Social movement expert: Critics missing point on Occupy Wall Street
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University professor of political science says many observers and critics of the Occupy Wall Street movement are missing the point of most protests, which is to get people talking about an issue.
"People keep saying the protestors are unorganized and lacking a policy platform, but those criticisms are misplaced because social movements rarely start out protesting over detailed policy proposals," says professor S. Laurel Weldon, author of "When Protest Makes Policy: How Social Movements Represent Disadvantaged Groups." "The way social movements influence politics is by getting new issues on public agendas or popularizing new perspectives on old problems, not by presenting detailed analyses of diverse policy proposals.
"The tea party, women's movements and civil rights movements were all partly motivated by the fact that people were unable to see their concerns addressed through regular institutional channels, such as elections or political parties."
Occupy Wall Street began on Sept. 17, and groups in other cities have organized their own events to protest what they see as economic inequality.
"Protests are successful when they generate attention or influence the political agenda," she says. "For example, the Occupy Wall Street protests are forcing elected officials, political candidates and business leaders to respond to the protestors, and in doing so they give attention to these issues.
"These protestors are shaping the public agenda, and this could be sustained as we move into the presidential election."
Other critics also have complained that not all the protestors are homeless. This misses the point in two ways, Weldon says. First, the so-called "other 99 percent" does not refer to only poor, homeless or low-income people. Second, a broad range of people often protest in support of ideals like justice, such as when abolitionists protested slavery. Similarly, billionaire and investor Warren Buffet has made public comments about the unfairness of the system of taxation.
"One does not need to be poor to think that extreme inequality or servitude is unjust," Weldon says. "It is odd that there is so much focus on the economic background of individual protestors. When a group of women protest against sexual violence, it doesn't mean they are all victims - it means they are upset by how women are treated."
Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu
Source: S. Laurel Weldon, 765-494-4185, weldons@purdue.edu