This ain’t my fight.
It tugs at my heart and probably dashes some of the little Lefty cred I’ve accumulated over the last day or so, but I’ve become frustrated with the Occupy Melbourne movement to the point where I don’t feel like I can, with truth in my heart, march alongside them.
That’s not to say there aren’t battles related to the occupation of the City Square that I can, and will engage in. Freedom of expression, freedom to gather in a public place, the conduct of police , the conduct of Lord Mayor. I’ll be involving myself in all of them. However, I can’t see myself as one of the ’99%’, an occupier, one of those doing laps up and down Swanston Street like I saw today.
This afternoon, I sat on the steps of Trades Hall today and listened to yet another ‘General Assembly’ take place, at which the question of another occupation was debated, circuitously, for over an hour and a half, members of what seemed like thirty of forty different committees and ‘working groups’ speaking.
I saw the easy, cheap and reactionary win out over the sensible and pragmatic again and again.
Grab the mic, yell about ‘the system’, sound a little like Billy Bragg and you’d get rounds of cheers.
I watched the ‘facilitators’, the closest thing to leaders the local movement has, beg the crowd to consider postponing any further occupations so they could rest, recuperate and effectively plan another gathering.
I walked back down Swanston Street, listening to the chants of ‘We! Are! The 99%’ which echoed in a rather hollow fashion when you saw the rest of the city around them going about their daily business, working, getting weekend errands done, enjoying a few hours of rest.
They’re not the 99%. They’re those who’ve read a few books and have the freedom to spend their days in loud, public action.
Callous? Probably. A generalization? Of course. There are many who have dedicated years to what they think is the best way to change the world.
The chant, however, is not an appropriate one.
I’ll cop a lot of flack for that.
There were a lot of new faces today, the numbers swelled by yesterday’s violence Kids, lots of kids, wearing facepaint and bandanas. Kids looking for trouble, without the sense to know when enough is enough. I saw one of them climb on another’s shoulders and imitate riding a horse alongside the mounted police. This had the predictable effect of scaring the bejesus out of the horses. The kids were pulled aside and berated by other officers.
I admired their restraint.
Stupid, irresponsible behaviour. Not the behaviour of a protester, that of a brat, a child.
I saw a lot of scorn heaped at the police today. I saw a lot of angry, hateful language thrown their way. It was horrible stuff and it was a credit to the police that they didn’t respond with force. I can understand the anger felt towards police – I was punched by one of them, but in an action designed to protest ‘police brutality’, it seemed somewhat self-defeating.
Hell, I saw a lot of self-defeating behaviour today. The way the crowd stopped at City Square and heckled the police. The swarms of Guy Fawkes masks. The stereotypes on display. The eagerness to rush off to yet another action, another protest, like an arsonist flinging matches in damp grassland, in the hopes that one might start a fire.
So, the people are camping down in the Treasury Gardens and look to set up a campsite over the next few days. Actions will be held every day in the meantime. The numbers swell as people realize that Occupy Melbourne is an ongoing proposition.
Robert Doyle’s heavy-handedness in evicting the protesters has started something. Something that will grow and grow. Something that will become part of the life of my city.I’ll visit them, I’ll follow their story, I might even try to tell their story.
I now know I can’t stand alongside them, though.
I can’t stand along the folks I went to uni with, 10 years ago, who are still at uni and still holding the same old protests, using the same old tactics and wondering why they’re not getting anywhere. The same old cobblers about socialism saving the world. The same old drum circles. The same old, same old.
I can’t be associated with kids, covering their faces and setting out to cause damage.
You know what? I don’t want to smash the state. I like the state.
I don’t want to bring down the system. She’s sick, but I believe we can make her better.
I can’t just sit around, vote on marching, then march somewhere. Rinse, repeat.
It feels hollow, it feels self-indulgent, it feels wrong to me.
Occupy Melbourne has radicalized me in a sense. I can no longer stand on the sidelines when it comes to watching the city I love be the scene of violence between police and those expressing their ideas. I can’t stand by and watch a Lord Mayor use a police force as a stick to beat those having an impact on the fortunes of his mates in business.
