Identity Crisis

For those supporting the Occupy Wall Street movement things have just entered a new phase. It all had begun in New York City, and now that the authorities have taken action in an attempt to move people of out of Zuccotti Park, the reverberations will be felt throughout the entire worldwide initiative.Yet even before this transpired, the Occupy movement was experiencing growing tensions of their own. How those difficulties were handled has in some ways kept the Occupy folks from better connecting to broader society. In fact some collateral damage has transpired along the way, catching people like me in its painful clutches.When the police moved into Victoria Park in London, Ontario last week, I was there to witness it all and the next day I wrote a blog that concluded both sides of the issue could have used more imagination on dealing with the standoff. The next day I was contacted by City Councillor Joni Baechler who hit upon a productive idea: why not find some way to assist the protesters with developing their policies about poverty, the massive power of financial institutions, the environment, etc. I was asked to consider some way in which local citizen leaders sympathetic to the Movement could undertake the process of working with the Occupy London group to raise the profile of its issues. I didn't volunteer for it, but it was a sensible idea. The City of London would help in providing venues and resources but would not in any way lead the process. I brought five other key citizens around me who were sympathetic to the Movement but who could help get its message out to a broader community.I agreed for two reasons. First, I was a supporter of the Movement from the beginning. Second, I was being repeatedly contacted by citizens at large who believed in the OWS message of global financial inequities, but who were having trouble connecting to the local movement.It was to prove a personally painful and frustrating process. I was to receive numerous messages of how I was a “stooge” of City Hall, a “patsy,” and “establishment man,” and someone not to be trusted. It was a setback – not only for me but for the broader community that was trying to find some way to set up a positive dialogue. There were a number in Occupy London that responded positively to the initiative and used respectful language in considering its possibilities. The others? Well, not so much. The Movement’s distrust of most institutions was hemming it in without its realizing it. Its message was getting lost in its obstinacy. Repeated efforts to move the proposal forward were met with conditions by the movement that reduced its possibilities.For the Occupy London movement there was great difficulty in harmonizing the need for a physical place to plant itself and the need to get its message beyond the confining limitations of a piece of real estate. Furthermore, there was the belief that they were the true and logical proprietors of the Movement when, in fact, hundreds of us had been involved in similar efforts fighting the system for decades. Far from being accepted as champions in our own right, we were permitted to show support but only under their own conditions and rules.As the offer by our citizens panel fell into shambles, the local occupiers were still struggling to define themselves and to decipher their future. In their efforts to control their own message, they were inevitably to be branded by others, especially in the media. Their refusal to accept outside help locked them within their own confining message.And yet that message is absolutely vital to all concerned citizens. Our world isn’t right and isn’t positioned well to adjudicate the great financial injustices quickly descending upon it. The OWS movement had succeeded brilliantly in drawing attention to that fact. Every community should thank OWS for its clarion call and sheer dedication. But what happens when its message isn’t registering and it spends much of its time castigating and stereotyping those seeking to help its own voice to register? That is now the fundamental question facing the Movement and one it has yet to answer.I was no patsy, but had signed up for the Movement on its very first day. This hasn’t been my first demonstration and it likely won’t be my last. Like others, I have fought in places around the world, desiring to assist the locals to find their collective voice against oppressive forces. And always I was accepted. But not here, in my hometown; I have been misidentified. Some have said that as long as the Movement doesn’t resort to violence it will be accepted, but language that harshly denounces is merely violence by another means. The Movement has felt the sting of this from others; to appropriate similar language in its cause against others is one of the most tragic aspects of its methods.What are well-intentioned citizens to do? In London some important innovations have happened around this issue which you’ll hear about in the next post. But for now it’s good enough to say that the OWS message is so pivotal than it can’t merely be the property of the Movement itself. Truth is more vital than its tellers, the message more compelling than its messengers. Occupy London has done us a great service by gaining attention for much that is fundamentally wrong in our present society. Our best way to honour it is to take it out into the streets of our community in diverse ways that presents its truth in new and empowering ways that captures a wider audience. Stay tuned.