The burgeoning #OccupyWallStreet protest made headlines again on Saturday night when hundreds of demonstrators were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge. And once again, the tried-and-true media narrative of protesters vs. police is played up.
It could be argued that the story here is not about police arrests and should instead be about the growing movement occupying public space across the United States as a symbol of disgust with the U.S. economic system. That’s true, but you can’t expect corporate media to focus on the real story. What’s also true is that the media’s focus on that narrative, and #OccupyWallStreet’s revulsion with the New York Police Department’s tactics, is an opportunity for coalition building with marginalized communities in the city.
Kai Wright, editor of the excellent ColorLines website, notes that the demonstrators are “largely young and white.” He also writes critically that the #OccupyWallStreet demonstrators have not included those “millions of people who have been kicked out of their homes, laid off or forced to work multiple part-time jobs, caught in predatory debt traps and, yes, so harassed by cops that they have petty criminal records that make them unemployable.”
Wright continues:
These millions are neither lobbying Congress nor marching across the Brooklyn Bridge; they’re trying to make it through the week without another crisis. They are also overwhelmingly and not in the least bit coincidentally black people. And I suspect that until we build our politics around their participation, we will continue to miss the point.
Wright’s point is salient, although there are certainly black people and those who have lost their homes now down at Liberty Plaza. And there are probably few protesters at Liberty Plaza right now who would disagree with Wright’s call. The question is how to garner the participation of those in marginalized communities and build strong links with the protesters who do come from those communities.
Labor’s willingness to get on board the occupation is one way. The Transit Workers Union, which has come out strong for the protesters, has a largely Black, Latino and immigrant workforce. But that’s not enough.
#OccupyWallStreet, which will continue to battle the police in the coming days, should be building bridges with communities who suffer the most from NYPD policing tactics. Anger at the department’s “stop and frisk” policy, which is overwhelmingly directed at poor Black and Latino men in New York City, is high. So is anger at the NYPD’s recently exposed spying program on NYC Muslim communities. What’s a better way to connect the struggles of communities of color and the #OccupyWallStreet demonstrators than marching specifically against those policies and the heavy-handed NYPD tactics used on #OccupyWallStreet?
Last Friday’s protest against police brutality was certainly a start. The upcoming October 22 protest against police brutality, an annual event, could be the next step. #OccupyWallStreet should use existing anger at police brutality and connect the struggle against inequality to the struggle against police brutality. After all, both the policing and economic systems in this country target poor people in communities of color. Making those explicit connections could be a powerful boost to the growing movement to occupy Wall Street, and the United States.
I would think that many visible minorities are very concerned about destroying the Obama presidency. They don’t want to rock the boat and have the first black president buried in bad publicity with the claim that the minorities are turning their backs on him.
That is why I am quite positive that the establishment will ensure Barack Obama is elected again because there would of been riots already, if the minority community were not keeping their powder dry.
Rest assured, if Obama loses the election, the minority community will be hitting the streets in the millions.
Calm
“Rest assured, if Obama loses the election, the minority community will be hitting the streets in the millions.”
You’re not serious are you? Can you please use that in a pro Obama campaign commercial: “Elect Obama or minorities in America will riot..” It’s sad to support Obama just because of his skin color and not base your support him on his record.
Rest assured, when Obama loses the election, it will be because he is an impotent leader; he pushed economic policies that are unpopular and ineffective; and pushed an unpopular health care.
The visible minorities (the working poor) are going to express their rage if every hope has been dashed for social justice. The visible minorities within the U.S. see Obama in the same light as the Tea Party sees Ronnie Ray-Gun. To a majority, Obama is almost “Saintly” because Obama sold “Change” and “Yes We Can”.
It is not about democracy and wealth …. It is about “Social Justice”.
Obama was/is no different than Bush or Ronnie Ray-Gun. Both political parties are the same and they just play musical chairs.
The U.S.A. is a “Corporation”.
Presidents are “Public Relation Managers”.
American’s are not “Exceptional”.
At the very core of the “U.S. Capitalist System” are the credit rating agencies. Standard and Poor or Moody’s and The Clowns.
For the Financial System to garner any faith or confidence, the Credit Rating Agencies must remain pure as snow. Above reproach. All faith and confidence towards the U.S. Capitalist system is built upon the “Saintly” activities and oversight by Standard and Poor or Moody’s and The Clowns.