In a greater sense, I can’t stand by and see the inequality I learned more about at Occupy Melbourne be repeated again and again. I want to do more to help those who fall between the cracks, kept in a cycle of debt and poverty. I want to help.
How I do that, I’m not sure, but goddamit, I’m gonna try.
Thing can change.
If we focus on our local community, in doing a few small things each day, each week, we can make it a better place for everyone.
Support local merchants over global chains. Spend some hours working with the disadvantaged. Get involved in local government. Get kids following the news, learning about social issues. Support quality, local independent media.
Protest, sure, but balance it with an ongoing commitment to social justice. Justice being what the Occupy movement is all about.
We’ve got to understand we’re not the 99%, we’re the 100%, the whole and in order to improve the mess we’re in, we’ve all got to start identifying how we can improve everyone’s lot. We’ve got to throw much of our rabid partisanship aside. That’s the only way we can evolve ‘the system’ to something more human.
Utopian hippie bollocks? Sure, but I gotta start trying to live that idea. The last week has impressed that upon me.
As I write this, I’m listening to the Style Council’s ‘Walls Come Tumbling Down’ and it’s making me quite emotional. There’s something about the combination of the soulful groove and the bolshie, right-on lyrics that makes my heart feel fit to burst.
It’s a good enough way to close this blog post.
You don’t have to take this crap
You don’t have to sit back and relax
You can actually try changing it
I know we’ve always been taught to rely
Upon those in authority -
But you never know until you try
How things just might be -
If we came together so strongly
Are you gonna try to make this work
Or spend your days down in the dirt
You see things can change -
YES an’ walls can come tumbling down!
Governments crack and systems fall
’cause Unity is powerful -
Lights go out – walls come tumbling down!
The competition is a colour TV
We’re on still pause with the video machine
That keep you slave to the H.P.
Until the Unity is threatend by
Those who have and who have not -
Those who are with and those who are without
And dangle jobs like a donkey’s carrot -
Until you don’t know where you are
Are you gonna realize
The class war’s real and not mythologized
And like Jericho – You see walls can come tumbling down!
Are you gonna be threatend by
The public enemies No. 10 -
Those who play the power game
They take the profits – you take the blame -
When they tell you there’s no rise in pay
Are you gonna try an’ make this work
Or spend your days down in the dirt -
You see things CAN change -
YES an’ walls can come tumbling down!
“…it was a credit to the police that they didn’t respond with force.”
Are you seriously suggesting that it would be understandable for a police officer to physically assault anyone who verbally abuses them? It horrifies me that you get to say things like that from a position of privilege
What I’m saying is that the police showed admirable restraint in merely castigating them, rather than manhandling, pulling them down and arresting them.
Next time you’re at a protest, head up the front of the march. Stand behind the mounted police. I think you’ll see very quickly how scaring the horses, making them bolt, or kick, could lead to injury of potentially hundreds of people.
Privilege nothing, I just didn’t want to see a repeat of yesterday.
When it comes to ‘the 99%’, it’s not referring to people who support the movement or anything like that (which would be a bit ridiculous), but rather the people who suffer from this economic system. The number comes from New York where 50% of the income goes to the top 1%. Whether people are aware of their situation or not is a different matter.
At least, that’s my understanding of it!
In the United States the top 1% Paid More in Federal Income Taxes Than Bottom 95%
http://skep.li/prM1Mm Yet all persons benefit from the government use of this money.
I’m not a part of the 99% and those protesters do not speak for me, even if they pretend to. I am also far from suffering in this economic system. I don’t count not being able to buy a Ferrari (While others can) as suffering.
They pay more taxes because they make more. It is not altruistic, and the rich are the champions of tax avoidance.
What a total furphy.
First: the bottom 95% of taxpayers are poorer than ever before; the top 1% are richer than ever before. So surprise, the richer are paying more Federal income tax. This is not a sign that the bottom 95% are lucky duckies.
Second: Federal income tax is not the main way the poor is taxed in the US. The US has State income and sales taxes, and high payroll taxes as well. Both the sales and payroll taxes are *regressive* – the poor and middle class pay a far higher proportion of their income in these taxes than the rich do.
