(published October 27, 2011 on Hyperallergic)
\n\u201cOccupy Wall Street and the Right to Protest: What\u2019s Next?\u201d was a conversation which took place
\nyesterday, Wednesday, October 26, on the heels of The New School\u2019s Teach-in on October 22. The event
\nhighlighted the perspectives of critical theorists, historians, lawyers and sociologists and presented their
\npredictions for the future of public protests. The conversation featured the following individuals:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Nancy Fraser, Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of Political and Social Science and
\nDepartment Chair, The New School for Social Research
\n\u2022 Joseph Giacona, student, The New School for Social Research
\n\u2022 Gideon Orion Oliver, Executive Committee of the National Lawyer Guild, New York City
\nChapter
\n\u2022 Jeremy Varon, Professor of History, The New School for Social Research
\n\u2022 Alex Vitale, Professor of Sociology, Brooklyn College
\n\u2022 Eli Zaretsky, Professor of History, The New School for Social Research
\nAttending the discussion last night was fulfilling in an unexpected way. You enter a panel discussion that
\nhas \u201cwhat\u2019s next\u201d in its title with an expectation of possible forecasts and predictions but I left with a
\nthousand more questions. The panel and audience was filled with expertise, passion and this penetrating
\nquestion:<\/p>\n
What are all the variables in the past, present and future that determine what is shaping this movement and
\nwhat we can we do today, right now, to continue to shape it?
\nOne of the first comments made in the conversation was that at the very least Occupy Wall street shows
\nhow many people wanted this. Another valuable question posed was what is our relationship with lasting
\nresults when it comes to protesting?<\/p>\n
The Streets<\/strong> The street as lively public domain is in many places suffering neglect. Rebecca Solnit devotes a chapter of \u201cThe word citizen has to do with cities, and the ideal city is organized around citizenship \u2013 around The history of streets as places of connection within flow, conduction and avenues of civic activation is Crisis\/Harbinger<\/strong> And what you thought you came for Speaker NancyFraser, outlined the financial, ecological and social reproduction\/social bonding crisis we Radicalism\/Action<\/strong> Panelist Jeremy Varon began a conversation on government as the custodians of borders. Alex Vitale spoke Another very important question that was raised is what is our definition of violence? In a time where the Questions asked in regards to the future of the movement was, will\/does the character of the occupation A member of the audience expressed her frustration with experiencing too many protests where momentum Eli Zaretsky added his thoughts on the role of radicalism. \u201cWe need a permanent radical presence. That is He also spoke of teach-ins, an invention of the 1960s antiwar movements, and suggested we do take back \u201cThis movement has incredible potential, how can we make sure it is not squandered? This is an
\nA fundamental aspect of the conversation began with what is the street today? Joseph Giacona, a panelist
\nand student focused on this topic in his remarks. As a daily participant in the protests who also excused
\nhimself from the conversation early to attend said, \u201cI entered this much more moderate than I am now.\u201d
\nWhich is I think how many feel.<\/p>\n
\nher book Wanderlust: a History of Walking to the solitary stroller and the city that investigates culturally
\nbased histories and relationships with the city street in regards to public space. She writes:<\/p>\n
\nparticipation in public life. Most American cities and towns however, are organized around consumption and production \u2026 and public space is merely the void between workplace, shops and dwellings.\u201d<\/p>\n
\noften now just a means to an end. Beginning with the physicality of it, Occupy Wall Street is raising potent
\nquestions of what our relationship is with our streets, the physical arteries that connect the vital organs
\nsewing together our social fabric. And if are arteries are clogged with consumption and production, then
\nthis is our current social fabric. Clearly this is one underlying reality the occupation is blasting. Obama\u2019s
\nelection may have sparked an atmosphere of activism but not to the extent that Occupy Wall Street has.
