Occupying the Dream and Perfecting the Union: The Stirring for a New Civil Rights Movement

“We have come a long way in our understanding of human motivation and of the blind operation of our economic system. Now we realize that dislocations in the market operation of our economy and the prevalence of discrimination thrust people into idleness and bind them in constant or frequent unemployment against their will. The poor are less often dismissed from our conscience today by being branded as inferior and incompetent. We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and expands it does not eliminate all poverty.

We have so energetically mastered production that we now must give attention to distribution. Though there have been increases in purchasing power, they have lagged behind increases in production. Those at the lowest economic level, the poor white and Negro, the aged and chronically ill, are traditionally unorganized and therefore have little ability to force the necessary growth in their income. They stagnate or become even poorer in relation to the larger society.

The problem indicates that our emphasis must be two-fold. We must create full employment or we must create incomes…we need to be concerned that the potential of the individual is not wasted. New forms of work that enhance the social good will have to be devised for those for whom traditional jobs are not available.”-- Martin Luther King Jr
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” --Preamble, to the U.S. Constitution

September 17th, 2011 was a day in which something truly newsworthy occurred. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets to voice their discontent with the political establishment’s inappropriate response to the economic crisis that has forced many out of their homes, and have stolen the livelihoods of millions. Those protesters set up camp in Liberty Park (Zucotti Park) where they became the “Occupy” movement. Since then the warm sunny days have turned cold and bleak.

The once lively and festive encampments have been destroyed by local police forces that engaged in violent acts against “Occupiers” and then arrested hundreds of them in an effort to stop the growth of the nascent movement.  The result has been a sort of “underground” or more decentralized. In any case the movement has changed its form. Many of spoken of a “spring resurgence”. But we cannot and should not think that we simply replicate the protests started in September. This time, we must come out with a strong and clear vision for America, as well as a critique about the country’s political, economic, and social ills.
The future of the movement lies not in occupying physical spaces in tents, though there may be a place for this. But the time now is to pick up a torch that has been carried in many places including here in the U.S. We have to once again return that dream rooted in the American Dream. We still have a nation filled with racial strife. Schools are still largely segregated. Blacks, Latinos, and Asians find themselves in over-crowded and under-resourced schools. They find themselves in the most violent and ugly neighborhoods. In the City of Philadelphia, a mayor and city council have passed a law targeted at black youth to keep them in the house after 9pm.

Along with these divisions there is the resurgence of another division that militant socialist and progressive trade unionists like Eugene V. Debs, Walter Reuther, and A.Philip Randolph fought to extinguish: poverty and economic oppression. People like Debs knew that, as long as working people were politically subordinated to the interests of big financial and corporate giants like Exxon mobile, or G.E. which paid no taxes and got a tax refund. At this very moment there are three Americas: the “Have a lot and taking more”; the “have a little, but losing it”; and the barely making it or the “just getting by”.

This movement needs to become a powerful question: how do we occupy the Dream? To occupy is to embody and to draw attention to something. As such, we are thus, trying to embody America’s dream of freedom, and draw attention to the race to the bottom, which threatens freedom at it’s foundation. That said, to speak of “freedom” is abstract, as those corporations, lobbyists, and politicians that would deny people of the most vital freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom from social and economic insecurity, and freedom to pursue meaningful and productive lives, also use this word. For them freedom is something to be given, as compensation. Their freedom is the freedom to dominate others.

We want something different. We want liberation from a failing system that pits worker against worker; mother against mother, father against father. We want a society where everyone that is able to contribute to the greater social good has remunerative employment. We want liberation from the fear illness. We want an end to poverty for those who work, and we want good paying jobs with benefits for every individual.

Here in the City of Philadelphia, 25% (approximately 381,000) people live in poverty. Nearly 170,000 Philadelphians do not have jobs! With nearly 400,000 living below poverty and nearly 170,000 without employment how can we expect crime to decrease?!?!   36% of our brothers and sisters in Detroit live in poverty. In Buffalo and Milwaukee the numbers are at or above 27%.

