{"id":11020,"date":"2012-02-22T18:55:28","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T23:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=11020"},"modified":"2012-02-22T18:55:28","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T23:55:28","slug":"occupy-movement-regroups-preparing-for-its-next-phase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2012\/02\/occupy-movement-regroups-preparing-for-its-next-phase\/","title":{"rendered":"Occupy Movement Regroups, Preparing for Its Next Phase"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dorli Rainey of Seattle became a public face of the Occupy movement after she was pepper-sprayed by the police during a protest in November.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ragtag Occupy Wall Street encampments that sprang up in scores of cities last fall, thrusting \u201cWe are the 99 percent\u201d into the vernacular, have largely been dismantled, with a new wave of crackdowns and evictions in the past week. Since the violent clashes last month in Oakland, Calif., headlines about Occupy have dwindled, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Far from dissipating, groups around the country say they are preparing for a new phase of larger marches and strikes this spring that they hope will rebuild momentum and cast an even brighter glare on inequality and corporate greed. But this transition is filled with potential pitfalls and uncertainties: without the visible camps or clear goals, can Occupy become a lasting force for change? Will disruptive protests do more to galvanize or alienate the public?<\/span><\/p>\n

Though still loosely organized, the movement is putting down roots in many cities. Activists in Chicago and Des Moines have rented offices, a significant change for groups accustomed to holding open-air assemblies or huddling in tents in bad weather.<\/span><\/p>\n

On any night in New York City, which remains a hub of the movement, a dozen working groups on issues like \u201cfood justice\u201d and \u201carts and culture\u201d meet in a Wall Street atrium, and \u201cgeneral assemblies\u201d have formed in 14 neighborhoods. Around the country, small demonstrations \u2014 often focused on banks and ending foreclosure evictions \u2014 take place almost daily.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the movement has not produced public leaders, some visible faces have emerged.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m finally going to make it to the dentist next week,\u201d said Dorli Rainey, a Seattle activist. \u201cI\u2019ve had to cancel so many times. It\u2019s overwhelming.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Rainey, who is 85 and was pepper-sprayed by the police in November, has been fully booked for months. On a recent Thursday, she joined 10 people in Olympia, Wash., who were supporting a State Senate resolution to remove American soldiers from Afghanistan. She led a rally near Pike Place Market against steam incinerators, which the protesters complain release pollution in the downtown area. In March, she plans to join Occupy leaders in Washington for events that are still being planned.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have different goals,\u201d Ms. Rainey said. \u201cMine is, we\u2019ve got to build a movement that will replace the type of government we have now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jumping on a proposal from Portland, Ore., groups in 34 cities have agreed to \u201ca day of nonviolent direct action\u201d on Feb. 29 against corporations accused of working against the public interest. Then on May 1, they will try to persuade thousands of Americans who share their belief that the system is rigged against the poor and the middle class to skip work and school, in what they are calling \u201ca general strike\u201d \u2014 or \u201ca day without the 99 percent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cInspiring more people to get angry and involved is the top priority,\u201d said Bill Dobbs, a member of the press committee of Occupy Wall Street and a veteran of the Act Up campaign for people with H.I.V. and AIDS. He added that people could \u201ctake action on whatever issue is important to them, whether economic justice, the environment or peace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But some experts who credit Occupy\u2019s achievements to date wonder if the earnest activists will overplay their hand. Some question how many people will heed a call to stay home from work on May 1, especially since labor unions, which have generally supported Occupy\u2019s message, say they will not strike for the day. And beyond that, Occupy\u2019s utopian calls for democracy and justice may be drowned out by the presidential campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve gotten the people\u2019s attention, and now they have to say something more specific,\u201d said William A. Galston, a senior fellow and an expert on political strategy at the Brookings Institution in Washington. \u201cAverage Americans want solutions, not demonstrations, and their patience for the latter won\u2019t last indefinitely.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of Occupy\u2019s dilemmas are those of any emerging movement. \u201cSome of the stuff you do to get attention often puts off your audience,\u201d said David S. Meyer, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, who studies social movements. \u201cIt\u2019s a delicate balance, being provocative enough to get attention and still draw sympathy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The issue has been posed most starkly in Oakland, where a militant faction is openly courting conflict with a hostile police department, undermining public support and leading to sharp ideological divides. Some activists have formed separate groups dedicated to nonviolent methods, though tensions are not as acute elsewhere. Crimes reported in some of the camps in the fall also discredited the movement in the eyes of its critics.<\/span><\/p>\n

