The Occupy Wall Street movement is growing in Norman after three meetings were held on campus last week to decide on the group’s course of action.
Occupy Norman identifies itself as an independent organization that operates in solidarity with Occupy OKC, Occupy Wall Street and all occupations worldwide, according to their website.
Occupy is a leaderless resistance movement with people from various backgrounds and political persuasions seeking to end corporate greed and corruption by replicating the nonviolent tactics deployed in Arab Spring.
Occupy Norman was started by OU students and Norman residents, most of whom were OU graduates. It is still in its infancy stage, and its early meetings focused on the logistics of voicing participants’ dissatisfaction with excessive corporate influence on politics.
Some local participants were first-time protesters such as Brielle King, a political science sophomore at Rose State College who learned about the movement on Al Jazeera and decided to join the cause.
“Our plight is for justice,” King said. “It is not limited to the people in Wall Street only. Corporations shouldn’t be demonized, but I do think everyone should be treated fairly.”
At the group’s first general assembly, Norman resident Brian Husted emphasized supporters must understand the basic financial system protestors are rejecting.
“We need to learn about how derivatives work so that when the media asked what we are campaigning for, we could be clear about what we stand,” Husted said.
His enthusiasm for complex financial operation was not shared by many campaigners; however, it has inspired others to facilitate discussions about the socioeconomic problems.
No explicit agenda has been finalized by the Norman chapter, and no events have been announced as of yet.
However, some people feel action needs to take place soon to sustain the cause.
“We are losing traction,” said Mary Francis, OU alumna and president of Voices of Oklahoma.
Robert Cole, another campaigner, echoed the statement on the official Occupy Norman Facebook page.
“Talk is good but action is better. Time spent on preparation is time lost on action,” Cole said in the post.
Francis and Cole are not the only ones ready to see action from Occupy Norman. Self-described outlaw poet Zakk Flash provided his perspective.
“We got friends in the circle around the world. The first question is, what do we do here? What can I do to get attention from Wall Street?” Flash asked.
The campaigners suggest an improvement in transparency and accountability could help the movement’s success, but what they see as an end to their demand remains unclear.
“Of course, there will be signposts on the way, but I am a big believer in continuous revolution,” Flash said. “The autocrats kept invading our ways.”
OU alumnus David Slemmons said each person has his own definition of Occupy’s success.
“Each of us has individual milestones,” he said. “The fact that we come out to voice our concerns in unity is a pretty big achievement already.”
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ZakkFlash 7 months, 1 week ago
To Whom It May Concern (in other words, all members of the working class):
This article has been edited to almost unrecognizable proportions. At no point in Chan's interview did I 'wonder what [we] can do from Norman.' That is a blatant misrepresentation of facts.
The original submission from Chan was thus:
'When asked to suggest a solution to end corporate dominance, some activists cited grassroots initiatives, such as Food Co-Op and Engineers without Borders, as good agencies to begin practical changes on a civil level. Flash said, “We need multi-faceted response. We don’t need to conform to the hegemonies that are set for us to fail. We need to move. We don’t jump the gun. We need to turn slogans to a continued, inspiring action.”'
This is a word-by-word quote, as recorded by Chan AND as submitted by him, directly.
As for the question of what activists can do here, the solution is simple: identify what it is the plutocrats need from you to maintain the status quo - whether finances, information, labor, or legitimacy - and deny it to them. The powerbrokers have maintained that the status quo is inevitable, natural, and beneficial to all classes. This is a lie. Raise the cost of the status quo - financially, socially, politically - and you make it impossible to maintain.
I implore the editors of this article to represent the facts as they were given. This is an issue of immediate public interest and the entire direction of the article has been altered; editorializing belongs on the Editorial page.
Sincerely,
Zakk Flash