Occupy…
*
The good news is, we have a history of great success in getting policy changes. That’s the genius of the american system.
The new deal legislation, for example, didn’t come out of nowhere. That came out of very large scale popular activism, which reached the point where the business world and the government agreed to allow progressive legislation to pass. The business world quickly tried to undermine it, but they had to accept it.
The country is also a much more civilised place now, in many respects, than it was even as recently as the 1960’s.
Women still in many states, couldn’t serve on juries. In 1960, my university was almost 100% white male. Now it’s much more diverse and that’s the case over much of the country.
Well, that’s a big change in the nature of the society and the culture. It didn’t happen by magic.
It wasn’t a gift from above. It came from extensive organising activities and actions which finally broke down a lot of barriers. That’s the way changes take place.
The United States remains a very free country. You get a lot of opportunities.
It’s not like Egypt, where you’re going to get murdered by the security forces. Here, there’s repression, but by international standards it’s slight.
New York City’s city council passed a resolution against corporate personhood. It’s a very popular idea in this country, and if it’s pursued, it will dismantle a century of judicial decisions that have given corporations extraordinary rights.
There are many other possibilities for getting money out of politics, broader ways that involve legislation and so on. These things are not in conflict with one another.
General assemblies that can spread out into the broader community and retain their vitality, could be very important.
The educational establishment can also be influenced, in classrooms and different organizations and writings and all sorts of things.
A whole range of other things could be done, like addressing civic corruption and police brutality and the reconstruction of media. Some reach as far as organising for constitutional conventions.
You can speak out, you can write, you can organise, you can protest (sometimes), you can reach out to other people. and If you keep doing it, it will have an impact.
Take for example, the women’s movement. It began with very small groups of women getting together and talking to each other and coming to identify and comprehend that, first of all there is oppression, and that a better way is possible where we don’t have to accept oppression. If you had asked my grandmother if she was oppressed, she wouldn’t have known what you were talking about. Of course she was hopelessly oppressed, but identifying it is not always easy, especially if no one talks about it. So just getting to understand that you don’t have to accept oppression, is a big step.
There was bitter resistance; it wasn’t easy by any means. There was and, in fact, there still is a backlash. But you just keep struggling for it.
when it comes to worker rights, stake holders, meaning essentially the workforce, should have the right to takeover parts of the economy when they are unnecessarily being dismantled, and run them effectively.
These are the kinds of things, feasible things, that could have a big effect on society.
