It's not that I think this movement is all bad. If nothing else, I think it's important to have a left-wing activist response to the Tea Party, if only to show that liberals and progressives have as much passion for their ideas as conservatives and the religious right. And I think it's damn impressive to sustain and grow your movement for the better part of a month. I also think that there are legitimate grievances to be had with the financial sector of this country. (Satirized perfectly by this Onion article.) But I think that, just as liberals (myself included) critique the Tea Party and point out their hypocrisy, we need to critique OWS as well and not simply applaud their actions because we agree with (some of) their ideology.
Some things to consider:
- Even as they're protesting capitalism and corporations, how are they continuously benefitting from those entities? How many of them are wearing clothing, sleeping in sleeping bags, using cell phones, etc, that were made in sweatshops? [And please, spare the argument that it's impossible to buy ethically made clothing. All it takes is research. As a last resort, one can learn to knit, go buy yarn from Maine raised sheep, and knit a sweater.] Who farmed their food? They are posting to the internet - where is their internet coming from? Did they buy unbleached, recycled paperboard for their protest signs? Have they even thought about these things? Or, like many other forms of privilege, are they completely unaware that they are benefitting from the system they protest against, and at the expense of others?
- While I do not condone police brutality, and the NYPD's response to the protests has been shameful, I also do not condone provoking police brutality by marching without permits. Especially if not everyone is aware that the marches are occurring without permits. If you're going to break the law, it's imperative to make sure that every single participant knows that what they are doing is illegal, and that a confrontation with the police might result. It's absolutely fine if one is made aware of this and participates anyway, but everyone should be aware regardless.
- What is the end goal of OWS? I know that this question is redundant at this point, but I'm not sure that question has been answered. What sort of change are they aiming to effect?
These are just some of my thoughts after mulling over the issue for three weeks. Feel free to comment and start a discussion. I guess my issue is, I don't see much actual discussion going on at all. I've either been hearing "Yeah, fight the man, f*** the cops, we're oppressed!" or "These people are all stupid and won't accomplish anything - liberals hippies commies etc." Neither of these scripts are productive. If college has taught me anything it's to engage in actual dialogue and analysis!
- Katharine
I 100% agree with your second and third points. It is ridiculous to me that people are outraged at being arrested for illegal activity. As you say, police brutality is not to be condoned, but by continuing to knowingly provoke that conflict, they are overshadowing the message - whatever it is - that they are trying to send.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if your first criticism would hold - at least not for individual protestors. Certainly, I agree that sweatshops and environmentally unsound products are problems, and problems that many of the protesters probably never thought about. But because of the lack of a clear goal or even target of the protests, I'm not sure those things are directly relevant. I think the majority of the concern is with domestic economic policy, the policies that are leaving us with high unemployment, stagnant growth, an unsolved debt crisis, an extreme and growing wealth gap. While I understand at some level, the kinds of issues you raise are inseparable from domestic economic concerns, when a recent college grad with $10,000 in debt can't find a job, they are much more concerned about taxes, unemployment and job creation than environmental regulations (understandably so, in my opinion). What would be great is if our government could solve the problems simultaneously - I'm sure that would have a symbiotic effect. But since it's a long shot on getting even just one of them solved, I'm not holding my breath.
I could be completely wrong - if their goal is to critique capitalism as a whole and unethical corporate practices, they definitely need to take a step back and look at their privilege.
Something I stumbled upon today which I found to be much more meaningful and effective than anything the physical protests have done so far is this:
http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
Thanks for your response Kaitlyn! I absolutely agree with your main paragraph - about concerns over our economic policies, debt, wealth gaps, etc, and I admire and appreciate OWS's dedication to taking on those issues.
ReplyDeleteI wrote this before I had read OWS's statement of purpose - or to be honest, skimmed...I haven't read it in its entirety. I think an issue with them taking so long to release such a statement is that individual comments and explanations were presented as representative of the entire movement. I had simply read a lot of "Down with the capitalist regime" tweets/facebook posts/blog posts and found them ironic and a little hypocritical.
Thanks for the link - I'll definitely check it out!