The 1st General Assembly of Occupy Hartford will be taking place in Bushnell Park (across from the Holiday Inn) twice on Wednesday, October 5th. One meeting is scheduled from 8:30 — before most people go to work — and the other for 5 in the evening. These are not protests, but consensus-building sessions; these assemblies are happening all over the United States as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Over 100 people attended an Occupy Hartford meeting over the weekend. While this movement has been noted for relying heavily on social media like Facebook and Twitter, these tools are still only as useful as those controlling them allow them to be. Right now, there are multiple Facebook pages for Occupy Hartford; the one which currently has more people “liking” it appears to actually have been abandoned by its creator. Confusion exists over whether Wednesday’s event begins at 8 or 8:30. One person has already griped about how the posted end time for the event is different from what was agreed upon at the weekend meeting. Besides Facebook and Twitter, the organization is also using Google Groups and a mailing list.
A criticism of this movement, specifically those protests happening in New York, has been that it is more concerned with witty sloganeering than crafting a unified message; even the “we are the 99%” slogan gets diluted by those with only a cursory understanding of the issues — some take aim at Wall Street for problems wholly unrelated to the banking industry, thus undermining the actions. Still in its infancy, Occupy Hartford has not yet shown what action, if any, it intends to take, though its Facebook page alludes to “occupying Hartford” and camping out; the organization’s rhetoric mirrors that of Occupy Wall Street. In correspondence with the Hartford group’s anonymous contact person, I was unable to learn anything beyond what they published already; when asked what this local group was hoping to achieve, the contact person sent me a link to the national movement website.
In coming days, we should see if Occupy Hartford dares set itself apart from other groups in this movement by outlining specific, fact-based complaints, clear demands, and results-oriented actions.
Richard
Check this out: On leaderless resistance & Occupy Wall Street
http://kasamaproject.org/
Kerri Provost
If the purpose is to vent, then this fulfills its purpose. If people intend to create actual change, they need to identify what specific goals they are moving toward. Otherwise, it seems like jumping on a protest bandwagon.
It is obscene how the 1% has most of the wealth and control in this country; however, if we really want to see this change, if this is movement is more than just pointing fingers, then activists need to get it together and be strategic.
Brendan
Don’t things/movements/whatever start off inchoate and angry and develop a form as they progress?
In a local sense, look at the MDC trail people and the Save Cedar Mountain people. They started off angry and yelling and coalesced into two movements that really gained a lot of traction. No one flocks to strategy right off the bat. First, people have to enjoy catharsis and then they can organize.
Or, at least that’s what I think.
I cite those two seemingly small potato local actions, because I’ve been pretty impressed with their results thus far. It’s hard to identify a lot of grassroots movements on the national scale lately that have been successful.
Steve
to be fair, the MDC “battle” had the backing of several civic orgs, the CFPA, the MDC and even state and local government. To my knowledge, Occupy Wall Street thus far has Pacifica and Democracy Now! behind it. They’ve a ways to go.
What I love about it is that here you have these so-called “leftists” fighting for a more fiscally responsible society – which the teabaggers WOULD agree with whole-heartedly IF they were allowed to ally with young educated people. Alas, they are not by their pupper masters. Even though the rhetoric is almost the exact same on both sides. Now imagine if some splinter bagger group said “F Fox News, F Murdoch… I agree with these kids.”
Then it would get interesting.
Steve
I stand corrected: Some national unions are now backing the protests. this could be good or bad.
Kerri Provost
Thanks for providing those two specific examples. There were narrow causes to rally around, which is different from just being angry toward the entire power structure. Of course, anyone with a brain is angry, but what people do with that emotion matters. What the host on WNPR’s Where We Live (10/4/11 show) keeps trying to get callers to answer is how they might focus this rage.
When people set goals, they are encouraged to keep them specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. This stuff should be hashed out behind closed doors, before protesting publicly. Right now, the Occupy movement does not meet any of those criteria, though I think the “realistic” one could be excused if all others were accounted for.
Think about the MDC issue. People wanted, at minimum, the land to remain open. There is something specific. They wanted a measurable goal: this comes in the details of how it would remain open. Attainable? Sure. The land had been open for years and years. This was a demand to keep something that had already existed. Realistic? Nobody was asking for the property to be turned into Disneyland or for MDC to stop charging us for water. Timely? The recreation area was being actively threatened, so this was timely.
So, when you asked (on Twitter), why everyone is so down on Occupy Wall Street, this would be my beef. Go behind closed doors and start drafting something clear so that there is at least a solid message and achievable set of clear goals. Then, when people inevitably go off message, it’s not a problem. But you have to have some meaningful message to start with.
Steve
You know another reason the MDC meetings were cool? Cause it’s where we first met!
(And where I saw Theresa Labarbara’s thong minutes before meeting you. What a great day that was.)
Kerri Provost
If I knew that you had seen her thong first, I would have never gotten up the courage to go be a crazy fangirl and ask for your autograph.
Brendan
I cited those two local causes because they were successful and still pretty grassroots (mountain biking is also of vital importance to some of us). With the MDC, CFPA and NEMBA only got involved about some period of time. With Cedar Mountain, I have reached out to TPL, but I’m not sure if they’re going to take it on.
Anyway, MDC started off with an angry facebook group (“Maribeth Blonsky Must Die” or something offensive) and a lot of unhappy talk on group rides. Over a period of time (a month or two, I think), people decided to figure out what they should do and organized. Then CFPA and NEMBA got involved, too.
Raise awareness first, maybe it’s not totally comprehensible and then start committing yourself to planning and action.
I have a hard time being so cynical about this and I’m usually cynical about everything.
I’m also impressed that the wall street occupiers seem to be having better luck all of a sudden than the entire antiwar movement did.
Steve
Back in 1895, Hartford born (and buried) JP Morgan single-handedly bailed out the broke ass US Government. Granted, there were selfish reasons for doing this and he wasn’t exactly the most benevolent businessman, but still… it would be nice if our billionaires today did something similar instead of spending on their money on themselves and/or political campaigns.
Real Hartford » Occupy Hartford Delays the Friday Evening Exodus
[…] of dollars per hour,” Frank O’Gorman answered when asked why he took part in the Occupy Hartford march that snaked through Downtown during evening rush hour Friday. The few hundred protestors […]