Five ways to re-Occupy in 2012 [View all]

[Huey P. Long]

Five ways to re-Occupy in 2012
By MJ LEE | 12/29/11 7:19 AM EST

The Occupy Wall Street movement is at a crossroads.

Since the protesters in Zuccotti Park who made headlines around the world were ousted from their New York City encampment in November, and other demonstrators were sent packing in cities across the country, observers have been left wondering whether the movement is on its deathbed or will transform and grow in the coming year. With that in mind, POLITICO asked cultural critics, advertising and messaging gurus, activists and others for their ideas about how Occupy can stay relevant.

OCCUPY CAMPUS
“Revolutions always start at universities.”
That’s the observation of Kalle Lasn, editor of the anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters, who believes the Occupy movement needs to go back to a step that it skipped and focus on energizing students around the county and the world.
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GO CORPORATE
Anything “corporate” may seem counterintuitive to the figure-it-out-as-we-go approach of Occupy, but the bottom line is that a little bit of organization can go a long way, experts say.
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MESSAGING
Several media consultants have this recommendation for Occupy: Let’s go to the video.
According to a recent poll, a majority of Americans – almost 6 of 10 people – don’t know enough about the Occupy movement to have an opinion about it. Experts say that needs to change if Occupy is to have a future.
David Sauvage, who has produced commercials about Occupy and works closely with the movement, says one of the biggest challenges is simply “communicating our message to the masses of people who don’t know what on earth we’re doing,” and that video can be key to remedying this problem. He suggests creating educational videos and documentaries to explain who the Occupiers are and to dispel the notion that the movement is violent.
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STREET THEATER
Some say Occupy should remain on the streets, staying relevant and making headlines with an ongoing campaign of outrageous acts.
While Tisch refrained from endorsing any specific attention-grabbing tactic, the PR guru said that virtually anything edgy that attracts media attention is fair game, whether it’s giving out “corporate greed awards,” occupying the roof of a government building and hanging a banner down the side of it – as Greenpeace activists did in 2009 on the opening day of a climate change summit in Ottawa – or chasing around politicians.
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POLITICAL ACTION
Todd Gitlin, an expert on social movements and a 1960’s political activist, believes the solution for Occupy could lie in Congress.
The Columbia University professor argues that Occupiers are constituents first and protesters second, and says Occupy must lobby Congress to pass legislation addressing the movement’s concerns.
“They should besiege their political representatives,” Gitlin said. “They need to explain to members of Congress that the crushing burden of the economic collapse upon vast numbers of Americans is central to the fate of these politicians.”

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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70928.html