You may notice that “A Ferrari” is not on the list of demands of any of the Occupations. Instead, they are complaining that:
* 24 million Americans can’t find a full time job
* 50 million Americans can’t afford to see a doctor when they’re sick
* 47 million Americans are on food stamps because they can’t afford food
* 15 million families owe more on their mortgage than their house is worth
(Figures from Alan Grayson in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQnSu0DG3Oo)
Conditions for the poor and middle class are nothing like as bad in Australia. We have medicare, our student loans are not repayable until you can afford them, and so on. That’s why this isn’t the same kind of mass movement here as it is in the US.
However the underlying structural problems are the same. The big end of town has lobbyists pushing their interests in Canberra, and the revolving door of politicians and regulators going straight to work for them as soon as they leave office has the same putrid odour of corruption. The mining companies pay their workers well, so we don’t complain when they ship billions of dollars in profits overseas, returning royalties that are *far* beneath what they would be able or willing to pay if the price of that royalty was set by a market, instead of by a bought-off government regulator.
Computation and mechanisation have made our economies massively more efficient than they were 50 years ago. Moore’s law alone gives us a 50% *deflation* in the cost of computing power every 18 months, or faster. But the middle class is not 10 times better off. The ability to buy a house on a regular single income, for example, has gone. Instead, all the benefits of increased efficiency have gone to the very top.
We’re being ripped off. But unlike the Americans we’re not being ripped off so hard that we can’t eat. Unless of course you count the ongoing mass-scale reduction of middle class families into poverty by the gambling industry. Which, you know, we probably should.
@Dan Buzzard, may I please interview you for my ‘mock’ hard news story for university? It will not be published, it’s an ‘all round’ article on the Occupy Melbourne protests with varying points of veiw. I can give you all my details and send you a copy also, and I would be very grateful for you help. I could send you a bottle of wine (or something) ! (please let me know via email : poppy.nonweiler@yahoo.com)
“First: the bottom 95% of taxpayers are poorer than ever before; the top 1% are richer than ever before. So surprise, the richer are paying more Federal income tax. This is not a sign that the bottom 95% are lucky duckies.”
Interesting how the so called ‘bottom 95%” are some of the wealthiest people on earth. Especially in Australia.
“You may notice that “A Ferrari” is not on the list of demands of any of the Occupations.”
I never said a Ferrari was on the demands list, nice strawman. However the Occupy movement is fuelled by greed. My point was that these people see someone drive down the street in an expensive car and think “What about me?” I have even seen some (anecdotal) reports of protesters booing limousines in New York. Like it’s now a crime to be successful. Hard work and sacrifice are the way to riches, and somehow the occupiers seem to think they should be entitled to someone else’s rewards.
Do the occupiers think money just grows on trees; that it automatically appears in people bank accounts?
The way I see it. You can either be a whiner or a winner. Because you don’t become
successful by sitting in a park whining about your imagined poverty. If the occupy protesters want to close the wealth gap they need to go and work for it. People who spend all their time worrying about others having more than they do; are destined to stay on the lower rungs of the ladder.
Personally I’m only concerned with my own situation it doesn’t bother me that other people have more money than I do; good on them. But it does bother me when someone with less than I do thinks they should some how be entitled to some of money/income/things.
My thoughts exactly.
A lot of what you have written is right. There is a way to change the system and it’s not inconveniencing people, being antagonistic and causing a violent reaction.
The better way is not quick but it’s lasting. It’s using words and making an argument. Establish or join a political party and work from the inside with a logical peaceful strategy.
It does work, if you can get enough people to listen.
Mal, all available evidence suggests that forming a political party and working from the inside is a great way to become part of the problem.
I thank you for your attendance yesterday and receiving a sock on the jaw from our ‘finest’. I understand what you are saying in this post. I don’t understand why people are saying, what are they protesting about and what do they want. It is bleeding well obvious. They are protesting against the excesses of capitalism and want these excesses reigned in. How hard is that to understand? Little change has happened in the world by writing letters and lobbying. The significant changes have come from on the street protests. I am pretty disgusted with Doyle and pretty disgusted with my fellow citizens who think he is right. A slight amusement of protesters whose hearts were in the right place in the City Square has turned into something quite nasty and brought the worst out in people. I, who protested at Legonda when Whitlam was sacked, am very savage at Doyle and how he was able to get some 400 police together to bust up a peaceful sit in on public property. Playing to his State Government tory mates to go down harder on the law and order route perhaps?
