Its becoming a bit repetitive now, the constant refrain of the media, that the Occupy Movement doesn't have a vision of what it wants and what it stands for. The Occupy Movement stands for a great many things but foremost and self evidently it stands for a different kind of politics. This is a kind of politics where finance and privilege aren't the only means to power; a politics where discussion and debate are used to explore issues in the kind of detail that the complexity of a decision demands. You could argue that it stands for a somewhat naive approach to the media, as time and again the protesters struggle to express their message when confronted by the reductionist constraints of the sound bite. Whilst it is a naivety that might allow their opponents to attack them, it is a naivety that lies at the heart of who they are. That naivety is also a statement about the kind of media that we want. Do we want a media that misrepresents and exaggerates? Do we want a media that is carefully managed and manipulated by the powerful. As the News International scandal begins to fade into memory we need to contrast the sincerity of the occupiers with the actions of those who where embroiled in the triangle of disinformation that included News International, our politicians and our police.
So, far from standing for nothing, Occupy represents a new approach to politics and the demand for a media that sees the people as their vested interest - and therein lies the essence of what Occupy is really about - the people. It is not for no reason that the Occupy Movement has taken root in the USA, a country that has unparalleled wealth juxtaposed with levels of poverty and social inequality akin to that of Turkey. Whilst the US political and media establishment presents a vision of a nation with opportunity for all, the current financial crisis has made it clear that opportunity is no longer the preserve of all Americans and it is this realisation that has begun to mobilise America. As is the case in the UK and across much of Europe, it is the poor, the young and the lower middle classes that are paying the price of the global financial crisis. It is the people whose homes were repossessed, the people whose jobs have disappeared and the people whose benefits are being removed. Whilst at the same time banks and businesses return to profits and bonuses, that have been part funded by the very people who have lost everything. It is this sense of injustice that underpins the emergence of the Occupy Movement.
If Occupy is about the iniquity of the West's internal response to its financial crisis, it is also about a re-awakening of what has been long understood: that we are One World and that present levels of poverty and conflict are indefensible. So the Occupy movement is about peace, fairness and global justice. Its about western governments supporting human rights in a way that is consistent and supported by agreed international standards and organisations. So for example rather than NATO intervening in Libya to protect the people of Benghazi from genocide (and only incidentally put in place a government they approve of in order to have better access to Libyan oil) - they mandate, resource and equip the United Nations to do so on behalf of the global community. In this way the conflict might have found a more inclusive resolution at an earlier stage and it might not have ended with the appalling spectacle of Qaddafi's violation and murder.
Occupy is not about smashing the state or world revolution, it is about the people and their interests being placed at the centre of how the world works. It is about ' the people' reclaiming and re-occupying the world's institutions and processes. So that it is not the trade in obtuse financial derivatives that motivates a bank to speculate and lend - but a business's need to invest in the things they make or the things they do. We are approaching a time when the world's economic institutions will have to come to terms with the reality that in a world of finite resources, growth and profit at all costs cannot be sustained indefinitely, and that one day we will have to choose between the freedom to speculate and the freedom to live and the freedom to work.
The solutions to these problems will not come through the extravagent claims of media savvy politicians who promise much but consistently fail to deliver but from the actions and activism of the people. What the politicians, the media and institutions that mock the Occupy Movement fail to understand, is that what we are seeing is the begining of a movement that will one day reclaim our economy, our politcs and our futures.
