Thoughts on Occupy Wall Street and how to fail at activisting

by Furry Girl

09.26.11

In the last week, I've seen lots of tweets about the Occupy Wall Street protest currently happening in Manhattan.  It's a protest camp first proposed by the glossy I'm-a-Whole-Foods-dwelling-yuppie-but-I-like-to-pretend-I'm-an-anti-capitalist-revolutionary magazine Adbusters.  The "occupation" of "Wall Street" has thus far seen a few dozen to few hundred people hanging out in a park down the street from the New York Stock Exchange.  (What you don't hear often is that this "occupation" is taking place in a private park where the protesters were given permission to stay.  The whole thing makes me think of an angsty teenager "occupying" their parent's living room in an act of defiance.)  The Occupy Wall Street protest doesn't have aims beyond some kind of vague "stop bad things," "end capitalism," and "no more corruption."  Earlier this month, the protest organizers were using an online poll (open only to people with a Facebook account) to vote on what the protest was trying to achieve.  Something like 80 people were arrested on Saturday, but the group has insisted it will continue.  A friend of mine reported this morning that the "occupation" is currently a few dozen anarchist kids sleeping outside.

Whereas supporters see Occupy Wall Street as a leaderless revolution on par with the Arab Spring that overthrew oppressive dictators, I see a small, confused group of white people who have no idea what they're protesting, what they want, and how to go about getting that end result.  I'm not at all against leaderless protest movements, but you can be leaderless, diverse, and democratic and still have some plans, goals, and strategies.  Getting people to show up in a small park isn't a revolution in and of itself.

It's all good and well to make a sign that tells people to "fire your boss," but how exactly is the average worker in America going to go about doing that?  Telling people to "fire your boss" is easy when you're flexibly-employed or privileged enough to be able to participate in "occupations," or a young traveling protester who is happy eating out of dumpsters and being filthy.  The group has been organized under the banner of "we are the 99%," but I really doubt the average working class person struggling to survive in this economy could either find the free time and financial resources to travel to Manhattan to attend, or, once there, gain anything useful from listening to the protesters.  Why not try to give all those regular working people tools to create actual change in their lives?  Why not use all the geek power behind this protest's social media presence to create an open database of people by area and occupation to help them find other workers to form collectively-owned businesses?  And use the streaming video feed from the "occupation" to give workshops on how to start a worker-owned co-op or small business?  And that's just one idea I had after seeing a photo of a "fire your boss" sign.  Sure, "work hard and start your own ethically-run company" isn't a very sexy tagline, but it actually does mean firing bosses.

If you want to overthrow something big - a government or capitalism or whatever - you're not going to do so as a scruffy "outsider" group of people sleeping on the street without a plan or tools for implementing change.  Successful revolutionary movements provide people things that the state isn't, plain and simple.  Revolution is about stepping up and showing the masses that you can do things better, not dropping out and sitting in a park, hoping that those beleaguered working class people you've read about in Adbusters will show up en masse and let you lead them to their salvation.  One of the most revolutionary projects across the 60s and 70s protest movements in America were the breakfast programs set up by the Black Panthers.  Lifting up your community with a long-term strategy like giving poor kids free food so they can pay attention in school might not be easy like holding a sign that says "smash capitalism," but it's stuff like that that really counts.  Remember, you have to demonstrate that you know how do it better, and you have to offer people things the current regime does not.  Occupy Wall Street uttery fails by that test.  Sadly, even the stupid Tea Party does a better job at getting large numbers of working class people on their side.

Whenever I air criticism of things like this, I get the common response: "at least they're doing something!"  There's this idea that so many people who consider themselves activists have that "doing something" is of paramount importance, and it doesn't matter what you're "doing," so long as you can tell people it's "better than doing nothing."  Yes, the people hanging out at Occupy Wall Street are "doing something," but what, exactly?  That's what no one can explain to me.  They've gotten some media attention to the idea that some Americans aren't happy with the current state of the economy, I suppose, but that's hardly news.