Andrew, take a moment to take in what Mike has written. He is not advocating for people to go home and write letters, to patiently lobby elderly council members at irregular council meetings. He is saying (and I am sure what 99% of ‘the 99%’ are thinking it too) is that you need to be the change you want to see in the world. If the change you want to see is screaming and shouting in the streets at a faceless enemy (captialism, who is that?) then your vision of a better world is no better than the reality. While great change has indeed come from mass social movements, however we are still in a similar position today. Why? Hell I don’t know, but it probably has something to do with the way society (not the system) reverts to similar practices. We have to power to buy what we want, read whatever media we choose, put our money in whatever credit union fits our desires, but people don’t. And that allows the ‘system’ to continue. Take the simple advice that Andrew has given. Act small, in your community, in a way that influences your area. Buy local sustainable produce (it’s right there, waiting for you to support). Offer your services to those who need it, and if you already do, prove to others that taking time out of your day to help someone in need is not an outstanding act that deserves to be applauded and rewarded by certificates and scholarship, but one that just makes sense. You want sustainable transport? Well get on your bike and ride it, and show to others that doing so is easy and fun. You don’t need the government to build you a bike lane. I am fairly disconnected from the ideas behind this protest because I live in a regional area, a place where wealth isn’t so obvious. I live in a small enough place that ‘community’ still means something, and that is because the people in this place believe in it. And I am certain that ‘capitalism’ and the ‘system’, whoever is the devil in this battle that is being created, is only the devil because we let it be.
Actually, I need a bike lane. Sorry. And Mike, I think it’s a bit much to discount a movement after, like, one week.
I’m not sure how you will able to write their story if you’re not standing alongside them. It’s just a bit presumptuous.
Thank you Mike. This is the most insightful, and common sense, piece I have read about what is happening. I hope more people read it.
MIke,
Just because you witness some questionable behaviour within the ranks of the protestors, doesn’t mean you can dismiss the good intentions of the protest.
You must focus on the big picture. One protest in itself seemingly does little. But if it creates an ongoing opportunity for people to debate the big issues, then it has done it’s job. Silence only benefits the 1%. One of those issues, as we all know, is the widening gap between rich and poor in western democracies. In Australia it is not as bad as it is in the US and UK, just yet. But, with policies like “Work Choices”, it could quickly get worse, which would mean more un/ underemployed, more pain and bigger protests.
Remember, protestors, police, politicians are just people some good and some bad.
I support the aims of the movement, and I want to tell their story.
I just can’t stand with them, not for the moment. There are too many qualms I have with the way the movement is being hijacked by fringe interests. The David Icke crowd, the Zeitgest folks.
Why did the socialists have their own meeting in Treasury Gardens?
Tell YOUR story, Mike, about what you see, hear, experience. Otherwise you are being presumptuous if you think you can tell their story. Surely you can see that.
I understand why the occupy movement has legs: the last ten years has seen levels of economic inequality rise to obscene levels (here are two articles showing it : Mother Jones http://bit.ly/gxmcXO, and New Scientist http://bit.ly/qxqrTn)
But I understand what you mean. Protest is fine. Shrill and over-hyped protest is self-defeating. Sure there have been instances of heavy-handed authoritarianism. I have to say though that most of the twittered cries pointing to videod evidence of police brutality doesn’t look that convincing to the man on the Clapham omnibus.
There was an #ows comment to the effect that revolution could now be part of the discussion. I responded by saying that revolutions seldom ended well, especially the successful ones.
So wish, folks. Wish well… and carefully.
Great piece, Mike!
I can get behind the US occupy movement but I had my suspicions about the local version from the start and it gives me no joy to have those suspicions confirmed.
Thanks for going in with an open mind and being honest about what you saw. We used to call that journalism.