Within the U.S. Capitalist System, the Globalists have been found to have actively participated and promoted Worthless Paper (Toxic Assets) and which were “Insured” or “Guaranteed” by the U.S. Government.
If a Republican is elected in 2012 as president, the new president will be immediately branded as a criminal simply because he represents the “Criminal Class”.
Obama was “Allowed” to run and finance the huge campaign in 2008. And he is going to be “Allowed” to win again. Obama is the best Public Relations guy on the planet. He was only president a hour and a half and the Elite “Knighted Obama with the Nobel Peace Prize.
And as with every election, there will be “Rage” because of voter fraud and the harassment of minority voters at the polling booth. Examples of people not being “Allowed” to vote because they don’t have a drivers licence, or whatever.
And …. A major support for the Israeli’s is the Christian Right and for reasons of faith both Christians and Jews have an affinity for the Holy Lands.
Mitt Romney has no great “affinity” towards Israel because of religious beliefs. Mitt Romney believes that some ol’ fart walked off into the Bush one day (around 1830) and God showed up with a bunch of “Rules”.
Jon Huntsman is gonna be the Republican Candidate and Obama is gonna be “Allowed” (Financed) to win.
Calm
dotandcalm.com
I’d like to add one more comment, and it may be a bit off topic.
I admire the protesters, but Wall Street is not the place to be. It is the most secure place on the planet.
80 Percent of all goods move across North America by railway.
You need to “occupy” the railway and slowdown rail traffic.
There is no need for people to travel many miles to a central protest on Wall Street.
Railways pass through every major community on the continent.
Choose a day of action ….. encourage people to approach any “Freight” railway (Not Amtrack or Rapid Transit) and to simply stand on the tracks.
Occupy and slow down the rail services.
I recall the YouTube trip named “Life In A Day”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMxuocCN1O0
Well, you need to have “Protest In A Day” and encourage people to upload content and photos which would show where people participated.
If you want international news coverage, you need to just mention that if the police violence continues, you will shut down rail transport.
Calm
“The question is how to garner the participation of those in marginalized communities and build strong links with the protesters who do come from those communities.” Perhaps by recognizing that these protests would in fact be impossible without the models of critical resistance developed by communities of color and other marginalized groups in this country. It’s time people–even well-intentioned allies–learn to stop asking “where are the people of color,” and start asking themselves “where were we” in Arizona, Alabama, NOLA, Oakland, in the fight for higher education, in the fight to practice religion freely, in the fight for the basic securities and peace of mind that many Americans see as natural, but that we’ve had to demand and create for ourselves. I hope the more privileged among the protesters will make a concerted effort to address these issues and make the struggle against structural injustice a central part of the movement. In the meantime, check out: http://midwestmountainmama.tumblr.com/post/10896937483/the-point-to-me-is-not-that-they-are-not-including
and pococcupywallstreet.tumblr.com
You’re absolutely right that the imperative to broaden this movement is crucial to its success, and the impact of the incidents with the police have certainly helped with that. It reminds me of something someone recently said at a General Assembly meeting after one of the incidents: “You’ve just experienced a little of what we in the hood experience every day.” There is definitely an opportunity for solidarity there.
However, in conversations with leading occupiers I’ve had, many seem to think that over-emphasizing the police brutality angle would be a mistake. It gets the momentary attention of the media, yes. But it also carries an enormous risk for sidelining the clear target of the occupation, which is the economic exploitation represented by Wall Street. Police are sometimes enforcers of that exploitation, but they are also glaring victims of it. Many, many protesters are more eager to win the sympathy of rank-and-file police officers than to alienate them.
Furthermore, I would add myself, there is something fundamentally different about police brutality in poor neighborhoods (especially, but not solely) throughout New York and what is happening to these protesters. The protesters are engaged in a conscious act of resistance, thereby (in some cases more than others) purposely inviting police action. Most other victims of such brutality experience it not by choice, but as a result of discrimination and disregard. They experience it far more brutally, too, and with far less sympathy, because there aren’t hundreds of cameras rolling when it happens, as there are for the protesters. They experience actual prison sentences, rather than a few hours and a slap on the wrist. As a result, I think that such solidarity can only go so far.
