The form of OWS seems to be changing as time passes. It is becoming more organized and structured. Its relationships with outside interest groups and institutions are shaping it as it matures, particularly as it garners more resources and outside influences. It seems to be moving through organizational development very rapidly, and it isn’t clear what the end point will be.

Lech Walesa is correct in saying, “They are protesting the ‘unfairness’ of an economy that enriches a few and ‘throws the people to the curb.” Capitalism needs to be saved from itself again, not through bailouts but through actual reform.

Yet the system has not successfully been reformed by politicians, which to me is an indication that the US political system, not just capitalism, is in need of serious reform as well. This is perhaps the greater issue, at least for me: that is, restore democracy by getting the money out of politics (I’ve signed the petition!), and seperate corporation and state. Politicians cannot be trusted to do this, which is why people throughout the US, and the world, have taken to the streets.

Perhaps it’s not radical enough, but one way that I am turning my speech into action is through the “Get Money Out” campaign to constitutionally amennd “Citizens United.” There’s more substance to this movement than Russ Feingold’s Progressive’s United.

And while our efforts may seem like nothing more than another lobby campaign, or merely a bandaid–in the face of our “prevailing social order,” bought-government, and for-profit healthcare…. “Get Money Out” is a movement promoting the voices of living, breathing citizens, and turning our voices into legislative action. It’s certainly a start.

http://www.getmoneyout.com/?recruiter_id=190113

But this victory can by no means considered final. Rather, it tasks us with the question: “Where do we go from here?”

If this successful moment of resistance against the coercion of the State is to signal a turning-point for this movement, it must now address the more serious political problems that confront it. It is crucial that the participants in these demonstrations ask themselves where they stand in history, and more adequately conceptualize the problem of capitalist society.

Though Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy [insert location here] in general still contains many problematic aspects, it nevertheless presents an opportunity for the Left to engage with some of the nascent anti-capitalist sentiment taking shape there. To this point, most of the protests have only expressed a sort of intuitive discontent with the status quo. In order to get a better sense of what they are up against, they must develop a more adequate understanding of the prevailing social order. Hopefully, the demonstrations will lead to a general radicalization of the participants’ politics, and a commitment to the longer-term project of social emancipation.

To this end, I have written up a rather pointed Marxist analysis of the OWS movement so far that you might find interesting:

“Reflections on Occupy Wall Street: What it Represents, Its Prospects, and Its Deficiencies