"Doing something" isn't doing something unless you're actually doing something.

Here's how to do something:

* Decide what you're against.  Make it well-defined, not "I'm against greed."
* Decide what you want.  Make it a clear goal, not "No more corruption."
* Explain what exactly you're going to do to get from point A to point B.  Look at the history of other social change movements and figure out what tactics best suit your cause, and which tactics are likely to fail.  Remember that just because you're "doing something," it doesn't make that something effective.
* Follow through and modify tactics as necessary until you achieve your goal.

It's pretty amazing to me how few people who consider themselves activists can't master these simple steps for how to have a campaign.  So many people seem to think that endlessly restating what they're against, or what they want, will somehow magic those things into happening.  I see this with sex workers' rights activists a lot.  There's a lot about "Stop violence against sex workers" and "We want decriminalization," but there doesn't seem to be much of an overall plan other than continuing to repeat those demands within our echo chamber.

With my project, SWAAY.org:

* I am opposed to marginalization and violence against sex workers that is the result of bad laws and social stigma.
* I want full decriminalization and for sex workers to be an accepted part of society.
* The only way to get any of these things is to get the public on board and educate them about our issues.  You can't change an ingrained social stigma and laws when the majority of the public is against you.  It amazes me that there is almost no sex workers' rights activism that does any sort of public outreach or education, since that is generally the foundation of any social change movement.  (And no, having a blog that a member of the general public could conceivably find does not count as "public outreach.")  With SWAAY, my goal has been to get people interested in the topic, using both DIY campaigns like the "respect sex workers" stickers, and paid media campaigns like the upcoming billboard to draw viewers to a web site that gives people the basics in an accessible manner.

See, it's not that hard.  Coming up with a goals and a plan is the easy part of activism, the tough work is in the implementation.  If a group or person can't handle putting together a reasonably well thought out foundation, I don't give their cause much of a chance of succeeding.

 

I've turned off comments on this post because I'm tired of reading stupid nonsense from people who couldn't debate their way out of a wet paper bag.





27 Comments

  1. With due respect to the "at least doing something!" silliness, you may be a bit harsh here. From far away, I'm seeing #occupywallstreet as a kind of convention without hotel, and with the occasional random police action (gruesome though the details may be). Who knows what seeds might germinate in the midst of all that manure?

    You're totally right about lack of a plan, though, from what I've seen; sitting around fumbling your way toward a semblance of representative democracy in a park as autumn closes in doesn't look so promising. And in body count terms, the demonstrators are obviously losing.

    H0pe you're well.

    Comment by Mike Gogulski — September 26, 2011 @ 3:09 pm

  2. A spontaneous expression of discontent and anger is going to be just that at first; disorganized, chaotic, even schismatic. They're already working on putting out ideas of who they are and what they stand for. It's also hard to get very far because Tea Party gatherings with fewer attendees than the number arrested yesterday from OWS get mainstream countrywide media coverage, but this got nowhere until the cops started cracking heads.

    The idea of complaining because the protesters are privileged is nonsensical; it doesn't mean they don't have anything meaningful to say, it means they have an even more powerful position because if those over-educated Starbucks-drinking college kids are mad enough to protest, how bad must things be for the underclass?

    Comment by Anonymous — September 26, 2011 @ 10:56 pm

  3. "1. Reinstate Glass-Steagall
    2. Ban flash trading
    3. End corporate personhood
    4. Robin Hood tax
    5. END CORPORATE WELFARE! Now that I think of it, why isn't that number 1? That has the broadest support ever."
    this was posted on ad-busters. Part of the problem with demanding a demand from this contingent of the left is that so many of the problems that concern the left have been left by the wayside. The oceans are turning acidic, Palestine is still occupied, Iraq and Afghanistan are still occupied,wall st. is busy blowing up the global economy once again (while food commodities traders starve the third world) and you want "a" goal? Lets start with my one demand to the powers at be,"stop it." Stop the occupations, and lets reverse the financialization of the economy. Now how do you do that? The aforementioned list is not bad. But we need to talk about this publicly without media minders. We need to engage in democracy not talk shit about people who are doing so.

