The Occupy Wall Street Movement

By Ken Russell in Articles

reflections on the Occupy Movement; the moving of the Spirit in our time?

Perhaps becoming of the undemonstrative and quietly spoken man he is, Chris Laidlaw's visit to Dunedin last week came and went without much fanfare. The media were singularly quiet in retrospect, and perhaps because two of his three appearances were promoted as live video streams from the University's media production unit, it is not surprising that attendances were small and low key.
All Black, Rhodes scholar, historian, diplomat, author, and in recent years, regional councillor, media host and interviewer, he brings a clear and consistent bent towards an intelligent commitment to social justice in all facets of life. Chris Laidlaw is a man to respect, his questions penetrating, his opinions well informed. He is also one of undoubted moral courage, as witness his books critiquing New Zealand rugby, its current state, its future, and the threat posed to the national game by corporate interests and professionalism.
But for this edition of Connections I want to refer to just one penetrative observation among many I have recovered from scribbled notes on the day. Doubtless it was the historian speaking to the contemporary scene when Laidlaw made the remark that the Occupy Wall St movement, and its proliferation to 1500 cities around the world is the 21st century equivalent of the english Peasants Revolt of 1381.
It being at least 50 yrs since I read anything about the Peasants Revolt I did a quick take on the facts as per the internet.
The revolt was sparked by a trebling of the hated poll tax across England, a tax to fund the ongoing cost of the war in France. The heaviest impact of the unpopular tax was on the peasantry and a movement to refuse payment grew, perhaps the first organised civil disobedience in english history. Attempts to collect the tax by force were harsh and punitive, but proved increasingly difficult. The rebellion was no sudden manifestation as the peasantry, with every good reason, had fostered a deep hatred and suspicion of the upper classes who relentlessly exploited their labour and ground them into poverty.
The rebels found a spokesman in John Ball, a priest imprisoned for his outspoken advocacy of the plight of the poor. The rebels released Ball, occupied a cathedral and listened to his sermon on the theme "when Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?" The next day they crossed London Bridge, and confronted the respective seats of power, royalty and the church, demanding a radical set of reforms, in particular fair wages, rents and taxes. A new champion emerged in Wat Tyler, a man driven by the notion that all Englishmen should be equal under the King, to whom all should owe allegiance under God.
Such was the size and influence of the rebellion, and the inability of the army to crush it (most being absent in France) the 14 yr old King Richard II rode out to meet them with a promise of pardon, abolition of the poll tax and assurances he would bring in just reforms. Tyler, committed to a non-violent revolution of the people, implicitly believed the King. The rebels rejoiced, but their euphoria was short lived. Only days later, at a subsequent meeting, Tyler was attacked and killed, and harsh recriminations followed. Tyler's head was impaled on London bridge, the leaders were hunted down and executed.
While the Revolt can only be seen as a failure, it is reckoned to mark the beginning of the end of serfdom in England. And while all of Richard's promises were revoked and feudalism continued to heap hardship and misery on peasantry to sustain the wealth and privilege of the lords and gentry, the poll tax was never reinstated. It also marked a point where a measure of justice was available to the working classes, and where to some degree a royal order for minimum wages and fair rents was set in place.
Indeed, Chris Laidlaw, the parallels are not hard to see.
There have been times in the development of fair and just nationhood when an overwhelming consensus of freedom- loving people has been overtaken by a collective rage at the consuming greed and corruption of the 1%, serving their own ends and insuring their own continued wealth and privilege to the growing disadvantage of the 99%. In the Western world a growing groundswell agrees that this is such a time. Beginning in Wall St NY where the giant banks received enormous handouts and bailouts from the public purse, supposedly to keep them solvent and save the peoples' money, with arrogant disdain presidents directors and ceo's awarded themselves enormous golden handshakes and bonuses. And this despite their own culpability in putting the banks in jeopardy. It was not a new phenomenon, and on further scrutiny the entire capitalist system in America and beyond was seen to exhibit the familiar massive corporate selfishness and greed. The system itself was seen in all its awfulness, as prospering the few to the detriment and growing despair of the many - hence the motto of Occupy, "We are the 99%."
Like an Aussie forest fire the Occupy Movement has spread around the western world, from New York to London to the Octagon, Dunedin. It is an authentic people's movement, claiming the human right to occupy public space to press its claims for fairness and justice, peaceably and reasonably. It is an ancient right. sanctioned, if not clearly defined, in every decent bill of rights.
It seems to me it is a small price to pay that the grass in the Octagon has been trampled and muddied, and the trespass notice of the DCC disregarded. Indeed, it is to the everlasting credit of the Dunedin police that they are mindful of the rights of peaceful assembly provided by the Bill of Rights. Not forgetting, either, that the police are citizens too, and along with the majority of the 99% they recognise that in the New Zealand and global context the eyes of the world can be instantaneously turned on Dunedin. Much more is at stake than a small unauthorised camp in the central city, and an equally small number of people inconvenienced or denied access to their favoured lunchtime retreat.
Following our services last Sunday I visited the protesters with copies of Touchstone with its very evident endorsement of Occupy. I was a somewhat presumptuous in passing on a greeting from Dunedin Methodists. They graciously acknowledged the ongoing practical support of St Paul's Cathedral, and showed me that as their "rent" for the occupation of the hallowed turf they are cleaning Robbie Burns from the head down.
Friends, we are witnessing in the heart of our City, in the full view of Cathedral and City Hall, a tiny but significant fragment of a fast growing uprising of ordinary people like ourselves demanding profound change. Unlike the ruthless crushing of the Peasants Revolt 750 yrs ago, and of the current courageous uprising in Syria, let us recognise the Occupy movement for what it is and lend our every support to the moving of the Spirit in our time.
Ken Russell