What exactly does one wear to a “leaderless resistance movement
with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions…
[made up of] the 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed
and corruption of the 1 percent”? This was my pressing question as
I prepared to document the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protest
currently besieging downtown New York. Honestly, my greatest fear
was looking like a total Narc. My personal style is best described
as Bing Crosby updated for the present day. Surely the guy in retro
glasses with a closely cropped hairstyle would stand out amongst
the throngs of leftist marchers. Ultimately, I settled on a Johnny
Cash t-shirt and ratty sneakers. My fandom of the Man in Black is
about as close as I come to counterculture.
I also recruited a liberal minded friend to accompany me
so I would stand out less and wouldn’t be alone if I
ran into trouble. I had at least some fear of being arrested. This
past weekend,
700 people were jailed as protesters flooded the Brooklyn
Bridge. Surely some of them were just observers
who got caught up in the mass arrest. I wondered how my modern day
crooner shtick would go over as I cooled my heels while eating
bologna in the Tombs, New York’s downtown detention
center.
What brought me out into the streets with the rabble? My
first contact with these protesters was on the Internet. Initially,
I took to Twitter and zinged them on a superficial level. I made
all the obvious quips. They have the time to occupy Wall Street
because they lack occupations. They are bringing down
corporate greed one blog post at a time from their Apple iPhones
using free wifi at McDonald’s and Starbucks. If the
powerful labor unions they recruited to their cause went on
a “general strike,” no one would notice
because unionists hardly work anyhow.
In a particularly nasty Twitter exchange, an OWS
sympathizer called me some unprintable words in retaliation for my
unkindness towards the movement. When I remarked that he would not
win my heart or mind that way, he retorted that he does not need to
win me over. I am an enemy of the revolution because I write for
The American Spectator. Touché.
But whether I like their message or not — and believe me,
I despise it — OWS is a sizeable group of people exercising their
rights to free speech. There are perhaps several hundred people who
have established an encampment in Zuccotti Park, just off of Wall
Street, for the past nineteen days. On days when marches are
scheduled, their numbers swell into the
thousands. Perhaps I had been overly judgmental
of their movement. Perhaps not. Either way, this was a spectacle
worth checking out.
As it happens, I decided to venture downtown on the day
that the ostensibly leaderless OWS movement received a massive
influx of support from organized labor. The Transit Workers
Union, the United Auto Workers, SEIU, the United Federation of
Teachers and
other powerful union interests staged a massive march in
solidarity with the “occupiers.” The
irony is inescapable. The TWU, which constantly imperils the
finances of New York City through its ridiculous wage and benefit
demands, and the UAW, which put the last nail in the coffin of the
American auto industry through its contract inflexibility, want to
have their say in a protest about the economy. This is like Michael
Moore applying to be night watchman at the Hostess Cupcake
factory.
As I emerged from the subway, I was immediately treated to
the din of wind instruments provided by the Musicians Local 802,
who from time to time provide the music for Broadway shows when
they are not on strike. A man holding a smartphone approached me
out of nowhere to ask if I had heard the bad news. He showed me the
Apple website with notice of Steve Jobs’ untimely
death. A protester at a march against
corporations celebrating the life of one of the greatest corporate
visionaries without a trace of irony? It was going to be a long
night.
Before visiting OWS, I had already formed an initial
impression based on media reports, web videos, and my own
interactions with supporters. At best, I thought, they have
arguably reasonable demands that I disagree with (reinstate the
provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act preventing commercial banks
from owning investment banks), or vague but laudable goals absent
any prescriptions (corporations have too much power, the people
need to take back control). At worst they insidiously call for
socialist revolution, the downfall of capitalism, or even
anarchism, or just make ignorant demands to abdicate all personal
responsibility, such as the abolishment of all student and home
debt.
Within minutes of my arrival downtown, not only were my
preconceptions confirmed, I also observed a dizzying array of
grievances being aired that have nothing to do
with the economic straits of this country. As a patriotic American,
the first thing I noticed was that many of the thousands of
protesters held signs that were either printed by socialist
organizations, or called for socialist revolution.
“Smash Imperialism Through International Socialist
Revolution,” breathlessly exhorted one. Ask any
peasant farmer how that works out in the end. “Fight
for Socialism,” said another. Funny, I thought that as
a free country many of our collective efforts have been devoted to
fighting against socialism. “Marx was
Right. Resource Based
Economy!” Hmm… who would have
invented that protester’s iPhone in whatever the hell
a resource based economy is? Even a fairly innocuous sign
protesting cuts to the City University of New York said at the
bottom that it was printed by a group called the
“Party for Socialism and Liberation” — an
organization with two strikingly antithetical philosophies in their
name.
