Long Live Occupy: Occupy, three years later -SHARE~ In my view, Occupy as a movement continues in the particular forms of activism we are seeing emerging around the world. Whether Occupy Gezi in Turkey or Occupy Hong Kong, all these actions have similar qualities. While they include big marches, their focus is on building alternative communities, however short-lived, that are providing the necessities of life, political debate and cultural activities, as well as protests. They are all organized collectively with relatively flat structures, participatory democracy like the general assemblies and a valuing of whatever skills and ability people bring into the community. Many of these qualities were present in the occupations of the Indignado in Spain and the Arab Spring, particularly in Egypt, that preceded Occupy Wall Street; but Occupy Wall Street, through both social and mainstream media, spread these ideas around the world. The Arab Spring kicked off a series of peoples uprisings around the world, unseen since the 1960s. Most of them identify as Occupy and communicate with each other. So internationally, one can still talk about an Occupy movement. Besides inspiring a new form of activism, Occupy has had other significant impacts on society. The most important is naming the elephant in the room created by neo-liberalism, the gap between the rich and the rest of us. The dynamic of redistribution of wealth from the poor and working class to the rich was being documented by think tanks, but before Occupy it had almost no discussion in the mainstream. Instead of being hailed as heroes, the rich bankers of Wall Street are the new villains. -Judy Rebrick, Rabble rabble.ca/news/2014/10/long-live-occupy-occupy-three-years-later -D
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 02:20:26 +0000
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