Lansing occupied

On an unseasonably warm Monday afternoon, three mengathered in a downtown Lansing park this week to declare themselves 99percent of the American population.

“We are the 99%,” reads a roughly10-foot tall banner, hanging from a lamppost and a tree facing thedowntown Capital Area District Library in Reutter Park.

What started out as advertisements by the instigative,Canadian-based magazine Ad Busters has grown into a global socialmovement protesting the distribution of wealth and the grip ondemocratic politics held by the few (1 percent) with economic strength.Is it anger over President Obama’s perceived caving to Republicans? Isit anger over major banks walking away from a financial crisisscot-free? The growing disparity between CEO and average workercompensation? Campaign finance laws? The biased and corporate-drivenmainstream media?

It’s all of these things and more.

By 12:45 Monday afternoon, three men — Mathew Lehmann,Josh La Vigne and Rob Powell — had set up a makeshift kitchen, library,sanitation station and beds in Reutter Park. The area will serve as abase for the next three days. Protesters hope thousands show upSaturday morning at 10, two blocks north at the Capitol. The three haveconstructed a physical presence — as has been done in dozens of othercities around the world. The movement has only grown since Sept. 17when protesters started Occupy Wall Street in Manhattan.

So with less than the amount of people it takes to play agame of euchre, Occupy Lansing has begun. And who knows how longthey’ll stay?

Lehmann, who is 33 and from Alpena, arrived in LansingFriday night after following “several” Occupy Lansing Facebook pagescalling for a large-scale protest at the Capitol.

“I don’t plan on going anywhere,” Lehmann said, whoshrugged his shoulders when asked how long he’d protest in Lansing.Lehmann has been unemployed for about a year.

Powell is 26 and grew up in Lansing. He first came toReutter Park Friday, but was yet to camp overnight. He said while onlya few protesters have a physical presence downtown, much more activityis happening online. “It’s amazing to see the amount of growth in thepast couple of days,” he said. Powell is employed as a residentialtechnician for Community Mental Health.

Forbes magazine, in mid-July, was one of the first mediaoutlets to report on what was to grow into thousands descending on thesouthern tip of Manhattan. A July 15 story on its website interviewedAd Busters editor Kalle Lasn two days after Occupy Wall Street wasannounced for Sept. 17.

Occupy gatherings are leaderless. Decisions are made bygeneral assemblies. The goal is achieving “direct democracy.” Thewebsite occupytogether.org shows “actions” in Central Asia, Sri Lanka,South Africa, Australia, Iceland and more. In Michigan, actions havestarted or plan to form in Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Detroit, TraverseCity and Marquette, to name a few.

“It’s all races, sexes, sexual orientation, age — that’swhat truly constitutes 99 percent of the people,” Powell, at ReutterPark, said.

Both critics and proponents of the movement often characterize it as being unfocused, without a clear or defined message. 

“What do you care about? That’s themessage,” Lehmann said. “Essentially, it’s the economy. To me, it’sabout the distribution of wealth.”

To Powell, “It’s about greed,” he said. “The first stepin any social movement is that people hit the streets. People stand upin solidarity. We’ll decide (the message) together.”

Erik Hanson was on his lunch break Monday afternoon whenhe passed the small demonstration at Reutter Park. Hanson is 21, aWaverly High School grad and a political science student at LansingCommunity College. He, Lehmann and Powell discussed the Occupy movementfor about 10 minutes.

“It’s been very interesting,” Hanson said. Hanson spokeof concerns about campaign finance laws and unlimited campaignfundraising by corporations. “It’s the money that decides what happens(in elections). The wealthier you are, the bigger impact you can haveon politicians.”

Kevin Lynch, a 21-year-old Michigan State Universitysenior who works at the NorthStar Center on Lathrop Street, where 60people showed up for a planning meeting last week, agrees.

“This is an opportunity that doesn’t come around veryoften. It’s a tiny social movement on the left providing alternativesto the current state of politics — the political imagination on theleft is basically null,” he said.

Lynch said he “pretty much agrees” with the assessmentthat the message is unfocused. “For God’s sake, it’s four weeks old. Ithasn’t had time to breathe and get on its feet. It’s really healthy forthe movement to be broad and all encompassing,” he said. “You get avibrant spectrum of ideas. We’re trying to have a big tent so everyonecan talk and hash out what we think of the world.”

But Lynch has one concern: politicians, specificallyDemocrats, hopping on board with Occupy protesters. “Social movementsare rarely successful and often fall flat on their ass and often peoplecome in who really try to co-opt them for their own causes,” he said.“I for one am really concerned about politicians, Democrats. CertainlyDemocrats love to have this rhetoric that they’re the party of people,labor and to look out for the little guy. They could come in there andtell us to consider supporting their campaign. It’s about citizenseducating each other and us educating politicians how democracyfunctions.”

