Where Is Occupy Now?

by Noah Fischer on June 7, 2013 · 6 comments Occupy

June 1st, Liberty Square. Image courtesy of Noah Fischer.

[Editor’s note: We are very proud to host the following reflections of longtime Occupier and Occupy Museums participant Noah Fischer. After attending the Occupy rally in New York on Monday, he’s offered his thoughts on where Occupy is, and how it’s changed since September of 2011.]

Where is Occupy Now?

June 1, 2013.  Answer:Turkey.

Gliding down Broadway last Saturday, the blazing-red Mark di Suvero sculpture known to arts professionals as “Joie de Vivre” and to Occupy Wall Street as “the Weird Red Thing” comes into view. The scene is familiar. Facing west, I see white-shirt cops on Broadway and Liberty and the Imperial Walker-esque NYPD surveillance tower perched in the lower right corner of the park. More friendly, are the falafel and juice stands lined up on the left.  The 33,000 square feet of public/private space formerly known as Zuccotti Park pulses with energy: men and women waving red flags; shouting in unison and singing spirited songs in Turkish.

It is day one of #OccupyGeziParkNYC, an American offshoot of the Turkish #OccupyGeziPark, that began as peaceful sit-in demonstration against a shopping mall slated to replace Istanbul’s last major public square. The protest quickly morphed into a Tahrir-like movement to oust Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Tens of thousands of protesters in Taksim Square were tear gassed, arrested in the hundreds, some beaten and killed by the police.  Within hours, a solidarity group called #OccupyGeziParkNYC had begun to organize a response. There were even those from the OWS movement who flew to the action, like Justin Wedes, a member of the communication working  group in Zuccotti. “The revolution has just begun”, he tweets, the first of a day, in seemingly hundreds he sends out. (He also files regular posts at Animal NY).

This converged last minute with a planned OWS re-occupation or “homecoming” action for June 1 which I was attending. Since the eviction of Liberty Square on November 15th 2011, big days of action such as May 1st (M1) or the September 17th anniversary (S17– we activists convert important dates into codes to make them sound ominous) partially fell into the shadow of the original Occupy season. Each big march provided proof that the movement is still here but dwindling.  You’d see many familiar faces from the glory days of the park, but a reunion just does not equate to a movement that can take on Capitalism. Especially a slightly dysfunctional reunion. Occupy was slowly fragmenting into groups (though impressive ones);  big moments where Occupiers came together were becoming  less and less convincing.

June 1st, Liberty Square. Image courtesy of Noah Fischer.

Saturday felt different though, and it looked different, too.  I saw very few familiar faces in the park, now filled with Turkish protesters. “It’s exciting” Occupier Marisa Holmes told me, speaking of the new upbeat energy in Liberty Park. This energy flows in from elsewhere causing creative hybridized memes to pop up like wildflowers. OWS posters from 2011 have been re-tooled for Turkey, yellow “Occu-tape” is wrapped around trees to highlight the eradication of green space in Istanbul,  those famous ragged cardboard signs are scrawled in Turkish. Someone bangs a pot with a spoon in the protest style of the Quebec student movement or “Casseroles.” Others hold signs that say “Turkish Spring,” harkening back to Egypt and Tunisia.  It’s as if all the movement memes from the last couple years have ended up in a common whirlpool.

June 1st, Liberty Square. Image courtesy of Noah Fischer.

By noon, the park was so packed that all I could see of the movement were those squeezed up against me. I made my way through the dense crowd to catch a better view from Zuccotti’s northern wall (hallowed site of the speakers’ area in the very first OWS general assemblies). There I met a Turkish woman in her fifties, Lutfiye Karakus, a nurse from Staten Island, who has been in the US for twenty-one years.  She’s part of the 99%, having lost her home to foreclosure, and watched the American Dream slip away. She made it out to Liberty Park once in 2011 to join the protest.

This time, she tells me tales of Turkish corruption where the 1% straddle the financial and political lines, similar to the impetus for Occupy Wall Street. Luftiye was enraged at the Turkish media blackout, including even CNN Turkey, during the protests and police violence. “The police sprayed tear gas in people’s eyes and blinded them,” she told me.

