Tactics that will attract Oregon's 99% to Occupy

                As of the end of 2011, Occupy Portland is just beginning to take root in the community as a true movement of the people. As a member of Occupy Portland, my goal is to get Occupy Portland to the point where it takes hold within the entire state of Oregon. The way I see it, the part we play in this movement is primarily to mobilize the majority of Oregonians to the cause. So the resulting question is: how do we mobilize them?

                We’ve already gotten off to a good start with our direct action campaign, which is the backbone of any social movement. However, 42% of Portlanders support us, but 58% don’t yet. This raises two questions: why do six in ten Portlanders say they oppose us; and why is our movement so small if four in ten Portlanders say they support us? The answer to both is that the majority of the public disapproves of our tactics and is thus unwilling to join the movement as active members, even though many of them recognize that they support what we stand for. Others are simply afraid of joining because they think the only way to help is to participate in direct action, which conjures aversive images of riot cops and pepper-spray violence.

Occupy Portland and other Occupies could modify their direct action campaigns in several ways to mitigate these effects: we could avoid confrontations with the police entirely from now on; and we could avoid doing anything that could be construed to be impeding our fellow 99 percenters’ right to work. However, these steps taken on their own could diminish our public visibility unless we also diversify our actions.

One way to do this is to create a spectacle that will capture the public’s and media’s attention with comedy, music, street theater, and infiltration of the artistic sphere.

Another is to target our actions so they directly affect a person or entity which has wronged us. I think Occupy Portland’s bank shut down was a great example of this.

Another good idea would be to occupy the sidewalk outside politicians’ houses, which will infuriate them, as well as their neighbors, who will blame the politician. (This approach has the added benefit of being a good way to put pressure on politicians to vote in accordance with the will of the people.)

Another tactic is to aim for relatively easy victories, such as passing city ordinances against corporate personhood, and to snowball these small victories into larger and larger ones. Combined with the appropriate media coverage and spin, this gives the public the impression that we’re a force to be reckoned with and that change is possible. This will motivate them to join us.

What we need most of all is a triggering event, like the Rosa Parks incident which sparked the Civil Rights movement. I think this is tough because it’s hard to demonstrate the unjustness of the laws we’re fighting against with actions. I think the best we can hope for is occupying the centers of power, including state legislatures, Congress, and the White House. 

Ultimately, the success of our movement depends on how effectively we can mobilize the full 99% to our cause. We must be smart and use tactics that will inspire them to act.