The one true Goal of Occupy is Liberation: Practicing Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
When people ask what is the movement’s goal or goals, they want to know what it is that we hope to achieve. There is an important reason that this question is being asked. For some they want to know what to label our movement. They wish to do this because they want to pigeon hole us.

But the reality is this. Any movement even slightly hinting at a desire for sweeping and profound social justice, democratic rights and the liberation of human beings is seen as a leftist or movement. For the status quo such a movement is always a threat to be dealt with. Therefore, we should not concern ourselves with how we are “pigeon-holed”. We don’t need to talk about left and right. We only want to talk about right and wrong. And what has happened and is happening to millions of people here in the United States and around the world is wrong. The status quo is wrong. And to take our time or drag our feet is unacceptable.

There are also those people who want to know what the movement hopes to achieve, because they want to better understand how they can participate. People know what we are against. They want to know what we are for. Yes. Democracy is in the streets. Democracy should mean direct participation in the decision making process. But we have to get there. Our voices don’t trumpet loud enough to bring down the walls of oppression, exploitation, and just bad governance perpetuated by inhumane and unjust corporations and their lobbyists. For that we need the broader public. But the broader public needs to know what we are up to.

For so long people have been told that their political power is limited to a ballot for a Democrat or a Republican, but we can’t stop there. Each of these parties, despite its good and hardworking members who advocate for the common individual, is dominated by members who genuinely believe in the idea that when the wealthy do well, everyone else will do well. They believe that the government’s job is to give to the rich and then the rich can give to the middle class, and the middle class will lift up the poor through consumption. We’ve had nearly thirty years of this practice. And judging the look of things we haven’t gotten much better.

The election of President Barack Obama was a momentous occasion. Why? Yes. He represented the incarnation of part of Martin Luther King’s dream, a dream of radical equality and genuine social intercourse. He also promised to build a new economy from the bottom up and not the top down. But for whatever the reason or reasons, working people who have built the country, and endured increasing hardship have been made Atlas once again. Once again the Poor are sacrificed in the name of economic stability. The working people are called upon to bear the transgressions of the Rich? I, like many Americans was raised with the belief in merit.

The Rich believe in merit too. They believe that if they are clever enough and take more risk and get rich they deserve the right to dominate society. The problem with their “merit” is that they climb on the backs of the working class to get to where they got. They took risk. But they took risk with our future; they took risk with our children’s future. And this time they lost. I suppose we can call it a big Ponzi scheme. But the merit we believe in is different. We believe that those who contribute to society and not just to themselves deserve honor, dignity, respect, and social and economic security in the society they’ve helped create.

Some Concrete things we might demand:

The beginning of our constitution was the “prime directive” of our government and the organization of our society. And it is from this directive that the people grab hold of in their perpetual pursuit to guide us towards a more just society, in which all people may achieve the optimal amount of tranquility, social productivity, and joy giving the objective conditions of the whole of society.

1. A guaranteed minimum livable income for all who work 20 hours a week with premium pay for those who work longer. This allows for more people to be employed, while it increases the opportunity for people to engage in activities that will improve their community, households, families, and themselves. How can ask people to improve their station if they do not have time to study, read, and develop new skills for different jobs?
2. Public health care for all individuals—good health is essential to any dignified human existence. To deny it directly or indirectly through socio-economic inaccessibility to adequate facilities and services is a violation of the 14th amendment
3. Paid family medical leave
4. Just cause firing for all workers
5. Investment in cooperative worker enterprises
6. Re-investment in public and cooperative housing for all people (not just low income)
7. Earning two paid vacation days per month of employment
8. Tax credit for community service in key specified areas that are under served.

Environmental justice and Community Transformation:
1. Cleaning up our neighborhoods—providing grants for unemployed and the youth to clean up their neighborhoods
2. Renovation of useable vacant facilities to be used for community and public purposes
3. Creation of community governing boards that can not only advocate for local needs but also participate in the legislative process to transform their neighborhoods.
Civil Rights and achieving true equality:
1. Ending economic and social segregation in schools and the broader society.
2. Ending unjust laws that target certain groups of people: ex. Philly’s curfew law

In Solidarity and Love to all the Oppressed Peoples struggling for Liberation

Keon Skelton