Ah, and I see we’re hitting the stage of any Left movement where the Left decides that the best possible thing to do is to splinter and split into small groups so no one can accomplish anything. Yes, I’m sure your devotion to being a 100% will prevent Those In Power from continuing their current trends.
Thanks, Mike. I feel you have put a greater perspective on the situation, what you say makes a lot of sense. Also liked Danny’s comment, ‘you need to be the change you want to see in the world.’
Everything you’ve said is what the movement stands for. Community involvement, helping others and supporting sustainable environmental action and farming. Today was about the right to assembly and have your voice heard without interference and violence
Very much enjoyed your blog and abc posts. Sorry you got biffed by the cop and abused on twitter by do nothing trolls. Regardless of what `political` or `ethical` decisions you end up making or changing, you can be proud of you roving reporting, photos, live-tweet-feed and posts. Thanks.
Great post. Very similar to how I feel about the protest movement here (Australia) in general.
Thanks for this. I am trying to keep an open mind on what is happening in Australia, reading as much as I can from people. Living in US now I absolutely think that the #OWS here is needed and I don’t think many on the left would disagree.
typos! from people I trust (of course)
Michelle
hey Mike,
to say there’s been a lot of political unrest this year is an understatement. but in every case the driver of it has been chronic: systemic corruption, either politically, &/or economically, &/or socially, woven into the fabric of these cities/countries/cultures for a very long time, until it reached a breaking point. but little to none of this describes Australia’s case. as @GeordiGuy’s post last week said, hardly any of the conditions that lead to those civil unrests elsewhere exist in Australia.
sure, we experience to some degree the impact of capitalist externalities and disregard and inequality, but We The Australian People aren’t actually hurting from it anywhere near as much as what’s happened elsewhere this year. there’s NOWHERE NEAR enough critical mass of angry people to make #OccupyMelbourne/Sydney and its puny turn-out to be anything more than frustrated Sit-In Envy.
i don’t deny or argue that *some* people are hurting, that – in your own words – some people have fallen through the cracks of The System, and are angry. and they should be. and they need help. but i don’t believe Occupy Melbourne/Sydney is what will help them.
I don’t believe that in mild situations like Australia’s that 20th century-style demonstrations & sit-ins/occupations have any real or lasting effect, because of that lack of critical mass of a people hungry for big change, even revolution. i mean FFS both NSW & VIC have voted in Liberal governments, because the Lefties/Socialists closest mainstream party proxy had disintegrated into corruption, incompetence & ineffectiveness! (and no, I didn’t vote for our current state gov’t either!) this is not a country hungry for major political change.
at Australia’s current state, the only thing that will effect change against the excesses of capitalism is for people to stop buying into it – to speak the only language that capitalism understands – to stop feeding the machine with their own money: stop buying “coffee” from Starbucks, “food” from McDonalds, “news” from Murdoch, “fashion” from Tommy Hilfiger/Diesel/Aberzombie&Feltch, don’t by that new car simply because you’ve had your “old” one for 3 years & the lease is up (perpetuating the artificially rapid drop in value of 2nd-hand vehicles), and so on.
i think you’re 100% right about what We need to do to effect change. the problem is, too few are hurting even a little to do this much.
^^ This!
Anthony, thank you so much for articulating what I was thinking as I read.
I was at a march in Brisbane earlier this year, waiting to start and was standing next to a young couple with a placard and a big texta when one said to the other “I don’t know what to write.” The other shrugged and said, “I don’t know, something cool.”
It kinda sums up a lot of Australian protests I’ve seen. It’s really hard to take people screaming vague unease and discontent at ‘the man’ seriously, when Australia’s ‘man’ is such a nice guy.
Those people could have meant they didn’t know what short, sharp and succinct slogan to write, not that they didn’t know what they were there for.
They could have, yes. But it was pretty clear that they’d just joined in for a bit of Valley excitement. We were standing there for quite a while, waiting to start.
Mike, I agree with your thoughts and conclusions in this post. I have been part of the movement for the majority of this week, including Friday, and I have been following all your thoughts and musings and I have come to the same conclusions.
