By Christopher Cook 
This story was funded by the Spot.Us community and edited by the SF Public Press.
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“I think we’re witnessing possibly the biggest left populist rebellion since the populist movement of the 1890s.”
On a recent warm early morning in downtown San Francisco, veteran organizer David Solnit uttered those hopeful words amid a boisterous crowd of about 400 marching through the Financial District demanding banks pay for the economic and human costs of the home foreclosure crisis.
The Oct. 12 protest temporarily shut down Wells Fargo headquarters on Montgomery Street, leading to 11 arrests as demonstrators from a coalition of labor and community-based groups, including affordable housing and immigrants’ rights movements and the Occupy San Francisco movement spent five hours rallying to “foreclose on Wall Street West.”
Beyond the slogans and chants, what is this occupation movement about and why is it catching like wildfire? What do the growing ranks of Occupy Wall Street/San Francisco/fill-in-the-blank hope comes of this tempest of progressivism?
Since a handful of protesters “occupied” Wall Street in mid-September to protest corporate power and economic inequalities, an international movement of sorts has risen up, with marches and encampments in hundreds of U.S. cities and towns and protests across the globe. Last Saturday, protesters in more than 900 cities throughout Europe, Africa and Asia rallied in sympathy with their American counterparts, The Washington Post reported.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” said Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein in an interview at the Wells Fargo rally in San Francisco. “People are so excited to have a new tent in which to meet, and the possibility of it expanding limitlessly. Political courage is so contagious.”
In a speech to the crowd, Klein said, “This is an incredible moment in this country. It turns out there is a lot of latent radicalism just waiting to be woken up. There are way more of us than we thought.”
Of course, not everyone is onboard. At the Wells Fargo protest, bank employees stood on the fringes of the boisterous rally waiting to get inside to work. Some expressed resentment that their entrance was being blocked. A couple of employees whispered their support for the message, if not the occupation of their workplace. Another said the protesters were “misinformed” about the economy and should “just get a job.” Some media critics have decried a lack of focus or coordination to the varied protests.
But at the core of the Occupy movement, participants said, lies a democratic culture of consensus that is as important as any list of demands.
Solnit, a veteran organizer who helped mobilize protests against the WTO in Seattle in 1999, said the movement is “very horizontal and open, and they have created a space where huge numbers of people feel comfortable and have ownership.
“There’s not some board of directors or paid staff person running everything,” he said. “There is a process of direct democracy in the face of a failed democracy.”
Numerous Occupy San Francisco backers said they were drawn by the chance to create a culture in which everyone could speak and be heard.
“It’s leaderless, it’s spontaneous — that’s what I love about it,” said protester Robyn Kralique, who wants to help create a “sacred, safe open space where we can discuss the possibilities together and actually have a say and democracy, even if it’s just a block of people having free discussion and say about their politics. In America the average person doesn’t get their say, because it’s controlled by money.”
Charmz Valentino, who came to the city for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival and has since hunkered down with her dog at Occupy San Francisco, said, “It’s so amazing that there is such a large range of ages, occupations and views, and we are all coming together to support our consensus.” Asked how long she planned on staying, Valentino, 26, said, “This is an indefinite occupation, and I will be here indefinitely.”
Jeff Weiss, a 33-year-old cafe worker who lives in San Francisco on “minimum wage, plus tips,” said he was inspired by “people coming together, communicating face to face, sharing ideas, ironing out those ideas and deciding collectively what’s in the best interests of all of us for the best possible intentions.”
Still, the question remains: What are those intentions? There is no single list of demands, but protesters have plenty of ideas about what is propelling the movement, and what they want changed. In dozens of interviews, their answers ranged from radical challenges to capitalism as a system to reformist proposals for corporate transparency and “fair taxation” of wealth.
The clarion call of “We are the 99 percent” has driven home a blaring message about what protesters argue is a host of inequalities — of wealth, income, education, housing, economic opportunity, political clout, access to decent food and healthcare, and much more. Some protesters want to see corporate economic and political power reined in and others call for capitalism to be reformed, transformed or replaced. Proposals include enforcing existing regulations on corporate finance, breaking up corporate bank chains, creating a city-run municipal bank or expanding off-the-grid barter economies and alternative currencies.
“A lot of things could be fixed if we provided free housing at every level, free education at every level, free health care for every level,” said Valentino, whose puppy sported an “Occupy SF” button. “I am not comfortable with the fact that the Federal Reserve is owned by a private corporation. I would like to see that turned around as well. We need a big change in our financial institutions.”
Ken Tray, a teacher and union leader with United Educators of San Francisco, added: “If there is a clear message here, it’s that there is a radical redistribution of wealth upward, and it’s beginning to hurt people on the ground. I think the message is the rich have to pay their fair share and the public sector is something worth defending.”
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