One of the more amusing things about the Occupy movement is the fact that so many clever righties claim that they just don’t get it; what,after all, do these people really want? Oh sure, conservative commentators and pols are completely up-to-speed on the amount of poop generated by the protesters, in fact they’re nearly obsessed by it. And clever righties are certainly not strangers to speculation. They’ve speculated wildly and absurdly about President Obama’s birth records, the imposition of Sharia law in South Carolina court rooms, the deleterious effect of increased taxes on the “job creators”, and the conspiratorial nature of climate change science. But they just can’t get their heads around what the Occupy protesters really want.
Part of the blame goes to the mainstream media and their penchant for seeking out the most exotic or disturbing characters at the various protests, usually the guy with the rainbow hair, pounding on conga drums, or the topless chick.
And the list of grievances by the protesters is pretty fluid, expanding by the day. But to suggest that the movement is vague or inchoate or incomprehensible about it’s demands is ridiculous. Occupy began as a protest against out-of-control investment banks who’s fraudulent and reckless practices brought the economy to its knees in 2008. The protesters have also taken on the mortgage industry for the heartless, inflexible, dishonest, and possibly illegal way they have thrown millions of Americans out of their homes, in many cases while pretending to be re-negotiating delinquent loans.. And since the beginning, Occupy has been about the corrupting influence of money in the political process, about joblessness, about the exorbitant cost of higher education, and about the exportation of jobs and capital overseas.
Don’t you love it when right wingers pretend to not “get it”, whether the no-brainer is global warming, evolution, or public schools’ attempts to provide nutritious alternatives to frozen pizza. It’s their default position when confronting something that makes sense to everyone else, but doesn’t conform with their propaganda.
So imagine my surprise when I read this in the San Francisco Chronicle about this weeks’ attempt by Occupy Oakland’s to shut down the port of Oakland:
“To the folks who argue that an action against the corporations hurts the workers, what are they doing to help the workers?” Riley said. “We’re building working-class unity. The only way you’re going to loosen that grip is by the 99 percent realizing that the collective withholding of labor is the only way to change the wealth relationship.”
Huh?
Those would be the words of Boots Riley( not Dog House Riley), a spokesman for Occupy Oakland, explaining why it was important to make a statement at the port monday morning, even if it meant that a lot of guys, mostly non-union truckers, would be fucked over financially if the protest succeeded. The International Longshoreman, or many of them, simply took the day off, with pay of course.
And sure enough the protest did succeed, especially if success is measured by hurting the people you’re purporting to help, while achieving no other discernible goals. The reaction among the port workers was more confusion than anger, and a lot of 99%-ers were perplexed by the provocation. Even some Occupy protesters didn’t see the point. “The 99 percent is nonconfrontational,” said Ellis Goldberg, a marketer who has organized Occupy protests in Dublin and San Ramon. “You don’t use a bat to get your point across, and this port action is a bat. It’s going to hurt innocents - in this case, port workers and truckers.”
I believe the Occupy movement is at an historic juncture. It needs focus and direction more than ever, and a healthy dose of good p.r. wouldn’t hurt either. Confusion by the willfully ignorant is one thing, but more confusion by the 99%-ers as to Occupy’s ultimate goals could be something else entirely.