    Comment by David Hamilton — September 27, 2011 @ 12:21 pm

  4. Yes, far too harsh. Disagreement is one thing, but condescension and witheringly dismissive contempt is quite another--especially when it's based on mindreading of people whose knowledge and positions you know absolutely nothing about beyond the signs you've seen in news reports. Do you really expect them to put their entire analysis of the problems of capitalism (and potential solutions) on a single protest sign?

    Bashing dirty fucking hippies is endlessly popular among mainstream liberals, but I thought you were better than that. It's a shame to discover I was wrong.

    Comment by Anonymous — September 27, 2011 @ 5:41 pm

  5. I'd put that bumper sticker on my mini van in the suburbs, sure why not. I hope it's easy to find on your website. :)

    Comment by Krissy — September 27, 2011 @ 6:14 pm

  6. It's very fitting that not a single supporter of Occupy Wall Street who has angrily disagreed with this post and called me a moron/asshole has been able to demonstrate how they are actually doing anything helpful to create change. And no, typing in all caps about what you want is not giving working class people the tools to create change in their own lives.

    Believe me: I agree with the concept of "fire your boss," which is why I work for myself, and have since I was 18. But, unbeknownst to scruffy anarchist kids who live off of their parents and/or dumpster diving, being your own boss is actually a shitload of work.

    I give people advice all the time about how to strike out on their own and support themselves outside of a traditional job. I'm not just randomly shit-talking on the concept of protest, I am actually GIVING PEOPLE TOOLS TO FIRE BOSSES AND MAKE THEIR LIVES BETTER, unlike the kids at the Occupy Wall Street. And I do this stuff quietly, without expecting people to congratulate me for being a hero revolutionary.

    Revolution is real work, mostly thankless and boring work, not angry sloganeering and Twitter campaigns.

    Comment by Furry Girl — September 27, 2011 @ 6:56 pm

  7. "And no, typing in all caps ... I am actually GIVING PEOPLE TOOLS TO FIRE BOSSES AND MAKE THEIR LIVES BETTER"

    Apparently self-awareness isn't your greatest asset. And you're still hippy-punching with your bizarre cleanliness fetish (now it's "scruffy" in addition to "filthy"...and you certainly are obsessed about those dumpsters, aren't you?). FYI, I personally know one person who's been part of the protests, and he's a college professor with kids and a wife; I'm pretty sure he eats off of a plate and showers regularly. For a sex worker who complains constantly about stereotypes, you're inordinately fond of spinning out a procession the most insulting and belittling ones I've seen on this topic.

    But without a doubt, the funniest part of your tantrum here is your advice to people sick of corporate abuses and deeply opposed to corporate personhood to go out and start their own corporations.

    You really just don't get it, do you.

    Comment by Anonymous — September 27, 2011 @ 8:02 pm

  8. "Anonymous": It's really flattering that you are so fascinated by me and spend so much time thinking about me and what I write. I am not at all interested in you and your opinions, however. Looks like I win.

    Comment by Furry Girl — September 27, 2011 @ 8:05 pm

  9. I think you're on to something here. There's a difference between self-expression and effective communication; in conflicted situations, in fact, they're almost mutually exclusive. Venting one's rage feels cathartic, but it doesn't convey a message effectively or get anything done.

    One should consider what must be the most effective movement for change on the left in the last ten years: the gay movement. Ten years ago it was illegal to be gay in a lot of the country, and now the Christian Right is fighting a desperate battle to stop the spread of gay marriage, a battle they themselves admit they're losing. The gay movement did start with spectacular protests (Stonewall, White Night), but these were spontaneous responses to specific attacks, and the movement really started winning when it started to communicate effectively with the general public on a large scale, through well-known and admired figures "coming out" and countless ordinary people doing so within their own immediate circles. It's much harder to demonize a group when almost everybody knows a couple of them.

