“Occupy” The Crossroads!

 By Sabrina A. Cooper    

     Authority and Minority; Have the 1% (beef up) security and pushed back on the Global Occupy Movement. You say in what way? After entering the month November, hundreds of arrests have been made around the United Stated. Why you ask?  Are the powers that be, worried about the numbers of servitude that say enough! No more! We are the 99%. The harassment's and the push backs on Occupy Austin and on the Global movement have increased.

      Under the disguise of keeping the area clean, the cleaning schedule for City Hall has increased also. Have the occupier fail in following the guides and ordinance for protesting in front of City Hall. By adding more cleanings day and asking the occupiers to vacate, so that the cleaning can take place, is this unreasonable? Here is a quoted from a classmate, “Samantha a frequent occupier said, if they’re going to add more clean then we should make sure they have something to clean”. Is that the right attitude? Is this a peaceful stands to that issue? Or the last minute change in city ordinance like saying it okay to have food, and then say no food and remove all tables, Harassment? In the New York’s park it was stated “the constitution say freedom of speech, there is nothing about tents for sleep and bedrolls”. Raids at 3:00 am in the morning, trash trucks to collect, displacing and destroying the occupier’s personal property, after passing out flyers, which states their property can be reclaimed at the police station.

      These events happen surrounding the movement. The daily arrests, the add rule, if you are arrest you can’t physically protest at that locate for two years. And if that’s not enough add the disagreement within the group, as to who the 99% represents. Because the homeless have decided they are part of the 99%. They have taken up hanging out at City Hall also. Some believe that they are there for the free food, which is set up in the evening. The Austin mass have mixed feeling concerning this issue, some say they don’t belong, they’re just there eating up all the food, and taking advantage of the situation. The homeless say they have just as much right to be there as anyone else, they have concerns and there are things they want to see change also. I ask!  Aren’t they all one and the same? Is there cause for division? Do they have the same right to occupy and express their disillusion, dissatisfaction and take part in the “We are the 99%?” Another occupier Blanca stated “if we don’t see ourselves as all being the same! If we look down on each, because some have even less that what we perceive ourselves to have! If we continue to let them separate us from each other, and we don’t get to know and help each and most of all have humanity for each other, this is all going no where.”

The act of humanity is the key, to going forward. In reality there is no difference between the homeless and the occupiers of Austin are occupiers anywhere else.  2008 showed a great majority of us that you can be up today and down tomorrow.  I can’t say enough that we are ALL headed or in the same boat. We should ALL take the opportunity to exercise our right to freely speak out our concerns. Because if we truly listen, our concerns maybe stated differently, but at the end of the day have the same meaning.

       I would like to present some facts, focus on the issues at hand, and there is much that I wish to cover and share with you. Occupy Austin, my sociology class and my social work classes have become intertwined with each other. 

How you say? Well in sociology we talked about Karl Marx / Friedrich Engels 1848/ 1982 theory and prediction that we would get here some day. The masses in servitude, laborer, white collar, would rebel against ownership.

     How do we challenge and change these systems of power? How do we find a standpoint from which to act? From Sociology we have Paulo Freire (1970) wrote: “that a commitment to social justice requires a moral and ethical attitude toward equality and a belief in the capacity of people as agents who can transform their world. Furthermore, he stated that to create social change and to promote social justice, we must begin this process with ourselves—through a self reflective process that examines the contradictions between our espoused values and our lived experience. We must believe that all people, both from dominant and targeted groups, have a critical role in dismantling oppression and generating a vision for a socially just future. For if only people from oppressed groups take on this responsibility, there is little hope that we will ever achieve our vision.  

Society is living in a false consciousness, was created to promote a reality that justifies exploitative actions. This is a reality that influences those who are harmed by it, to accept it without question, and it is critical because it is the primary means by which the powerful classes of 1% in society prevent protest and revolution.

So what is authority? Authority is the possession of some status or quality that compels others to obey (Starr 1982) 

A person with authority has the power to order or forbid behavior in others (Wrong 1988)

Such command doesn’t require the use of force or persuasion nor do they need to be explained or justified. Rulers simply have the authority over the ruled. So with power and the ability to affect in ways that benefit, power is related to wealth and prestige.

As long as long numbers of the poor and now add the middle classes believe that wealth and success are solely the products of individual hard work and efforts rather than structural inequalities in society. Clearly stated they believe what in the United Stated has been called the American Dream- resentment and animosity toward the rich will be minimized and people will continue to perceive the inequalities as fair and deserved.

So the next time you see a homeless person or you hear about someone’s house being foreclosed on….. Ask yourself these questions are they to blame? Are they where they are because they have no ambition or drive to do better?

And I ask do you believe, like so many of us that the cornerstone of U.S society is that all people are created equal and that only personal shortcoming can impede a person’s progress up the social ladder?          
Website: http://www.occupyaustin.org//, http://occupyaustin.org/blog/