Excerpt
The anti-Wall Street protests, which are being driven from their urban encampments across the nation, now face a pivotal challenge: With their outposts gone, will their movement wither?
In New York, where the police temporarily evicted Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park early Tuesday, and in other cities, dozens of organizers maintained that the movement had already reshaped the public debate. They said it no longer needed to rely solely on seizing parks, demonstrating in front of the homes of billionaires or performing other acts of street theater.
They said they were already trying to broaden their influence, for instance by deepening their involvement in community groups and spearheading more of what they described as direct actions, like withdrawing money from banks, and were considering supporting like-minded political candidates.
Still, some acknowledged that the crackdowns by the authorities in New York and other cities might ultimately benefit the movement, which may have become too fixated on retaining the territorial footholds, they said.
“We poured a tremendous amount of resources into defending a park that was nearly symbolic,” said Han Shan, an Occupy Wall Street activist in New York. “I think the movement has shown it transcends geography.”
Even before the police descended on Zuccotti Park overnight, some early proponents of Occupy Wall Street had begun suggesting that it was time to move on.
On Monday, Adbusters, the Canadian anti-corporate magazine that conceived of the movement, indicated that the protesters should “declare victory” and head indoors to strategize.
Marina Sitrin, a postdoctoral fellow at the City University of New York who is involved in the movement, said its influence would continue to ripple out. People are already assembling to address local issues in Harlem and Brooklyn, she said. “There’s so much more than Zuccotti Park,” she said.
Indeed, with winter looming, it seemed possible that Occupy Wall Street’s encampment would end on its own as the cold drove people away.
Maurice Isserman, a history professor at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., said New York City officials might have done Occupy Wall Street a favor “by providing a dramatic ending.”
In New York and around the country, the news media had begun highlighting less savory aspects of the occupations, including drug use, crime and influxes of homeless people who were not motivated by ideology, which could change the message from “we are the 99 percent” to “we are urban pathology,” Professor Isserman said.
“And suddenly, with a stroke, that’s no longer the problem or the issue,” he said, referring to the evictions.
Still, questions endure about whether, without Zuccotti Park, the movement might lose momentum or drift into irrelevancy.
Doug McAdam, a sociology professor at Stanford, predicted that the energy could quickly dissipate without the occupation. “The focal point will be lost,” he said.
PBS Newshour 11/15/2011
I for one hope the spark started by the Occupy Wall Street movement does NOT fully dissipate. They are asking very, very basic questions about our society and government that need to be asked.
The real problem was the focus of the media on the "less savory aspects" when they should have helped by focusing on the questions the Occupy Movement was asking, like providing SUGGESTIONS to answer the questions or just providing opinions on the questions. OPPS, sorry, I forgot the media has become just and only entertainment (as opposed to a voice for the public).
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