As the “Audacity of Hope” leaches away from the reality-based community, Americans engaged in social movement activity are finally catching up with their brothers and sisters in other parts of the World. What took a long time to decisively erupt – despite the numerous calls from academics and activists from within the United States and from outside of its shores – has finally developed into what is rapidly becoming the turning point in the relationship between people and markets (and people and government), at the heart of America's unstable empire.
Wall Street is now occupied, and global indignation against plutocratic rule has reached its climax: it has come face to face with its source. Where things will go from here, nobody can predict. That is the wonderful thing about civil disobedience: once its praxis enters the realm of actuality, it takes up a position in the social space, and it brings to life a dormant public domain, such that a multiplicity of voices dialogically determine collective creative actions and directions.
It is the re-emergence of this dormant public domain which makes for the headline – which makes what is happening in Wall Street worth reporting. Not the mundane details of whether there are 200, 2,000, or 20,000 protesters. Nor whether they have media centers setup with the latest technologies and expensive computers. Nor even Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, Chris Hedges, Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon and Alec Baldwin's public support for the movement. Although these elements together add much-needed strength, the important thing to acknowledge is that, after ten years of slumber, some courageous Americans have grabbed the bull by the horns and are determined not to let go. That a genuinely democratic space has been nonviolently pried open in the heart of the empire is the real news. That is the space for a new hope.
A space which is open to anyone and everyone; a space of dialogue where ideas about this world; about the workings of our societies; about possible futures; about the meanings of democracy; about the workings of capitalism; about imperialism and war are exchanged by people of all social classes, all races, all nationalities, all genders. An exchange, which understands its source of power to be unity without uniformity (unity through plurality) – perhaps a true representation of what Gandhi defined as enlightened anarchism when referring to the kind of society toward which we should be striving.
This present embodiment of the public domain opened up first through an “Arab Spring,” quickly mutated into a “European Summer” and is now living its “American Fall.” Despite understandable and wonderful differences, we glimpse the promise of a global people's revolt. In America, it began with New York and it has quickly spread to over 50 cities. It will most likely disperse at some point, but therein lies its power. People momentarily occupy the social space, announcing their autonomy and then disperse, evading any structure which can stabilize them. In the meantime, through the process, the power of the people has been reaffirmed, and an array of innovative tactics has been presented, which are then available to all of us.
From Egypt, social movements across the globe have learned the power of camping together in city squares; from Spain, the movements have learned to make decisions in large assemblies of thousands of people, by agreeing or disagreeing with specific proposals made by speakers via the use of sign language; from America, the most striking tactic has been the use of the “people's microphone.” After a ban on the use of megaphones, the people at Occupy Wall Street have taken to using this tactic in order to allow everyone in the crowd to hear the speaker. It simply involves the crowd repeating all the words of the speaker in order to collectively magnify his or her voice. It seems like a minor issue to focus on, but the reality is that it unites a crowd by getting people to relay information to others, while also saying something to themselves. Furthermore, it shows the limitless power of creative civil disobedience.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy