The Occupy Together protests have had a pretty clear progression in news media that generally goes like this: 1. There’s a few protesters gathering 2. There’s a whole lot of protesters on Wall Street 3. Other areas are seeing protests 4. There’s a lot of protesters, they’re angry and they’re everywhere, and finally, 5. These protests are fizzling out with no tangible results being demonstrated.
For Canada and the United States, however, this wasn’t the kind of project for which immediate gratification was ever particularly tangible.
What Occupy Together started out protesting was capitalism.While the economy goes up and down on a daily basis, changing the way in which a country functions is a process which must happen slowly in order to be successful.Furthermore, once the protest gained speed and membership, individuals and small groups brought forth issues above and beyond capitalism alone, fragmenting the front and weakening the protest as a whole.
The problem with the news media coverage of the fizzled out protests is that the important part of what was being said, done, and realized, was never who sat where for how long.The refusal of a large group of people to move from any particular park or street was a physical demonstration which had to end eventually. It was the spirit of the gathering, the intentions and motivation of the protesters which will cause change.In the United States, campaigns are already beginning for the next election.It is then, through their votes, that who is awake and who is asleep will be revealed.The ideal outcome is that the populous of America is awake, aware and ready to head to the poles.If the 99% vote for a party which represents the core values of the American people, then the 99% will find themselves represented and satisfied. Granted it may take time for policies and the like to take effect and the change to be 100% evident, in democracy, it is through elections that change generally happens.However if the 99% become ensnared by smear ads and dirty politics, another outcome entirely could unfold.Not to mention if the 99%, believing their process over, becomes frustrated and refuses to vote, things will most certainly continue in a serve-the-rich kind of way.It’s a simple matter of the parties revealing platforms which usually target one particular group with a few side thoughts to attract voters from other groups, and whichever parties platform motivates their target group to vote in the biggest way, wins.There will always be someone running with an agenda that suits the wealthy, and when the rest of the country votes, an agenda that suits them can prevail.
The same is true for Canada when we return to the polls in about three and a half years.It’s a long way off, but so long as the 99% keeps an eye on Ottawa, and then heads to the poles having educated themselves beyond ad campaigns, there is hope that Occupy Together can make a change here as well.
Looking forword, a particular concern is this: Did anybody actually, really, truly “wake up”? Focusing on Canada, who is it that attended the Occupy Together protests? It isn’t as if nobody in this country voted in the last election, it’s just that the 99% did not vote in its entirety or vote together. So if some previously disengaged citizens woke up and are now prepared to raise their voices and vote in the next election, then that’s absolutely great. The tricky thing is that if those who “Occupied” our streets are no more than those who voted in the most recent election, then nobody is being woken up. Should that be a case, there is a real risk that nothing will change.
So where Occupy Together stands now is here: There’s a few people still holding on. The Twitter accounts are still active and the dramas of a protest continue to play out on a smaller scale. Many have gone home, because of the cold, the holidays, the lack of immediate change in the presence of an impatient Western attitude, and for other reasons I’m sure. The protests results have not been seen in either the United States or Canada, and they will not be evident until change happens, politically or otherwise.