If this angle is pursued, I think, it would be important to structure it around the basic economic and social issues. Protesters might ask cops (as actually they do, in signs and chants) things like, “Why are you being paid to beat us when you should be joining us?” And so on. After all, a quick look around the edges of Liberty Plaza at any given time is enough to remind one that the police themselves are, to a considerable degree, representative of the very communities that this movement will need to win over if it is to succeed.
Dave, it is not as though minorities are the only people who will riot in the streets if Obama is not re-elected; I will start a riot in the street, and I am a white guy who is a clinical psychologist. It is simply unacceptable for Mittwit “Mormon” Romney to be our next president given his belief that “corporations are people too.” Corporations are filled with people who are white-collar corporate criminals, and this is the reason that our economy was destroyed in September of 2008; twenty-seven years of unregulated greed and white-collar crime was too much for our fragile system of capitalism to handle, and the tax cuts for the wealthy are not helping one damn bit. Romney is worse than St. Ronald Raygun because of his delusional religion and its strange beliefs; it is Romney’s belief about corporations that is incredibly dangerous.
Paul Haider, Chicago
Mr. Haider, perhaps you should reread what you’ve written, and, given your profession, have yourself evaluated.
Romney believes that “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech.” Good for him. Better question is, why don’t you?
Corporations are filled with people earning a living providing goods and services that the market demands. Of course government subsidizing the housing industry and empowering the unreditworthy to get large loans had nothing to do with it…
I see you’re bigoted against Mormans.
Look at it this way Paul, if you get arrested while rioting next November you stand a good chance of being found incompetent to stand trial.
Talking/joking(?) about starting a riot on a site about nonviolence, and acting like it would be a good thing, shows we still have a long way to go in communicating the power of nonviolence.
Dave, it was wrong of me to write what I did without re-reading it first; you were correct about everything, especially what I wrote about Mormons, or “Mormans” as you refer to them. After Mr. Romney gave his recent speech in Michigan about the trees there being the “right height” for the invasion of Mormons from their home planet of Kolahg, it forced me to think a lot about Romney’s hero: St. Ronald Raygun (yes, I know that it is spelled R-E-A-G-A-N). Reagan believed that ninety percent of all pollution was due to trees, and I blame the trees for it being eighty degrees over this past weekend in the middle of March; it had absolutely nothing to do with climate change or global warming. Damn those trees that are not the correct height and produce so much pollution! Also, I have decided to demonstrate my tolerance for Mormonism by worshipping Joseph Smith instead of Jesus Christ. Although it is true that Smith was a charlatan, a delusional fraud, a cult leader, a polygamist, and a false prophet, it is also true that was not a Jewish carpenter or zombie. After Smith was shot multiple times by an angry mob in Carthage, IL on June 27, 1844, he did not return from the dead three days later; this proves that he was not a zombie!Praise Joseph Smith and the Mormons for their delusions! My favorite delusion of Mittwit “Mr. 1% Multi-Millionaire Mormon” Romney is one about how cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans will improve the economy; there is also his delusion that Ronald Reagan was our greatest president in spite of the fact that any erudite scholar or historian will agree that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the the greatest president in the history of the United States. “Yes, corporations are people, Mormonism is not a cult, and Reagan was our greatest president.” This previous statement was brought to you by Rupert Murdoch’s Faux News Channel.
Paul Haider, Chicago
There is not any reason for me to become a “street fighting man” in Chicago while instigating a riot, as President Obama defeated Mittwit “Mr. 1% Multimillionaire Mormon” Romney in a landslide. The American people have spoken, and Romney has to shut his mouth as he fades away with his 250 million dollars in personal assets. For the record, nonviolence is what we need right now in this “Christian” nation where thousands of people are killed every year due to gun ownership. I am not a gun owner, and I have never engaged in an act of violence. However, it is sad that the United States still the most violent nation in the world; this is in spite of the fact that the vast majority of Americans claim to worship a pacifist, Jesus Christ, who earned the nickname of “The Prince of Peace.”
Hello! I hope you do not mind but I decided to submit your site: http://wagingnonviolence.
org/2011/10/wanted-at-occupywallstreet-coalition-building-across-nyc-communities/ to my internet directory
website. I used, “Wanted at #OccupyWallStreet: Coalition building across NYC communities / Waging Nonviolence” as
your weblog headline. I hope this is fine with you.
However, if you’d like me to change the title or perhaps remove it completely, e-mail me at rufusgillen@gmail.com. Thank you.