Autonomous occupation

The death of Gaddafi pushed a wave of protests in developed countries from the first bands of the world media, but it is hardly too much - the fate of the “leader of the Libyan Revolution” was determined much earlier , but the scale of the performances turned out to be a much greater surprise.

They began in the United States by the OCCUPY Wall Street action (capture Wall Street), and then it was picked up in other countries. The international initiative is called OCCUPY TOGETER (capture together). This initiative has local units: OCCUPY LONDON , OCCUPY TOKYO , OCCUPY TORONTO , etc. Mass protests are held in Rome and Madrid. Participants in these shares usually occupy some noticeable platform, put tents there and refuse to leave until their protest receives a satisfactory reaction.

In the American movement, which served as a model for others, there are no leaders (more precisely, it positions itself as horizontal). In addition, there is fundamentally there is no list of specific requirements and there is no program that the protesters would like to implement. According to the plan, the movement is designed to clearly demonstrate mass dissatisfaction with the existing state of affairs: growing inequality of income, the dominance of corporations and banks, the influence of the rich and the helplessness of everyone else. All this is expressed in slogans, reinforced by demonstrations and vigorously spreads online: on activist sites and in social networks (mainly Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr).

The American and British press, which at first did not pay much attention to this movement, now regularly publishes reports on events. Expert authors in their blogs and articles share their impressions and considerations, try to summarize intermediate results and give preliminary assessments. The discussions about this phenomenon are divided into two large groups: generalizing and private. Summers are when they try to understand this phenomenon in general, to indicate its specifics and, possibly, make forecasts. Private - when they talk about the nature of movement in a separate country with its historical context and internal premises.

General

Here the line of reasoning moves from the Arab wave, which began at the end of 2010, through technological innovations and to the significance of all this for Western democracy. The author of the blog at The Economist magazine calls these events genuine Internet, in contrast to the “so-called“ Facebook revolutions ”in the Arab world.” In those Arab countries where the uprisings were the most energetic and effective, the prevalence of Facebook was actually very insignificant. In December 2010, the author says, referring to the corresponding study , in Libya, 4% of the population had Facebook accounts; in Egypt - in 5.5%; There is more (17.5%) in Tunisia, but it cannot be said that this was a mass phenomenon. The author does not dispute the significance of the Internet in coordination of actions, but it indicates that now, in the Western world, we are observing the Internet test in its purest form, when the dynamics of public enthusiasm is clearly reflected online, and then flows into the activities of offline, although the number of online enthusiasts surpasses the number of offline activists. In addition to the online connection to protest, the author notes the important role of the Internet in the collection of donations: for these funds, activists print their leaflets and newspapers. In addition, they are now collecting money to create a documentary about movement (the initially the goal was to raise $ 1,000, but to date, more than $ 2,000 have already been raised).

However, the author notes, the connection between the Internet active and its offline reservation is very conditional. The number of likes on Facebook (for example, the OCCUPY Wall Street project at the time of writing this sentence was 248,652 like) generally says nothing: it is easy to assume that many users simply approve the initiative by pressing the virtual button, and then forget about it. “The discussion on Twitter is a little more informative, because it reflects how many people know about current events. But this indicates only awareness, and not support. ” Therefore, the most author is attracted by projects in the spirit of the American We Are the 99% (99%) on Tumblr, where users post their photos and accompany them with stories about their difficulties associated with unemployment, debts and lack of prospects. Now there are about 2000 such stories that, of course, is negligible in comparison with the country's population. Nevertheless, in combination with other signs of online activeness, the author considers this format indicative (even taking into account the fact that some stories may be fictional): someone was not too lazy to publish history there, and this indicates that people do not care.

Aaron Peters from the University of London, engaged in the study of the network community, proposes to consider this phenomenon as another form of development of a meme in a public culture. Actually, the word “meme” as used to serial protests in February 2011 was used by the BBC journalist Paul Mason, who, in turn, refers to Richard Dawkins, defining the meme as “a unit caring in itself cultural ideas, symbols and customs that can be broadcast from person to person by means Letters, speeches, gestures, rituals and other reproducible rituals ... When ideas arise, they are very quickly subjected to "market evaluation", after which they either begin to grow and take root in the minds or disappear if they are not good enough. Ideas are reproduced like genes. Before the spread of the Internet, this theory seemed an exaggeration, but now it is possible to clearly trace the evolution of memes ”[1].

