Since the brutal eviction of Occupy Wall Street’s (OWS) enscampment at Liberty Plaza, questions about the future of the Occupy movement have loomed large. Its rapid development comprised two months of near-constant actions, arrests, and activity. What we built from September 17 to November 17 is transitioning into a long-term movement with coordination among the various occupations. Because Occupy spans the globe (including Japan, Pakistan, South Korea, Brazil, Canada, and beyond), a strong sense of international solidarity is beginning to emerge.
Most of the participants in OWS and the Occupy movement were profoundly inspired by the Arab Spring. The deep support of the Egyptian protesters makes U.S. military aid to the Egyptian army all the more enraging and sheds light on U.S. imperialism. Occupy protests and encampments have faced their share of tear gas, so targeting U.S.-based Combined Systems, Inc., whose teargas is being used on Egyptian protesters, makes a strong connection. And real lines of solidarity are being drawn between OWS and Egypt by way of personal connections, letters of support, and coordinated action between OWS and Egyptian activists in the United States. These political and personal bonds form the basis of a transformation of global solidarity and antiwar work.
Those involved in connecting international popular movements have achieved much in the last couple of months. Avenues for global discussion are beginning to develop, from internet-based modes (takethesquare.net and occupytogether.org) to faceto-face meetings. Early in November, a People’s Forum was held in Nice, France. Described as a counter-summit to the G-20 in Cannes at the time, the forum saw people from Spain, Senegal, Greece, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Belgium, England, Italy, Portugal, Canada, Germany, and the United States come to coordinate, protest, share, learn, and ultimately build a global movement for social change. I and another Occupy Wall Street organizer had the fortune of attending.
The highlight of the conference was two general assemblies translated into French, Spanish, English, and Arabic. We gave brief updates on activities in our respective countries. Despite local differences, a remarkable unity emerged. We are all struggling to address sovereign debt, precarious employment, unaffordable housing, privatization, austerity, war, unemployment, a lack of real democracy, increasing education costs, and the harmful effect of banks on the lives of many. The striking similarity in social problems across much of the world indicates that the problems we face are not the work of a few cronies or bad politicians, but are systemic. This realization allows for a strong international movement—an opposition to break the logic of capital. The fault lines in global capitalism are surfacing.
The widespread failure of social and economic institutions to provide for people creates the ripe conditions for alternative institutions. Groups are increasingly focusing on building alternative institutions whose guiding values are based on equality, solidarity, and participation. The alternatives to capitalism are emerging from the movement, and global coordination means, among other things, learning lessons from past and present experiences. These lessons guide how we oppose current injustice and how we build alternative institutions to change the conditions and quality of our lives. Mechanisms for international discussion help us think collectively about how to struggle and build. No longer are global revolution and alternatives to capitalism hollow words, but a sense of collective power and resolve is being felt. The 1 percent have their summits, and so, too, do the 99 percent.
In just a couple of days, and in spite of language barriers, many important problems were addressed and useful tactics shared at the People’s Forum. With Indignados from Spain, we discussed their practice of taking a building to use the top half for people who need homes and the bottom half for group infrastructure. This model both meets the needs of the people and builds the movement. We also learned the specifics of organizing long-distance marches from their experience before October 15 of marching from Madrid to Brussels. Egyptians who participated in the occupation of Tahrir Square gave us advice on maintaining safety and security in an open square, a recurring problem for open encampments. We spoke with people from Occupy London about process issues in general assemblies and the role that collective consensus and working group autonomy plays in the decisions of the movement. The role that unions, established organizations, and NGOs play was addressed here as well. Lastly, we spoke at length with Sorbonne students who were worried about starting an occupation in Paris in a week or so. I shared my initial anxiety before the start of Occupy Wall Street. In the course of the discussion, their reserve gave way to excitement at the possibility.
There are points in the struggle where pure solidarity gives way to mutual aid, where circuits of inspiration push the horizon of what is possible. OWS occurred in part because of the wave of inspiring social struggles from Tunisia, Egypt, Spain, and elsewhere. And we are profoundly humbled and glad to help push the wave of inspiration back to the very same places that gave us hope. The People’s Summit in Nice shows that there is a global movement, that each city, nation, or region is not alone, but that we are all together, struggling for a better world. This work of international solidarity building is continuing. International solidarity working groups are emerging in encampments and collectives around the United States and the world. We are working toward building a general assembly in Tunisia in late March 2012.
The resistance is global, and an international revolution is appearing on the horizon.
