Thank the NYPD — for Now

Sorry I’ve been scarce lately; I’ve been up to my elbows in Tibetan history. BTW, if you want to read an amazing story that cries out to be made into a major motion picture, check this out.

Anyway — if the Occupy Wall Street movement still exists six months from now, and hasn’t managed to evoke a massive anti-leftist backlash, everyone should send a fruit basket to the NYPD with a thank you card. Without the police overreaction, it would all be over already.

I’m irritated at the number of comments and editorials I’ve read saying “at least somebody has started something.” “Something” was started in Wisconsin last winter. But on top of that, the unions and Moveon and other groups have done quite a lot of startings of somethings since 2008, including marches and rallies. They’ve all failed to “catch on” to something bigger, mostly due to lack of media attention.

And the fact is, clumps of scruffy people carrying signs or handing our leaflets are pretty much part of the landscape in Manhattan, although not so much in the financial district. It’s rare to go by Union Square without seeing some kind of leftist activist demonstration going on, though.

Further, sugar-coating to the contrary, there is plenty of eyewitness testimony even from sympathetic eyewitnesses saying that the crew in lower Manhattan is mostly made up of the same losers who got in the way of forming a cohesive antiwar movement during the Bush Administration — “But come on—legalize marijuana, Free Palestine, anti-fracking—how about, for once, just advocating for economic justice when you’re at a march for economic justice?” Or marching against the war at an antiwar march?

The hopeful thing is that, thanks to the NYPD, these particular demonstrations, unlike the vast number of similar demonstrations that have gone before, got the attention of media. And I understand the groups that have formed in other cities are far more focused on bread-and-butter, economic justice issues — genuinely representative of the 99 percent.

Without a shared vision of something to be accomplished this movement will just march in circles and tire itself out. As the civil rights movement said, “keep your eyes on the prize.” So, OWS, what’s the prize? What will success look like?

There’s some pup who continues to proclaim that the movement has already had many “successes,” but this reminds me of the guy back in the spring of 2003 who sent me multiple photos of Saddam Hussein’s statue being torn down with the words, “Bush was right!” Um, time will tell.

With unions getting involved, however, hopefully there will be enough discipline and direction to put the energy to good use.

I’m taking some trains to Brooklyn today, and if my tricky back will let me I’ll stop by the financial district on my way home to see the thing for myself.

At The Guardian, a group of activists/authors comment on OWS. IMO the last guy, Rushkoff, if s flake, and those who imagine the Tea Party and OWS will join forces against the Man are demented. Eric Alterman sounds several notes of caution that need to be heeded, however.

See also The four habits of highly successful social movements.