Why labor backs occupy wall street

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Commentary policy VTDigger. We have a minimum length of words. We have found the ideal length is approximately to 1, words. We provide some copyediting support, but we do not have the staff to fact-check commentaries. We reserve the right to reject opinions for matters of taste and accuracy. Pioneering the use of live-stream technology while employing powerful social-media messaging and meme tactics to grow participation both on- and offline, Occupy showed a new generation how to turn social movements into a viral spectacle that seizes control of the public narrative.

Read: The triumph of Occupy Wall Street. More deeply, the movement on Wall Street injected activists with a new sense of courage: Confronting power and issuing demands through civil disobedience is now an ingrained part of our political culture. And in a sense, the protesters have never gone home. Some of the top activists of this generation got their start at Occupy.

It emerged as a direct successor to Occupy, whose activists helped redirect the fight against inequality into a focused, strategic movement to save the planet.

The six-year battle that defeated the Keystone XL pipeline and the month defense of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in its challenge against the now-illegal Dakota Access Pipeline are two other examples of Occupy galvanizing the U.

Some of the most skilled Zuccotti Park organizers also later founded the organization Momentum to train activists such as Weber to develop tangible policy goals and create a road map for enacting long-term, structural change.

In dollars-and-cents terms, Occupy changed the way Americans understood their role in the economy, inaugurating a decade of labor unrest as employees became activists and workers rediscovered their power. Annie Lowrey: The counterintuitive workings of the minimum wage. In response, voters and legislators raised the base pay in more than half of U. The uprising spread across the low-wage sector—encompassing striking janitors, airport staff, nurses, domestic workers, hotel workers, hospital employees, construction workers, supermarket clerks, and others—shifting the balance of power between employers and employees.

Occupy organizers and working groups can learn a lot from their union counterparts and adopt similar strategies to expand their movement, reaching out to a much greater share of the 99 percent. This has already begun to some degree in New York where some activists are working to build neighborhood assemblies in the outer boroughs. Currently, there is ambiguity within the Occupy movement about its goals, as it has attracted people from across a broad political spectrum.

Some focus on building camps to prefigure alternative societies; others prioritize getting money out of politics and building a more responsive government. But we believe that in order for Occupy to grow more powerful and relevant, and lead to fundamental change, it must expand the fight for democracy to the place where many people spend the majority of their time and where wealth is produced—at work.

If we are serious about attacking the inequality of wealth, and the power that comes with it, we need to address what goes on in the workplace. The historic challenge of the moment is for the freedom and democracy of the camps to penetrate the more formidable domain of the workplace.

We must organize where we have the power to affect the 1 percent, which is inside the corporations and institutions where we spend most of our time, providing them with much of their riches and leverage. Ideally, we should struggle for democratic control over how our work is done, and what it is done for. Cooperatives have been one form seized on by contemporary activists to confront private property and the usual rights it entails.

But strong unions offer another path leading directly to the heart of the matter. The Occupy movement looks more like the labor movement of one hundred years ago, when many activists were building unions as stepping stones to a new and better society. Unionists argued then that they should organize in the workplace, not just to get a better wage but to fundamentally reorganize the capitalist economy.

This, the call for economic democracy, is a bold demand—one that people have given their lives fighting for. It can sound idealistic or simplistic to suggest we return to these historic goals that have proved so illusive for so many. Yet Occupy has dreamt big from the start. Actions that are, as we write, being planned for May Day may serve as an opportunity to work through tensions and negotiate common ground.

In New York City, both sides have compromised to find a way to be inclusive, allowing for a diverse and creative approach to this upcoming May Day. We end by considering the reach of both the Occupy and labor movements. Occupy is a global movement. The fight for real political and economic democracy can only be waged as an international fight.

Labor and Occupy can together learn about workplace occupation from workers in Argentina; or how to sustain protest through an electoral cycle from the indignados of Spain. They can learn persistence from the Egyptians who continue their fight. These struggles around the world share some common themes: challenging the neoliberal policies of global institutions and national governments; attempting to expand democracy; fighting the 1 percent that indirectly influences domestic policies through political influence and threats of capital flight.

Only through global solidarity is another world possible. View Calendar. What Can Labor Learn from Occupy? Moving Forward Actions that are, as we write, being planned for May Day may serve as an opportunity to work through tensions and negotiate common ground. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.