The focus on Turkey– with red crescent flags, pictures of Turkey’s modern state founder Ataturk, and chants of “Turkiye! Turkiye! Turkiye!”– may seem strangely nationalistic for an Occupy movement. But Occupy doesn’t espouse a singular political view. The activist and anthropologist David Graeber reported from among the different political players in the planning stages before September 17th; not only Anarchists, but members of the Democratic Party and quite a few Ron Paul followers. (One of the “bottomliners” of the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City was a big fan of Ayn Rand). And then once the movement went viral, hundreds of cities interpreted Occupy differently, from Oakland’s militant style to El Paso’s protests against the government.

After we parted ways, I began to wonder why Lutfiye and her Turkish community decided to use Occupy to raise their voices. A few years ago, she had participated in a large Turkish protest outside the United Nations. Why head down to Lower Manhattan this time? “Because they’re not appealing to the UN” Occupier Marisa Holmes told me. She believes the slowness of a bureaucracy is unappealing to many, particularly now that there’s a little Occupy-inspired Anarchism in the air. Appealing to fellow citizens directly may be more effective than the state, and Occupy is building a platform for it.

June 1st, Liberty Square. Image courtesy of Noah Fischer.

That’s exactly why it’s exciting. For one, the “Occupy” meme itself can be interchanged with other locations and causes like Legos (Occupy Gezi Park, Occupy the SEC, Occupy Museums, etc).

Second, it offers tools for communication, whether through social media mutual aid efforts or offline “social software”: the hand signs, and the people’s mic, which allow large groups of people to project their voices without speakers or microphones.

Third, Occupy serves up a toolbox of direct action tactics: the long-term holding of space (Tahrir Square, Liberty Park, and Frank H. Ogawa Plaza) shorter-term occupations (a 2011 sleep-in at Lincoln Center, a 2012 occupation at the Berlin Biennale, and last month’s occupation of the Ludwig Museum in Hungary) and spectacular actions (just today, Occupy Gezi crowdfunded a full-page ad in the New York Times).

Finally, Occupy offers a form of horizontal organizing which discourages the centralization of leadership. These tactics have diverse roots, from the Zapatista Movement of the 1990’s to Spanish Anarchists. But this time, an unprecedented ability to socially network makes it possible for these tactics to flow in bursts of energy across the globe, and also to rapidly morph and develop in a co-authored but connected way: kind of like the Internet.

Circulation is happening offline as well, as occupiers travel the globe to exchange movement experiences and tactics. Hundreds of occupiers, for example, attended The World Social Forum (WSF) in Tunis as part of a group called Global Square. Their attendance, fellow occupier Marisa Holmes told me at Zucotti, took the form of an occupation. “They didn’t know how to relate to us.” she said, explaining this was in part due to a generational clash and in part due to an entrenched vertical leadership. Still, group met every day, and over all, Marisa concluded that “It was really great for us.”

I got that sense from other occupiers as well, but it’s important to remember that these movements have a darker side as well. Damage to the body can easily occur during protests, as police violence is common. Activists can lose jobs or damage professional reputations by standing up for strong political positions. The time and risk required in the heat of a movement can destroy relationships; a member of Occupy Museums went through a divorce, partly due to her strong commitment to the movement in 2011. Activists have power struggles with other activists, and most of all, exhaustion. Most of us have gone through some form of movement trauma.

June 1st, Liberty Square. Image courtesy of Noah Fischer.

At this point, Occupy Wall Street increasingly operates within totally separate networks.  When the Turkish community began to thin out that evening, the tribe reconvened in little clusters to discuss re-occupation. I heard many woeful tales about power struggles, people’s Occu-nemeses, their banishment from groups, or just sense of burnout. Although there was a 6 PM assembly to discuss re-occupation organized by a group called Occupy Town Square, it became clear that any sort of large consensus wasn’t going to happen.

June 1st, Liberty Square. Image courtesy of Noah Fischer.

These may sound like big problems, but they don’t define the movement.  It just means that the movement is moving along in stages. To name just a few of the many efforts in the last 9 months, Occupy Sandy has figured out a new model to provide direct relief to those affected by global warming-fueled catastrophes. Strikedebt has come up with ingenious new economic proposals such as the Rolling Jubillee, a crowdsourced fund to buy up personal debt, and it’s produced a manual for debt resistance. Occupy the Pipeline is putting up a spirited fight against fracking. The group I’m in, Occupy Museums, is launching Debt Fair: an experimental art fair spread  throughout the streets of New York City that invites collectors buy art in exchange for artists’ debt.

These projects flow naturally from a view of the world you acquire by fatefully stepping into the public squares.  But they take a tremendous amount of energy. As we enter the long-haul, this practice can seem like a heavy burden to bear.

