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People Power | Grassroots Power | Political Agenda

A Movement to Make Our Leaders Listen

When old ladies in Iowa share the same concerns as kids on the street in Manhattan, it’s time those in power took note.

by Jonathan Matthew Smucker

Photo by Joe Schueller

Much has been made by some news outlets and pundits about the supposed "incoherence" of the Occupy Wall Street protests. "The protesters" don't have a coherent message, we are told. They can't even agree on any solutions. What the heck are they proposing?

This angle is wrong-headed. The strongest and most successful social movements in history have always tapped into multiple concerns that are important to different swaths of society, and often articulated in different ways. It's not typically the responsibility of a broad movement to propose specific policy solutions—at least not at this stage in the process. It's on us to create pressure to move society in a direction. When we do that successfully, windows will open to fight for this or that specific change. The bigger a movement we grow, the more pressure we create, the more substantial and meaningful those windows for measurable gains become.

The strongest and most successful social movements in history have always tapped into multiple concerns that are important to different swaths of society.

And historical perspective is not all that's wrong with the "incoherence" frame. There's a pretty damn clear coherence to Americans' anger at Wall Street right now. If it doesn't upset you that the top 1% is still making record-high profits and paying record-low taxes while the rest of us struggle just to survive, then I don't know that I'll be able to explain it to you. But I think most people feel it in their gut. That's why us being here is resonating with so many people. That's why this movement is drawing so much attention, and why I think it's going to continue to gain momentum over time.

The momentum is really starting to spread beyond the "usual suspects." It's important to emphasize and encourage this. For example, while coastal occupation actions have drawn the most media attention so far, actions are also happening all across "Middle America," from Ashland, Kentucky to Dallas, Texas to Ketchum, Idaho.

I just heard a first hand report about four hundred Iowans marching in Des Moines, Iowa as part of the October 15 international day of action. I'm working on the press team here at Occupy Wall Street, and I just got the chance to talk on the phone with Judy Lonning, a 69-year-old retired public school teacher who participated in the Des Moines action today. Here's what she had to say:

People are suffering here in Iowa. Family farmers are struggling, students face mounting debt and fewer good jobs, and household incomes are plummeting. We're not willing to keep suffering for Wall Street's sins. People here are waking up and realizing that we can't just go to the ballot box. We're building a movement to make our leaders listen.

Cheers to that.

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Jonathan Matthew Smucker wrote this article for Beyond The Choir, a forum for grassroots mobilization.

Interested?

• Follow our ongoing coverage of #OccupyWallStreet.
• The 99 Percent: Why We Protest
  Thousands of ordinary people have shown up from all around the country to support #OccupyWallStreet. Who are they?
• Turning Occupation into Lasting Change
  Is the Occupy movement an opportunity to transform the legal structures that give corporations their power over the rest of us?