Recently, I was on Tehran’s Press TV defending the #OccupyWallStreet protests. Also recently, and also throughout my entire life, I’ve been asked (both in the general and the specific), what is the point of protesting?
I take that back. I haven’t been asked. I’ve been told–the question mark is merely there for aesthetics. The question is rhetorical, and the answer is obviously, “There is none. [subtext: I'm a worthless leftist, too blinded by my naïve idealism to realize that nothing will ever change. I should probably just go smoke more weed and/or hang myself.]“
The main criticism of the #OccupyWallStreet protests is that there are no defined leaders nor demands–that people are screaming with no cause, and barely inconveniencing the bankers beyond a strenuous eyeroll in the process.
Firstly, there are demands. The protestors (we, the people) are demanding an end to the corporate take over of politics. We are demanding an end to corporate personhood and corporate greed. We are demanding an end to a political system of financial terror that serves the top 1%, not only in lieu of, but at the expense of the bottom 99%. These demands can be realized through accountability: the repeal of Citizen’s United, financial regulations, an end to predatory loans, and the long overdue accountability for white collar crime.
But that’s not the point. The point is, people do not take to the streets because they have a concrete agenda, or a list of immediate demands. We take to the streets because we are indignant, angry at the system, and curious to see who else is. We take to the streets to find each other, and once we have found each other we figure out what the next steps are.
Demands. What are demands, and why must we define ourselves universally by a core set of demands? Why not have many and attack them one at a time, gaining momentum from small victories to achieve greater ones rather than giving up on the impossible goal.
We would prefer to be radical, but instead we are progressive with the hopes of one day looking back and realizing that our progressive victories created radical change.
