OWS -- time to talk!

Once again, the gripes about Occupy Wall Street are mounting: people keep saying that they have to come up with some coherent demands, or it’s all a waste. It’s time for all of us to step up and stop telling them what they have to say. It’s time for all of us to speak.

So here’s my response to the naysayers.

Occupy Wall Street has served a crucial function as a placeholder on two levels – and by placeholder, I mean something very, very important. A placeholder is someone who holds a space open, in order to make it possible for something to happen in that space.

On the material level, the people of OWS have held the space of Zuccotti Park open: they have created a physical space that encourages new thinking and new behavior, debate, consensus, and education. (It deeply disturbs me to call that place Zuccotti Park, as if the “owners” who named it after the chairman of Brookfield Properties, or as some accounts say after a family member who was on the City Council -- could rewrite the history of the space: from now on, I’ll refer to it as Liberty Plaza Park, its real name.)

Many people have complained dismissively that the people camping in Liberty Park are a “ragtag bunch of anarchists, drug addicts, and homeless people.” Those terms are an attempt to characterize the OWS occupiers as marginalized, less worthy of consideration than “respectable” people. It’s an attempt not to take them seriously – when every indication is that the occupiers have created a cultural space in which serious, reasoned argument is not only welcomed but encouraged. Of course it makes sense that those who can occupy Liberty Park consistently are those who don’t have demanding jobs, or high rent to pay – those who have chosen or been forced to live on the economic margins, or at least have more flexibility. All I can say is that I’m grateful to those people: they have taken the risk to be physical placeholders – to keep the park for the occupation, to run the risks of discomfort and police brutality, and thus to enable others to take part whenever they can. So I thank those whose sacrifice made that possible.

The exercise of democracy is exhilarating – and there’s something incredibly special and empowering about being in the public arena to do this. On the Tuesday morning after Bloomberg had cleared Liberty Park, I went down to show support. A judge had ruled that the park had to be reopened, but Bloomberg had refused to obey this ruling: he did not feel that his police officers needed to obey the rule of law. I walked around the park, reciting the first amendment to police officers, reading from the judge’s court order, and trying to engage people in conversation. It felt amazing. Standing in front of a phalanx of cops in riot gear who were defying a judge’s order clarified everything for me: I understood on a visceral level how wrong the city’s response has been. I understood how corrosive it is when a city’s law officers do not obey the law, when they feel empowered to beat peaceful protesters, and mace them, and mistreat them in prison. It was a moment of pure clarity. I could feel the money and greed and corruption that keeps this system in place, and sics the cops on protesters to maintain its power. And my moment of illumination could happen because the placeholders – the committed OWS occupiers – had kept Liberty Park open for the public. Public debate has to happen in pubic space.

On the level of discourse, OWS has held open the space where a reasoned argument about U.S. society needs to happen. The huge outpouring of support for OWS -- people showing up for Thursday’s day of action, those who’ve donated money, or those who tell pollsters they support the movement, and those across the country and the world who’ve taken their own space in solidarity – this wave of popular support indicates that vast numbers of Americans feel their own concerns have been excluded from public debate. In fact, the concerns of regular people – the 99% -- have often not even been acknowledged, let alone taken seriously. On the level of discourse, then, OWS has forced open a space of debate. No politician can now safely ignore the concerns of such a huge number of people.

The OWS placeholders have held open a space for us all. It’s not necessarily their job now to fashion a list of demands – it’s up to all of us who have been empowered by them to move forward and articulate our demands.

So here’s my demand:
Over the past 30 years, starting with Reagan and continuing through every president, Democratic and Republican, the financial system in this country has been tinkered with in order to make it more and more favorable to banks and businesses and those who make money from them, and less favorable to working people who live on salaries rather than on assets. The tinkering is deliberate and incremental: there is a network of laws and regulations – or rather, a process of deregulation – that allows banks and traders and corporations to pull huge profits out of the system, with no regard for the consequences. Banks can package toxic mortgage assets and sell them, making a profit; then, when the assets go bad, the banks can be bailed out with taxpayer money and still reward their executives with huge bonuses. They can do this because Congress has allowed them to do so. The banks have bought and paid for this system that favors them so highly – they pay millions into the campaigns of politicians who support them. This system is not an accident; it’s not a free market; it’s not a level playing field – and it’s not democracy.

Thus, I demand that Congress appoint an independent commission to review the banking regulation system. I demand that Congress put Elizabeth Warren in charge, because she has proven through her work with the Consumer Protection Bureau that she understands the system, can explain it clearly, and will fight for the rights of regular working people. I demand that this commission make specific recommendations for an overhaul of the regulations. I demand that Congress accept a new system. And I demand that those who have been seen to bend the old rules be brought to justice and held publicly accountable.

I am sending my demand to my state senator, my state governor, my U.S. senator, and to the White House. I invite you all to do the same thing. OWS has empowered me: now it’s time for me to do my job. Join me!