#OccupyMelbourne up to this this point has done a great job of raising the issues and challenging people about what they think is right and wrong with society. But I feel that there has been a clear lack of discussion regarding everyday practical ways to change the situation highlighted by the 99% movement.
Personally, what I will be taking away from my experiences of this week will be to actively continue doing all the small things I have currently been doing as well as regularly reassess these things.
Some of the things I try to do regularly include:
Getting to know you neighbours
Greeting people you pass on the street
Give money to people begging on the street, no matter how they look
Regularly give money to charity no matter how small the amount, I use this website: http://www.b1g1.com/buy1give1/
Support local radio, 3CR, PBS, RRR and ABC Melbourne are all fine stations
Attend local community meetings
Buy from local businesses, locally produced, fair trade and environmentally friendly whenever possible
Avoid supporting big chain stores wherever possible etc etc
Discuss issues about concern you with friends, workmates and family
I also thought I might start something online that enables people to share these society building concepts. One thing at a time huh.
Congratulations to everyone! I have been challenged, my friends and family have been challenged, lets keep this movement growing in small ways every day with love, peace and compassion.
Peacefully yours,
Benet
[...] can tell their story, but I can’t consider myself part of the 99%. Here’s why. – mike-stuchbery.com/2011/10/22/end… #auspol #occupymelbourne 14 hours ago CDUlawschoolCDU Law School Utilitarian calculus [...]
I often disagree with your views, but not this time… I support the right to protest, I disapprove of the heavy-handed methods employed recently by police, but I fear a lot of this ’cause’ is simply driven by the mob ‘me-too’ mentality, with little actual direction or focus, even less leadership, and a lot of ‘support my cause as well’ thrown in.
“We want the excesses of capitalism reigned in”?? Huh? ie. We want all those with lots of money and power to give more money and power to all those with less money and power, but we have no clear idea of how this should be done, just that it’s not fair… They’re like a new political party with one vague idea and no actual policies.
It is interesting how its taken you that long to work out that you don’t want to be part of it… i worked it out on the first day … i coudn’t belive how disorganised this organised movent is. There was no clear picture of what the movement wants. Everyone was there to complain but no evidence of how to fix it… i mean closing the banks and cut the executive wages is not going to fix this situation ….hmm i am still hopping that someone with clear understanding of the problem will find a solution to fix it and as yet i am yet to see it
[...] Davidson On 22 October, Mike Stuchberry wrote a blog post in which he explained why he was leaving the Occupy Movement. Mike had already, in a series of blogs and tweets during the previous week, gained some notoriety [...]
Thanks for a thoughtful contribution, Mike
I have to take issue with your comment “I can’t be associated with kids, covering their faces and setting out to cause damage.” There may be some but all the people I saw with their faces covered appeared to be fashion victims not bomb-throwing anarchists. Actually I was surprised about how few people were looking to respond in kind to the police provocation: I didn’t see one instance of protesters fighting back.
I do agree the “We! Are! The 99%!” chant is irritating. It might sound (too) catchy but it doesn’t explain anything much. And like you I haven’t spent much time at the occupation, too busy really, just joined in to defend it for two days.
But I do like the general assembly discussion. Democracy is messy but it’s a learning experience!
[...] cobblers about socialism saving the world. The same old drum circles. The same old, same old. END OF THE ROAD, START OF A NEW PATH. | Mike Stuchbery Once again, I remind you of double standards. Cheers Ray __________________ White 2008 CRD [...]
Mike, I admire your rare ability to hold more than one point of view at a time and your willingness to engage with all arguments openly.
Much as I am inspired and excited by the global Occupy movement, I have so far been disappointed by the defensive reactions of the local GAs to any sign of criticism.
I understand their sensitivity at this time, so I hope it will improve when they feel less under direct attack.
Bravely honest and well written article, and a really interesting read – thank you!
[...] I know I said it’s not my fight. [...]
[...] movement and tracking their ups and downs. I’ve been for ‘em, and I’ve been agin’ ‘em, both in the same week. It’s a strange, paradoxical kind of attraction, admiring the intent [...]
Really well written. I completely agree with you!