Is It Effective to Occupy Wall Street?

“The trade unions joined on Wednesday. That was good enough for me, and I joined, too,” writes Paul Berman. And for those who criticize the movement as lacking specific demands, he retorts: “Everyone intuitively knows the demands.”

Occupying Foley Square (no verifiable credit)

(CALGARY, Alberta) - You may recall that when this protest movement began a few weeks ago, the mainstream media ignored it. It was only covered by less powerful outlets like Salem-News.com. I’m reminded of the 1960s protests that brought down a president. Can their grandchildren bring down Wall Street?

The New York Times regularly runs a feature called “Room for Debate” where a half dozen or so credible commentators contribute their ideas to a topic. On Oct 6, the topic was the so-called occupation of Wall Street. The seven people are below, with their background, a brief summary of their comment and a link to their complete contribution.

The Times writes: “The protest already is more popular than Congress. So what are the demonstrators doing right, and what could they be doing better? Do these people, like others worldwide who are disillusioned with their governments, have the potential to spark a mass movement? What are they missing?”

Beware of the Old Guard

Nathan Schneider is an editor of the blog WagingNonviolence.org and an editor of Killing the Buddha, an online magazine of religion, politics and culture.

The main thing the protesters are doing right, is sticking around. Who remembers, he says, that more than 20,000 people marched on Wall Street last May 12? But the danger is co-option.

“As big, established organizations like unions and political lobbies begin offering their support with promises of more marchers and resources, this genuinely grassroots upswell faces the challenge of building a broad coalition without getting co-opted by the old guard just when it really starts swelling.”

Read his full comment here.

Learning From Globalization Protests

Naomi Klein is the author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism and No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies.

Klein compares this protest to earlier ones where people protested against transient symbols, like WTO summits. This protest is against an specific target, “Wall Street, a symbol of the corporate takeover of democracy.” Without timeframe limitations, that gives them potential for much greater longevity.

Read her full comment here.

Critique From the Outside

Anton Woronczuk, who has taken part in the protests, is a student at Union Theological Seminary.

This is a movement of the “99%” of the people without “access to corporate power” and “is bringing us to a historic moment when we might begin to liberate ourselves from the tyranny of the 1 percent”. It will succeed so long as it does not generate a centralized leadership and thus become vulnerable to cooption.

Read his full comment here.

Echoes of India, Not Egypt

Satya Pattnayak is a professor of sociology and political science at Villanova University and a faculty affiliate of the Center for Peace and Social Justice.

While the use of new media fomented revolutions in places like Egypt and Tunisia, she thinks that this movement is best compared to India and “the protest movement led by Anna Hazare, which created a groundswell of popular support for his Gandhian campaign for anti-corruption legislation, forcing the parliament to agree to consider such a law.”

She thinks it important that the movement gain significant support from the two main parties. So far, Republicans see it as a tool of the Democratic party and President Obama sees them only as a response to severe economic stresses. She argues that the movement needs organization and leaders in order to have a lasting impact.

Read her full comment here.

Change the Public's Thinking

Michael Kazin is a professor of history at Georgetown, a co-editor of Dissent and the author of American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation.

This has been a long time coming, Kazin writes. “By finally making the gulf between the wealthiest class and everyone else impossible to ignore, the occupiers, in their tenacious rage, are doing a great service to our country.”

He concludes that “If protesters manage to direct the anger of a portion of the “99 percent” toward the freewheeling free-marketeers who got us into this mess, they will have done their job.”

Read his full comment here.

The Power of a Crowd

Paul Berman is the author of, among other books, The Flight of the Intellectuals: The Controversy Over Islamism and the Press and A Tale of Two Utopias: The Political Journey of the Generation of 1968.

“The trade unions joined on Wednesday. That was good enough for me, and I joined, too,” writes Berman. And for those who criticize the movement as lacking specific demands, he retorts: “Everyone intuitively knows the demands.”

The movement is a response to high institutional failure: “No one in high office has proposed, let alone enacted, institutional reforms on a scale visibly commensurate to the depth of the crisis. An inarticulate society cannot be a democratic society.”

His retort to the criticism that they have not elected leaders or developed a platform is this: “The role of crowds in the streets is not to formulate 10-point programs or to issue criminal indictments. The crowd has chosen, instead, merely to remind the rest of society of reality.”

Read his full comment here.

Protests Are Not a Movement

Stephen Zunes is a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco.

Zune, too, calls for organization and leadership. “Successful movements focus on developing a well-thought-out strategy, clearly articulated political demands, a logical sequencing of tactics, well-trained and disciplined activists, and a recognition that colorful protests are no substitute for door-to-door organizing among real people.” He concludes that “being right isn’t enough, especially when you are up against the powers of Wall Street.”

Read his full comment here.

Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Daniel Johnson as a teenager aspired to be a writer. Always a voracious reader, he reads more books in a month than many people read in a lifetime. He also reads 100+ online articles per week. He knew early that in order to be a writer, you have to be a reader.

He has always been concerned about fairness in the world and the plight of the underprivileged/underdog.

As a professional writer he sold his first paid article in 1974 and, while employed at other jobs, started selling a few pieces in assorted places.

Over the next 15 years, Daniel eked out a living as a writer doing, among other things, national writing and both radio and TV broadcasting for the CBC, Maclean’s (the national newsmagazine) and a wide variety of smaller publications. Interweaved throughout this period was soul-killing corporate and public relations writing.

It was through the 1960s and 1970s that he got his university experience. In his first year at the University of Calgary, he majored in psychology/mathematics; in his second year he switched to physics/mathematics. He then learned of an independent study program at the University of Lethbridge where he attended the next two years, studying philosophy and economics. In the end he attended university over nine years (four full time) but never qualified for a degree because he didn't have the right number of courses in any particular field.

In 1990 he published his first (and so far, only) book: Practical History: A guide to Will and Ariel Durant’s “The Story of Civilization” (Polymath Press, Calgary)

Newly appointed as the Deputy Executive Editor in August 2011, he has been writing exclusively for Salem-News.com since March 2009 and, as of summer 2011, has published more than 160 stories.

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