A personal perspective on the UK Occupy Movement Over the last few months I’ve…
A personal perspective on the UK Occupy Movement
Over the last few months I’ve been an active member of the largest UK Occupy protest camp outside of London. However, back in late September, my initial vision which led me to set up Occupy in my home town, was to establish multiple camps, both in my home town and help in the creation of further camps nationwide. As a result, I’ve had the opportunity thoroughly re-evaluate both my social and global political standpoint. In doing so, I’ve concluded without a shadow of doubt, that the only means by which we can secure the global emancipation of the working class, is by way of the 4th international. Reformism and protest politics are the iron chains which continue to bind us to a life of servitude and as such, serve only to ensure the continuation of Capitalist domination. However, I first had to come to this understanding and the only way for me to reach such a conclusion, was through attempting what I now see, as the impossible.
Foolishly from the beginning, I set about trying to create a coalition of psudo-left leaning reformists thinking that I could rouse them into some sort of action. As you would expect, this was an ambitious undertaking which was destined to failure from the start and thankfully it failed, miserably. Had it succeeded, my time and energy would have been further wasted, knowing what I know now. Nevertheless, in order to come to above conclusion I proceeded.
During the the first 6 weeks of Occupy I attended numerous meetings throughout my home town. However, every meeting was the same, apart from one, which I’ll discuss later. Unimpassioned Middle Class Trade Union leaders moaning about government cuts, boldly declaring we have to send a message to Westminster, this sadly was the most common cry at the majority of meetings I attended. Surly now more than ever, rather than subordinating ourselves to bourgeois trade union reformists, we need working class revolutionary leaders?
In my address at meetings I always attempted to thoroughly challenge the trade union position. How many times are the trade unions going to send a message to government? The time for sending messages is over, now is the time to bring it down to secure our own future. Remarkably in mid November I was also invited to speak on the picket line of a local ongoing industrial dispute. During my speech, whilst in the presence of yet another Trade Union Bureaucrat, I told the strikers that it is they who make up the trade union and that they should expel the leadership, if that leadership fails to implement their demands for wider coordinated industrial action. Again I told them the only way to secure our future is through the overthrow of the system itself. I also told them that we should be organising a nationwide general strike and that if both public and private sector united with the unemployed, we could bring the entire system down within 7 days. It certainly got the crowd going which is exactly what I wanted. However, the trade union bureaucrat spoke after me in his suit holding an umbrella to shelter himself from the rain. He had the audacity to stand in front of the picket line and declare the dispute was going to be a long hard struggle.
Later that morning I was also interviewed by the BBC. During the interview I made it clear that if we are to secure a better future for ourselves, we should be organising public and private sector workers, for nationwide general wildcat strikes. However, today I firmly believe we should be organising wildcat strikes on an international basis, thus bypassing the trade union movement altogether. Although I may be unemployed and hold no formal qualifications, I’m educated enough to know that the trade union movement is the enemy of the working class. To give the working class revolutionary hope and to then destroy that hope by denying them a true path to revolution, is nothing short of a declaration of war upon the global working class itself.
Sadly my struggle didn’t end. In meetings at the occupation site I found stiff opposition. From the very beginning the anarchist principle of non hierarchy was adopted meaning we couldn’t set up effective up committees. Likewise, all meetings were open to the general public to participate in general consensus decision making. Strangely enough this was never passed by consensus but rather it was imposed by assumption. Early on it was obvious that I had become the minority. Repeatedly I would ask for a motion to be passed enabling us to set up more camps and to specifically reach out to the working class, only to be ignored. Likewise, I asked several times for a motion to be passed to indicate if we were a revolutionary or reformist movement. On more than one occasion I was told “this isn’t about class, it is a democratic instillation”. Although I challenged many things it fell on deaf ears.
Early on it was decided that we would have open days with activities in order generate public support. The activities on offer were Ti Chi, meditation, and knitting, along with circus themed events. Although it did attract the middle class reformist, I now felt completely alienated and ashamed by the direction of the movement. At no point have I ever longed learn Ti Chi, knitting or circus juggling. Likewise, a Robin Hood Tax on financial transactions has never been on my list of priorities. However, I have always longed for the emancipation of the working class by way of revolution. To see capitalist vermin flee the wrath of working class indignation is not a utopian dream, it can become a reality. However, I accept this reality can only come about through the revolutionary linage of the 4th international. Only it, contains the power and global vision to reignite the flames of working class consciousness.
As you may have already guessed, early on I came into contact with my local branch of The Socialist Equality Party and a seed definitely penetrated my mind. Words like, a workers revolutionary overthrow of capitalism, or Socialist Proletarian State were definitely not on the agenda at any General Assembly I attended within the occupy movement. Sadly from the very beginning, the UK Occupy movement has pushed the agenda of reformism, whilst at the same time enforced Anarchism’s theoretically backward ideology upon every unwitting individual who enters the camps.
The resulting ineffectiveness of this move is precisely the reason why the masses have failed seize upon Occupy throughout the UK. Quite simply Occupy UK has no vision to offer the working class and runs the risk of becoming nothing more than an insignificant irritant. For this reason, the reformist ideological vision of the Occupy movement, in reality, has become nothing more than an infantile fantasy and enemy of the class struggle. Bourgeois reformists sadly, yet again, completely fail to realise the utter futility of their underlying aspirations.
This whole experience has been invaluable in teaching me many great lessons which I would have never otherwise gained and as such I would like to thank my local S.E.P branch for not pushing me, but for allowing me to come to my own conclusions. Thankfully within the SEP, I have found an authentic global revolutionary movement of the working class.
Love me or hate me, I’m not going to back down until my vision is realised.