Here in Washington, the winter is over.
Cherry blossoms are in bloom, birds are singing, and folks in my
neighborhood are already mowing their lawns. Spring is always a
joyous time, a relief after several months of darkness and cold. It
is as if the world had fallen asleep, and is just now waking up.
This spring is particularly special. We
just marked six
months since the beginning of Occupy Wall Street. The Occupy
movement was an autumn counterpart to the Arab Spring that swept
across North Africa and the Middle East last year. We sought to
participate in a living, grassroots democracy where each person has a
voice, regardless of the size of our wallets. Yet even as we occupied
public spaces across North America and the world, we knew that the
fall was just the beginning. Even greater things were in store for the
American Spring.
Now, spring has arrived. What does this
American Spring look like? In a word: different. The initial
groundswell of spontaneous demonstrations, encampments and direct
action is giving way to new strategies and tactics. Encampment,
street protest and rallies - these all have a place in our
toolkit. But in Occupy 2.0, we are working to develop organization
that can sustain a long-term movement for justice. The American
Autumn was an expression of our passionate refusal to cooperate with
unjust structures, and the American Spring is about developing
positive alternatives to those structures. We are not merely
protesting - we are organizing.
One of the most common critiques of the
Occupy movement this fall was that we refused to have "demands."
Rather than attempt to promulgate a list of policy positions for the
movement, we focused on a very simple message: "A small group of
wealthy individuals and giant corporations are dominating civic life
and political expression, and we will accept nothing less than the
restoration of a government of the people, by the people and for the
people." This was exactly the right tone to set in the fall. It
was a stroke of collective genius that we did not attempt to nail
down specific policy objectives to deliver to lawmakers. That would
have played right into the hands of a corrupt system that has long
experience in dealing with idealistic troublemakers.
As we emerge into the American Spring,
our simple message of economic democracy has resonated throughout the
culture. Talk of "the ninety-nine percent" and "economic
inequality" has become a staple of our public discourse, and the
Occupy movement is part of the national narrative. The work of the
American Autumn is complete. Occupy 1.0 was successful in delivering
our very simple message of grassroots democracy and economic justice.
Now comes the hard part. It is no longer enough to sound the alarm
about the threats facing our democracy and the lives of ordinary
working people. Those with ears to hear have gotten that message. The
time has come to mobilize for specific objectives and concrete
victories.
The Occupy
Church is embracing the American Spring by focusing on a few
areas where we believe we can make a real difference. One example is
our partnership in foreclosure resistance with Occupy Our Homes DC.
Working alongside homeowners and tenants in Prince
George's County, we have already helped to ensure that Bertina
Jones - an accountant, grandmother, and pillar in her family and
community - will
be able to stay in her home, despite the unjust dealings of Bank
of America and Freddie Mac. And we are just getting warmed up. Our
ultimate goal is to build a base of ordinary citizens who are
equipped to stand up to predatory banks.
Another way we are moving forward is by
developing materials to help congregations, organizations and
denominations invest their funds in institutions that do not exploit
the poor. We are in the early planning stages of a program to equip
the Christian community to engage in stockholder activism, and to
move its money out of the most exploitative banks and into local
banks and credit unions.
One unique way that Occupy Church is
participating in the American Spring is through the development of a
theological basis for this movement. As Christians, we feel called to
participate in the Occupy movement because of our commitment to the
Lord Jesus Christ, who began his earthly ministry by declaring that
he
had come to bring good news to the poor. We understand the
Jubilee
tradition of debt forgiveness as being central to Jesus' message. As
we develop a scriptural understanding of how God is at work in the
lives of the poor, we are discovering how the Holy Spirit calls us to
the work of reconciliation and economic justice. In addition to
individual writing and study, we are exploring whether Occupy Church
might release a declaration outlining our sense of how the Spirit is
speaking to the churches in our present context.
If the American Autumn was about
raising awareness, the American Spring will be a time of building on
that basic awareness and moving into a positive program for change.
While Occupy 1.0 was primarily centered in public encampments, the
next phase of this movement is playing out in offices and living
rooms, coffee shops and schools. This spring, we are rolling up our
sleeves and getting our hands dirty in the messy business of
grassroots organizing.
We are just getting started. The events
of the last six months have raised up countless new leaders with a
huge range of experience, skills and spiritual gifts. This spring, we
will begin the process of nurturing these emerging leaders, equipping
ourselves for the work that God is calling us into. We know from
first-hand experience that the Lord calls the most unlikely of people
to do God's work in the world. As unworthy as we are, we in the
Occupy Church pray that Christ will walk beside us and teach us how
live into this calling. We trust in his promise that he
will never leave us, even as he invites us into work that we are
incapable of doing on our own.
What is your sense of our next steps as
a movement for economic justice and freedom? What are some concrete
actions you feel called to this spring? How can we move into this
American Spring, embracing a long-term struggle to make visible the
Reign of God?
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