How you know you are winning? Three and one-half months
The occupy movement got into full swing on September 17, 2011. A few set out to #occupywallstreet by camping out in a park across from Wall Street in New York. The movement was three and one-half months old at the end of 2011. It had spread across the globe. It involved protests and police brutality in many cities and cooperation in some. And it produced millions of Twitter messages.
So what?
If you assume that the occupy movement is a frontal attack on a culture in which the 1% dominate the 99% in distribution of wealth and political influence then several features of the movement can be understood. That they did not respond when the only member of congress who supported them, Senator Sanders of Vermont, called on them to produce concrete proposals and their critics accused them of not knowing what they wanted was because something more fundamental was the point. What they wanted was a change in the culture, and they just proceeded with protests and occupying to bring about that change. But the people marching and camping could not bring about the change without help. They needed their insistence on a change in the culture to inspire others to make the same moves to change the culture. And this gives a basis for assessing their success. They had to establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with. They had to change the focus of attention of others.
The most recent indication that they are winning was the simultaneous report in The New York Times and The Washington Post on December 26 of the changing wealth of Members of Congress relative to their constituents. The Times put it this way
the median worth of House members grew some two and a half times between 1984 and 2009 in inflation-adjusted dollars, while the wealth of the average American family has actually declined slightly in that same time period.
For the Post this was the latest in a series entitled "Special Report: Breakaway Wealth An ongoing series about how the rich are pulling away from the rest of America."
The 'news' here is not the pay of members of congress. The 'news' is that The New York Times and The Washington Post are reporting the growing gap in income between the 1%, in this case members of congress, and the 99%. They are re-producing the message of the occupy movement in their pages. What was known but not news has, since September 17, become news. And that adds to the changing focus of attention required to bring about cultural change.
But this is only the latest. Here is what I have noticed.
9/17/2011 They occupied Wall Street, which the New York Times covered as local news. (Boynton, 10/9/2011)
10/1/2011 They marched across Brooklyn bridge. They were arrested in large numbers. And they became front page news. (Boynton, 10/2/2011)
10/23/2011 9,000 servicemen signed up to protect protesters (Boynton, 10/23/2011)
10/24/2011 Albany police refuse to arrest protesters notwithstanding the governor's order to make the arrests (Boynton, 10/25/2011)
10/25/2011 in Oakland police attack protesters. Two days later (10/27/2011) the mayor backed down and apologized (Boynton, 10/28/2011)
11/10/2011 a Twitter message by Amity Hat -- you know you are winning when you start to see "Occupy Church" on church signs
11/11/2011 media references to income inequality up 500%
11/14/2011 Mayor of Oakland sends police to clear park of Occupiers. 82% of citizens oppose mayor's handling of the situation (Boynton, 11/20/2011)
11/17/2011 at two months -- a summary of actions and reactions to the occupy movement (Boynton, 11/21/2011)
11/28/2011 judge rejects the SEC agreement to let Citigroup pay a fine without admitting guilt (Boynton, 12/2/2011)
12/7/2011 Occupy is NPR word of the year
12/7/2011 The president spoke in a Kansas town foreshadowning the themes of his campaign. Ezra Klein quoted him
"The average income of the top 1 percent has gone up by more than 250 percent to $1.2 million per year...For the top one hundredth of 1 percent, the average income is now $27 million per year. The typical CEO who used to earn about 30 times more than his or her worker now earns 110 times more. And yet, over the last decade the incomes of most Americans have actually fallen by about 6 percent."
And Klein concluded " Inequality has not been a major theme in Obama's economic addresses over the last year. But it looks like it will be the major theme in his reelection campaign. And it's hard to believe that's not in response to Occupy Wall Street's success in turning the national conversation towards inequality."
12/14/2011 TIME magazine name Protestor the person of year
12/26/2011 NYT and Washington Post report on growing income gap between members of congress and constituents (Boynton 1/2/2012)
What more is there to say? I like Klein's conclusion. "Which sets us up for an unusually populist election -- on both sides. Republicans have taken their message from the Tea Party. Democrats are borrowing their theme from Occupy Wall Street. In both cases, citizen-driven grassroots groups are setting the agenda."
They are able to drive the agenda, importantly, by using the 'new media' to organize and articulate their causes.
References
Boynton (10/2/2011) A Day of Protest
Boynton (10/9/2011) Noticing Identity in Social Movements -- #OccupyWallStreet
Boynton (10/23/2011) How do you know you are winning?
Boynton (10/25/2011) How do you know you are winning?
Boynton (10/28/2011) When they back down -- That's when #3
Boynton (11/20/2011) One more time Oakland becomes the center of the Occupy movement
Boynton (11/21/2011) Celebrating two months
Boynton (12/2/2011) How you know you are winning -- when a judge speaks
Boynton (1/2/2012) How you know you are winning -- three and one-half months
Klein, Ezra (12/7/2011) Wonkbook: Occupy Wall Street occupies Obama's 2012 campaign, The Washington Post.
Licthblau, Eric (12/26/2011) Economic Downturn Took a Detour at Capitol Hill, The New York Times
Whoriskey, Peter (12/26/2011) Growing wealth widens distance between lawmaker and constituents, The Washington Post
© G. R. Boynton January 2, 2012