    Sex workers don't have an obvious analog of large-scale "coming out" available to them, but I agree with you that educating the public and dispelling the myths is crucial. It's a hell of a big job, though.

    Comment by Infidel753 — September 28, 2011 @ 6:13 am

  10. Someone who genuinely wasn't interested wouldn't have bothered responding; there's that self-awareness thing again.

    Good luck with your OCD.

    Comment by Anonymous — September 28, 2011 @ 10:03 am

  11. The thing I find terribly tiresome about the anarchist protestor crowd is that they have been trying this approach (get together, sans bathing, scream, shout, destroy private property, and generally make things for "the 99%" crappy while they're doing it) since the WTO riots in Seattle in the late 90's and what has changed? Nothing. Faced with their own record of utter failure and gloomy future prospects for the changes they so desire, they continue to lash out, with utterly no direction at all and the beat goes on.

    My takeaway from Furrygirl's piece is this:

    - rowdy protests by a small number of disorganized people, while fun, have a poor track record of creating change.
    - you need to have a goal and a strategy for getting there
    - working for change is a huge committment of time and sweat equity

    Only thing i would add is that a great deal of the time, these movements are cross-generational. Unrealistic goals and timelines do no one any good. The Titanic does not stop on a dime.

    Like most free advice it's probably worth the price you paid for it, so yeah.

    Comment by matthew f. — September 28, 2011 @ 4:53 pm

  12. Furry Girl, I like your blog, but I have to disagree with your post here. I admire the guts of the people who have been demonstrating — and when the cops spray you with mace or pepper spray for no reason and slam you into a car for carrying a camera, it does take guts — and if you try to measure how worthwhile an activity is by whether it changes everything or not, I'm not sure too many things pass that bar. I thought your personal protest against the TSA airport procedures was brilliant, but I notice that they're still using them … does that mean it wasn't worthwhile?

    The odds are long that we can forestall the big ugliness that's rolling down the pike towards us … but I'm glad some people are trying.

    Comment by ballgame — September 30, 2011 @ 10:43 am

  13. Ballgame: I don't see how getting pepper sprayed can be used as a metric to determine if the protest is creating change or well-thought out. Like I emphasized in my post, just because a person/group is "doing something," it doesn't mean that something is effective. Yeah, it "takes guts," in a way, but that doesn't mean it takes brains. We need brains more than we need young people who are driven to getting in direct confrontations with the police.

    Comment by Furry Girl — September 30, 2011 @ 12:00 pm

  14. i always enjoy reading your posts even when i don't agree, like this time. here's a very important difference between your work at SWAAY and OccupyWallStreet. You're a one person show. It's so much easier to define, plan, and execute when you don't have multiple goals and ideas that bump up against each other. You yourself have said you chose to do SWAAY mostly on your own because then you wouldn't have to lean on flaky folks and could just get the job done. What OccupyWallStreet is doing, still undefined, requires many people which mean it's necessarily messy as fuck and will take longer and will start out without broad support or numbers. That's how most social change starts, anyways.
    I feel you on the frustration of watching messiness unfold. But I'm still going to stick with the quote by Naomi Klein: This is not the time to be looking for ways to dismiss a nascent movement against the power of capital, but to do the opposite: to find ways to embrace it, support it and help it grow into its enormous potential. With so much at stake, cynicism is a luxury we simply cannot afford."

    Comment by story — September 30, 2011 @ 12:26 pm

  15. I've very much been of two minds on the Wall Street protests. I'm very glad to see something is finally happening, but thinking that this won't really have any effect.

    Usually, this sort of protest is poorly planned, diffuse in it's aims, poorly funded and equipped. The other side is not, and has no hesitation whatsoever to hit back, hard.

    The other problem with any sort of revolution (even a small, reforming one) is that the masses usually know what they are against, but not so much what they wish to replace it with, or how to institute that change should they win.

