's more to life than the pursuit of wealth and power at the expense of others.

There is no way to know where the Occupy movement will go. It has already had to endure much state violence and it will almost certainly have to face far more. We can only hope, however, that it is able to withstand all of the obstacles the super-rich and their hirelings throw in its path. If that is indeed the case, then the foundation may finally have been laid for the day when we collectively bring an end forever to the tyrannical rule of corporate elites.

Andy Piascik of Bridgeport writes for Z Magazine and www.zcommunications.org. He can be reached at andypiascik@yahoo.com.