The Next Wave
The People versus the Police
Naomi Wolf
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NEW YORK – America’s politicians, it seems, have had their fill of democracy. Across the country, police, acting under orders from local officials, are breaking up protest encampments set up by supporters of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement – sometimes with shocking and utterly gratuitous violence.
In the worst incident so far, hundreds of police, dressed in riot gear, surrounded Occupy Oakland’s encampment and fired rubber bullets (which can be fatal), flash grenades, and tear-gas canisters – with some officers taking aim directly at demonstrators. The Occupy Oakland Twitter feed read like a report from Cairo’s Tahrir Square: “they are surrounding us”; “hundreds and hundreds of police”; “there are armored vehicles and Hummers.” There were 170 arrests.
My own recent arrest, while obeying the terms of a permit and standing peacefully on a street in lower Manhattan, brought the reality of this crackdown close to home. America is waking up to what was built while it slept: private companies have hired away its police (JPMorgan Chase gave $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation); the federal Department of Homeland Security has given small municipal police forces military-grade weapons systems; citizens’ rights to freedom of speech and assembly have been stealthily undermined by opaque permit requirements.
Suddenly, America looks like the rest of the furious, protesting, not-completely-free world. Indeed, most commentators have not fully grasped that a world war is occurring. But it is unlike any previous war in human history: for the first time, people around the world are not identifying and organizing themselves along national or religious lines, but rather in terms of a global consciousness and demands for a peaceful life, a sustainable future, economic justice, and basic democracy. Their enemy is a global “corporatocracy” that has purchased governments and legislatures, created its own armed enforcers, engaged in systemic economic fraud, and plundered treasuries and ecosystems.
Around the world, peaceful protesters are being demonized for being disruptive. But democracy is disruptive. Martin Luther King, Jr., argued that peaceful disruption of “business as usual” is healthy, because it exposes buried injustice, which can then be addressed. Protesters ideally should dedicate themselves to disciplined, nonviolent disruption in this spirit – especially disruption of traffic. This serves to keep provocateurs at bay, while highlighting the unjust militarization of the police response.
Moreover, protest movements do not succeed in hours or days; they typically involve sitting down or “occupying” areas for the long hauls. That is one reason why protesters should raise their own money and hire their own lawyers. The corporatocracy is terrified that citizens will reclaim the rule of law. In every country, protesters should field an army of attorneys.
Protesters should also make their own media, rather than relying on mainstream outlets to cover them. They should blog, tweet, write editorials and press releases, as well as log and document cases of police abuse (and the abusers).
There are, unfortunately, many documented cases of violent provocateurs infiltrating demonstrations in places like Toronto, Pittsburgh, London, and Athens – people whom one Greek described to me as “known unknowns.” Provocateurs, too, need to be photographed and logged, which is why it is important not to cover one’s face while protesting.
Protesters in democracies should create email lists locally, combine the lists nationally, and start registering voters. They should tell their representatives how many voters they have registered in each district – and they should organize to oust politicians who are brutal or repressive. And they should support those – as in Albany, New York, for instance, where police and the local prosecutor refused to crack down on protesters – who respect the rights to free speech and assembly.
Many protesters insist in remaining leaderless, which is a mistake. A leader does not have to sit atop a hierarchy: a leader can be a simple representative. Protesters should elect representatives for a finite “term,” just like in any democracy, and train them to talk to the press and to negotiate with politicians.
Protests should model the kind of civil society that their participants want to create. In lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, for example, there is a library and a kitchen; food is donated; kids are invited to sleep over; and teach-ins are organized. Musicians should bring instruments, and the atmosphere should be joyful and positive. Protesters should clean up after themselves. The idea is to build a new city within the corrupt city, and to show that it reflects the majority of society, not a marginal, destructive fringe.
After all, what is most profound about these protest movements is not their demands, but rather the nascent infrastructure of a common humanity. For decades, citizens have been told to keep their heads down – whether in a consumerist fantasy world or in poverty and drudgery – and leave leadership to the elites. Protest is transformative precisely because people emerge, encounter one another face-to-face, and, in re-learning the habits of freedom, build new institutions, relationships, and organizations.
None of that cannot happen in an atmosphere of political and police violence against peaceful democratic protesters. As Bertolt Brecht famously asked, following the East German Communists’ brutal crackdown on protesting workers in June 1953, “Would it not be easier…for the government to dissolve the people and elect another?” Across America, and in too many other countries, supposedly democratic leaders seem to be taking Brecht’s ironic question all too seriously.
