Wow, I've never seen so many generalisations in a piece on this. Are you sure you're a bona fide academic?

Check out our analysis of occupy melbourne here http://rooftopcollectiveom.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/notes-on-occupy-melbourne-what-it-might-mean-where-we-might-take-it/

I am a conservative, peaceful 62 year old woman who has had enough of watching big 'gambling business' over-rule consumer safety. My Victorian Minister for Gaming is also my Minister for Consumer Affairs. Currently pokies do not appear to meet demands of our national consumer protection laws. {refer Australian Consumer Law, Chapter 3, Division 4, Section 100: Transaction records for Consumers]. I wholly support Occupy Melbourne whose quest is to challenge corruption, much because I have had no ability to get this matter addressed...and little wonder when our government representative Mr Michael O'Brien wears two such conflicting 'hats' as Gaming and Consumer Affairs? Then not to be beaten...Mr O'Brien gets protected by legislation that prevents me from criticizing his lack of success in making pokies safe for consumer use. No wonder we support Occupy Melbourne...and no wonder our government wants to shut it down.

So many times I wanted to yell YES to this article:
"Surely one can have a sense that the current system is unwell without having all of the solutions to fix it."
We'd all need to have masters degrees in economics to understand how to fix the system (and even then probably not)... but we're not fools... we know it's not fair to have such inequality.
"Part of the point of Occupy is to get people talking about political and economic systems and the possible need for change"
This is really about all anyone can hope for, but the only people talking at the moment seem to be the protesters. Hopefully this grows to include politicians and policy makers, but that will only happen if more and more people take a stand.
"Can’t people express solidarity with the millions protesting overseas? Can’t they complain about disproportionate corporate power in Australia?"
EXACTLY!! People carry on like we're in some sort of bubble and separate to the rest of the world...
"(By the way, the sneering criticism that protesters are hypocritical for using technology misses the point: one can be unhappy with “bad” capitalism and greed, and use an iPhone)."
And this has annoyed me to no end! People aren't saying this technology shouldn't exist... they're saying the leaders of those corporations shouldn't be getting million dollar bonuses!

Thanks for being a voice of reason when it comes to Occupy.

I am a 53 year old Registered Nurse and I attend Occupy Brisbane whenever I can in person and support the movement online when I can't.
I agree with the author. The movement is creating a place where people can gather and express their frustration with a democratic system that is failing the people who created it in favour of entities, private and public. I'm too busy caring for people at work and caring for my family at home to understand why and how inequality is rising globally and nationally. I do know that people who hold the decision making powers we have endowed them with through the ballot box know, and I am not happy with the way they are using their power to manage it.
Most in the Occupy movement, that I am aware of, don't confine themselves to being upset about what is happening nationally. The global systems as a whole are failing huge populations of humanity. Hence the global Occupy response. A system geared to growth and profit is unsustainable. It is killing the planet and harming millions. What's the answer? I have no idea? Do we need to come up with one? Yes. Are the people shackled to the growth and profit model concerned about their planet and the plight of humanity? It seems not given the push back against the movement. Do our elected representatives know this model is unsustainable? Of course they do, but saying so doesn't get their campaign financed, or get them re-elected. Why? Because our media is complicit in keeping much of the population uninformed about what the big problems are. Journalism needs to reclaim it's integrity, hard given they have so few employers to choose from and when those employers have a vested interest in maintaing the status quo.
I haven't felt good about the future for a long time and worry about what that means for my grandchildren. Lately a glimmer of hope is emerging. I thank the Occupy movement for that and support it wholeheartedly. Shouldn't you?

@ Talie? @ Roxane? I agree 1000% with what you have both said so very well here. Thank you. I know that government media monitors read such messages as these...so I hope our messages get sent 'higher up to somewhere' in our governments in Australia. I am using examples from my interest area, pokies gambling reform...but every disenfranchised citizen would have equally compelling issues that they want to be raised I guess. So WHY shut down our "Occupy" platform? Why not listen instead?

