Part 2
So what happened? I’ll let Cindy Milstein explain it. She’s referring to Philadelphia, but the same holds true for my city, and presumably many others:
"First, self-organization really does work, as do all our other principles. The random Occupiers flung together without a road map or boss didn’t just stand around looking confused, or tear each other apart (at least initially). They passionately threw themselves headfirst into doing what they love, teaching each other new skills, lending a hand, sharing materials and ideas, trying to protect and care for each other, figuring out how to deal with those tasks none of us really want to do (like, in the case of Occupy Philly, when one of our most considerate general assemblies centered on how to keep the portable toilets clean), and so much more, as other global revolts of late have demonstrated as well.
Second, self-organization ultimately didn’t work, and everything we ever thought we knew about ethical social transformation needs to be thoroughly rethought. In our excitement at the outset, at least within Occupy Philly, we misjudged many things, such as the depth of personal and societal damage, and how long it will take to work through—certainly far longer than our occupation—or more to the point, what it will take to undo. We contributed, more than we should have, to letting power dynamics and troublesome individuals spiral increasingly out of anyone’s control—partly a result of the genuine dilemma of how, without relying on domination, to ensure and especially “enforce” accountability as well as create safer spaces and consensual boundaries. We didn’t have the patience to retool, perhaps time and again, the directly democratic and autonomous structures that we largely brought to the occupation in the first place, even though it soon became apparent that they didn’t simply scale-up from, for instance, an anarchist infoshop to daily life within a heterogeneous community with many pressing needs.
To be fair, we also just didn’t have time for such reevaluation, much less continually inventing new practices to test out with others. We were all trying to do everything at once, from scratch, without sleep. And more important, there was still the snarling “outside world” barking at our heels, from the many historical and contemporary wrongs in our midst like homelessness and racism to the beat cops stationed on our plaza, from a “good” mayor playing us off against each other to the barrage of bad press, from Homeland Security to capitalism, just to mention a few."
On the upside, we Occupiers (together with many allies) organized many great demonstrations, attracting a considerable amount of public attention towards the issues at hand, as others have noted above. I remember being cheered on by the women inside the student loan HQ place as we blockaded the doors and relentlessly verbally needled the security personnel. I remember the night after OWS was raided and disrupted, we marched in solidarity and anger through the downtown area. I looked up through the urban canyons and saw one office cubicle lit up brightly, with the fellow inside taking a break from working late in order to wave his arms enthusiastically as he cheered for us. We clashed with GOP, Dems, lobbyists, Americans For Prosperity (Koch project), security guards, and (always) police. We printed and distributed newspapers. We found friends and allies who donated food and supplies. We forged friendships and partnerships that endure in activism and organizing, as well as in the human contact we all crave.
On the downside, for the reasons Milstein mentions among others, the ratio of awesome people to miscreants, police provocateurs, petty criminals, crackpots, antisocial louts, and the mentally ill swung decisively in favor of the latter elements. Occupying became an end in itself, and much of our energy was devoted towards attempting to keep the campsites functioning and mollify our neighbors. I was also perpetually disappointed and embarrassed in the real lack of political savvy in many of my comrades. They often had firsthand knowledge that many things were wrong with our world, but a lack of ability to articulate this to the outside world in any way that would enhance our cause; or worse, they just didn’t care. This played right into the hands of our opponents.
In most countries, people organize first, then use occupying as a tactic. Students occupy universities, landless peasants occupy estates, workers occupy factories, and so on. This sometimes happens in the US, but Occupy occupied first, then tried to organize. This also stands in stark contrast to the movements that came before: alter-globalization, race/women’s/anti-war/labor etc. The upshot of all of this is that our positioned weakened to such an extent that Occupy sites around the country were dispersed via police violence. We did not collapse or surrender the field on our own, that was accomplished with the repressive power of the state.
Since the disruption of the Occupy camps, Occupiers have gone back to other (related) activist projects that they often had already been engaged in pre-Occupy. For the newcomers, Occupy served as an introduction. Occupy’s legacy has been preserved in this city in a couple of stage plays, an art exhibit, and the videos, pictures, and stories of those who were there.
We’re still here, and so are the issues.
