Some Occupy Wall Street, Others live in a Cave. Just do it peacefully

by Alessandro Batazzi

“7 Months of Protests; Millions of Tweets; 7000 Arrests; 113 U.S. Cities: Occupy Wall Street”: Film-maker Kat Keene Hogue ends with these words her short documentary on the first seven months of a protest trying to change the world as we know it. The video, published on The Guardian website[1], tells the story of the Occupy Movement, its birth and how it spread to the rest of the world. It is hard to identify the goals of the Movement on a global scale, but one thing for certain is that it is made up of people disappointed by the global financial system.

In the US, the Occupy Movement is calling for bank reform, equal distribution of income, a reduction of the influence that corporations play on internal politics, and forgiveness of student loan debt. In October 2011, student loan debt was debt to have reached a total of $1 trillion[2]. In Italy, on the other hand, young people have been protesting against the power that banks hold as well as the condition of the job market. Too many people in Italy are precarious workers, and the new government is struggling to pass a legislative reform to successfully address the issue.

Now, after 7 months, the Occupy Movement is expected to celebrate International Labour Day on May 1 with massive protests all over the world. It will be interesting to see the events that will unfold in Chicago, where “The world’s military and political elites, heads of state, 7,500 officials from 80 nations, and more than 2,500 journalists will be there for a rare G8 and NATO simultaneous summit”[3].

In this setting, people have responded in different ways. Violent crackdowns and forced evictions took place and were reported by news all over the world. Others, part of the “1%”, responded with a leaflet and media campaign criticising the Movement (Please read the transcript of the leaflet HERE[4]) and stressing that “Wall Street” will survive the fight, and win it too.

Amidst all this, an interesting book based on a real story came out; it’s called “The Man Who Quit Money”, by Mark Sundeen. The book tells the story of Daniel James Shellabarger, now known as ‘Suelo’, who stopped using money in 2000. His story gained attention in 2009, when it was picked up by the international media. BBC says[5] Suelo “survives by harvesting wild foods and eating roadkill. He has no job, no bank account and does not accept government welfare. In fact, Suelo has no money at all.” From his cave in Utah, Suelo updates a blog (http://zerocurrency.blogspot.com/) where he shares his ideas and philosophy with anyone willing to read it. It is just a man living in nature and with nature. He says that this is not a solution; it’s just a way of rebelling to the system.

As May 1^st is getting closer, the message that people should get from this is this: Be angry, be upset, be rebellious, be against the system, but do it peacefully. Go in the streets, scream, sing, yell, but don’t go burning stuff or fighting. Otherwise, you have already lost.

P.S.

In case anyone would consider Suelo a “muncher”, he doesn’t accept welfare nor food stamps or any form of government benefit. Just donations from anyone who wants to help, but he is no beggar.

[1] The Guardian, “Occupy Wall Street: the story behind seven months of protest – video”, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/apr/13/occupy-seven-months-of-protest-video.

[2] Cauchon, D. « Student loans outstanding will exceed $1 trillion this year », USA Today, 10/25/2011, http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/college/story/2011-10-19/student-loan-debt/50818676/1.

[3]Adbusters, “Occupy Chicago – May 1^st”, http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/occupywallstreet.

[4]Duclos, S. “Leaflets Dropped On Occupy Chicago: ‘We Are Wall Strett’”, 29/10/2011, http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2011/10/ows-news-leaflets-dropped-on-occupy.html.

[5] BBC, “The American who quit money to live in a cave”, 18/04/2012, See the Video on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17762033.