Revolution 2011

I suppose it was inevitable, considering that I spend all of this time here in cyberspace claiming to know something about business, but this past week somebody finally asked me what I think about the Occupy movement and if I was going to do a blog post about it. My eyes crossed and I found myself back in the 1960s, with a little voice in the back of my head singing something about “We’d all love to change the world…”

John Lennon wrote those lyrics because he doubted the tactics of destructive change that some leaders at that time were advocating, not because he had any doubts about the message of social justice and equality that were the burning issues of the day – and it’s instructive to realized that he was excoriated by the Left for “betraying the movement” just as he was being blasted by the Right as a moderate subversive warning the Communists and Maoists not to “blow” the revolution by pushing too hard. It’s forty-four years later, and things haven’t changed as much as you’d think…

When you read some of the screeds that people in the OWS movement have written it’s hard not to agree with them – but it’s hard to understand exactly what they want to accomplish, too. There was one post I read on Alter Net, for example, that went on four pages about the evils in our society and the need for social justice, respect for all people and all viewpoints, and taking care of the Earth – all things that I care deeply about and with which I certainly agree. I have to wonder if protest in the streets can accomplish any of it, though; it seems to me that there might be a few other ideas worth trying…

Consider, for example, that all you need to attend the Annual Meeting of any large corporation and request the opportunity to ask questions of the board is one share. Large blocks of stock may be out of reach, but the protesters don’t need millions of shares; one is all they will need to get their objections into the public records of any company. More to the point, perhaps, there are a lot of shares out there that are not owned by the 1% - shares that are owned by community groups, non-profit organizations, retirement funds, or even small blocks that are owned by private citizens. And it’s worth noting that a lot of them are not happy about huge salaries and bonuses being paid to executives who are running THEIR companies into the ground. Remember, the stockholders ARE the owners – and all you need to start a stockholder’s revolt is a single share…

Then there’s the issue of collective action. The members of the OWS movement have avoided electing leaders or trying to create a single manifesto specifically because they represent so many different voices and have so many different concerns. But that doesn’t prevent them from raising that collective voice and singing together – and together, they represent more power than you might think. If a handful of conservative groups can force change by boycotting a product, or a small network of religious groups can force a television program off the air, what could a group that represents 99% of Americans do? Could the membership agree on even a single company they want to influence – and then do it? This isn’t political strategy or radical idealism, folks; it’s business. And the one thing that no company ever wants to do is annoy thousands or millions of customers to the point where they boycott your products…

Of course, the same tactics could be applied to influencing political and social organizations, if anyone wanted to figure out a common point or two on which all of these protesters agreed. If the Tea Party, which is generally believed to represent between 10% and 16% of all Americans, can exert the kind of influence we’ve seen them wield over the past two years, what could 99% of all Americans – or even 48% of all Americans – do if they wanted?

When we consider the political and social upheaval of the Twentieth Century, the one thing that becomes clear is that popular movements do not change anything until they get organized and take coherent action. There is still political and social power available in America to groups of people who are willing to stand up for the things they believe, but random marching, shouting and waving signs won’t do any good, even if you do it online. Grass-roots action must target the economic fortunes of companies through their customer base, and the political futures of government figures through their hopes of re-election if they are going to create real change – and these things can still happen. We are the 99%, and this country is still ours, and no one can take it away from us – unless we let them…