My Thoughts on Occupy

NEWS JUNKIE POST

Dec 3, 2011 at 1:24 pm

By Min Reyes

Editor’s Note: Min Reyes is a journalist and student of historical materialism and dialectics. Presently, Min is fully committed to the global movement of human dignity against neoliberalism. In addition to being a News Junkie Post contributor, Min can be found at her own blog, MinReyes.ca, and you can connect with her on Twitter @Min_Reyes

This article was originally written as three installments and can be seen in its original format at MinReyes.CA

Part I

As thousands open their eyes everyday to the real struggles in their lives, the #OccupyWallStreet movement has spread…

Starting early this year from Tunisia to Egypt and neighboring countries to Spain and EU countries, the spirit of revolution has arrived to North America.

I see people trying to define this movement. I hear people trying to make sense of it all.

From my perspective, as each life and each one of our struggles is unique to our own circumstances, trying to define this movement necessitates a true reflection on humanity and what constitutes it.

My views on Occupy Vancouver

Personally, this movement will be a movement of soul searching. When I stand in the Vancouver Art Gallery in solidarity with those around me, it will not be unseating Harper nor Clement that would preoccupy me… it would rather be a commitment to find myself in those around me, to find in their daily struggles, my own, my own self, my own life.

This won’t be a protest like any other. I do not wish it to be a protest, personally. I wish it would be a chance for us, as Canadians, to engage with each other at a personal level.

How many times have you smiled and greeted a stranger on an elevator or on the bus just to find out that such actions create suspicion in those around you? How many times do you find yourself judging others based on race, appearance, age, or even the way people walk?

We have grown into a society where the standard has become to doubt and suspect one another, to forget others are just like us: people with family, with problems, with hopes, with friends. We are a society of lonely individuals where all our relationships are based on trust that we have only built from childhood or through long terms relationships at work or school. We find ourselves in a position to judge others and expect others to constantly have to prove themselves… but why?

So I will #OccupyVancouver, for we are in desperate need to connect with each other, to learn to trust and love each other… we have to create a space where you and i can foremost interact as human beings. Within this space, my hope is that the narrative that drives our movement will not be political rhetoric, it will be our stories, each and every one of us, as human beings, as members of our society. Within this space, the discussion will not be centered around partisan ideologies, it would be centered on what we wish to share with others in our attempt to find our true connections.

This will be a human revolution, the main goal of which would be to reclaim humanity and to share our life experiences and hopes for our future. It will be a revolution in the sense that reclaiming humanity, dignity, and freedom have become the major threat to those who wish to divide us… those who wish we never found within each other the same sense of alienation as well as the same hopes and dreams…

Perhaps, I will add more posts on #occupycanada as I prepare for it in the coming days…

Part II

So after almost a week of trying to find a unified and clear goal, the mainstream media has now shifted focus on how much of taxpayers’ money is being spent on policing this movement.

I want to share a couple of thoughts on this…

First and foremost, how does $1000 per day in policing turn into $500,000 considering we have occupied only for 7 days so far?

Has not the movement from its inception claim to be in its core a peaceful movement? No occupier has ever requested the presence of hundreds of police officers all around the Art Gallery. Was it NOT the Vancouver Business Association who created a sense of fear before occupation warning business based on an unrelated hockey riot, although not always resonating the perspectives of businesses? And, if I am not mistaken, those small business have actually boosted sales since the occupation began.

Second, the constant complaint of what this movement is costing Canadians seems to largely ignore the fact that a lot of us, occupiers, are taxpayers too. There are only 15% unemployment rate within Occupy Vancouver which clearly reflects the larger unemployment rates across our country.

Honestly, outside of university, I have never seen such a large and diverse gathering of intellectuals. People are articulate and politically sophisticated. Those who easily judge us all as lazy hippies forget that in Egypt and everywhere in Europe it was the new generation of students who have organized resistance to austerity measures and corporatist governments.

We have a wide array of professionals, students, elders all willing to share. There is much wisdom in the dialogues that take place throughout the day. There is much intellectual engagement on topics from financial crisis, capitalism and neoliberalism, to government policies, environment, not to mention international affairs.

Yesterday, I was at the anti-Bush demonstration in Surrey. If we are applying the same critical logic, one cannot but to ask, how much of Surrey taxpayers’ money has been allocated to have Surrey RCMP police hundreds of demonstrators while protecting war criminals like George W. Bush? We obviously seem to question what is so obvious yet we lose perspective in our haste to criticize what we are not familiar with…

What is it about our culture that limits all forms of discourse to a discussion of money and budgeting? This movement is not only about jobs. Occupiers are not sitting there waiting for someone to come by to offer a position. And although we are often labeled as jobless hippies, a lot of us work, support families, and invest whatever time we have to make this movement work. Those of us who can, will spend most days there helping out setting up, assisting people, and participating in committees. Others, come and do whatever they can during the few hours they can spare.