Peters believes that in this case, a successful example of a socio-political protest is fixed in the form of a model, which is then reproduced in other places, and due to the spread of the Internet, this process is significantly accelerated. At the same time, symbolism is formed from the original practice, that is, a certain sequence of actions in itself expresses the cultural meaning that it has absorbed into itself. How exactly this will develop and what this will lead to, Peters does not take to predict, but it assumes, according to the results of recent years, that the methods of influence of society on politics will change beyond recognition. He also believes that “we may witness an epoch -making social change, which will be the result of the assimilation of a new mediator, which accelerates the“ mematic ”reproduction of social movements. But so far we are still at the very beginning, and we should remember that the first pornographic novels appeared just a few years after the invention of the printing press, and in order to originate, it took a little more than a hundred years. ”

Private

When it comes to individual countries, there are more critics of the action, and forecasts are made based on specific realities. As an example, we take the United States and the UK and see what they are talking about in each case.

USA

In the USA, with which it all started, several motives are allocated in protests. Firstly, dissatisfaction directly by the fact that in order to withdraw from the financial crisis, the government began to help banks, and this seemed to not bring tangible benefits to citizens: unemployment continues, salaries are cut, there is nothing to pay debts on loans. Secondly, the inequality in the distribution of income and the growth of property imbalance: there are few rich and they are rich, and the rest are stomping on the spot. Thirdly, the power of money in American politics. Further, the specific claims of representatives of various political groups (liberals, anarchists, socialists, libertarian, envan otherists) who joined the movement are poured there. With all this diversity, Wall Street with his financial policy became the symbolic focus of evil.

“As the OCCUPY Wall Street movement grows,” the Ny Times Columenist commented with satisfaction, “Paul Krugman),“ the attitude to the claims proclaimed by its participants is gradually changing: they used to reject them with contempt, and now they began to whimper. ”

Krugan has long criticized the anti -crisis policy of the American government, and now his criticism has received such a picturesque confirmation. “The current financial leaders look at the protesters and ask:" Do they really not understand what we have done for the American economy? " The correct answer: many of them just understand that Wall Street and, wider, the national economic elite made us for us. That's exactly what they protest against this ... You see, a few weeks ago it seemed that Wall Street successfully captivates our political system and disposes of it so that it would forget about a bunch of unpaid accounts and safely destroy the world economy. And then suddenly some people took and raised the question. And their indignation found a response among millions of Americans. ”

And what, in fact, do the Americans want to achieve their protests? - asks an anonymous [2] blogger at The Economist magazine. “It is easy to demand“ honest decisions ”. But the movement does not yet have a thoughtful strategy. These are protests in the style of Rorshahov spots. Politicians and newspaper commentators peer into these spots and see in them what they want to see. And if they do not see anything meaningful, they offer their own interpretations ... In general, the American left would most like to see in these protests a progressive analogue to the conservative Tea Party (the movement of tea party). " In general, the author does not believe that the protest is groundless, but, in his opinion, "to make real changes in real democracy, a real policy is needed." This requires some effort and competence, but the OCCUPY Wall Street movement has not yet been noticed in this.

Against this view of things, the economist Andrew Samwick objects . He just acts in defense of a brave protest, which expresses simply discontent, but does not offer ways to solve the problem. This should be done by specialists who should take into account the opinion of the protesters.

Regarding the ratio of Tea Party/Republicans and Occupy Wall Street/Democrats spoke out in his blog by economist Robert Reitch. Both movements, says Rich, populist. The Party of Republicans was able to use the movement of tea drinking to some extent. At a minimum, it contributed to a certain influx of forces in the republican ranks. Occupy Wall Street, by external signs, is quite consistent with the spirit of the Democratic Party, but the economic populism inherent in the rhetoric of this movement, according to Reich, is no longer relevant for the Democrats, and possibly harmful.

Democrats after Franklin Roosevelt gradually moved away from the left economic rhetoric and more and more strove for the center. This was due to the fact that Wall Street perceived any actions that contradict the interests of corporations in bayonets, and it was difficult to confront the democrats in power. Therefore, the slogans about the fight against greedy businessmen disappeared from the election campaigns - the Democrats could no longer correspond to them in practice. And in this sense, the Democrats will not be easy to recognize for their movement of the invaders of Wall Street with their left populism-unlike the Republicans, who easily accepted the right populism of the motion movement.