Yet on June 1st, I remembered something that is actually totally obvious: Occupy is no one’s burden. It’s an uncontrollable open source project where all responsibility is shared, and in that way, I see Occupy as an alternative model for culture. For a generation, the private sector has been encroaching on the public, reenforcing the mentality that we must achieve individual goals at all cost to shared resources. As depicted in mainstream entertainment and news organizations, we are people who distrust strangers and associate the public realm with poverty.  Occupying a park challenges these assumptions through practice. Serving food in a park, chanting, or organizing actions with people you just met points toward a culture based on shared, rather than private, space.  There’s a sublime feeling of connection with fellow protesters anywhere in the world.

June 1st, Liberty Square. Image courtesy of Noah Fischer.

From its inception, it was a perfect storm of talent, wisdom from past movements, catalyzed by economic and political shocks. It’s always had a random quality: the name and initial call itself was coined by a Canadian magazine, Adbusters, who didn’t even show up to their own party!  I have learned to suspend disbelief as the protest unfolded differently than any script I could imagine.

Yet another chapter is unfolding as thousands of Turkish protesters fill Liberty Park on June 1. This time however, the novelty has worn off, and Occupy is looking like a permanent part of our post-crash reality: a direct democratic forum for citizens to highlight and link political situations globally. And, as I stood there looking at a poster of Ataturk printed out on foamcore and decorated with yellow Occu-tape, I had another thought: Occupy just may be ahead of the curve.

June 1st, Liberty Square. Image courtesy of Noah Fischer.

{ 6 comments }

Bobojacobo June 8, 2013 at 8:23 pm

Why all the OWS worship? The ‘movement’ was a mess, comprised of anyone from Ron Paul supporters to truthers to trustafarians, with the (occasional) perfectly reasonable people who got drowned out by all the unnecessary fringe groups. It had no cohesive structure or goal — its only universal criticism was against the rich, who were mythologized and demonized to a point where the excesses of the super-wealthy were conveniently shielded by the shrill tone of the protesters. I saw a kid at the Philadelphia OWS at City Hall hold up a sign that read ‘CAPITALISM HAS FAILED.’ Is that even remotely productive? Being contrarian is fine, as long as there’s a realistic alternative being proposed, but I’m not sure that dumpster-diving, vandalizing Starbucks bathrooms, promoting vague utopian lifestyles or peddling conspiracy theories is helpful rhetoric. It provided a forum for a number of bigots and loonies, (even if they weren’t the majority of OWS members) and discredits the American left’s platform (social justice, fairer economic conditions, and informed policy making).

That being said, I think the Turkish version seems more focused and appropriate. Erdogan’s time in office has seen an increase in Islamist approaches to governing and fewer civil liberties. Secular Turks, academics, women, and minorities have every reason to be concerned by Erdogan. That’s a much worthier opponent to clash wish than vague ‘suits,’ arbitrary percentages of wealthy people, and the government intervention in a failing financial system (a move most likely saved the global economy but was frequently targeted by OWS). Maybe Americans can learn a little something about protesting from the Turks.

WhitneyKimball June 9, 2013 at 11:43 am

You’re just wrong. Occupy Sandy was the best-organized relief effort in recent history. Just a few days after the storm, I saw a volunteers basically turn a church into a distribution center, with trucks and kitchens of people pumping out hot meals. They were using networks on interoccupy.net, twitter, and social media which had been set up during the Zuccotti protests. It was so well-organized that I heard FEMA let Occupy fill in relief where it could not. This was not the same crowd I saw camping in Zuccotti the first week– often I met parents, seniors, chefs, people who were unemployed. None of that would have been possible without the first wave of crazies in a park.

Bobojacobo June 9, 2013 at 2:37 pm

If the future of OWS is effective, productive and stripped of intellectual laziness, then I will happily concede that it’s on its way to being a great organization. Occupy Sandy is a great example of what OWS needs to be if they want to help people and be credible.

That being said, I don’t think I can be blamed for remembering the OWS of two years ago — ineffective, rambling, contradictory, often hateful. OWS has a VERY spotty track record in regards to making tangible improvements on society, and has cost a lot of cities a lot of money (as well as potentially discrediting many liberal ideas). If they opt for a more positive (instead of contrarian) approach, then I’ll give praise where praise is due. But I won’t praise them out of some tribal emotional connection with liberal protest movements if they aren’t helping.