    Comment by Comixchik — October 1, 2011 @ 8:23 am

  16. Infidel753: Actually we sex workers do have an obvious analog of gay coming outs: coming out as sex workers. I am a big advocate of living our lives openly and honestly in order to show people that we're their friends, family members, and a part of the community. It's not sexy and exciting like a protest, but I believe that being out as sex workers is the most effective activism we can engage in on a regular basis.

    Matthew: I agree. It's been 12 years since the WTO protest (which, while not the first big protest, was definitely a landmark one), and people are still not figuring out that just getting people to show up and be angry is not actually an effective means of creating social change and new alternatives. I'm not anti-protest at all, but your protest needs to convey some kind of clear message and have a clear target. Getting together to protest "corruption" or "greed" just doesn't make sense. You always have to offer people alternatives, otherwise, you just look like a group of idiots.

    Story: SWAAY is run as a one-person show, but I do want to clarify that it's the product of a lot of different people's input. I would never want to take credit for the entire thing and everything written on the site. I hate activist culture, which is why I started my own thing. But, that's not to say that people working in a group have an excuse to have no goals, aims, plans, or any sort of message. There are plenty of group activist projects that still manage to have their shit together and express ideas effectively. There are even plenty of non-hierarchal, consensus-based groups and affiliate groups that have their shit together, as much as I think consensus is silly. Working with others, and working outside of strict leadership structures, doesn't have to mean being disorganized, confusing, and without a plan.

    Comment by Furry Girl — October 1, 2011 @ 5:23 pm

  17. Thought-provoking post, and I think there is much merit in what you say. There has been very little coverage here in Australia, and what there has been has generally been glorified the protest without much analysis or questioning (or been from the Right saying "why on Earth would anyone blame Wall Street?), so it's good to see another side.

    That said, I think you go a little too far. I agree that the protests are achieving a lot less than they could if they were adopting a lot of your suggestions. However, I'm not sure they're achieving nothing.

    The way I see it is that a lot of Americans are understandably angry, but don't have a clear focus for their anger. The Tea Party has managed to capture a lot of those feelings. I'm sure a lot of people have a part of their brain telling them that the economic mess was caused by crony capitalism run wild, but the Tea Party comes along and says the problem is all because there's a "socialist" in the White House, and people focus the rage there. It seems to me that Occupying Wall Street has, at least to some extent, brought to the front of people's minds the idea that the mess has more to do with big corporations than with the people who are trying to rein them in. If it shifts the debate away from how Obama is supposed to have caused the problem to the responsibility of the finance industry then that's something good.

    However, I certainly agree with you that a lot more could be achieved for the same amount of effort if people concentrated on goals rather than just being angry.

    Comment by Stephen L — October 2, 2011 @ 3:28 am

  18. Fantastic and clear post. I find it overly dismissive of the situation, but I completely agree with its broader point and find that point beautifully articulated. A lack of specific intent is the most important issue with this protest, and the list of grievances they released is kindasorta specific but iirc not specific in its *demands*...

    Comment by June — October 4, 2011 @ 6:13 am

  19. Occupy Wall Street is the essence of anarchism. Leaderless, no hierarchy. An assembly voting by consensus. That's anarchism, folks. It's messy! I'm amazed no one has glommed onto that. The hippie aesthetic is essentially anarchistic, without the violence and posturing. And I am a person very sympathetic to anarchism.

