#occupygandhi
“They are not in control, we are. That is the strength of civil resistance.” These are the words that Gandhi spoke when leaving his home to begin his march to the ocean to make salt in defiance of the British government. Gandhi was the leader of the movement to force the British to renounce their claim on India voluntarily, thus leaving India a free and independent state. He saw the movement not as his, but belonging to every man, woman and child of every religion living within or outside the borders of India.
When Gandhi arrived in South Africa, he was faced with harsh injustice from the British government. Indians, no matter what caste they were from, what religion they were or what amount of wealth they possessed, were all treated as lower class subjects. The Arab Spring movement that has erupted throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa was focused almost solely on the injustice and greed of corrupt and oppressive governments. The Arab Spring is the inspiration for Occupy Wall Street in their fight against their perceived injustice from the 1% of the American population that supposedly gets everything while the 99% get nothing.
The Occupy Wall Street movement began in the late summer of 2011 long after Gandhi was assassinated but the core of their movement was a nonviolent protest to provoke action even if they are unsure what the end. The problem is they are often provoking authority with no purpose.
Roberta Strauss Feuerlicht wrote that, “When Gandhi returned to India he had an end but no means.” It seems the opposite is the case for the Occupy Wall Street movement in that they have a means but no end. Reading the website home page of http://www.occupywallstreet.org, it is declared:
“Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.
This #ows movement empowers real people to create real change from the bottom-up. We want to see a general assembly in every backyard, on every street corner because we don’t need Wall Street and we don’t need politicians to build a better society.”
For Gandhi the end was a simple goal of an end to British rule and the creation of an independent India. Yet the forces that were working towards attaining the same goal as his challenged him. The Indian National Congress was essentially a group of elite, successful businessmen that were vying for the power to rule India in Gandhi’s eyes no differently than current British imperialists. The other group was the extremists that were attempting violent means for provoking the British as seen in the film. Gandhi saw this first hand when terrorists, as the government deemed them, attacked and derailed a troop train, killing at least one English soldier.
Gandhi’s way was the way of non-violence. He wrote in the Harjin on July 20, 1931 that, “Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.” The Occupy Wall Street has adopted the ways of nonviolence for their protests although there have been numerous isolated incidences of vandalism and resisting arrest.
Occupy Wall Street’s takes great pride in that they are a leaderless movement as quoted from the website earlier in this paper. Information on howtooccupy.org (linked from occupywallstreet.org) contains essays, instruction sheets and numerous other articles all based on experiences in the camps. These writings include the details on how to organize protests, what places are optimal for staging the protests, dealing with police intervention and other issues that have arisen in camps. Like many of the protestors in the Arab Spring nations, #ows thrives and survives on social media. Without free services such as Twitter, Facebook, Google 1+, YouTube, Foursquare, etc. along with text messaging and cellular services bought and paid for by corporate giants, it is likely the movements would never have gained a foothold, nor would they have spread across the nation and the world.
“It does not require money to be clean, neat and dignified” were the simple words spoken by Gandhi. Unfortunately, the less than sanitary conditions at the Occupy camps have given the media and political leaders a target to attempt to delegitimize the movement as a whole. Former Speaker of the House and current Republican presidential hopeful New Gingrich, made a statement at a Thanksgiving debate that the protestors needed to, “Go get a job after you take a bath.”
Initially, the enemy in India was easily identified as the British. In an unfortunate turn of events, as soon as the British conceded to a withdrawal of India, the division of the Muslims and Hindus forced the split of the new independent nations into two religiously divided ones. It is what is often referred to as the unintended consequence of something. Gandhi had always believed that men and women of all religions could live peacefully in one nation that they were allowed to rule. Perhaps this is why Gandhi stated, “Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment.”
For the #ows group it would seem there are numerous unintended consequences for the achievement of their goals. If for instance they were able to somehow “bring down Wall Street”, what would become of the people so dependent on the investments in Wall Street? It is certainly not the solely ‘the rich’ that have money in the banks. Even if Wall Street came down, what benefit would there be to the protestors. It is as if they think some giant pile of money will appear for everyone to share and all would be equal. Perhaps that is a defining difference of following the model of the Arab Spring and using Ghandian tactics.
On November 18, 2011, students at the University of California-Davis were organized and protesting the universities plans to raise tuition rates. They had gathered peacefully as a branch of the Occupy Wall Street movement sleeping in tents in the commons area. They were instructed by the administration to remove the tents by the morning of November 18 in which they complied. Campus security was dispatched (armed with batons, pepper spray and protected with riot helmets) to remove the tents but all they found were protestors blocking the sidewalk. The students were instructed by security to disperse and they refused. The officers then threatened the use of pepper spray to force them to disperse from the area.
One of the officers then approached the students sitting on the sidewalk with two red spray cans of pepper spray. Warnings immediately began from the watching protestors for the students to hide their eyes. With their eyes closed, some hiding their faces within their hooded sweatshirts, the students remained sitting on the sidewalk in a continued act of noncooperation. The officer then began spraying the faces of the sitting students in two separate passes as if he were mere spraying herbicide on weeds. Other officers moved in and began hauling the students to their feet to remove and arrest them. The crowd then began chanting’ “Shame!” to the officers that circled up and backed away.
It was an act in line with the instructions of Gandhi: noncooperation and nonviolence. The students that sat on the ground made themselves the sacrifice for the movement. Overall, it lacked the power of what could have happened. This incident had greater potential yet some might say that is had maximum impact for minimum casualties. This incident though is one of many where a leaderless, unorganized movement fails. Had a leader been present, it is possible could have compared to the raids on the Dharsana Salt Works with someone to orchestrate the actions of the protestors. Hundreds of students were protesting but only about fifteen suffered the attack of pepper spray. Many students stood by with video cameras, inspired or perhaps to cowardly to kneel down themselves and be harmed.
When speaking of the difference between cowardice and nonviolence, Gandhi said, “I expected them to intercept the mightiest power that might be in the act of harming those who were under their protection, and draw without retaliation all harm upon their own heads even to the point of death, but never to run away from the storm centre.”
Now it is certainly unfair to compare the fledgling Occupy Wall Street movement to that which Gandhi toiled for decades to gain support and educate those who followed him. This leads to the question of a movement can endure without a leader. Gandhi had decided to go to Pakistan seeking peace between the Muslims and Hindus. Though the movie never explains it, the assassin does show up several times throughout the film, always with defiant Muslims. In one scene in Calcutta, it is possible he shouts, “Death to Gandhi!” though no one claims responsibility for the statement. Gandhi’s movement could not survive without him as evidenced by the fact that both Pakistan and India have nuclear weapons.
Is it logical to assume that the Occupy Wall Street movement will never be more than sporadic gatherings across the country if it remains leaderless?
My Blog 