Friday, September 14, 2012
Whither OWS? A recent history of Occupy Wall Street in In These Times
“The purpose behind an action should not be to receive media attention,” says Phil Arnone, a Industrial Workers of the World member and co-founder of [the Immigrant Worker Justice working group of Occupy Wall Street]. “The mainstream media in the U.S. is run by and for the 1%, so it doesn’t make much sense to rely on them to honestly share our story. The purpose behind actions [is] twofold: to organize our constituents, and to send a message to the power-holders who have decision-making power.”
by Larry Geller
Indeed, the commercial press first ignored, then distorted and played down the movement that is (was?) Occupy Wall Street even as it spread across the country. As OWS morphs into something else, the press is once again ignoring it as though it never happened.
Catch up on recent OWS history in this recent article: The Death and Life of Occupy: Occupy Wall Street redefines itself (In These Times, 9/10/2012).
With a longer view comes a wider geographical lens. Far from lamenting the flight of media attention from Zuccotti Park to Montreal or Mexico City or the U.S. presidential race, many in OWS-born groups such as IWJ see themselves as part of a global movement, one that connects longstanding community organizing to the formidable crowds that filled squares and streets around the world in 2011.
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