“However,” Rich concludes, “I don’t want to say at all that the“ invaders ”will not be able to have any influence on the Democrats. No matter how good the president or other representatives of the administration is in Washington, nothing good happens in Washington if only some kind people do not gather beyond its borders and do not make it to happen. The pressure on the left is very important. ”

United Kingdom

“Movements in New York and in London are very different from each other, and there is a great risk that this wave will never really rise in Britain,” wrote the editor of the British Left-Liberal Conspiracy Sanny Handal. - But for starters, it makes sense to explain how the “We Are the 99%” movement differs from the recent protests against budgetary reductions ”(if in the United States the current wave of protests is put in parallel and compared with a similar right -wing tea parting, then in Britain they immediately indicate the local movement of opponents of budgetary contractions - UKUNCUT ).

Reductions, says Handel, caused dissatisfaction with many British citizens, but there were many who believed that reductions were needed. The American version offers a more general approach and thereby covers more people. Further, representatives of various socio-political groups immediately joined the Americans, “including Libertarians who opposed bank debts; students who just want a good job; owners of small businesses who have suffered from a recession; Scientists, etc. The OCCUPY Wall Street has no distinct socialist or anti -capitalist coloring - even in a blog about 99%, many statements belong to completely moderate Americans. ”

On the British actions, according to Sanny Handel, mostly familiar faces of the already famous activists of left-radical movements were observed, including the UKUNCUT, who are distinguished by extreme impurities with those whose political position seems to them insufficiently radical. During protests against budgetary reductions, the same situation was the same. Handel admits that this time everything can go according to an unexpected scenario, but expresses a fear that because of the intolerance of activists who make up the backbone of British protests, the movement risks stall.

The founder and one of the editors of the Opendemocracy resource Antony Barnett (Antony Barnett) answered this remark. Noting the validity of Handel's remarks about the dangers of extreme separatism in the ranks of activists, he turned to the role of influential parties in the left part of the spectrum in creating this situation. And this role, according to Barnett, is very great. In confirmation, he cites the statements of the Labor Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2007, when he in every possible way extolled London City (the British analogue of Wall Street) and proclaimed the offensive of the new Golden Age of the financial system in which collapse soon occurred. It was the representatives of the left -wing parties with their reluctance to make changes to the system that contributed to the inflating of the bubble that ultimately generated the crisis, so most of those who are now joining protests will rather support the right ones.

Finally, the observations of the BBC journalist Paul Mason, who is trying to summarize his impressions of protests in Britain and the information that come from other countries, are interesting. Having visited the first promotions, he, like Handel, noted that many participants are left -wing activists who participated in the previous series of protests. The rest are people who are very far from politics, who can hardly formulate their requirements. Many of them believe in a certain "conspiracy of the rich."

According to Mason, this situation prevails in other countries where protests become massive. Therefore, let's say, it is impossible to judge from these protests how great Obama’s chances are at the re -election. Mason believes that these protests should be regarded as a signal that, firstly, people seek to “think globally” and, secondly, the more they use the Internet, the more autonomous they become.

“It is absolutely clear that they intend to achieve: this is much more than a campaign for some separate problem. They want to limit the power of financial capital and build a more egalitarian society, rejecting the hierarchical methods of parties that proclaim such intentions. In this sense, the current movement is a kind of replacement of social democracy. ”

Notes

[1] At the very beginning of the preface to the book , Susan Blackmore (Susan Blackmore) The Meme Machine, to illustrate how the meme works, says the following story:

“I was a tutor, and I had a student - a young woman who had an unusual habit. When she was asked a question, demanding a thoughtful answer, she closed her eyes tightly, sharply lowered her head and froze - she could spend half a minute in this position. Then she raised her head, opened her eyes and gave out a clear and thoughtful answer. This manner amused me, and I once reproduced this gesture when I had dinner with friends to amuse them. One authoritative philosopher from Oxford had dinner with us. As soon as he saw my imitation, he immediately said: “This is Wittgenstein! This student has not been a last name by chance ...? " I was taken aback and replied that it was. “So I thought,” my colleague said. “Her parents are both philosophers by education and both convinced followers of Wittgenstein.” Thus, one of her parents (or both) adopted this gesture from the great philosopher, and then handed it to my student. ”

[2] The anonymity of the authors is part of The Economist policy. It is believed that the impression on the audience should provide the content of the material, and not the name of the author.