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STUDIEN ROBERT OGMAN THE U.S. OCCUPY MOVEMENT – SINCE THE EVICTION FROM THE SQUARES Study commissioned by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG ROBERT OGMAN studied social theory at The New School in New York and was active in the alterglobalisation movement. Following the evictions of the Occupy encampments in late 2011, he met with and interviewed participants. Today he lives in Berlin, where he’s researched, amongst other things, social movements in Germany and the U.S. In his PhD, he is analysing “social impact bonds” and “impact investing” as strategies of crisis governance. IMPRINT STUDIEN is published by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Responsible: Martin Beck Franz-Mehring-Platz 1 · 10243 Berlin, Germany · www.rosalux.de ISSN 2194-2242 · Editorial deadline: September 2013 Copy-editing: Eric Canepa Layout/Production: MediaService GmbH Druck und Kommunikation Printed on Circleoffset Premium White, 100 % recycled paper Table of ConTenTs TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction . 5 Crisis of Neoliberal Hegemony and Blocked Transformation. 5 Occupy Wall Street: A counter-neoliberal response ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 5 Towards a counter-hegemonic bloc ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 5 Evicted from the squares: Regrouped on the front lines of the crisis . 6 Navigating the tensions as an agent of societal transformation. 6 Four interventions: Occupying the crisis . 7 1. ‘Occupy Our Homes’: Fighting foreclosures ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 8 ‘Occupy Wall Street on Your Street’ ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 8 Direct action against eviction ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 9 The Foreclosure- and Eviction-Free Zone ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 9 Beyond OOH. 10 2. Occupy Labor: Against precaritisation . 12 Organised labour meets Occupy Wall Street. 12 Reverberations: The ‘99 % Spring’ ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 13 New wave of labour struggles. 14 3. Occupy Debt: Towards A ‘People’s Bailout’ ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 15 Student debtors as a new oppositional force and voice of a counter-neoliberal narrative ������������������������������������� 15 The movement’s common and diverging goals and perspectives . 16 Diverging strategies . 17 Congressional reform . 17 A student debtor’s movement and the debt strike. 18 Strategic blockage ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 20 Strike Debt! and the ‘Rolling Jubilee’ ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 21 The ‘Rolling Jubilee’: A ‘Bailout of the People by the People’. 21 Towards debt cancellation as a counter-hegemonic strategy ������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 23 4. Occupy Sandy: Hurricane relief and a ‘People’s Recovery’ ��������������������������������������������������������������������������� 24 Hurricane relief . 24 ‘Mutual aid, not charity’ ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 25 ‘We Got This!’ . 26 On neoliberal terrain ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 26 ‘From relief to protest’. 27 The ‘People’s Recovery’ ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 28 Towards a counter-hegemonic project? ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 29 Conclusion . 31 Missed Opportunities . 31 Dead ends and new openings . 31 Democracy beyond horizontalism. 32 Solidarity Beyond Mutual Aid ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 32 Independence beyond autonomy . 33 InTroduction INTRODUCTION CRISIS OF NEOLIBER AL HEGEMONY for expressing material grievances with the ‘1 %’, with- AND BLOCKED TRANSFORMATION out however ignoring the differences amongst them- This text analyses the U.S. Occupy movement as a selves. particular societal response to the crisis of neolib- Inspired by the Arab Spring and European anti-aus- eral hegemony, and as the initial stirrings of a coun- terity protests abroad, the new movement also gath- ter-hegemonic project. Here, the movement is situ- ered the rebellious spirit of the labour-community ated within the context of a blocked transformation, in uprising in Wisconsin against austerity and the cur- which the finance-dominated accumulation regime, tailment of labour rights, the student protests in Cal- despite falling into a deep structural crisis, nonetheless ifornia against budget cuts2, and the Chicago factory remains dominant. Instead of a post-neoliberal trans- occupation against wage and benefit theft following formation, we are experiencing a resurgent neoliber- a plant closure. It provided a convergence for diverse alism. social struggles to find one another and build collective Despite the widespread delegitimation of ‘trickle power from below. down economics’ and the ‘self-regulating market’ fol- This occurred in hundreds of encampments across lowing the financial meltdown of 2008, a social and the country, enabling a convergence and temporary political transformation has been blocked by the bal- condensation of the fragmented left, labour move- ance of forces defending a neoliberal agenda. Not only ment, social justice groups and critical left individu- did the Obama administration fail in its own reform als.3 And this temporary condensation had an impact agenda and marginalise its own base, which would beyond the sum of the individual parts. The movement be essential for such a project, but extra-parliamen- also mobilised previously unorganised individuals, tary forces in general remained either passive or mar- connecting them with milieus beyond the left’s tradi- ginal. Organised labour advanced only a moderate tional reach. programme and limited its strategy to congressional With its use of the general assembly for deliberation lobbying.1 and collective decision-making, Occupy returned par- Yet in 2008, even mainstream and conservative ticipatory democracy to the centre of left organising voices began proclaiming the end of neoliberalism, and and to the left’s political goals. The encampments pro- voices to the left of centre began discussing the pros- vided the space for mutual aid and solidarity, with free pects of a Green New Deal. Despite scattered labour services and the collective organisation of labour, and opposition to increased precaritisation, and social pro- for the experimentation with communal and solidaris- test against a variety of issues, this opportunity was tic lifeways. And they fostered the connection between not taken up by left or progressive forces. They did not a convergence around a general political message rally behind an alternative political project. Hence, the about material inequality and lack of democracy to political marginality of the left itself contributed to the concrete struggles against the ongoing crisis. blocked transformation. This left the field open to the regrouping of conserv- TOWARDS A COUNTER-HEGEMONIC BLOC ative and neoliberal forces behind the Tea Party move- Not only did Occupy initiate a process of condensa- ment, which reinforced the calls for austerity and a tion amongst extra-parliamentary social movements, political climate of social chauvinism, race baiting, and and link these to sections of the broader public, but it the scapegoating of transnational migrants. also caused disturbances within the dominant bloc, Despite what might otherwise have been a situation pushing previously passive sections of it to the left. The favourable to the left, its weak condition, fragmenta- critique of class polarisation caused widespread dis- tion and passivity prevented it from congealing into an ruption of the status quo inside the established insti- effective bloc, and from intervening in the conjuncture tutions and governing coalitions. Rather than causing to shift the balance of forces around an alternative exit a rupture between ‘society’ and the state, it produced strategy from the crisis, and towards a social, demo- and nurtured disruptions and contradictions within cratic, and ecological trajectory. the hegemonic bloc itself, whose passive consensus began to thaw. The movement’s message resonated OCCUPY WALL STREET: with actors within the establishment, shaking up the A COUNTER-NEOLIBERAL RESPONSE power relations within the ruling coalition. It was in this political conjuncture of a blocked transfor- mation, that an ‘occupation’ of a small square in New York’s financial district was able to ignite the imagina- 1 See Chris Tilly, ‘An opportunity not taken … yet: U.S. labor and
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