Aaron Regunberg: Why You Should Occupy Providence
Friday, October 14, 2011
At 5 p.m. this Saturday, October 15th, citizens from across Rhode Island will converge on downtown Providence to begin an occupation of Burnside Park in solidarity with the occupations taking place on Wall Street and in over 1,000 other cities across the country and the world. My suggestion to everyone reading this: join them.
That’s what I decided to do when I first heard that folks were starting an Occupy group here in our state’s capitol. Like many of you reading this, I had some doubts about the Occupy Movement’s strategy and what I perceived to be a problematic lack of demands. But my curiosity got the better of me, so I went to check out a meeting.
And, man, am I glad I did. Because what I found at that meeting, and at every subsequent meeting I could attend, was shockingly beautiful.
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What was so shocking and so beautiful? First, I was amazed by the diversity of the group I encountered. I had been expecting that the only people who’d show up to something like this would be (to stick a generalizable label on a very diverse set of communities) a bunch of radical young folks with flannel shirts and unusual hair. And radical young folks are certainly represented in the group, but only as one demographic in a crowd thatdraws from every segment of Rhode Island society.
I’ve seen students from Providence who are tired of going to underfunded public schools that can’t give them the education they deserve. I’ve seen senior citizens from South County who are frightened that the retirement benefits they worked for and depend on will be taken away to pay for wars they don’t support. I’ve seen formerly middle-class workers from Warwick who have been unemployed for so long they don’t know what to do. I’ve seen good-government advocates from the East Bay who are disgusted by the ongoing effort to limit voting rights in RI and disenfranchise our state’s most vulnerable populations. I’ve seen my own landlord, who is fed up with paying a regressive property tax that keeps going up because our leaders in the Statehouse continue shifting costs onto municipalities in order to protect tax loopholes for big multistate corporations and millionaires. And I’ve seen parents with young children who wanted to show their kids what a grassroots movement for social justice really looks like.
Real Engagement
Beyond the makeup of Occupy Providence, I’ve been amazed by the experience (my first ever) of engaging with a group dedicated to real, democratic decision-making based on the values of equality and community. That means no hierarchy and complete openness; anyone can speak, every decision is reached together, each individual is encouraged to contribute in the ways he or she sees most fit. At first it was a little off-putting, and more than a little frustrating—imagine sitting through an hour and a half discussion on how the group should vote to pass future resolutions (consensus? majority? two-thirds? three-quarters?) and you’ll understand what I mean.
But once those kinks were worked out, the result was a process unlike any in which I’ve been involved. It turns out real democracy is a fascinating thing. With no specific people leading Occupy Providence, no one feels limited in what they can take on, suggest, or try to start up. The result is that everyone’s skills, time, and ideas are used in far more effective and creative ways than they might have been had a leader simply decided what to do and then delegated responsibilities. And everyone feels more invested in the community because it is one in which they know their voice matters.
This, to me, is the real value of the Occupy Movement, and the reason I believe it is gaining strength across America in such an unprecedented way. Because an occupation is, at its very core, more than just a protest against a system based on profit, individual greed, and oligarchical governance: it is an example that an alternative society, onerooted in the valuation of community wellbeing, equality, and real democracy, should—and can—exist.
It is an emphatic statement that the way things are nowis not the way things have to be; that our government doesn’t have to be for sale to the highest-bidding corporate interest; that sick people don’t have to suffer without treatment because they can’t afford health insurance; that workers don’t have to give up their rights, benefits, or a living wage to find employment; that poor children don’t have to get diabetes in overwhelming numbers because they don’t have access to healthy food; that no one has to freeze to death in the street because of the lack of affordable housing. The fact that these things happen—and they happen every single day—in a country with so much wealth is an absolute abomination.
The First Step
And the first step in shifting the system, in my opinion, is to create a symbol of the society we should have, based on the values that are so lacking in our current discourse. For those of you who want specific demands and specific strategies for achieving them, don’t worry. I feel confident that the Occupy Movement will get there. But let’s keep in mind, this whole thing is just a few weeks old—we have time to come to a more precise vision, and to do it in a democratic way.
For now, however, the erection of this symbol—the simple joining together of the 99% struggling here in Rhode Island to say that this system isn’t working, and there is an alternative that could—is a bigger achievement than any we’ve had in a long time. So join Occupy Providence tomorrow, 5 p.m. at Burnside Park. Take the first step. Make your voice heard. Occupy.
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