Hope Inside DC's Dual Occupations

It's not everday that hundreds of citizens occupy two public parks in DC. During my visit to the encampments on Saturday, the feeling of something powerful developing was palpable.

The occupations are based in the McPherson Square park and Freedom Plaza, public spaces that are about a 10-minute walk from each other.

Since October 1, the McPherson Square park has been home to Occupy DC, an outgrowth of the four-week old Occupy Wall Street movement that has captured national attention. Seperately, the October2011 movement, comprised of many long-time peace activists, took over Freedom Plaza on October 6, the 10th anniversary of the illegal invasion of Afghanistan by the United States.[1]

Though the actions grew out of different processes, they are unified by underlying grievances, which are shared nationally.

Scott Rasmussen, president of the public opinion polling company, Rasmussen Reports, has recently said, “Americans continue to overwhelmingly believe that government and big business work together against the rest of us.” He added, “For many, the bailouts confirmed their worst fears about this unhealthy alliance.”

Rasmussen of course is referring to the government bailouts of the financial institutions responsible for the financial collapse in 2008. Unsurprisingly, recent polling data reveal that Americans across political lines believe that Wall Street does more harm to the economy than good.

Since the collapse, the “unhealthy alliance” has engineered record corporate profit rates through state-capitalist policies, while surrenduring the public to the harsh realities of market forces, such as unemployment rates reaching Great-Depression-era levels, mass foreclosures, and growing poverty levels, particularly in minority communities.

Meanwhile, the dramatic rise of inequality in the United States that began three decades ago has continued to climb during the “Great Recession.” A recent study by researchers from the Harvard Business School and Duke University, Michael Norton and Dan Ariely, contextualizes the phenomenon in an interesting way.

Norton and Ariely found that Americans dramatically understimate the actual wealth inequality that exists in the U.S. They also found that Americans, irrespective of their political leanings, desire a more equal distribution.[2]

With these facts in mind, it should come as no surprise that the Occupy movement has been able to stir dormant class consciousness with rallying cries like “We are the 99%” and “Banks got bailed out, We got sold out.”

“I'm one of the 99% whose voice is not heard by government,” said Mike (53) who was passing through McPherson Square park for the second time Saturday evening.

When I asked him why he decided to take to time out of his day to support Occupy DC, he replied, “I'm seeking influence with my government,” which he considers to be “run by international financial institutions.”

Mike (who asked that I not include his last name) has been searching for a job for four months after joining the unemployed when the manufacturing plant where he worked in Florida went belly-up. Last year, he lost his house in Cleveland to foreclosure. So he moved in with his uncle in DC in hopes of rebuilding.

Mike shares the national sentiment that “great change” is needed to turn the economy around. Specific changes he would like to see are ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, passing financial reforms, and overturning the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which removed the meager restrictions on corporate financing of elections.

Like Mike, Justin Butler (23), a student at George Washington Law School, wants to see Citizens United over-turned. He asserted the need for a stronger “divide between the economic sphere and political sphere,” something he believes can be achieved through campaign finance reform.

Justin reiterated a number of times that while he has his own specific policy priorities, Occupy DC is a “space for everyone to come with their grievances” and “build solidarity,” not impose personal agendas.

His response to criticisms about the movement's lack of specific demands was simply, “they don't understand what's happening here.” He stressed the significance of the participatory, consensus-based decision-making process at the camp, where the “power-dynamics . . . we're used to in our society,” like taking orders from bosses, doesn't exist.

Since October 1, Justin has spent most of his time outside of school at the occupation. According to him, the number of occupiers doubled to about 60 the first night activists with October2011 reclaimed Freedom Plaza. Since then, solidarity actions have taken place every day.

Earlier on Saturday, about 250 people from the encampment at Freedom Plaza marched to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum to protest the unmanned drone bombers exhibit, an action meant to increase awareness about the deadly and illegal nature of U.S. drone warfare being carried out in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere.

Smithsonian police pepper-sprayed those who entered the public museum. The word traveled immediately to McPherson Square Park. According to Justin, the park “emptied” and they marched in solidarity to the Smithsonian, which was closed down for the day.

Twenty-three year old Dan Riley called the museum's closure, “a win for the day,” as we sat and spoke at the colorful sign-making area in Freedom Plaza. Unsatisfied with this win alone, he went on to tell me, “we need to sustain these wins.”

One of the volunteers at the information tent in the Plaza, Safiya Balekian (62), participated in the march earlier that day. Safiya articulated her motivation in unequivocal terms. Much like those occupying McPherson Square park, she wants to see “humans at the center of all our decisions, not money, not corporations, not war.”

Her sense of determination and hope was also clear. “As long as it takes,” she quickly replied when I asked how long she was planning to occupy the Plaza. Before getting back to work, she said, “I have the feeling that everything has come together,” and then added with a smile, “at least I hope so.”

Safiya wasn't  the only one with a renewed sense of hope.
 

NOTES:

[1] For a compelling argument on the criminality of the U.S. invasion and occupation, specifically that the the action qualifies as “aggression,” the supreme international crime according to the Nuremberg Tribunals, see the following study by international law expert, Michael Mandel: How America Gets Away With Murder (2004).

[2] Real vs. desired distribution of wealth: Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely (PDF)