Saturday, May 19, 2012

Zak Solomon

Spring Training, April 27, 2012, Wall Street
Photo: Stacy Lanyon

I got involved in activism with the Berkeley Tree-Sit in 2008, followed by the UC Berkeley budget cut protests in the Fall of 2009, and then in Oakland around police brutality and prisoners' rights issues. Organizing with communities to create change -- to begin a process of de- and re-construction of ourselves and the world around us -- became the foundation upon which the rest of my life was built. And while the radical community in the Bay Area taught me everything, it also felt completely disconnected from the rest of the country. So when I saw 80,000 blue collar Americans in Wisconsin occupy their capitol building in defense of collective bargaining rights, it completely blew my mind. It sparked this idea inside of me that a real shift in American society was now possible. And so I decided to go experience these places throughout the country first hand, to understand what conditions or consciousness would be required to spur this movement forward. So awhile after graduating I saved up money for a cross-country road trip to observe regional political issues -- to get on the ground and talk with everyday Americans and try to assess the potential for a real, broad-based social movement.

I got in my hatchback and left Berkley at sunset on July 13th. I passed through Arizona, interviewing candidates in the Phoenix mayoral debate, New Mexico, working on organic farms and building earthships, and on into Colorado. Then I heard about Occupy. I was really excited but didn’t want to get so enamored that it derailed my own project. Eventually, however, shortly after arriving in Colorado Springs and couchsurfing with a group of evangelical Christian college students, I broke down and watched a couple videos online. The second video showed a violent arrest in Union Square and the person arrested was one of my very good friends from the Bay, who I had first met at the Tree-sit. Then I saw my best, best friend coming to his aid, his trademark blond ponytail wagging behind him, and I took it as a sign, a call to come home, that this was where the movement was. I hadn’t even known they were in New York until seeing the video... That very night I decided to alter course dramatically, and instead of continuing North to Wyoming and East to Wisconsin I drove directly East -- first to Kansas City, then to Indianapolis, then to Philly -- and made it to New York on October 1st around 4pm (during the Brooklyn Bridge arrests) -- and never turned back.

For me "Why it’s important?" is not a question I ask myself anymore. For a lot of people it's an ongoing battle, of whether or not realigning one's life goals and priorities with a social movement -- whose energy is always in flux -- is a wise decision. But for me, at this point, it’s completely ingrained into my being. I can trace it back to when I was four or seven or twelve years old, these questions and this desire to break free, not just from physical confines but from an oppressive mode of relating to people in the world. You can get very meta... I don’t often engage in a lot of spiritual or philosophical conversations with people, at least not initially, because it's completely out of place or taboo within the political sphere. 

For me it was a long path that brought me to organizing -- and organizing with people -- not for profit and not as part of an institution, but in a grassroots, horizontal way to begin to figure out ways to challenge and address our shared condition -- economic, social, political, etc. That’s why it’s important. It’s important because I think it’s the only way. I think we’re on a track as a civilization that people can objectively look at and say, “This is a death march.” Deep down people know that. Intellectuals know it. Scientists know it. Even economists know it. This is a world of increasing population, increasing inequality, and finite natural resources. These are real things, and ultimately, will have real consequences. 

I look at all of the achievements that society has produced throughout history, and it all fits the same criteria: a small group of people, a vast minority of the population, confronts the status quo and conventional society's norms in ways that people are very uncomfortable with. This group then faces repression, marginalization, ostracization and attacks for a variety of reasons, but ultimately, after a long process, evolves and advances the consciousness in a meaningful way. Abolition, suffrage, the end of apartheid, civil rights, even scientific advancements -- all followed a similar process. In many ways we've regressed as a society over the last fifty years. There’s been a renewed capturing of control by the very wealthy that is destructive to the vast majority of humanity. So, naturally, there is this movement emerging to correct that imbalance. 

For me, it’s a global struggle. A lot of people focus on economic justice and a fair, just and equitable economy for Americans. To me though it’s far, far broader than that. When I was involved in organizing at Berkeley there was also a focus on student issues, on access to a high quality, representative education for Californians, but what many of us realized as we grew in the movement is the interconnectivity of all social struggles. To me, Occupy, despite the plethora of deep contradictions that are really harmful, is that kind of broad based container that can hopefully lead us in a more positive direction as a whole. And I believe that these forms of organizing will become increasingly more necessary. As economic conditions worsen and austerity measures increase, much as they have throughout Europe, the Middle East and beyond, I believe there will come a point where people are no longer supported by the system they’ve grown accustomed to and will be forced to rely on people-oriented organizing structures. I believe this is important because every day, every lesson, every mistake and every connection we make with each other makes us better prepared for that moment -- when people flood the streets seeking to participate in representative structures that protect and serve their needs.

Part of the motivation for me is my background in education and social work, working in group homes and inner-city schools. I’ve built beautiful relationships with young kids from very challenging backgrounds who I know would lead more fulfilling and productive lives given sufficient opportunity and care. I spent eight solid years working in schools and residential treatment facilities where I witnessed children with shocking histories of abuse who began to overcome the challenges they faced with proper attention, even given limited resources. Most immediately, I'd like to see a world that honors and nurtures our individual human capacities to create a better society, both in this country and abroad. 

I hope the world we are trying to create is inconceivable. I like to say that my ten year plan is composed of  three thousand six hundred and fifty twenty-four hour plans , because I’m just here today, and I want to work really hard today, but I hope and anticipate that the shift that needs to occur, and the world that we will find ourselves in, is not one that we can currently envision.

Interview by Stacy Lanyon
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