Tag: Occupy Wall Street
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Occupy: A Name Fixed to a Flashpoint
From my article in The Sociological Quarterly’s new special issue on Occupy Wall Street: Public Performance and Backstage We know that Rosa Parks was not merely tired when she refused to give up her bus seat. She was acting with agency, and the appearance of spontaneity was part of an intentional performance designed for strategic…
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Floating Signifier (Beautiful Trouble – Essay 6)
by: Jonathan Matthew Smucker, Andrew Boyd, and Dave Oswald Mitchell The American flag inspires extreme passions . . . but what exactly does it stand for? To different people it means freedom, justice, imperialism and terror — its meaning shifts wildly depending on context and observer. This emptiness, into which observers can pour almost any…
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What not to do: 100 things to avoid when trying to build a movement for radical change
DO NOT: forget to say please and thank you neglect to welcome newcomers be overly protective about ideas you hope to spread pretend you can make big changes without building broad alliances give the finger to your allies heckle Civil Rights leaders tell a black person that voting doesn’t matter tell anyone that voting doesn’t…
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How to pitch news outlets to cover your action
Download this post as a printable PDF To pitch a reporter or assignment editor about an action or event you’re planning is to call them up—typically after sending them a news release—and attempt to persuade them that they should come out (or send a reporter) and cover what you’re doing. A good pitch call is…
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Radicals & the 99%: Righteous Few or Moral Majority?
The Occupy Wall Street movement claims to be a movement of “the 99%”, challenging the extreme consolidation of wealth and political power by the top one percent. Our opponents, however, claim that the 99% movement is just a bunch of fringe radicals who are out of touch with mainstream America. They’re not 100% wrong about…
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#OWS: We are ALL leaders!
Download this post as a printable PDF What is the difference between saying none of us is a leader and saying all of us are leaders? At first glance these two phrases may seem like two ways of saying essentially the same thing. We believe in organizing in a way that is more horizontal than…
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#OccupyWallStreet & the Political Identity Paradox
Download this post as a printable PDF Strong group identity is essential for social movements. There can be no serious social movement—the kind that challenges the powerful and privileged—without a correspondingly serious group identity that encourages a core of members to contribute an exceptional level of commitment, sacrifice and heroics over the course of prolonged…
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#occupyWINNING: what I’m up to at Occupy Wall Street
The past ten days have been amazing. I took the train down to NYC last Wednesday, to see if I might lend a hand to the Wall Street occupation for a few days. There is so much going on. I don’t even know how many working groups there are, but today I heard that there…
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#OWS: Welcome Visitors & Plug In New Participants
Download this post as a printable PDF Three Tips for Plugging People In Bringing in new participants and volunteers is essential to an occupation-or any group or organization-that wants to grow in size and capacity. The momentum of the Occupy Wall Street movement has quickly attracted a lot of people to occupations across the United…
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Occupy Tactic Star
Download this post as a printable PDF Occupation of a space is itself a tactic. It is an action intended to help us build momentum and to move us a step closer toward our goals. And it’s been wildly successful so far! But an ongoing occupation of space is also more than a tactic. An…
Jonathan Matthew Smucker 