On the Soapbox: Grow Up and Occupy Your Life

Grow Up and Occupy Your Life

Occupy is not so much a new phenomenon as the latest incarnation of a trend in political movements, a trend which sees the politics of protest rejecting hierarchy and centralised control while diverging from leftist rhetoric and its focus on the state. This trend is driven by a genuinely democratic impulse, where democracy is understood as being rooted in the people, not in governments.

Alongside this interpretation of democracy is the notion of prefiguration – the idea that we ought to start building the world we want to see, here and now. Rather than waiting for governments to implement demands or anticipating liberation through revolution, we must build, from the bottom up, a different world. Movements based on prefiguration refuse to leave politics in Westminster (or the Stock Exchange), instead working to create democracy in everyday lives.

Occupy has been quite successful in bringing democratic politics into the sphere of its own occupations but, as with other movements of its kind, has failed to follow through with anything more widespread. Simply moving the arena of the political from Westminster to the Occupy camps is not enough, even if it is a feel-good beginning. The idea that Occupy is ‘new’ allows its supporters to feel that now, with these new ideas, they really can change the world – but are we just seeing a rehash of everything that’s gone before, wrapped in a freshly painted banner? Believing – or pretending – that something is new allows us to make mistakes, to fail to achieve goals ‘immediately’, precisely because we’re ‘just getting started’.

It may be time to look more honestly at the history of prefigurative politics, to accept that the ideas of Occupy have been articulated for many, many years. From the 17th Century Diggers, to the student protests of 1968, from the anti-roads blockades of the early 90s, to the summit mobilisations and climate camps of the recent past – the rhetoric has always been more or less the same: “We’re building a new world… This is what democracy looks like!” For how long can we keep on starting, and starting again? It’s time we start asking why we never get very far, to consider that perhaps the current tactics of political protest are failing, and to look for practical solutions.

These may lie less in attention-grabbing stunts than in paying attention to the everyday details of our lives. Democracy could be inserted into every corner and crevice. It could be invited into our communities and workplaces, our habits, our relationships. We could reject the carrots of the capitalist state, as well as fighting its sticks. By consuming less and differently, by sharing and communicating and organising with our neighbours, by refusing to support companies and institutions which we know are anti-democratic, we can begin to do what we say we’re doing – building another world, not just one more protest camp.

By Matt Wilson, a member of Radical Routes – a network of radical co-ops whose members are committed to working for positive social change: www.radicalroutes.org.uk/