LPD prepares; Bernero supports the cause

Reutter Park is more or less a base for the OccupyLansing protesters. Between three and five people have been camping outthere since Saturday night and plan to do so until Saturday — perhapslonger. The Lansing Police Department, at this particular park, is notenforcing a city ordinance that bans overnight camping in city parks,LPD spokesman Lt. Noel Garcia said.

“At this time, yes, we are allowing them to do that ifthat’s what they choose. We continue to evaluate that to make sure it’ssafe for all occupants. It’s all about public safety,” he said. “Wewant the positive dialogue to continue.”

Garcia said LPD officials have been meeting with protesters at Reutter Park for “a few days” and will continue to do so.

It’s uncertain how many people will show up on Saturday.Protesters at Reutter Park couldn’t say — a few asked me how many Ithought would come. Garcia wouldn’t discuss how many people LPD ispreparing for because it would divulge too much of the department’s“operational plans.”

“We don’t anticipate any problems this Saturday,” Garciasaid, adding that the Michigan State Police will be the lead lawenforcement agency at the Capitol. LPD will assist the state police, hesaid.

Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero was unavailable to comment forthis story, but his deputy chief of staff Randy Hannan referred CityPulse to Bernero’s Facebook page for Bernero’s thoughts. If hisFacebook “wall” is any indication, Bernero is in stride with themovement. This was posted on Bernero’s page late Sunday night inresponse to an Oct. 1 New York Times op-ed about Occupy Wall Street:

“In nature, animals and humans can and do live withparasites of all kinds. But when the parasite becomes too greedy, growstoo large and steals too many nutrients, a once-tolerable burden canbecome life threatening to the host.

“Such is the case with the American economy and the WallStreet Banksters. Until they are put in check, no real and lastingeconomic recovery is possible. Lets hope this is the beginning of anawaking that will lead to true reform and real hope for the 99 percentof folks being left behind.”

And this on Friday:

“Something big is brewing, and it wasnt orchestrated bycynics from Wall Street and Washington, ala the Tea Party. No, this isthe real deal. Sit up and pay attention, folks. This just might be ourchance to get our country back. It wont be easy and it wont be quick,but I ask you, Is the American of your dreams worth fighting for?”

A view from D.C. and ‘Singing in their own key’

As of Monday afternoon, the Michigan Peace Team was inthe “discussion phase” of how it’d participate Saturday — that’sbecause five members had just recently returned from Washington aftergiving nonviolence training at Occupy DC, Peace Team operations managerMary Hanna said.

“Thousands of people were there from all over the UnitedStates,” Hanna said, adding that the peace team arrived on day two ofOccupy DC. “It was just a really wide-range feeling of community.People are really committed to, first of all, having all these concernsraised and, second of all, making it nonviolent. Everybody’s niche isrespected and seen as part of a whole. I’ve never seen such diversityin political action like this before.”

Kenneth David, an anthropology professor at MichiganState University, teaches an undergraduate course on social movements.Determining how effective a movement is depends on how concisely youcan answer five questions: “Who are we?” “Who are they?” “What iswrong?” “What are we going to do about it?” “How are we going torespond?”

“It seems to have lasted without any sign oforganization, though the spread of anything is nothing surprising thesedays,” he said. “It’s a lasting happening.”

David said the “we” is the 99 percent, though that is not a clear identity; “they” would be those who are “greedy in every way,shape or form; the problem is that various organizations andinstitutions are “profiting quite well” and the issue of “distributionof wealth”; assembling a diverse crowd is what they’re doing about theproblem; and how they’re responding is to do so in a “very spotlitzone, easily viewable near a very large institution identified by theopponent (Wall Street).”

He also notes that the problems those in the movement areprotesting have taken 30-some years to develop, dating back to theReagan presidency. “My question is: Why has it taken this long toreact?” David asked.

Like the Tea Party, David said, this Occupy movement is“rather inexplicit about what they want,” which could have politicaleffects long-term. “Non-explicit does not mean it’s not politicallyrelevant,” he said.

The Occupy Wall Street event — and subsequent protests —have resulted in an “unexpected continuity,” David said, and it’suncertain how long it will go on, outlasting “overexposure in majormedia. This one does not seem to be dying of overexposure. That’sextraordinary.”

Though it’s early in the movement, David said onetangible effect Occupy Wall Street has had is that “it didn’t stay atthe point of origin — it spread to other cities.” And if it has beensuccessful at all so far, it’s been to assemble a wide variety ofvoices that don’t particularly align with Democrats, Republicans or theTea Party. And that could have potential impacts in 2012 elections.

“It’s providing a voice for another sector who is notcontent with either political party or the Tea Party. Is that successat this point? Yes,” David said. “Maybe we need to hear everybodysinging their own key for a while. We should applaud that — it’s longoverdue.”

Planning meeting

When: Wednesday, Oct. 12, 7:30 p.m.

Where: NorthStar Center, 106 Lathrop St., Lansing

Open to the public

Occupy Lansing

When: Saturday, 10 a.m.

Where: Capitol building, downtown Lansing