\nMaybe his election needed to happen to ready the soil but the growth appears to be coming from the asphalt
\nof our unprotected streets.<\/p>\n
\nOne role of artists and protesters is to disrupt. Within that disruption, we hold up a mirror. The disruption
\nitself is social alchemy necessary to knock perceived realities around in the individual and collective
\npsyche. As an artist I know very much about what happens when you give birth to an idea. It breaths its
\nown presence and life and then you\u2019re only role is to run alongside of it. Keep up. Not control it, nor tame
\nit. Just keep up. The only constant is change. This disruption has duration and each new day as new
\ndevelopments happen and new people join in we watch it become something else and more questions are
\nasked. The conversation also asked the question could this movement hold its integrity and momentum, and
\nyet evolve into what is needed? Or as poet T.S. Elito succinctly wrote:<\/p>\n
\nIs only a shell, a husk of meaning
\nFrom which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled
\nIf at all. Either you had no purpose
\nOr the purpose is beyond the end you figured
\nAnd is altered in fulfillment.<\/p>\n
\nare facing. She stated we are facing invasive new forms of commodity and a big part of the Occupy Wall
\nStreet story is about expansion of commodification and our rebellion against being swept along in this
\nmassive river. What are our other crises? Crisis of leadership? Crisis of accountability? Competence?
\nHumility? People come together out of shared experience from a common crisis and all crisis is
\nopportunity. So, what\u2019s next is also asking the question, what is our opportunity?<\/p>\n
\nRadicalism was another focus of the conversation. Defiance, that incredibly refreshing social alloy. Is this
\nmovement inciting something that will be of a lasting change, a refusal to be governed by any power in the way that we were before? Are we also asking where is our space for radicalism? Where is our public space for pathos? If we mute it, it will come out regardless in either volatile uprising or epidemic neurosis.<\/p>\n
\nabout the power of direct action tactics. He addressed the conflicts that arise when power structures are
\nthreatened and then become preemptive. He spoke of how in the 1960s there was a state of negotiations
\nmanagement that was employed during protests and public assemblies and since the Seattle 1999 WTO
\nprotests have been obliterated. Now there exist mostly protest policing, command and control, preemptive
\ndecision-making. In an individual psychological mind this is called worry or anxiety and is a projected false
\nfuture generated from fear. Preemptive policing is no different. It removes all communication, negotiation
\nand peaceful assembly to create powerful change. It removes presentness. It is also based on the idea of
\norder and promotes separation.<\/p>\n
\nleaders of our world can get away with blatant war crimes without question or investigation, what right
\nnow is our definition of violence?<\/p>\n
\nshift with the weather, the weekend, the holidays? Where is the line between important cultural ritual and
\ncontrolled free time? Have both of these been hijacked by consumption and production as well?<\/p>\n
\nstalled out and ended with a holiday or poor weather and then what began as something powerful ended as
\nonly a picture of democracy than actual change. Her point and delivery incited applause.
\nOther potent topics included challenging the political left. Why are decisions to order crackdowns of public
\nassembly being made by liberal democratic mayors? What does this say? Speaker Alex Vitale also
\nemphasized individual action and participation. \u201cThis is not about waiting for their articulations of their
\ndemands. We all own this thing. Get out on the streets and take leadership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\naction oriented. America has a fantastic history of both freedom and crisis. The word crisis itself means a
\nturning point. We have a deep history of revolutions for freedoms in slavery, industry and the counter
\nculture movement of the 1960s. Developments that began in the 1960s and the repression and suppression
\nthat followed have led the country into even deeper moral demise and we have the opportunity to pick that
\nup again now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\nthe universities at the designated space for radicalism. His comments ask the questions will we spin our
\nwheels again? Will we learn from our experiences? Is this a question of history? Are we spiraling upward?<\/p>\n
\neducational moment,\u201d said Nancy Fras.
\nSo what other questions can we ask as we watch these challenges to old definitions of power as hierarchy
\nevolve into new understandings of power as meshwork and networks? Networks have the opportunity to
\ncreate interrelationships and restore social bonds and create fundamental redistribution of opportunity. How
\nare our environmental concerns inherently tied into our economic concerns? Last, of all the characters and
\nrelationships in this plot, what is the looming role of the many forms of debt?<\/p>\n