A few thoughts on #OWS

Posted on November 2, 2011

I haven’t written here much lately, been far too busy with other projects. But I wanted to lay out a few thoughts I’ve had after having had the opportunity to observe #Occupy camps all over the country in the past month.

The core issues that #OWS and all the various local groups started out to address are simple – extreme disparities of wealth undermine democracy by allowing a tiny minority to dominate political discourse, set the national agenda, and define the bounds of what is “acceptable”. They do this through a variety of means but one of the most powerful is corporate lobbying, which is legally enabled by the bogus legal fiction of Corporate Personhood. The end result is a political system in which the vast majority is disenfranchised and unrepresented.

The movement is significant for many reasons but one of the most important is that – despite the Corporate media’s determination to paint it as a “liberal” movement – it is a truly nonpartisan effort. Recent polling shows 73% of OWS supporters disapprove of Obama, the vastmajority of participants (over 70%) are not affiliated with either party, and Democratic mayors like Jean Quan of Oakland have been among the most brutal in their use of police violence against the Occupations. Traditional american conservatism says that Government is bad and we should trust Business to run things. The american progressive left counters that big business is inherently untrustworthy and relies on government to hold it in check. Occupy sees both Big Business and Big Government as problematic and in fact part of the same system.

This is worth paying attention to.

In fusing a Libertarian critique of the State with a critique of market fundamentalism, the movement is defining a new political orientation outside of the traditional left/right split. An orientation that just so happens to already have a name: Libertarian Socialism, aka the polite name for Anarchism. Not to say that the majority of participants would call themselves Anarchists. But really what they call themselves doesn’t matter. Actions are what matters. And in taking on both Corporation and State #OWS is closer to a mass Anarchist movement then anything else we’ve seen in North America in over a hundred years. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s just starting and there’s plenty of time to grow.

More importantly, the occupations provide a physical space where people can gather and talk about these issues as part of a new dialogue that isn’t mediated by the media. That’s huge. Add to that the fact that the General Assemblies now functioning in hundreds of American cities are giving thousands of people around the country direct experience with localized and accountable direct democracy and you have the basis for a very different politics indeed.

OWS isn’t about reforming the american political system. It’s an ongoing conversation that everyone is invited to participate in about what we’re going to replace it with. That’s huge, and it’s worth supporting.

Some of you may remember this song, it’s one my band released back in 2005. In it I laid out a 12-step plan for revolution in America. By my count #OWS is already on step 4 and with the Oakland General Strike slated for today is moving firmly into step 5. We’ve still got a long way to go, but we’re moving faster then we have in a long time and that’s amazing, beautiful, and worth supporting.