The Occupy Wall Street movement isn’t over, notwithstanding the breakup of many encampments by the police. Today protestors took to the streets across the United States to demonstrate exactly that. [1]
While some might feel that the movement has made its point and should move on, the fact is there is one very tangible and reachable goal of the movement that has yet to be realized. The movement has been criticized for lacking such a goal, but that is actually an inaccurate characterization.
The impetus for the movement originally came from the anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters, which called for 20,000 people to “flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months.” [2] The original concept was that once the protestors were there they would “incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices.” That one simple demand was “that Barack Obama ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington.”
You will note that so far the President has not complied with that demand. So the Occupy Wall Street movement should not change its tactics and move on to other things until Mr. Obama sets up the commission.
This original idea seems to have become lost somewhere in the national discussion. It is time to bring it back, front and center, so that all may see the legitimacy of any further civil disobedience. Until the President establishes the commission, no reason will have been given for the protests or the civil disobedience to stop.
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