Will the occupiers do the hard, boring work for change?

I’ve been doing this social justice activist thing for 11 years, which makes me an oldhead to some and a rookie to others.  But at the very least, I think I’ve been around the block a few times. On the Occupy Together movement, consider me skeptical but hopeful.

Rallies and public demonstrations are fun and energizing.   People of like-mind gather together to push for or against some policy idea.  It’s thrilling.  It feels good to be part of a group advocating for something righteous.

But public demonstrations alone do not create change.  If they did, the death penalty in Pennsylvania would have been repealed long ago. In the first three years that I was involved in Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty, from 2000 to 2003, we wrapped crime scene tape around the governor’s mansion, tossed a blown up death warrant with the words “return to sender” over the fence at the governor’s mansion, hosted a press conference with Sr. Helen Prejean at which we released a poll showing 70 percent of Pennsylvanians favor a moratorium on executions, and organized a rally with Governor George Ryan (R-IL) with 1,000 people on the state capitol steps. We think we had some impact on the administration of the death penalty in the commonwealth, but we didn’t reach our ultimate goal or even the big short-term goals we set, like a moratorium or a government-sanctioned study of capital punishment.

(To be fair to myself and my friends from PAUADP, now Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, we did more than just public demonstrations.)

It’s been hard to miss the Occupy Together movement currently sweeping New York, Boston, Philly, Harrisburg, et al.  When the occupiers say that they’re going to camp out for weeks or even months until they see change for economic justice- the Philly occupiers have talked about being there through the winter- the alarm bells go off.  At least some of these folks don’t understand how to make real change.  Change happened in Egypt and Tunisia with consistent public gatherings because public gatherings to express grievances against the government were unheard of in those countries.

That’s not how change happens in the United States.  Public demonstrations happen every day, even if this one is unusual in its length and size. On more than one occasion, I’ve heard it said at the capitol that rallies have no impact on legislators. I had to explain to a state legislator recently that the purpose of a rally we were organizing was to energize our supporters, with no expectation of directly impacting lawmakers.

That’s how public demonstrations make change, by energizing people to do more.  It’s going to take more than camping out to make the progress on economic justice that the occupiers want.

Look at the work that has been done in the last two years by Equality Pennsylvania, with an assist from its allies, including my employer. From 1981 to 2008, 13 Pennsylvania municipalities passed local non-discrimination ordinances that included at least “sexual orientation” and, in most cases, “gender identity.”  In 2009, House Bill 300, a bill to add LGBT people to the state non-discrimination law, passed out of committee but then stalled before getting to the state House floor.

From 2009 to this week, 10 more municipalities in Pennsylvania passed comprehensive non-discrimination ordinances.  Nearly as many of these ordinances have passed in two years as passed in the previous 27 years.

No one had to camp out to make this happen.  This happened because Equality PA and its allies built relationships with policymakers, supported local activists who pushed their municipal governments to make this move, built the resources necessary to guide policymakers and activists through the process- from model legislation to talking points to stickers- and worked the press to raise awareness.  In a sign of real progress, this week two candidates for county commissioner in suburban Philadelphia endorsed non-discrimination protections for LGBT people.  Outlawing LGBT discrimination is now good politics, apparently.

Certainly, we still have a lot of work to do on this issue. We still don’t have sexual orientation and gender identity or expression in the state civil rights law. But what is happening at the local level is progress.

For my master’s thesis, I analyzed the movement that repealed the death penalty in New Jersey.  The research included interviews with key figures in the movement both at the state level and the national level.  Two national anti-death penalty organizers made observations that the occupiers will do well to heed.  One said that the movement was successful in New Jersey because it “matured.” It stopped chanting outside legislators’ offices and started meeting inside legislators’ offices.

The other national organizer compared the anti-death penalty movement in the last ten years to the movement in the 1990s.  This organizer said that in the ’90s the movement was “culturally weird,” standing outside prisons holding candles on the night someone was executed. I’ve heard other activists refer to these folks as “candle clutchers” and “the sandals and candles crowd.”  In the interview, the national organizer said that the death penalty repeal movement learned to stop being culturally weird.

With all due respect to the occupiers, the people’s microphone, in which the crowd repeats the speaker’s words every few seconds, is culturally weird.  Just watch this video that shows Occupy Atlanta denying John Lewis the opportunity to speak to see what I mean.  (And denying John Lewis, a civil rights hero, the opportunity to speak also shows a tin ear for messaging, especially for a movement that wants to attract racial minorities.)  The movement is going to have to be conscious of behaving in a way that will attract average Americans and not become some side freak show.  They’ll also have to be aware of the fact that each occupy city impacts the other.  If one looks bad for some reason, it will impact the entire movement.

Finally, the movement must lead to some political gain.  This will be counterproductive if the prevailing attitude among movement activists is, “All politicians suck.”  This can’t be a flameout, ala the WTO protests.  The Tea Party has been very successful, in part, by engaging in electoral politics. Occupy Together must do the same thing. That includes not only building relationships with candidates but also, especially, registering people to vote.  If more poor and working class people voted, we would be much closer to reaching the goals we want.

That said, all of this can be overcome.  Unlike some people, I am not a believer in discouraging people who are speaking out, some for the first time, on issues of justice.  We need an engaged populace, especially among people who believe that all people, regardless of their lot in life, should be treated with respect and dignity. The Occupy Together movement must be encouraged to do the hard, boring work for change, not discouraged from participating at all.

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Tags: activism, advocacy, Occupy Harrisburg, Occupy Philly, Occupy Together, Occupy Wall Street, Poverty, social justice