Independent UK: Across the world, a new spirit took hold – power was taken back by the people

[marmar]

Laurie Penny: Across the world, a new spirit took hold – power was taken back by the people
More than city squares are being occupied. What is being reoccupied is a sense of collective possibility

Monday, 17 October 2011


Something enormous happened on Saturday night. In over a thousand towns and cities around the world, people from all walks of life took to the streets and occupied the squares in an international "day of action" against austerity and corporate greed. In Madrid, I watched 60,000 stamp and cheer in Puerta del Sol as protesters took over a nearby building and dropped a banner reading "Somos El 99%" ("we are the 99 per cent"), a slogan from the Occupy Wall Street movement which has become a mantra for new global resistance.

As thousands streamed into the main square of the Spanish capital, a projector was showing hundreds facing down police to camp outside the London Stock Exchange. Protest, like profit, has become globalised.

The fact that politicians and pundits are asking what all these people want can be considered a victory for the "occupy everywhere" movement. It's not a question many in public life have seemed much concerned with in the past decade.

What commentators fail to understand is that occupation is itself a demand. It's a new, practical politics for those disillusioned with representative democracy, which demonstrators claim is a private club run by the rich, for the rich. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/laurie-penny-across-the-world-a-new-spirit-took-hold-ndash-power-was-taken-back-by-the-people-2371590.html

[Remember Me]

1. "The occupation is itself a demand ..." Yes, it's a demand that

the POWER imablance of which the great WEALTH imbalance is both symptom and cause, be corrected IMMEDIATELY.

[Warpy]

2. Power taken back by the people? Well, not yet

but as the demonstrations get bigger and more numerous and more and more support pops up outside them, more politicians will be working out how to co opt the feeling to preserve their jobs and get reelected.

And that means they're going to have to start working for some real change, not just the window dressing of the last 3 years.

[starroute]

3. A big piece of it is about reclaiming the commons

That covers a lot of what's gone wrong -- from privatization of vital services, to copyright and patent abuse, to the withering away of public space (and heavy restrictions on the use of what little public space remains).

Inequality is a big piece of the problem, of course, and so is the hijacking of government by corporate money. But the theft of the commons may be even more fundamental -- and I think it will come to the forefront over the next few years.


I'd keep an eye on Laurie Penny (aka Penny Red), by the way. She's a young British blogger whose name I first noticed last summer when she wrote something perceptive about the UK riots. Now she's doing good stuff on OWS. Definitely an up-and-comer.

[Laelth]

4. Thanks for that. n/t

-Laelth

[Stuart G]

5. I second that thanks...nt