Naomi Wolf is a political activist and social critic whose most recent book is Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2011.
www.project-syndicate.org
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bvnshah 07:02 31 Oct 11
Indians took part in a protest which lasted days in many parts of country for rooting out corruption from government machinery and the notable thing is it was completely non violent! The government is under tremendous pressure to pass the so called legislation which will try to make bureaucracy transparent. The social media played dominant role in galvanising youth to come out in streets to protest without any form of violence. Not a single case of violence was reported from any part of the country during the protest.
Zsolt 08:59 31 Oct 11
First of all I completely agree with Naomi Wolf.
And in reply to rebentisch, writing the following:
"...The United States is neither the GDR nor pre-spring Egypt. In nations with a secret police and a population hostile to the rulers "protesting" is dissent in the open while ordinary people simply lack the courage to take personal risks. The situation in the US is completely different. It is not a dictatorship..."
No the United States is not GDR and not Egypt. The United Sates and the Western civilization based on American values is worse than the aforementioned, because those regimes were outright evil, and they did not even try to hide it, like any evil character from a film or cartoon. Our "democratic" western civilization is the most sophisticated, highest form of slavery and dictatorship, but it pretends to be "the best system we can have".
Not one aspect of our society is free, every layer of society is controlled through money and consumerism, the public is brainwashed 24/7, that people are on the streets now means that the situation has become so bad, that the brainwashing lost its power and some people start escaping the Matrix.
On the other hand the situation is truly so bad, and the crisis is so deep that even the "1%" cannot escape it, and very soon we will be together on the streets lighting fires with the useless dollar bills of the elite. The Matrix has entered a self destruction phase. Very soon we start building a new human structure, more adapted to the global, interconnected and interdependent world we live in.
The only question is how we go through the transition, is it going to be through violent scenes, bloodshed or we can start some kind of a discussion right now? The ball is clearly on the court of the "1%", so far they did not react very well...
microsrfr 10:05 31 Oct 11
Worker wage-based demand for goods and services has been shrinking for the past four decades due to lower tariffs, outsourcing and automation. The dot-com and housing bubbles were doomed-to-fail attempts to keep our economy growing by supplementing worker earned income with funny money. Now that that has failed we are barely making it with 10% of our goods and services purchased with unsustainable federal deficits.
All elements of our society are in contention for their "fair share" of a shrinking economic pie. As is always the case in these situations the strong (moneyed) are taking more of a share at the expense of the weak (poor). Unless we set job number one as finding ways to grow worker purchasing power and grow the pie again, we wil see the unraveling of our noble democratic experient with the weak becoming those with more fire power. This will usher in a new age of demagogues for at least a generation.
Alll of the developed countries of the world are seeing deteriorating wage-based demand due to outsourcing, automation and dependence on imported oil. Here in the US we can add our medical expenses which are twice those of other developed countries and financing forces to secure the Middle East oil supply.
The solutions tend to be counterintuitive as we need to counteract outsourcing with the phase in of greeater than 30% tariffs on all imported goods except food, clothing and non-strategic raw materials. But, are we really doing ourselves or our trading partners a favor if by continuing on with business as usual, we destroy the world economy? Similarly, we need to compensate for automation by going to a four day work week of nine hours a day with the same weekly pay. This can only be effective if we first implement higher tariffs and would create jobs and lower our usage of oil for transportation. It would also give workers more time for avocations, child rearing and schooling,
If someone in the OWS movement agrees with these thoughts, then there are three signs I would suggest could be effective:
GROW THE PIE OR DIE (i.e. our democracy will die)
STOP TRADE RAPE
9999 (i.e. the four-day work week)
rebentisch 01:17 01 Nov 11
What I mean Zsolt: These persons do not have a broad backing of society. When "protesters" start to get distracted with the "police" their case is lost, they simply lost focus. The narratives and blame games are then known.
Furthermore the US is free to follow a Swedish model, get a decent modern constitution and multipartisan voting system and responsible TV-journalism without shouting. And, most importantly, get a real conservative party.
Zsolt 06:11 01 Nov 11
Answer to rebentisch: I think we will be surprised to see very soon how great of a support they get as the crisis goes on, and the helplessness of the politicians and the financial elite will be clearer and clearer. And not only in America but all around the world including even countries like Sweden.
I agree with you that the problem is not the police, and not even the politicians or bankers. The whole system is broken, it is not suitable for the world of today. The previous political and economical structure is suited to a competitive, expansive system, where as it is dynamic the inequalities can be eased or masked over.
But today the world has become closed and round, we are totally intermingled, there is nowhere to expand, competition is not positive but destructive, and the inequalities are frozen as the system is not progressing anymore.