    Comment by Dave — October 5, 2011 @ 10:49 am

  20. I couldn't agree more about the fundamental problem: the failure to translate outrage into meaningful action.

    Hoping to inspire people to take their frustration to the polls in November, I created this graphic about an hour ago. I wanted to focus and coalesce all the anger into an actual position. The idea was for people to download it and share it. Maybe if one out of every hundred demonstrators is motivated to actually vote against the "pro-business" agenda, meaningful and lasting corporate regulatory reform could happen.

    http://www.austincollins.com/wallst.jpg

    Comment by Austin — October 8, 2011 @ 7:27 pm

  21. It doesn't sound like you've spent much time at the protests, or done much research outside of mainstream media. It's absolutely not a few dozen anarchist kids there; it's hundreds of people including veterans, labor unions, working class people, and plenty outside your FoxNews-fed stereotype of a few dozen scruffy anarchist kids with tons of privilege and zero responsibility. This is not a "confused group of white people." Is that what it looked like to you, when you saw the protests live? From what I've seen (in person), the racial demographic of the protesters is roughly equivalent to that of New York City.

    I'm glad to hear that you're proud of the goals of Swaay, and you should be. But as this is a much larger movement that's spread to several cities now, I don't know if it's fair to compare nationwide anti-capitalism protests with your organization that's composed of much fewer people, on the internet, ultimately serving a much smaller demographic. Many revolutions begin without top-down leadership, without a PR person to articulate the goals of the movement. It doesn't mean there aren't any coherent goals.

    Whether this is the beginning of a large-scale revolution or not, I find it quite inspiring to see political activism happening outside the doors of buildings that symbolize the epitome of American greed and capitalism-gone-wrong. This might not be the beginning of the end for American capitalism, but I'm thrilled to know that Wall Street CEOs can't walk by "Liberty Square Park" (ha!) without a reminder of the way our capitalism and the unity of bank and state are doing a disservice to much of our population.

    He's more articulate than I am, so I recommend you read: http://therumpus.net/2011/10/occupy-your-conscience-a-rumpus-exaltation/

    Lastly:
    1. Pointing out privilege among protesters doesn't strike me as helpful or relevant, as other commenters have mentioned. (Are the goals of SWAAY irrelevant because you're white [or pass for white, at least] and self-employed? Of course not.)

    2. Who called you a moron/asshole? No one. If you're confident in your beliefs, you can certainly articulate them without inventing personal malice from those who disagree with you.

    Comment by Amanda — October 12, 2011 @ 12:23 am

  22. Amanda: If you care to note the date this was posted, Occupy Wallstreet actually was just a small group of scruffy kids at that point.

    Comment by Furry Girl — November 8, 2011 @ 3:14 pm

  23. FurryGirl: I do note the date, and the fact that your assessment was incorrect both then and now.

    Comment by Amanda — November 12, 2011 @ 7:05 pm

  24. Amanda: Here's a photo of Occupy Wallstreet taken by a friend of mine a few days before this blog post was written: http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrtsge2U0B1qzong1o2_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1321237132&Signature=%2Fl%2BWM31CkFZvKx8U5qOft74PXGE%3D How am I not accurate is saying that in September, the protest was a "few dozen" people? That image contains about 40 people, and there's no telling whether even all 40 of them are protesters, or just curious people like my friend, checking out the fuss and taking a photo. I have also heard from other friends in NYC (whose reports I consider completely reliable) that at least with the early weeks of the protest, the small crowd was pretty much all young white anarchists/hippies/college students. Or, if you think my friends are all secret agents of the capitalist conspiracy, look at Flickr's collection of all uploaded photos taken prior to September 26th, and tell me this is a massive protest comprised of people who DO NOT look like hippies, anarchists, and white people: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=%22occupy+wall+street%22&d=taken-20110901-20110925&ss=2&ct=0&mt=all&w=all&adv=1 Playing "find the nonwhite person" or "find the person over 40" is a difficult game.

    Comment by Furry Girl — November 12, 2011 @ 7:28 pm

  25. Comment by Trackbacks — May 17, 2012 @ 6:01 am

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Furry Girl: a good time not yet had by all.

Activism

My adult sites

More of me online

Enjoy my writing? I enjoy presents!

Buy SWAAY shirts:

Browse by topic

New to my blog? Some favorite posts

Favorite sex/ho blogs

Videos and podcasts

Sex workers' rights info

Search

RSS