Occupy Atlanta Participants Signaling Approval

If there is one major success story to the Occupy Wall St movement so far, it is that it is getting people to think more like citizens.

Lately, I have been visiting the Occupy LA site in downtown City Hall, where participants have full city permission to camp. Each time I visit, I am struck by the amount of civic conversations going on, both in smaller, informal circles and in the larger General Assembly. In fact, one participant said to me,

“You know why I keep coming down here? Because it is the one place I can come and have a real conversation about what’s going on in our country.”

Occupy LA General Assembly on City Hall Steps

Those that are participating in General Assemblies every night across the country are engaging in a revival of public discourse. They are not sitting at home listening to partisan, argumentative political rhetoric put out by cable TV pundits. Rather they are gathering in public squares to participate in the kind of deliberate, constructive discourse that theorists like Jurgen Habermas have noted lead to democratic evolution and change.

Participants in the General Assemblies follow a certain protocol that allows anyone to participate. They work in a consensus fashion to make decisions that affect the local Occupy participants, as well as to propose activities that engage the larger public.

The consensus format is a major strength of the movement, but it is also viewed as a major obstacle towards moving forward. As noted in the media, participants have discussed a number of problems and solutions, without making any “formal” proclamation about what exactly they stand for and what they hope to do about it.  It appears as a cacophony of messages to outside observers. To participants, this is viewed as a necessary step in bringing a wide range of people to the discussion table.

General Assembly in Portland

As time is moving forward, however, I have noticed that participants are starting to get a bit frustrated with the “consensus for the sake of consensus” orientation of the General Assembly. Anyone, for whatever reason, can put forth a “hard block” of dissension for implementing an action. Another Occupy LA participant said to me,

“We can’t move any action forward here, except for actions that directly relate to providing for the resident needs of our tent city.”

However, it looks like some General Assemblies are starting to implement a 90% majority rule for moving actions forward. Occupy Oakland, which has 3000 participants on a daily basis active in their General Assembly, passed an action last night with a 90% vote to call for a city-wide strike on November 2nd. They see this as a pivotal step in gathering momentum to invite more people in the public conversation on solving the economic problems of the country. By implementing a 90% majority rule, Occupy participants may start to gain additional leverage in honing their platform to greater effect.

Oakland General Assembly

While the jury is still out what kind of structural change the Occupy Wall St movement will have, one thing is clear: a kind of civic revival is happening across the country. It is an inclusive movement based on democratic protocol for the deliberation of issues. Thousands of people every night are coming together in public squares across America to discuss their role as citizens in making our country better. That element, more than any other thus far, is the one clear impact of the movement.

The most provocative symbol from the Occupy Wall St protests thus far has been the proliferation of the “99 percent” signs. These signs are ubiquitous now – both on the streets and on the web (where anyone can upload a pic on the We Are the 99 percent blog).

Why have these signs become so popular? What is their power and what is their impact?

The standard structure for the 99 percent stories is as follows:

1- A description of a person’s personal economic situation

2- An description of an unfair economic system that contributes to the problem

3- A mention of an action to take, such as visit occupywallstreet.org or attend a protest

Many in the Occupy Wall St protests have been derided for not having a structured message, but the 99 percent stories come closest to some sort of common narrative that ties the protestors together.

The power of the 99 percent stories lies in their ability to create a collective identity. For a movement to gain traction, it needs to create a shared identity for people to relate to. This helps answer the three important questions that social movement scholars, like Chuck Tilly, state are key to forming a collective identity – “Who are we? Who are they? Who am I?”

“We are the 99 percent” does just that. If we follow the logic of this story, We refers to the the majority of Americans who are not wealthy. They refers to the top 1% of the wealthy population. I refers to the individual who is a part of the majority of Americans who are economically disadvantaged.

The 99 percent signs state the “I am” part. These signs are an opportunity for individuals to situate themselves in the movement. This storyline is “open” and “vague,” as many have noted, but this is not a weakness of the storyline. For an emerging movement, a storyline that has an element of interpretive flexibility can be a major strength. As Francesca Polletta notes, author of “It Was Like A Fever: Storytelling in Protests and Politics,” the openness to interpretation in a movement’s story allows “diverse groups to see their interests as alike enough to act collectively.”

Lastly, the power of these stories lies in their ability for people to see their personal situation as part of a larger political and economic circumstance. This is the heart of C. Wright Mill’s notion of the sociological imagination. This is what helps people to see themselves not just as an individual, but as a citizen with a “vivid awareness of the relationship between [their] experience and the wider society.”

The power of the “We are the 99 percent” story is what is fueling the spread of this movement beyond Wall St into cities across the U.S. and even in international regions. This is a story that people can relate to across party lines and across cultural lines. Even if one is not personally protesting on the streets, they can identify and become a part of the movement by making a sign (or sharing a sign) and sharing it in virtual solidarity in the online space. This helps to explain the “viral” nature of the spread of this message in the last week.

But is this a powerful enough statement to mobilize a full-fledged movement with specific goals and action for change? It is too early to tell, but Sidney Tarrow, another well-known social movement scholar, has some worthwhile insights on CNN.com in regards to the potential impact of these protests.

What we do know that can make this message stronger is to ground it in strategic framing. Where are the key values in this messaging? How can protestors explain the economic situation in a way that helps the public understand and support an appropriate solution? Furthermore, what are the specific solutions that this group would like to enact?

It’s clear this movement needs to think through the communications side a bit more…and I believe that the ground is fertile enough at the moment for some spokespeople to stand in and guide the movement in a more constructive direction. It is definitely worth looking into some of FrameWorks recommendations on framing Budgets and Taxes for creating a message that can lead to concrete action.

What are some of the most poignant signs you’ve seen? Which ones do you think are the most powerful? What are the ways in which this message can be strengthened? Link to the signs that have stood out most to you in the comments section below.