No present political or financial force can change that, we need a totally new structure build from scratch. It will take a while until everybody agrees to this, especially the present elite sitting on what they have, but as the crisis goes on they will not have other options either. But if we are clever now, and start talking to each other we can speed up the transition and can make it non-violent.
mvl28 01:35 01 Nov 11
Zsolt, I disagree a bit with the points you are trying to make. First, I think we can agree that by living in a society you automatically lose some freedoms. For example, having acess to the World Wide Web; how would you do it? Is not paying money to your ISP fair?
Second, maybe the change you are talking about in society is to a resource based economy, were everything is distributed equally but isn't a society like that still undermined by greed and some desiring to have more than others? And how do you give value for something like art and music in such society?
My point is some things won't change even if you change society. Nevertheless I support the cause in the US about the whole corruption and abuse in the banking system but that doesn't mean it's flawed. Imagine the world where people are honest, I think the system would work just fine.
And to the comment about India, thanks, I wasn't aware of how peaceful it was to the point that there wasn't a single report. Just shows the difference between people and their ideas.
AT 07:01 01 Nov 11
Wolf's description of the events in Oakland is grossly erroneous. She states: "hundreds of police, dressed in riot gear, surrounded Occupy Oakland’s encampment and fired rubber bullets (which can be fatal), flash grenades, and tear-gas canisters." She is, in fact, conflating two completely different events. The removal of the encampment from Ogawa Plaza was accomplished with a minimum of force – the police simply moved in and arrested those who refused to leave. The use of tear gas, etc. did not occur until the conclusion of a subsequent day/evening of protestors marching through the streets and arriving at the still-cordoned off plaza, with the stated intention of "re-occupying" it. There was no "surrounding" of the protestors; they were moving around freely on Broadway and other streets, with the police in static deployment at the entrances to the plaza. The protestors ignored repeated orders to disperse and warnings that chemical agents would be used, and provoked the confrontation by throwing rocks, bottles and paint at the police lines.
burkai 07:14 01 Nov 11
Banker: "We've bought the politicians, now let's buy the police!"
Sell your soul for a penny, Copper?
www.OneTao.com
Zsolt 07:16 01 Nov 11
Answer to mvl28:
What we are talking about is a gradual process of course. We go through a process until we recognize how much we are just puppets on a string in a society not only to a certain extent, but completely, basically we are just a display screen, showing the actual data, information that flows through us, our only individualism is given by our inherited qualities defining how we process that information flow. I do not want to convince you, or insist I just recommend if you can, to examine time after time why you made certain actions, decision trying to get to the bottom of it and see if "You" played any part of it at all.
Regarding the future optimal society that will also be a result of a process, which process we can speed up if we study the world we live in, study the conditions, laws, and then adjust to them correctly. Most people still reject the idea that in this global world we are so interconnected that we basically resemble a single body where each of us are the individual cells.
But based on the body example we can examine how a healthy cell relates to the body and how a cancer relates to it, and what a healthy cell causes and what a cancer cell causes.
Of course all this is in complete constrats to how we see ourselves today and how we relate to each other, thus the change is difficult and gradual.
The change will happen by a push from behind through the worsening crisis and other negative signs showing us that how we live today is harmful, but we can speed it up by conscious understanding, examination of the situation and being proactive.
The most important is that it cannot be a forced, agressive process in between us, the system only works if people enter it willingly, understanding why they are doing it, seeing its benefits.
burkai 09:28 01 Nov 11
If you are of the mindset, 'give me liberty', you are more than likely not going to receive it. If you want liberty you have to take it. And we are taking it to the streets. De oppresso liber.
www.OneTao.com
mvl28 10:28 01 Nov 11
@Zsolt
Well, I have to disagree with the push coming from a common willingly understanding, and that is pushed by this crisis. How can it start now if only one part of the world lives the crises? African countries are rising, South America is developing and China is dominating; even in Europe things are getting worst but they aren't as bad as in the years people who are still alive experienced. Financial crises have also come and went since the bonds and stocks were invented (17th century). See Niall Fergurson - The Ascent of Money, Steven Radelet - Emerging Africa, or go to www.debtocracy.gr for a European documentary on the crises.
I used to have your opinion about things changing but we humans desire to see change within our own life span and we tend to exagerate on predictions, because of how we function. And now you can also add the media, e.g. look at the author of this article, she was arrested and adds phrases about the police, but another user already commented diferently. This article is very different from other articles from her. Anyways, I'm no expert and I could be the one mistaken.
Going slightly off topic; That interconnectess is nevertheless an interesting idea, if read similar ideas from Jaron Zepel Lanier maybe you know about him. Somethings I agree will be true but only after a long time from now, like, ~100 years from now.
