Today, on this International Day of Action, we, the 99 percent, will take to squares and streets across the world to stand in solidarity against the injustices wrought by the global financial elite. But as we converge today, as we take a stand, we must must think of ourselves as not merely engaging in protest. Our choice of terms is important. If one reads the media, one sees the Wall Street occupiers referred to as just mere “protesters.” But we at Liberty Plaza, we who occupy Wall Street, are not simply protesters. We are revolutionaries. We are occupiers. We are visionaries. We are a community. We may protest, but first and foremost, we are building a revolutionary movement.
Corporate media likes to refer to us as “the protesters on Wall Street.” This is because when one talks about ‘protests’ one speaks as if we on the street are just a bunch of folks who are pissed off at some isolated injustice that can be redressed by implementing some quick band-aid reform. But we at #OccupyWallStreet wish to dismantle what my friend Ross has so aptly referred to as a global system of bullshit. When reporters ask us what we are “protesting,” it’s difficult to dignify the question with a response. We protest, we resist, but what we resist is not a single policy or institution. We understand that Wall Street is but one player (albeit an important one) in a global system in which finance, state, and entities like the World Bank, the IMF, and multinationals worldwide work for the benefit of the 1 percent, all at the cost of the rest of us, perpetuating a global system of slavery, racism, patriarchy, heterosexism, and inequality. We understand that the decline of the American middle class is wrought be the same global system of bullshit that brings famine to the Horn of Africa and collapse to our precious oceans. Corporate media does not like to think in global terms such as these, because to do so would undermine their very existence. This is why they like to think of us as mere “protesters.”
We at Liberty Plaza seek to dismantle this global system while building democratic institutions and structures of our own, not to make superficial demands for reform. For those of us who are here, we understand ourselves in terms completely different from what is conveyed by the term ‘protesters.’ Rather, words like ‘revolution,’ ‘movement,’ and ‘community’ are on our tongues. If one spends any good amount of time at the occupation, it feels less like a protest and more like a rapidly emerging community, with its own internal geography, institutions, and cultures. An anthropologist would have so much to sink their teeth into by simply walking around, visiting the Comfort Station where occupiers distribute blankets, sleeping bags, sweatshirts, and socks to occupiers, or by going to the meetings of working groups that handle everything from sanitation to food, media production to direct action. This is not a mere protest. This is a community.
We at Liberty Plaza prefer to call ourselves revolutionaries, not protesters. Calling ourselves revolutionaries is not a mere self-aggrandizing gesture. We do not call ourselves revolutionaries simply because it sounds cool. We call ourselves revolutionaries because a radical change is necessary, lest we witness the destruction of everything we hold dear. Any clear head understands this. We call ourselves revolutionaries, because we are compelled to participate in revolutionary change, anything short of which would be to passively sit by and watch the world crumble. So let’s change our vocabulary. We are not “protesters.” We are revolutionaries, resistors, and builders of a better world.