But without question, the unfurling of sleeping bags by a few dozen people near Wall Street on Sept. 17 struck a national chord. \u201cIn three months, this movement succeeded in shifting political discourse more than labor had been able to accomplish with years of lobbying and electoral campaigns,\u201d said Robert Master, the Northeast political director for the Communications Workers of America, which represents more than half a million telecommunications workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think there are going to be tremendous opportunities for labor and the Occupy movement to work together,\u201d Mr. Master said. \u201cWe have different roles\u2014 as labor we are much more embedded in mainstream politics. But we understand that without the pressure of more radical direct-action tactics, the debate in this country won\u2019t change substantially.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Though President Obama has not publicly embraced the Occupy movement, its fingerprints are evident in his increased focus on economic fairness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Galston, the political expert in Washington, said the movement\u2019s success in making inequality more visible \u201ccould have an impact down the road on campaigns and elections and agendas.\u201d But he also said that \u201cto this day, the movement has never crystallized its ideas into an agenda.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So far, home foreclosures are the most consistent target. Groups in Minneapolis are currently camped in homes facing foreclosure. In Atlanta, they take credit for using this method to save the house of an Iraq war veteran, pressing the bank to offer her refinancing after it had already set a date for eviction.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Providence, R.I., protesters made a deal with the city, agreeing to abandon their camp peacefully this month in return for the city\u2019s opening of a new day center for the homeless.<\/span><\/p>\n

But many in the movement appear to be pinning their biggest hopes on the nationwide protests planned for the spring and summer. To foster personal ties, Occupy Wall Street veterans, mainly from New York, embarked on a five-week bus tour of a dozen Northeast cities to exchange ideas on protest goals and methods and to hold training sessions with other Occupy groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWithout the camps, we\u2019re in a bit of a lull,\u201d Austin Guest, 31, said in New York. He is one of the many younger men and women who have given over their lives to Occupy, often sleeping on sofas and scraping by with donated food or part-time jobs. The actions planned for the spring \u201cwill be more substantial and a much greater threat,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

On a recent Saturday evening, some 50 volunteers met in a Greenwich Village church to discuss May Day activities for the city. The group included a mix of ages and races, with graduate students, teachers, older labor veterans and some full-time activists.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the style of the Occupy movement, it operated with a requirement of consensus. A person designated as the \u201cstack taker\u201d directed the order of speakers and people wiggled or \u201ctwinkled\u201d their fingers in the air to show agreement. They discussed a possible schedule of protests for May Day: disrupting commerce that morning, perhaps, and then joining an immigrant rights demonstration at midday and staging a march in the evening.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIs this O.K.?\u201d the designated facilitator politely asked every few minutes as he moved along the agenda. \u201cDoes anyone object?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A danger for a movement like this, driven by a committed core group with strong views, is political marginalization, said Todd Gitlin, an expert on social movements at Columbia University. Mr. Gitlin, whose book \u201cOccupy Nation\u201d will be published electronically by HarperCollins in April, said, \u201cYou can be big but still isolated,\u201d which he said was what happened to the radical antiwar movement he joined in the 1960s.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another challenge will be sustaining public anger if the economy continues to show signs of recovery and unemployment falls. Jessica Reznicek, 30, a protester from Des Moines, said the economy in Iowa \u201cis much stronger\u201d than in other places, adding, \u201cthere\u2019s not the level of escalation here.\u201d After five demonstration-related arrests in recent weeks, she is taking a step back and refocusing on specific efforts, like challenging companies that make genetically modified crops.<\/span><\/p>\n

But deeper concerns about inequality are not likely to disappear, said Damon A. Silvers, policy director for the A.F.L.-C.I.O., nor is the widely shared desire \u201cfor the economy to be run for the interests of the majority, not a tiny wealthy minority.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhether the individuals in Occupy Wall Street and their organization turn out to be the center of this sentiment in the next year, I don\u2019t know,\u201d Mr. Silvers said. \u201cBut that sentiment will be a powerful force in our country, and the Occupy movement deserves credit for that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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