Also, countries with effective governments shouldn’t need grassroots movements to do all the work for them — shame on NY (and the whole country) for not being able to do better despite their enormous budjet and resources. Although it’s great that Occupy Sandy helped so many people, it’s a bit of a libertarian fantasy to leave this kind of work up to them instead of having a real government response.

JD Siazon June 11, 2013 at 9:29 am

The, … … … … … Occcccc,,,,,,,,,,, upy,, … … … … … … … wwwWalllllllllllllll, … SssSSSSSsSssstreet … … … … ,, … … (OWS) … in, Zuccotti … Park … nuts, … hype … the, nubs: Hydra I, … JD Siazon … XX, X, … LOooooVE,,, … LLL … … ,,,,,,,,,,, ,, … … … OoooOoooOooOoOooOOoooooooooooooooooooooOooOooOOO … … … VE??? J,,,,,,,D,,,, … … KKK rallies … violators, … I … JD … Siazon … X-ray … vision, … CIA … FBI … BK … Manhattan, … Staten,,,,,,, … … … … … ,,, … … … … … ,,, … … ,,, … ,,, … … Island … … … B,,,,X … … … … … … … … … … … … Long Island, … … … … … … … … … ,,, … … … … Q,,ueens … … … … … … Muck,,,, … , … , … , … ,,, … ,,,,,,,,,, , … rakers ,,,,,,,,,,, … … … …,,,,,,, ,,, ,,, ,,, ,,, … ,,, … ,,, ,,, ,,, ,,, ,,, … …,,,,,, … … … … … … … … … … … pppppppssssssyyyyyccccccccccccchhhhhhhhhOOOoooL… …,,, … ooooOoooooooOooOOoooOOoooO … gggggggggggiiiiiiiiiiiccccccccccccccccccc ,, … … … … … ,,, … … … … ,,, … … … … … … … … ,,,,,,,,,,,,,ally … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … chuckling … … … … … in … … … … … … … … … … … … … Babylon,,,,,,,,,,,,,, … … … … … a,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, … … … butt,,,,,,,,,, … … … … … … … … … … fuck,,,,,,,ingggggggggg …quid pro quo … PARTY … PARTY … PARTY … PARTY … PARTY … PARTY … PARTY … PARTY … PARTY … ,,, Of,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, … ,,, … ” The,,, , ,,, Mob”,, … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … just … … … … … ,,, ,,, ,,, ,,, ,,, … … … violators … … … … … like … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … rodeo … … … … … … clowns, … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … hiatus … … … … … … … … Ivy , League … , … Ivy , League … , … Ivy , League … , … Ivy , League … , … Ivy , League … … … … … ggggraduateee … … stu,,,,,d,,,,,,,ents,, … … … … … … … … … … … … New York City … blitzkrieggg … … … … … … … … … … … ,,, ,,, ,,, … … … … … … … … … of, … dazzling KKK-AA-OWS-NA-XXX-IRA posters, Blue Oyster Cult concerts & touring T-shirts, burning KKK & American flags, and medical marijuana brownies and 37 neon orange posters and 2 yellow and green banners, Blue Oyster Cult groupies, violating Williamsburg hipsters and their violators and their copycats, the indistinguishable gang of X-Men First Class & Magneto, burning pink silk 32DDD Victoria’s Secret bras, drunken and extremely high Vietnam-War-veteran & disabled panhandling hobos, a DDT lamebrain, glyphic hand signals, Teamster hyperbole, an iffy jack-off shooting his rancid jism everywhere, corporate mystique, Christian fundamentalist pamphleteers, a German Zionist movement sympathizer, and the stupid magic trick demonstrations are fast becoming just very stale social pantomime contests now spreading their rodeo clown routines to all of the XXX nudist colonies on Earth.

Noah Fischer shows much OWS conceit as well as an ever-hard and ever-erect 17″ penis for violating public space with OWS human beings masquerading as socialists and dressed up like 1960s Deadheads or donning the full regalia of imaginary space invaders from Mars.

Monkeys see and monkeys do and Occupy Wall Street is nothing but a thuggish bunch of wannabe guerrillas in the Manhattan mist yet without Jane Goodall.

Paddy Johnson June 11, 2013 at 9:36 am

Jesus JD. Get it together. Your comment is being deleted.

JD Siazon June 11, 2013 at 9:53 am

You should read it all first before you censor it …

Comments on this entry are closed.

Previous post:

Next post: