Photo: Dylan Kelley"The landscape has changed significantly" said Burlington Chief of Police Mike Schirling, addressing a group of damp and emotionally exhausted participants of the Occupy Burlington movement. A few seconds later, an occupier burst into the room and announced that police outside were taking down tents and sealing off the entirety of Occupied City Hall Park in downtown Burlington. In seconds, much of the crowd rushed outside to the chants of "WHO'S PARK?-OUR PARK!-WHO'S CITY?-OUR CITY!"
Chief Schirling held his head in his hands. Clearly the conversation was, for the moment, over.
With the announcement by police, this weekend, that any tenting, sleeping, or camping activities City Hall Park is officially prohibited (and that such prohibitions will be strictly enforced), some occupiers and occupation supporters are expressing concern for their movement following the tragic death of Joshua Pfenning, a 35-year-old army veteran and park occupier who took his own life on Thursday afternoon.
Many of the concerns that are surfacing are the same as those that were discussed when the tents were first erected on the 28th of October. Among the concerns are the consistent and deliberate lack of specific goals, demands, and messaging on the park of occupations around the country and around the world. Sandy Baird, a professor of history politics, and law at Burlington College believes this not to be a weakness, but actually one of its primary strengths. "This movement does not seem to have specific demands. I think that's good because, in other words, it really can't be co-opted" explained Baird, "If you think of the two main criticisms that the occupiers are raising: one is to end greed. You can't end greed without ending capitalism."
Baird also commented on the particular difficulty of the Occupy movement in the United States, as opposed to the nonviolent revolutions of the Arab Spring, in regards to the absence of a specific figure or person at which to hurl its jest, "Most of the revolutions in other parts of the world have been against, I would say, real dictators. You know, Mubarek and the Arab Spring in particular." Baird further elaborated on the difficulties of the movement in the U.S.
"In this country it's harder to find who that political enemy is. In other countries it's easier because those countries don't pretend to be democracies. So in this country, the criticism I think has been mainly economic. And I think people have not aimed their criticism at also the government of the United States because the government of the United States is essentially a plutocracy. But I don't think people understand that as well about the U.S. as they do about the rest of the world."
In speaking to a variety of other occupiers and occupation supporters, (all of whom are quick to say that they can not and will not speak for the leaderless movement), the average passerby is likely to find a full spectrum of opinions, perspectives, and backgrounds. "I think we're at a stage in the movement when it's important to increase education and consciousness in order to build... big goals are essential to wide appeal. In the future I do believe that specific demands should and will be made as the people power increases" said Puja Gupta, a 28-year-old organizer in training at the Vermont Workers' Center who has supported the Burlington occupation from its earliest days and even braved frigid temperatures to sleep among the cluster of tents. "A variety of tactics are needed both within and outside the system in addition to support by the masses for the system to want to legitimize itself."
In addition supporting more specific goals as a method of increasing wider appeal for the movement, Gupta is also wary of the divisive nature of some of the movements chants, signs, and messaging. "I think thus far the 99% message has been incredibly effective in educating the masses on gross economic inequality. In order for the movement to grow it must recruit and sustain membership." Commenting on the necessity of gathering support from the entire spectrum, Gupta continued, "I believe we need the 99% and the 1% to come together a be 100% committed to systemic changes. People know what's happening and I think that shifting to more inclusive rather than divisive messaging can bring in more people." Smiling broadly, Gupta expressed unbridled enthusiasm as a rising organizer and spoke almost gleefully of the infectious nature of engaging in a rapidly growing movement. "It really is an addictive process, to be involved. Bottom line: action is necessary."
"The movement may be without a coherent message but that is what they're working towards. The slow, fair, and democratic method of generating consensus is obviously conceived in a desire for tangible solutions and a strong, unified message" was the distinctly coherent soundbite crafted by Aron Meinhardt, a 21-year-old student at Burlington College, when asked about his opinions regarding messaging and the demands of the Occupy movement. Meinhardt also noted that solutions for any problem of profound significance are always going to be more difficult to come by. "We can identify all the problems in a simple pamphlet or a sign, but to come up with realistic solutions to all these issues we'd need an entire book. We'd need volumes." Meinhardt also pointed to U.S. tradition and the right of the people to peaceably assemble as being linked to the particular discussion that has been generated by the occupation.
"I think protesting, a petition of the government for a redress of grievances, is as much of a patriotic imperative as anything else in the constitution. The occupation is like a Town Hall. It's a microcosm of democracy. It's a forum. People feel like something is wrong and it needs to be fixed, and it runs deeper than it seems, so we need to talk about it." Slightly echoing Meinhardt, Baird agrees that this move towards a more direct form of democracy and away from representative democracy is one of the critical aspects of the occupy movement. "They have established is a system of direct democracy. So that's their political goal, I think: the establishment of direct democracy. Bypassing representative government and the whole idea of a republic and instituting things like town meetings. If those were implemented we'd have a totally different society."
Though the pursuit of that different society continues in occupations around the world, the general feel about what is happening in Burlington in the wake of Pfenning's suicide remains up for debate. Sitting at the window of Muddy Waters cafe, Gupta considers the next step for Burlington's occupation. "I think what's most important is to keep morale high and to have more people involved. I think that the masses don't understand why there's no specific demands within the movement."
