How the Left is Changing the Nation

Citizen empowerment and the direct democracy being practiced suggest Occupy Wall Street can reinvigorate the left.

The Occupy Wall Street protests in New York’s Zucotti Park seem to have settled in for the long haul, although only time will tell if they will have a lasting impact in spawning a new social movement or reinvigorating the left. The double-decker buses en route to the 9/11 memorial slow down, and tourists gawk: The protests seem to have become another stop on the downtown tour. Entrepreneurial vendors ribbon the park’s perimeter, selling the usual street food and sidewalk kitsch. Even the police officers assigned to the protest beat seem relaxed, enjoying a shift that promises street theatre and hopefully an afternoon in the warm fall sunshine. A lot of them are happily earning overtime pay. One generous sign even effused inclusiveness, stating “NYPD: You are the 99%”.

On the first afternoon that I hung out in the park, there were almost as many reporters and interlopers as protestors. Because of NYC’s famous diversity, the international media have no trouble finding people to interview in languages other than English. Given that one hallmark of the protests is their “leaderless-ness,” pretty much anyone qualifies as a spokesperson, which unfortunately translates into cartoonish television coverage. Dreadlocks and tattoos tend to attract the cameras.

At first glance, it’s easy to dismiss the protests as a lefty version of the Tea Party, a big tent of the disaffected with many an axe to grind – from ballooning student debt to fracking, overseas wars, nuclear power, and even debit-card charges. One young activist vaguely explained that he was protesting because “U.S. economic interests” were “hurting the world” – while making a half-hearted effort to hide a joint under the flap of his sleeping bag. However, I then listened to a matronly registered Republican who had voted for Bush explain why she was supporting the protestors: because they were being unfairly represented in the media and she felt that they truly were the 99 per cent, which, in the American context, means earning less than roughly $1,100,000 per year.

I briefly chatted with an eager and articulate volunteer, who thought the protests could result in a new form of coalition politics. He dismissed the critique that the protests were lacking in vision and leadership, decrying what he called a 20th-century approach to understanding a 21st-century social movement. What was important, in his view, was not the now, but what might come to be. On National Public Radio, I heard another defend the protests as “leaderful,” rather than leaderless, in reference to the citizen empowerment and direct democracy being practiced.

In reality, these activities are highly organized. Far from anarchism, there’s a lot of governance going on. Thirteen different working groups have been set up and hold public decision-making meetings. There’s an outdoor medical centre, a kitchen, a sign display and arts area featuring silkscreen production, a media hub, a lost-and-found, and even a library. Teach-ins are regularly held, and a large whiteboard announces who will be leading them, and when. Jeffrey Sachs and Barbara Ehrenreich were lined up – it’s becoming a progressive intellectual’s badge of honour to make an appearance.