[Campaignforrealdemocracy] Fwd: Occupy Article

[Mark Barrett]

 ah - a return to the question of 'unauthorised protest' ...


http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jason-reed/occupy-wall-street-mainst_b_993125.html?ref=tw

Occupy Wall Street <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street>is
heading for its third week of protests. The movement was hesitant in its
first steps, but it's now picking up momentum and spreading across the U.S.
>From its birth in New York, the '*Occupy*' premise now has a foothold; the
U.K is planning Occupy London Stock
Exchange<http://www.facebook.com/occupylondon?ref=ts&sk=info>.


The movement has been born out of pure frustration and the attrition of an
unjust financial system; an arguably feral system of fiscal authority. Those
who endorse the '*Occupy*' ethos seek change - and fairness - in a financial
crisis that was created through neoliberal economics.

There are, however, aspects that are simply not being addressed, and this is
further symbiotic of the modern world. The conventional media has only just
caught up with the *Occupy* movement, but it's taken far too long. Why has
it taken three weeks for the mainstream media to address such a significant
movement, especially when so many spectators were/are following the story?
Are the mainstream not supposed to break news? Why are so many people *still
* left in the dark? Are the mainstream deciding what actually constitutes as
news as opposed to reporting on it? For example, the Icelandic revolution
has received no
attention<http://newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-news/3057-a-story-missing-from-our-media-icelands-on-going-revolution.html>from
the mainstream, and when it has become such a poignant happening, why
do so few know of Iceland's
momentum<http://www.directdemocracyuk.com/blog/2011/06/icelands-constitutional-revolution.html>
?

Speaking on the UK, mainstream sources only began to report on the Occupy
Wall Street protests when the news broke that 700
arrests<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2044267/Occupy-Wall-Street-protests-spread-LA-Boston-Chicago-Denver-Seattle.html>had
been made owing to an "
*unauthorised protest*". The *Occupy* movement has, by enlarge, been
conducted in peace, and is arguably exemplary in its conduct. Maybe this in
itself is a worrying trend, that peaceful demonstrations don't receive
attention until violence or misconduct
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBC2gNRk63s>intervenes. Only when something
juicy is afoot do the mainstream turn a speculative eye. If society is
serious about abating the riots that have been incessant in
2011<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_riots#2011>,
then a voice has to be given back to those with something to say before
engorged emotion spills.

Mainstream media is failing the very people that it's supposed to keep
informed, and it doesn't just stop at *Occupy*. It's becoming increasingly
apparent that those who subscribe solely to mainstream media have a fatally
narrow view on the world. The myopic reporting has long become the stuff of
urban legend, but in the digital age, the once joke of mainstream media has
lost its punchline. No longer reliant on the big money making news companies
to inform of their stance on world affairs <http://www.outfoxed.org/>, the
internet and alternative sources often provide a platform for the words that
dare not cross the lines of corporate mainstream.

The RT news network <http://rt.com/> - specifically the Alyona
Show<http://rt.com/programs/alyona-show/>- will surely receive a fair
share of negative connotations from the right;
but left/right arguments should be negated for just a moment. The Alyona
Show presents a section on *what the mainstream miss* with some truly
astounding stories of media negligence.

Anyone who accumulates a broad range of news feeds will also attest to the
lack of brevity between the mainstream and the actuality of issues. The
Alyona Show has covered the *Occupy* movement since its inception, and once
more, it says a lot when you have to turn to foreign broadcast channels such
as RT and Al Jazeera <http://english.aljazeera.net/> to get a fuller
picture. The Huffington Post <http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/> also
provides a welcome stage to the voices and opinions that would perhaps be
overwhelmed by big business media.

It can certainly be agreed that we are in a global crisis, but to place full
onus on an economic crisis is fairly crass; we are facing turbulent times
far beyond finance. The West has lived under a benign democracy for many
years, and society is now feeling the strain from the severely
disenfranchised. Sure, the UK and U.S certainly enjoy many freedoms and
basic human rights that are not granted to other countries, but that's not
to rest on laurels. Freedoms are not concessions, they should be a given and
not treated as a state privilege; a fundamental necessity. There's a
politicians' rhetoric that exclaims "*be grateful you have the freedoms of
speech and expression*" and indeed, this is right, but it's also correct to
evoke other traits. The democratic right to protest peacefully and speak
your mind is the case in point, but it is being threatened at every turn.
The summer UK riots saw the British government jeopardise freedoms with the
erosion of the civil liberties surrounding social
media<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2025106/UK-riots-David-Camerons-clampdown-social-media-tools-like-Facebook-Twitter.html>.
The riots were deplorable, but this is not an excuse to restrict any media,
let alone a source that belongs society.

The differences between the UK riots and *Occupy Wall Street* are leagues
apart. There has been little to no violence in New York from protestors, but
as previously stated, it took the arrest of 700 people on the Brooklyn
Bridge in an "unauthorised protest" to receive any attention. What actually
is an unauthorised protest? Is this not an oxymoron to the highest degree?
The UK also faces parallel concessions on civil liberties: Parliament Square
was considered a no go area for protests; the UK comedian/activist Mark
Thomas <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Thomas> documented this dark hour
of British history in his show Seriously Organised
Criminal<http://www.markthomasinfo.co.uk/section_store/>.
To be told when and where it's ok to evoke a democratic right of free speech
and protest is contradictory to say the least.

So, as the *Occupy *movement spreads, and the UK's version of Occupy London
Stock Exchange <https://twitter.com/#%21/OccupyLSX> is set to run from the
15th October to the 12th December, it will be an interesting time indeed.
Both the media and protestors should be watched and evaluated to see how
they conduct themselves. Politicians desperately need to listen and put down
the dusty rhetoric.
 HuffPost Citizen Reporting




*Follow Jason Reed on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jasontron *
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