Zsolt 11:11 01 Nov 11
@ mvl28, This crisis is different from previous crisis situations, it is not a cyclical event but a system failure. Our present models are not suited to the global world, for example the free market, constant growth expansion model cannot work in a closed, finite system, while due to the crisis the consumer base that is supposed to revive the economy is dwindling, we have descended into a catch 22 trap.
The new situation is this interconnectedness you mention, we have become a closed interdependent network, nobody can move without pulling everybody else with him/her, we still do not see how deeply we depend on each other. Thus we will see that countries who seemingly still progress will slow down as in a global crisis there is no way someone can progress independently. As soon as the US or European market cannot take Chienese products at the present rates, the Chinese economy will have to slow down, which in turn will impact the Australians for example where China is getting their natural resources, and so on the network is much more complicated and deeper than that. Previously Americans did not even know where Greece was, but now they are focused on that small country which could decide the fate of the whole global economy within weeks.
So it is not exaggeration, we can see the seemingly frentic activity between politicians, but they are utterly helpless, because the software they work within has expired.
There is nobody who can offer anything from the present elite even if they wanted to. And the crisis is all inclusive, so the differences will be washed away gradually.
The solution is a public movement which basically the Occupy protests started world wide, we have to build a new system, all of us participating in it.
mvl28 12:43 02 Nov 11
Yes, the majority of the economy is completely connect, of that there is no doubt. But the Chinese know that, so they are promoting internal consumption. Africa doesn't export to Europe because of the taxes the EU imposes making only internal goods a better buy. Greece will most likely leave the EU and pay the debt and some will be written off. Those are possibilities that aren't impossible and that aren't the end! You can 'isolate' something out of the system to minimize damage. Also, protests in Europe are misguided, most people protest against their local government to stop certain policies yet all of these are imposed by the European Parlament. As far as I know for the protest in the US, there aren't even actual demands; they could ask for the separation of investment banking from regular banks but only some of protesters think that.
Imagine a point where all economies are at the same level, what difference does a constant growth market make then? You always neeed to create more money is it? In the information age that is even easier. The opposite option of not producing additional money still leaves the option that others can get bigger shares. Other option, resource based economy, well, that was done long ago, but you know, corn goes rotten after a while, that's why coins appeared
What the protests should be about is knowing the system and force its regulation or eliminating the exploits in the models, not simply stating that it's wrong.
Zsolt 01:36 02 Nov 11
@mvl28, Look obviously I cannot prove to you the future, we only have what we see today.
But some further remarks.
Constant growth is not possible in a system which is closed and finite, and everybody is intermingled, even if we just look at the economy. From today onwards every time anyone tries to "grow", they will step on someone else's toes. Where would people take more shares, more markets from, only from someone else. Unless we keep printing more money, or inventing more virtual bubbles which they have been doing leading to the imminent bursts, and significant inflation. Most of the trillions people are pushing this way or that way today is unreal, and not surprisingly has no effect whatsoever.
And the Chinese machinery for example is not geared for internal market but for the world market. Although their internal market is big, it is not enough to keep them growing.
The problem is the foundation, the whole system is based on self calculations and reception for ourselves, chasing more profits regardless of the costs for others, in a totally subjective fashion. It sort of worked in a "loose" system, where there was a buffer, but today we have none of it. That is why we have to change the foundations otherwise we consume ourselves.
This is why the solution is a system based on mutuality.
reddog 02:29 21 Nov 11
Dear Charles,
Slavery was all right as far as it went but there were problems with it as you well know. We've managed to work many of them out.
For instance, there was a huge capitol investment as well as ongoing maintenance costs whether or not there was work to be done. Food, medical expenses, winter shelter and although financially beneficial, the unanticipated pregnancies were never ending. As well, it was racist. So,...we solved all those problems with one ingenious solution: we freed them.
Now, we have the use of all races, they provide their own maintenance, and during our down time, they fend for themselves. Problems solved!
They sing of the 'Land of the Freeeee,...and the home of the Braaaave,...'
So long as they work two jobs for slave wages, we know what they are.
Your brother,
David
rebentisch 05:10 31 Oct 11
Sorry, that was funny:
"My own recent arrest, while obeying the terms of a permit and standing peacefully on a street in lower Manhattan, brought the reality of this crackdown close to home."
It doesn't suprise me at all. When you follow a protester narrative and antagonize the police the play is set, the roles are known, the old propaganda is reused. In the end you wonder what agenda the drama all was about... right "police brutality" against "peaceful protesters".
The United States is neither the GDR nor pre-spring Egypt. In nations with a secret police and a population hostile to the rulers "protesting" is dissent in the open while ordinary people simply lack the courage to take personal risks. The situation in the US is completely different. It is not a dictatorship.