Democracy Now reports on the Occupy Wall Street campaigns across the country and whether this is a new leftist populist anti-authoritarian movement.
KEVIN GOSZTOLA: Well, Barack Obama has actually said that none of the banks committed anything illegal. He said that last week. And so, I think, as the people who are out in these squares across the country are considering where their movement is going to go, they’re watching these unions, and I think a lot of them are afraid, because usually the unions are affiliated with the Democratic Party. And they haven’t gotten anything out of support for the Democrats. And what’s actually interesting is, a year ago exactly, they did this massive rally called “One Nation Working Together,” and they paid a lot of money. The unions put a big investment out there to get out the vote to defeat the Tea Party in 2010. And that hasn’t helped out with the situation.
So everybody in the square is really—you know, as I said earlier, they want to keep the vision high. They want to keep everything broad. They want it all-inclusive. The best way to really understand the movement is the “We are the 99 percent” tumblr that is out there. And, you know, just—yeah, I mean, and liberal commentators now want to come down to the park, and they want to put their message in front of people and use it as a way that they can soapbox. And that is another thing that this movement is very concerned about, that people are going to be brought down to the park to speak for their movement and not the occupiers.
AMY GOODMAN: And the significance of the democratic nature of this movement, the general assemblies that are held at Occupy Wall Street—then they marched up to Washington Square, they had one there—what this is, Dorian Warren?
DORIAN WARREN: It is the first anti-authoritarian populist movement in this country. The previous populist movements had leaders, usually charismatic leaders. This is very different. We’ve never seen anything quite like this, and I think we’re in uncharted territory. This is a 21st century social movement, where the activists are taking advantage of new social media, from Twitter and Facebook, but also they have a commitment to inclusivity and democratic decision making and having a leaderless movement, so that multiple voices can speak about the issues that concern all of us. So I think it’s unique, and I think it’s quite promising to be a transformative social movement, if they can keep those progressive groups out of the decision making and hold onto what’s the core democratic nature of this movement.
AMY GOODMAN: And in terms of democratic politics, like Democrats and Republicans, the issue of co-optation and how careful people are to not let this be captured by either party, particularly the Democrats?
DORIAN WARREN: Yes, and it’s key that the critique is not about Republicans and Wall Street. The critique is about the entire political system, which people see as corrupt, and both parties have participated in this corruption of the political system. So I think it’s key that especially the Democratic Party not try to co-opt and the protesters themselves make sure that the party does not co-opt their movement or their energy.
