Occupy Wall Street

Think about the demonstrations during “Occupy Wall Street”?  Do you remember all the reforms that came out of those demonstrations?  Changes in banking regulations?  Changes in the income tax code?  Changes in the way hedge funds operate?  An increase in workers’ wages and a corresponding decrease in the salaries of CEOs.

Of course you don’t, because they never happened.  Joe Hill said it best:  “Don’t mourn, organize.”  Demonstrations make you feel good.  I’ve been in enough of them to know, but I also know that by themselves they have little impact.  With social media and instant communications, demonstrations are even easier to put together, but to what end?

Police unions give millions in campaign contributions.  They have internal cohesion.  They testify at hearings, and they often successfully resist civilian review boards and elected officials.  They have organized power.

When I hear demonstrators say “Voting isn’t meaningful” or “I voted for years and nothing changed,” I cringe.  Do they really think a few signs and a few chants and a few marches will do more?

I am not saying people should not demonstrate.  It calls attention to a problem.  It brings people together in solidarity.  What I am saying is that with the demonstrations should come organization.  We have a right to peacefully assemble, but that “assembly” is also interpreted as the right to form groups.  Every demonstration should include organizers with a very long attention span taking names, emails, ands voter registrations.