Uneasy about the growth of the Occupy movement, and uncertain about its motives, people nearly of my advanced age, ask me why the current uprising has chosen to make itself heard through occupation and protest rather than through the ballot box. But the form that the uprising takes is also its message: electoral representation has been denied, so the people have taken to the streets (and parks). In slogans heard not only now but over the last two decades, “Wall Street has two parties” or “The bosses have two parties.” No one represents the 99% at election time. The record shows that Obama’s leading corporate contributor was Goldman Sachs; both parties are controlled by the corporations, and the government functions as a committee for managing the common affairs of the bourgeoisie. A sub-committee (the “Supercommittee”) appointed from the two ruling class parties will soon impose the American version of the austerity programs that Europe has resisted over the last year. To be sure, a mass party of the working-class needs to be created, and I hope that it will be, but the billions of dollars needed for campaigns in the country are not available to ordinary people (the 99%), and even ballot access for third party candidates faces obstacles that are insurmountable in some states, and meant to be. Campaigns limited in duration, with free television time for all parties, and with limits on campaign contributions, might help provide a playing field that is more nearly level; but fair play along those lines would hardly appeal to Democrats or Republicans.
In Europe, there are still remnants of the old working-class parties and emergent--but small--new ones, and they have been active over the past year. The austerity measures are only now being put into place in Greece and presumably in Italy. As in the USA, democratic decision-making would now threaten the rescue of the banks. Suggestions that a referendum be held in Greece dealt the stock markets of the world a serious blow, but the markets calmed when an economist with MIT credentials was put in charge of the Greek economy--another such economist is proposed as Italian prime minister, and one now runs the European Central Bank. Elections will not threaten these arrangements for some years; indeed the bureaucracy of the European Union will directly intervene in the day-to-day management of both Greek and Italian financial affairs. The people and their parties have for now been excluded, leaving them only the streets.
When the kids fight the cops for democracy in the USA, the Europeans will be doing the same in several countries. With the austerity measures imposed, the fights will, I fear, become more determined. This age of austerity arrives at a time when unemployment is extremely high, when social services face elimination, and people’s homes are being taken away from them. Mrs. Patrick Campbell famously said that she didn’t care what people did, so long as they didn’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses. I’m afraid that the tranquil lives of both horses and citizens will suffer some disruption.
The battle for civil rights in the USA was fought in streets as was the effort to end the Viet Nam War. Mass protests led by the Militant Tendency (now the Socialist Party of England and Wales) in the UK defeated the Poll Tax and led to the downfall of Thatcher, but they featured the decisive tactic of Non-Payment. In Oakland the Occupiers have made an initial step toward organizing a General Strike, wielding thereby the traditional weapon of the working-class. What strategy and tactics will now emerge, I cannot presume to say. I hope that they will be decided upon democratically. I hope that they will help secure democratic participation in the affairs of this nation for the 99%
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