The very essence of the movement, “Humanity before Profit”, now seems ironic considering that the mainstream media and the public try to make sense of this social movement within the framework of fiscal responsibility. We are fighting against the imposition of price tags on ourselves, not only for occupiers but for all… and yet it is the public that without having engaged with us now also place a price tag on freedom of assembly, rightful political participation, and sadly, democracy…

What people seem to forget is that it is rather more difficult occupying and sleeping in the cold and rain than being at home. It would be easier to go home and sleep in comfort. So I ask, instead of judging us without having engaged with us, please ask yourself what are the values and principles you uphold so dearly, so strongly, you would give up the comfort and luxury and occupy the streets? I ask, instead of judging and complaining, why don’t you ask us in person why we endure this?

Part III

I am humbled by the commitment of all occupiers around the world… taking a stance for what is believed to be our last chance to reclaim social justice, freedom,democracy, environment… in other words, what seems to be referred as the collective survival of our species….

What those who criticize the Occupy movement seem to fail to understand is that this movement had no specific origin date… The spirit of this new global revolution did not ‘start’ in Tunisia nor Egypt, not in Spain nor Greece,not in Wall Street nor Toronto… This global manifestation of indignant face sand voices has been materializing slowly not within one particular geographical location, but within people… the inherent contradictory of our global economic system whose existence is contingent on the perpetuate oppression of labor, peripheral nations, wealth concentration, corruption, violation of human rights at home and abroad… these essential characteristics of global capitalism… have slowly been expressing themselves, articulating through the infinite struggles of individuals, families, social groups, nations…

We experienced the uprising of power of a people who revolted against their corrupt dictatorial governments, we witnessed the frustration of a new youth born into a corrupt system of austerity aimed at protecting trillion dollar worth banks and corporations…

What we have realized… we are not all equal… there exist no human rights in a world that prioritizes the needs and interests of faceless corporations, the political whim of corrupt politicians, and, politically and financially powerful few… humans are NOT equal… Humans… some are commodities, others are collateral damage. People in the similarity of their expressions…
some protected by the law… others criminalized by them… why do the laws not apply equally… why do killers walk freely among those they aim to oppress, kill, murder with their greed…

We have realized that while our brave men and women risk their lives in the name of a far and foreign democracy, their lives were taken by not honorable causes, but rather material interests of our governments and corporations… to some, human lives are worthless when compared to oil, gold, and soon, water…what honor is in killing and being killed for oil… while blood soaks the sands of a far away land of so called terrorists and extremists…

We have come to understand that democracy and civil liberties are dangerous to those who attempt to silence our frustration, our indignation! We are human beings! The intolerable taste of blunt injustice while authorities chase, abuse,and inflict torture on the very people that build the nations every single day…

What we have realized… we are not all equal… there exist no human rights in a world that prioritizes the needs and interests of faceless corporations, the political whim of corrupt politicians, and, politically and financially powerful few… humans are NOT equal… Humans… some are commodities, others are collateral damage. People in the similarity of their expressions… some protected by the law… others criminalized by them… why do the laws not apply equally… why do killers walk freely among those they aim to oppress, kill, murder with their greed…

In a world of layers and layers of corruption, secrecy, manipulation, and oppression, in a world characterized by the interdependence of major institutions aimed at perpetuating a global status quo… who is the enemy? the government that we have so called democratically elected? the police force that serves and protects its civilians? the media who functions as a watchdog for democracy?the laws that too painfully revealed to be carefully crafted to protect the people from government and corporate abuse of power?

…so yes, occupiers might not have one unified demand yet… but do you see? How complex this game of power and greed has been? do you understand the necessarily complex global system that is intertwined in its core by a few?

…all i ask is that you do not judge the Occupy movement as either good or bad, successful or unsuccessful? You must not agree with Occupy blindly, yet you must not oppose it blindly either… while the governments and the mainstream media are artful rhetoricians, you must not fall into dichotomy. There are many issues, many problems, many contradictions… there will be many voices, many faces, many names… and as such… there will be many potential solutions… try not to simply take a side… attempt to understand, to visualize the map of global power and oppression.

…engage. inform yourself. engage. inform others.

Editor’s Note: All photographs by Bruce Reyes-Chow.