This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Nov. 9, 2011 - Media pundits have criticized the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement for its disharmonious demands that range from taxing the ultra rich to addressing social and economic injustice. Long-time activist and labor organizer, Michael Prokosch, dismisses these critiques with a different perspective:
"The Occupy movement, with its 1 percent vs. 99 percent thing, is brilliant. Let's face it, the Right Wing's strategies have been brilliant, too, their slogans are just vague enough for people to read their own stuff into it," Prokosch said. "The pundits who are on the Occupier's case for not being specific enough are just wrong. Their messages leave room for diverse groups of people to join in."
Prokosch, head of the New Priorities Network (NPN), will be in town Nov. 10. He plans to discuss community and labor organizing and the relationship between military spending, unemployment and the nation's budget crisis. One of the first Occupy demonstrations Prokosch observed in Boston, his home town, touch on all the topics his organization champions.
"People started chanting: 'How do we solve the deficit? End the wars, tax the rich.' So, there is consciousness there. It's just a matter of building relationships and getting this on the national agenda as part of the solution."
The Peace Economy Project, a local group that advocates conversion from a military-based to a "more stable, peace-based economy" is hosting the free event at the Regional Arts Commission. PEP is one of the nearly 30 peace, racial and economic justice organizations that joined forces with the New Priorities Network. According to the agencies literature, the Pentagon's budget has doubled since 1998 to a staggering $725 billion, which is more than all other discretionary spending combined. The groups cross-collaborative agenda is to convince Congress to drastically cut military spending and "move the money" into areas that will create jobs and restore vital public services throughout the country.
Prokosch maintains that the diverse crowds showing up at the Occupy demonstrations reflect vast constituencies with different agendas but shared interests.
"The thing that's happening with this dynamic is that because we have been working beyond the peace movement with union and community organizations on fair tax issues, on budget issues ... now everyone is starting to come up with the same platform, which is create jobs, save services, tax millionaires and corporations, end the wars and cut the Pentagon's budget."
Mainstreaming left-leaning movements, he stresses, is the only way to become a formidable, long-lasting force against the savvy far-right political machine and the litany of lobbyists stumping for current or increased levels of military spending.
"There's no doubt that the right has cleaned our clocks. They out-organized us in every way because they're basically very single-minded," Prokosch explained. "The moment I think we're in now, is one where labor unions, community organizations, environmental groups and other change organization have realized that single issue and single constituency organizing don't work for us anymore. It's killed us and kept us apart. It doesn't allow us to go to the working person with a program that encompasses their lives. Whereas, an overall approach to solving economic and racial injustice problems allow us to build something much bigger."
Prokosch points out that "taxing the rich" is a seductive approach for some but it's still a single-issue strategy that will not create jobs or protect vulnerable citizens.
"What good is it to tax the rich if the Pentagon eats up all the additional taxes?"
The challenge for the New Priority Network and other progressive organizations, he says, is to avoid "transactional organizing" -- strategies with that focus on specific pieces of legislation rather than "big values" changes. It's a limited appeal, he says, that won't encourage bi-partisan and common-interest collaborations.
"Every year, Congress decides how to make cuts, and each year (as it pertains to discretionary spending) the far right says 'cut more, cut more, cut more'," Prokosch explained. "Now, we have the opportunity to mobilize a very broad movement that says 'create jobs, save services, tax millionaires and rich corporations and cut military spending' to keep a hospital in St. Louis from closing, to hold onto the programs that we have, to have some sort of job creation."
Prokosch, 63, has been an activist of various causes since the late 1960s as a Harvard University student. The Occupy and NPN's movements have gained traction mostly due to the economy's woeful state. For longevity, however, activists must never underestimate "brotherhood" and common interest, he adds. It's the valuable lesson that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., shared in his 1967 "Beyond Vietnam" speech:
"Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores and thereby speed the day when "every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain."
Sylvester Brown, Jr. is a freelance writer and founder of When We Dream Together, a local nonprofit dedicated to urban revitalization. He also serves on the board of the Peace Economy Project.