Power to the People

            With Occupy encampments under siege across the country and the world, it is clear the movement is accomplishing something, it is not as clear what that something is. While frustration with corporate greed and wealth inequality created the movement and continue to be the over arching ideals behind it, Occupy Wall Street is a leaderless movement. Organized without a central figure and without clear demands, the chaos of the movement is its true strength, and what will ultimately allow it to succeed.

            There are many things that are needed for a social movement to be successful from a permissive world context to a crisis occurring in its homeland but one of the biggest challenges facing any social movement is in not allowing it to be co-opted. That is why I believe that the leaderless movement of Occupy Wall Street will succeed. From Michael Moore to Lupe Fiasco, from Anne Hathaway to Miley Cyrus, from Moveon.org to Burlington’s mayoral candidates, all have attended events or shown support for Occupy Wall Street but the movement has resisted the urge to be co-opted, remaining true to the idea that, the people united can never be defeated.

            At its core, the Occupy Wall Street is about challenging the system and empowering people to create a new political paradigm. Occupy's ability to succeed largely hinges on its ability to remain a leaderless movement, if it is co-opted or adopts a leader to speak for everyone than it will become easy for the Occupy movement to be discredited.

A strength of the leaderless Occupy movement is the idea that no one person speaks for the group. When a Free Press reporter wants to write a story about Occupy Burlington he has nobody to call to give him an easy sound bite, he must actually show up at one of the local events to talk to the people in attendance. Even when interviewing people at the movement each one makes sure it is known they speak only for themselves and not for the movement as a whole. Lacking the central figure, allows Occupy Burlington to actually marginalize the media’s ability to represent the movement. It makes it impossible to get the whole story from the mainstream news, which in turn encourages people to attend events and become involved, which strengthens the movement.

Look at the current Republican candidates running for political office, their entire life becomes public and once something less than favorable is found that can be played on the 24 hour news cycle, their candidacy is over. With no central leader, the Occupy movement, which has been marginalized in the media from the beginning, as being led by societies less than desirables from dirty hippies to the homeless, cannot be destroyed in this same way. For instance, if a crime occurs in the encampment, the story doesn’t stay in the public consciousness very long, because there is no larger public figure to attach the story to, keeping it in the news cycle. Ask most people on the street what they remember about media coverage of the Occupy movement and they will answer with police brutality and pepper spray used against the people.

The best defense going forward that Occupy Burlington and the larger movement has to stay a leaderless movement, is also its most democratic, the general assembly. By making use of direct democracy to collect consensus before making decisions allows each individual voice to be heard and counted and doesn’t value one voice above any other.

A second process the movement uses to make sure it stays leaderless, might be its most annoying, the human microphone. Started out of necessity in New York City and spread throughout the country in solidarity, the human microphone allows a persons message to be amplified through repetition from many voices, not allowing that speaker to rely on eloquence. I, like many other people got caught up in Obamamania in the last election and was seduced by what he had to say in his speeches rather than what he his actions in congress said. The human microphone fights against this problem by not allowing the speaker to say more than maybe ten words before they need to pause so the people can repeat it.

All the reasons stated above are what make the leaderless Occupy Wall Street movement powerful and ultimately successful. It will take time and dedication to see this social movement succeed in the United States. It is important to allow Occupy Wall Street to continue as a leaderless movement because the elite in charge of the country don’t have the mechanisms in place to fight an idea with no face but a idea with a face they can destroy in days.