Occupy Wall Street

While it is self-evident our economic system is collapsing, it is perhaps less evident what to do about it. This is in part why so many critics of #occupywallstreet are calling on the protestors to create demands summing up the systemic change we require. The liberal Left has a laundry list—everything from reinstituting Glass Steagall to a corporate personhood amendment–but while many reforms would curtail some of the harm our communities are experiencing, they would not foster a new set of economic relationships. Profit would still rule, just in greater moderation, and we would ultimately be subject to the same excesses and abuses the system engenders. I am hopeful we will get many of these reforms as the Democrats scramble to co-opt the occupation movement, but I believe focusing on corporate accountability and electoral politics is a mistake, and misses the transformative potential of the current rebellion. Now is the time to begin building a solidarity economy, and along with it, new models of organizing.