Monthly Archives: December 2011
Whither the Occupy Movement?
Image by Michael Kappel via Flickr
By Arun Gupta
With the forcible closure of major occupations across the country through a combination of police repression and official disinformation, the movement is at a crossroads.
Filed under Occupy Movement
Fear and occupation in red America (Salon)
In Wyoming and Idaho, the movement confronts a conservative reality
BY ARUN GUPTA
Occupy protesters on the Capitol steps in Boise, Idaho. (Credit: AP/Jessie L. Bonner)
TOPICS: OCCUPY WALL STREET, OCCUPY BOISE, OCCUPY MOVEMENT
BOISE, Idaho — One talked, the other snickered. The talker wore a red Harley-Davidson jacket and a salt-and-pepper poof of hair and drooping mustache. ” While the snickerer watched, the talker harangued Jon Howard, a “marginally employed” stagehand, about whether the Boise occupation was legal, and Jon said it was. The talker wanted to know whether they were paying for the electricity they were using on the grounds of the old Ada County Courthouse, and Jon said they were. A moment earlier I had sensed the tension and bounded over, looking for a reason to escape the wild-eyed “home-church” Christian pastor I had made the mistake of engaging.
It didn’t take long for the talker to get a look at me and launch into an “all you left-wing supporters of Obama” monologue. I mentioned I was an out-of-town observer and asked if he was with the Tea Party.
“I’m a conservative. And an American,” he said.
Filed under Occupy Movement
Occupation musings in Santa Fe
Michelle Fawcett and Arun Gupta describe some of the insights and experiences travelling across the country to visit occupation sites with Mary-Charlotte Domandi of Santa Fe Radio Cafe.
Listen: http://www.santaferadiocafe.org/podcasts/?p=1688
Related articles
- Visualizing the Rust Belt occupation (Salon) (occupyusatoday.com)
- Arundhati Roy: ‘The people who created the crisis will not be the ones that come up with a solution’ (Guardian) (occupyusatoday.com)
Filed under Occupy Movement
What next for the Occupy movement?
Excerpts from a talk by Arun Gupta in Marfa, Texas where he discusses the Occupy Movement, his experiences meeting occupiers during his and Michelle Fawcett’s travels, the Democratic party, and the potential of the movement. Video produced by Michelle Fawcett.
Filed under Occupy Movement
Arundhati Roy: ‘The people who created the crisis will not be the ones that come up with a solution’ (Guardian)
The prize-winning author of The God of Small Things talks about why she is drawn to the Occupy movement and the need to reclaim language and meaning.
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 November 2011
Sitting in a car parked at a gas station on the outskirts of Houston, Texas, my colleague Michelle holds an audio recorder to my cellphone. At the other end of the line is Arundhati Roy, author of the Booker Prize-winning The God of Small Things, who is some 2,000 miles away, driving to Boston.
“This is uniquely American,” I remark to Roy about interviewing her while both in cars but thousands of miles apart. Having driven some 7,000 miles and visited 23 cities (and counting) in reporting on the Occupy movement, it’s become apparent that the US is essentially an oil-based economy in which we shuttle goods we no longer make around a continental land mass, creating poverty-level dead-end jobs in the service sector.
This is the secret behind the Occupy Wall Street movement that Roy visited before the police crackdowns started. Sure, ending pervasive corporate control of the political system is on the lips of almost every occupier we meet. But this is nothing new. What’s different is most Americans now live in poverty, on the edge, or fear a descent into the abyss. It’s why a majority (at least of those who have an opinion) still support Occupy Wall Street even after weeks of disinformation and repression.
In this exclusive interview for the Guardian, Roy offers her thoughts on Occupy Wall Street, the role of the imagination, reclaiming language, and what is next for a movement that has reshaped America’s political discourse and seized the world’s attention.
Filed under Economy, Occupy Movement
Arun K. Gupta 