Semi-Happy Birthday, Occupy Wall Street

One year ago today, Occupy Wall Street made its move. Activists hoping to make a statement about corporate greed and multinational economic control took a stand at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, and a nationwide movement was born.

What a year it has been! On the plus side, phrases like “the 1 percent” and “the 99 percent” have entered common parlance, even among candidates for President of the United States. In the wake of Occupy, smaller pro-union protests and citizen reclamation of homes left empty by bank foreclosures have followed.

Legislative attempts to regulate banks and other financial institutions have tried to carry through at the state and federal level what protesters urged last fall. A substantial push is on to pass legislation to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

But for too many Americans sitting in their suburban and Midwestern homes and clicking through the local news with their remotes, the Occupy movement has become a joke … last year’s reality TV hit … a dead cult.

And that’s a pity. Semi-happy birthday, Occupy Wall Street.

This afternoon I joined a Portland, Oregon march and rally in observance of the one-year anniversary of the birth of Occupy Wall Street. We gathered at the east end of the Burnside Bridge and walked with signs and banners to the grounds outside the permanent Occupy Portland office at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Southeast Portland.

It probably wasn’t even a mile. There were barely a hundred of us. But what was interesting to me (along with the reactions of passing motorists) was the overkill of news coverage versus the almost negligible police presence.

I saw a news helicopter hovering over the start of the march and above the Occupy office 45 minutes later. Reporters and cameramen from the local TV news stations shadowed us along the route and at the destination park. I got home in time to watch portions of all three news broadcasts at 5 p.m.

Most of the reporting was okay. They tended to lean on the fact that the turnout was small -- nothing like the 10,000 who marched on Oct. 6, 2011, the several hundred who maintained a camp downtown for five weeks thereafter.

But as I told Everton Bailey, a reporter for the Oregonian, Occupy doesn’t have to be big and noisy to do its job from here on out; just maintain a sufficient profile to inspire the many other people who can’t leave their jobs to march, who won’t openly support the movement, but who want to change the way this country operates in whatever way they can and can take heart from knowing there’s a lot more of us out here.

On Channel 2 KATU, Steve Dunn snarked his wrap-up of today’s report by noting that cleanup of last fall’s camp had cost an estimated $116,000, donations had paid for a little under $40,000, and police had “had” to pay at least $1 million in overtime to enforce the demonstrations. (Wikipedia says in its third paragraph about Occupy Portland that enforcement cost the Portland Police Bureau $2 million.)

Actually, that’s not true. The police bureau chose to spend that money; but it didn’t have to. The vast majority of Portland Occupy participants were peaceful, nonviolent, and law-abiding, and I would argue that trouble tended to occur because of overwhelming police presence and unnecessary force, not in spite of it. I discussed this in my Nov. 21, 2011 commentary, and today’s quiet and largely un-policed march suggests this is so.

Things were a bit more lively today in New York. Occupy marchers tried unsuccessfully to keep the stock market from opening and at least 182 were arrested. Because this week was also the start of Rosh Hashanah, rabbis spoke outside a Wells Fargo bank in Berkeley about the evils of big banks that profit off home mortgages and foreclosures. News also broke that the FBI infiltrated and undermined Occupy Oakland last year, although the FBI refuses to respond to the ACLU’s request for release of some relevant documents in the matter.

I dressed up nicely today to offer a contrast with the almost determinedly scruffy regulars -- youthful protestors and much older longtime activists and recovering hippies. There wasn’t anyone else who looked remotely like me, I’m sorry to say … but that made it all the more crucial that I was there: a curiosity for the passing drivers in traffic, and of course a magnet for newsmen such as Bailey.

I didn’t carry a sign. I didn’t join in any of the chants, which tended to strike me as simplistic and untrue (“The people … united … will never be defeated”) or childish (“What do we want?” “JUSTICE!” “When do we want it?” “NOW!”).

So why was I there? Partly to observe and record. Partly to be educated: a portion of today’s rally was devoted to promoting the cause of laid-off workers on a hunger strike against General Motors in Colombia. (The photo above shows our march chanting at the windows of a local Chevy dealership about this.) Partly to provide that well-dressed presence that would give a moment of pause to passersby who might otherwise write off Occupy Portland activists as unemployed and unbathed idiots.

Partly because I do want to see change -- real, substantive, equitable change -- in this country and across the world. For all our information sources and instant news messaging, Americans are probably ignorant of the huge effect the Occupy movement had, and continues to have, in dozens of countries overseas after itself being inspired by the Arab Spring. To many millions of foreigners, Occupy Wall Street may in fact represent the greatness of the United States, more than President Obama or Disney films.

It’s easy to surrender to the notion, as an editorial in today’s Baltimore Sun has it, that “the 1 percent are winning.” Yes, the movement often looks scruffy, disorganized, and at odds with itself. Sure, it’s hard to get anything done without strong leadership and clear goals. Certainly, a lot of issues float to the surface with which one might disagree.

But there are always plenty of excuses not to get involved in any attempt to change the world. The important thing is to say: “I’m in; what can I do?”