Occupy Wall Street and The Meanings of Success
...CAN ONE MEASURE A DREAM?
Social movements are made up of people. People with ideas and dreams, dreams for themselves, dreams for the collective, and dreams for the movements and the world. Sometimes these movement dreams and goals measure up with those of social scientists who study movements, claiming to know what a successful movement is. Which I guess is like saying they know the dreams of the movement participants. Some theorists argue, for example, that the Occupy movement must ultimately take state and institutional power to be successful. Some Occupy movement participants however often say that dignity and freedom in their relationships is what they desire and dream. Who is right? Are the people who tell me that I need to own a home and have a well-paying job to be happy truly arguing I am not happy because I do not? Can one really argue that a movement is not successful because it did not meet the goals a person has imposed on the movement?
Who decides success? Success has to be decided by those people in struggle, those who are fighting or organizing for something.
Success of a movement, movement goals and people's desires come from those people, those social actors, not those studying them or politically desiring to lead them. In fact, it is against this way of thinking and organizing that the Occupy movement was born. It was a rupture with people telling us what to do and how to do it. This includes not only governments and politicians, but also left political parties, journalists, and scholars.
One year after Occupy we have a success already. When people begin to organize all over the country they are doing so with assemblies, struggling against hierarchy, thinking about the question of leadership and power, and trying to create ways where all can be leaders. When people are organizing today it might not always be with the word Occupy, but the spirit of assemblies, direct action, and creating power together is there for sure. The mark of Occupy is there for sure.
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http://www.zcommunications.org/occupy-wall-street-and-the-meanings-of-success-by-marina-sitrin
or
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marina-sitrin/occupy-wall-street-anniversary_b_1884829.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Together with WilliamPitt's touching words (http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021362625), this is the best celebration writing I've seen so far.
What I hear about neighborhood assemblies fills we with joy and I'm grateful for activists taking a moment from other activities to shed more light what is happening under the radar. The emphasis on neighborhood assemblies - in Greece, US, Spain and elsewhere reminds me of an anarchist report of their involvement in the original indignados camp. They argued strongly and obstructed as much as they could the movement becoming more structured, and the final assessment was that the time was not wasted but it was exhausting and they could have probably used their time better helping neighborhood assemblies to organize. Only one viewpoint, but gives me now the thought that the clampdown of the Occupy camps was a lucky strike that made the movement stronger, by dispersing it in neighborhoods, workplaces etc., instead of becoming internally more divided and exhausted in the camps.
Also good to hear about the current level of "unsuccesfull" in Athens, my old hometown. Bit impatient lot them Athenians, as always... 