The last straw was when I was handed a copy of the
socialist: Magazine of the Socialist Party USA. At that point,
I had a strong urge to either report myself to HUAC or take a long
shower. A man near me mumbled to no one in particular that
“this is what democracy looks like.” Apparently
democracy masquerades as a ragtag bunch of would-be
Stalinists.
My second observation was that the protesters have a
distinct spirit of defeatism and unwillingness to do anything for
themselves. “Jail Sallie Mae. End all Student
Debt,” said one sign. “F*ck your unpaid
internship,” said another. “You want
demands? We want a future,” was scrawled on a piece of
cardboard playing off of the public perception that the protesters
have no organized slate of goals. “Where is OUR
bailout?” “Shelters are not family friendly!”
“Tax the Rich!” The hits kept on
coming.
Not surprisingly, the march also played host to a laundry
list of unrelated lefty causes. One woman wore a button that
proclaimed “I am Troy Davis.” She was
bearing tribute to a convicted cop killer who recently met his
reward at the hand of the State of Georgia. Contrary to her claim,
she looked suspiciously like a middle aged white lady in a dashiki.
Many held signs protesting hydraulic fracturing, more commonly
known as “fracking.” Fracking is a
miracle technology that enables the release of massive quantities
of petroleum and natural gas from beneath rock formations. Those in
the know consider it safe, but the protesters (usually the first to
bemoan our dependence on “foreign oil”)
think they have a better understanding. And of
course the 9/11 “truthers” showed up.
Some just held signs calling for an
“investigation”, but two men shouted loudly into
the night at anyone who would listen. My liberal friend bemoaned
the fact that the two loudest people were the ones who were the
greatest discredit to the march.
But the award for most ridiculous sign of the night goes
to one I found on the ground just after wandering into the Zuccotti
Park encampment, which read “Sex Workers Against
Capitalism.” I am reasonably certain this was not
tongue in cheek; sex workers are a regular fixture on the radical
left protest scene. But the sign is sublimely silly.
“Sex work” is the oldest capitalist profession.
What would the person who wrote the sign suggest as a replacement
system? Should prospective clients barter for his or her wares? A
bushel of corn in exchange for a roll in the hay?
Not far from this sign, a man begged his fellow occupiers
to help him build puppets. He could not stress enough how crucial
these were to the occupation. As I surveyed the piles of garbage,
camping gear, and personal effects strewn across the park, I heard
one man brag to another that he had helped bum rush several cops.
Despite this, most of the occupiers seemed misguided but
peaceful.
Interestingly, there was not much love for Obama in the crowd.
Of the hundreds of signs I surveyed only two made direct reference
to the president. One, held by a member of the CUNY
Internationalist Club, said “Obama, Democrats: War-Makers,
Union-Busters. For a Workers Party to Fight for a Workers
Government.” The second said, cryptically, “Osama Bin Obama Sucks.”
I also saw a sign that said “Democrats and Republicans: Two Parties
of Racism, War, and Layoffs!” While the OWS movement claims to
transcend the left-right dichotomy, I only saw one Gadsden Flag,
the Revolutionary War era banner that has been adopted by the Tea
Party of late. But that guy was with a group holding flags for
Veterans for Peace, a generally left-leaning organization, and not
far from him were people holding signs that said “Republicans are
Greedy” and “Americans fed up with Tea Party Bullsh*t.” Although
most of the protesters clearly ranged from left to radical left,
they all seemed generally suspicious of political parties.
Genuinely troubling, however, is the involvement of
Anonymous, a group of geeks emboldened by their proficiency in
computer crime. The hackers of Anonymous indiscriminately commit
cyber attacks against groups they disagree with. They claim to be a
leaderless collective, a theme which they have carried over to OWS.
Their chief contribution to the occupation is a prevalence of Guy
Fawkes masks. Fawkes, the engineer of the failed 1604 Gunpowder
Plot to blow up the British Parliament, is a sort of mascot for the
group. They also stress the notion that the occupation is for the
99 percent, essentially anyone not part of the 1 percent of
Americans who supposedly hold the vast bulk of wealth. Political
science 101: always be suspicious of someone who claims to speak
for you, but whose appointment you had no hand in. Incidentally, a
corporate Hollywood movie is responsible for the recent resurgence
of Guy Fawkes as a folk hero. These anti-corporatists sure borrow
freely from corporations.
OWS supporters will surely accuse me of being unfairly
dismissive of their movement. They are shooting the messenger — I
can’t help it if their cause is intellectually
bankrupt. They are no more than a discontented mob carrying a
jumble of disparate, even odious messages. The few among them who
call for specific policy changes lack the good sense not to lie
with socialist dogs. I will say to their credit that I was
genuinely inspired to see thousands of energetic, passionate people
fighting for a cause — even though it’s unclear what
the exact nature of that cause might be. But ultimately, I found no
common ground with them as I walked the downtown streets of
Manhattan. I guess I am the enemy after all.
