Photo: Stacy Lanyon
At first, I was hearing everybody talking
about Occupy on MPR. I was first able to go down when they did that massive labor march. I later went to the park very, very late in the night. There weren’t so many people, and the day of the big march, I wasn’t even able to get close enough to see the park. I have a very busy life, so I wasn't able to join that often. Most of my perception of Occupy was through the media, websites and blogs. I always have supported the popular movements. I
usually get really excited when people go out into the street, but I wasn’t
expecting that it would be as successful as it was. Seeing all of the crowds was amazing. Now, I'm in Queens College studying to be an archive
specialist, and there is a group working with Occupy, trying to do a project of
archiving and saving certain traces of the movement. We had like three or four
projects to join, and I decided to join the Occupy project because I feel it’s very alive,
very of the present, very of the future, and I want to be there.
I’m from Argentina. Argentina has a story of people going
out into the streets for a long time, and the closest that comes to my mind
relating Occupy to movements there was in 2002. Everybody came out. The people
were very unhappy after all the globalization activities of the neo-liberal
government of Carlos Menem. After that, people were left without the companies
that had been national. Somehow they sold everything to multi-nationals. There were
no jobs. Everyone was in debt. There was no money. The education was on the floor,
so everybody went to the street to protest, and in a matter of two months, they
changed like three or four presidents. It was an amazing turn around of the status quo at the time, and then
somehow there was a better government, more reflecting the people’s desire, and
one of the first moves of this government was to try and go around the payment
of the international debt to the IMF. From there, really the
economy and the social participation changed a lot. They made a ministry for human rights, and they were able to get justice for a lot of the criminal behavior of the dictatorship. That’s the closest parallel they have to
Occupy. This also followed a bailout, so it’s very consistent with
Occupy.
It remains active since 2002. Since 2002, it’s changed a lot because they modified a lot of things, and now the movement somehow is in power, so there is better distribution of money and resources to the masses. Now, there are still protests in the country. The biggest protest is from producers. The producers used to export all of their crops to Europe and other countries and get a lot of money in dollars back. The producers were the oligarchy. They are the owners of the lands, so now they are protesting because they want to have the power that they used to have. They are protesting against the government of the people. This is very delicate because when you are talking of those in power, supposedly, it’s a popular government, but of course there are a lot of people against it because it is still government, and it’s still power. It’s not so easy. There’s a big division in the country over who are for and against this government. There is a dispute over giving money to the poor, even without working. They complain a lot. They say, “How do people get money without working?” Especially in South America, there’s oligarchies that they have had for hundreds of years. They have had so much power. They don’t want to give it to the people because they are not so educated. Of course, they are not so educated because they have not put money into education.
So once you get the bankers out of power, they will be the next occupiers, with their fur coats and their Ferraris and their luxury. They will be protesting like they did in Russia, all the ones that were able to leave the revolution. They were for decades complaining in Europe, “Look at what they did with our castles and our palaces.” People will complain because they won’t be able to buy their Nikes or luxury items because there has been decades of brainwashing telling us what we are, “Okay, we are those articles, those luxury articles.” It’s very difficult to perceive all the rest that we are. What we are doing is fundamental because I feel that we are going back to what we are. We are getting to see and act as what we are. We are not the characters of the advertisements. We are the base of our society. We are our society. It’s fundamental to know what we are.
It remains active since 2002. Since 2002, it’s changed a lot because they modified a lot of things, and now the movement somehow is in power, so there is better distribution of money and resources to the masses. Now, there are still protests in the country. The biggest protest is from producers. The producers used to export all of their crops to Europe and other countries and get a lot of money in dollars back. The producers were the oligarchy. They are the owners of the lands, so now they are protesting because they want to have the power that they used to have. They are protesting against the government of the people. This is very delicate because when you are talking of those in power, supposedly, it’s a popular government, but of course there are a lot of people against it because it is still government, and it’s still power. It’s not so easy. There’s a big division in the country over who are for and against this government. There is a dispute over giving money to the poor, even without working. They complain a lot. They say, “How do people get money without working?” Especially in South America, there’s oligarchies that they have had for hundreds of years. They have had so much power. They don’t want to give it to the people because they are not so educated. Of course, they are not so educated because they have not put money into education.
So once you get the bankers out of power, they will be the next occupiers, with their fur coats and their Ferraris and their luxury. They will be protesting like they did in Russia, all the ones that were able to leave the revolution. They were for decades complaining in Europe, “Look at what they did with our castles and our palaces.” People will complain because they won’t be able to buy their Nikes or luxury items because there has been decades of brainwashing telling us what we are, “Okay, we are those articles, those luxury articles.” It’s very difficult to perceive all the rest that we are. What we are doing is fundamental because I feel that we are going back to what we are. We are getting to see and act as what we are. We are not the characters of the advertisements. We are the base of our society. We are our society. It’s fundamental to know what we are.
There are so many things that are wrong with the world. I would
say that the base of power of someone on top of other people, of animals and
nature, that’s the key of what is wrong. I think everybody is important. It’s true that not everybody will be independent, completely
independent. We will have to get into groups to work, and organizations are
important, but so many people sustaining and supporting a system and not even
being counted, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work, and we want everyone to know
it and participate in the change.
I want a world of freedom, a world of action, a world of taking
care of our planet, a world that will last, not one that will finish so soon because we are
consuming crap that we don’t need. I want a world of going back or going forward to nature. I think that the planet is amazing, and also
there is amazing human development that shouldn’t be destroyed, but I feel that
we should direct it towards more conscious and more fair distribution.
When we do that, there will be more time for enjoying,
relaxing, more fun. For example, I don’t think we need to work a lot. Maybe we do right now because we
have to reverse a lot of things, but there’s no need to work as much as we do. I'd like to see a wonderful world without debt. We shouldn’t have to work all of our lives, more
than 8 hours just to pay debt or to have a house or to get an education. I
imagine a world with more time for ourselves, more time for the community and
for nature. I don’t think that is so demanding and that is so hard. It’s there.
We'll have to say, “Okay, I’m not going to do shopping on the weekend.” How
will that look? Nothing will fall. We will probably be much happier, but I don’t
think it is too far. What we are doing everyday counts. That’s what is bringing the change.
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/