It is time for our governments to understand that 'real people' are expressing very important concerns via the Occupy movement. There is very little that is 'marginal' about it! It is very much mainstream...despite our media picturing only the more colorful parts of the Occupy crowds usually. Rather than to try to discredit, stigmatize or ridicule any dissenting group who opposes government actions, perhaps governments need to wake up and face the fact that government and citizen interaction has now altered, with new technologies. Real Mums and Dads are wanting / needing to speak out.

The previously 'silent majority' can NOW speak. We are more able to see and assess the standard of government that we receive. We are more able to share our disapproval, as well as our approval of government decisions and policies. Democracy may be happening at last...and governments will have to deal with a very new set of rules...like being more accountable. Any government who tries to be 'heavy-handed' on this issue, by being seen to suppress reasonable citizen input and dissent would appear to be following a most unwise course. Instead, perhaps governments should take less notice of costly industry lobbyists, political donors or others who can 'stroke' and offer government or agency employees long lunches while they 'discuss' issues and ask for 'evidence', to delay action.

What standard of 'evidence' was used to justify the legalization of poker machines for example? Yet why now are the goal posts changed when citizens are demanding pokies gone? Why are we having a carbon tax plebiscite but not a poker machines plebiscite, for instance? Are not both issues equally important? Why also are we not holding referendums...is government too afraid of the outcomes? Why are we NOT asking 'the people' the really hard questions?

For example I do not want to be asked HOW I want pokies to be run...I want to express my dissatisfaction that they are ALLOWED to run at all! So why is there no option for me to say just that? Governments...please stop trying to manipulate us? This modern citizenry is not stupid...and now we can be better informed. We can see the 'deals' going on and it is wrong to dub us 'paranoid' or 'moral zealots' for speaking out! How many academics must be silenced, how many counselors must be threatened with job loss, if they dare to speak the truth about pokies, for example? The game is up, government representatives! You are silencing too many...the walls of the dyke are not just cracking...they are now bursting.

The roles of people who interact with governments in future will be much more highly investigated, monitored, questioned and evaluated. The people are trying to speak with you, governments...Remember US? We are the people who voted you all in? We are not fringe-dwellers of society, social deviates with axes to grind...we just do not agree with you and THIS time...please listen?

Meanwhile...First they ignore you, then they laugh at your, then they fight you...and then you win! I am happy to stick with that...regards xo

Thank you Roxane for sharing your thoughts so well. I relate to everything you say here and though my own awareness of government / big business corruption was fired mostly by my growing ire and disrespect for our government handling of one particular industry, the gambling industry....I also readily understand the alarm that we should all be hearing re the wealth distribution issue globally. In fact such rabidly ruthless industries as the global gambling industry are contributing directly right now to yet more financial imbalance in the US, as well as here in Australia / NZ.

Despite warnings and evidence that casinos create LOSSES of jobs and community strength...the US is building huge casinos with thousands of slot / poker machines as fast as their state governments can CON the citizens into approving them! We can actually see the rorting happening now, with the internet. We see the same lines and 'spin' that the public is hearing via the media...it is the same rubbish that WE were conned into believing...when we unknowingly legalized a bad consumer product ...a poker machine....that is as dangerous and destructive to society as heroin!

Our warnings have been much silenced / hidden! Others who are observing other industry-connected dealings with governments have experienced similar. The aged care industry is being run very poorly, very often...yet families who have dared to speak out about aged hostel food quality for example, have been maligned, ridiculed, unsupported and made to look like village idiots. Our aged care nursing staff are paid a pittance and are over-worked, so no wonder aged care quality issues exist...and yet our governments, via BIG hostel - management business 'partners', are allowing poor standards to continue.

Poor aged care practices are being 'rubber-stamped' nicely...all to pass official compliance measures that are rubbish as they are hiding truth! Our money is used for that purpose? To supplement the greedy high profit demands of a powerful industry that harms its workers AND its clients?

Put together all of our various experiences, insights and knowledge of corruption and no wonder people are rebelling? I say...at last! The time for complaint is WELL overdue!

Again using the example I do know a bit about, our gambling industry over the last 2 decades has screwed our governments over, totally, regarding mutual business arrangements.

Our state-run superannuation schemes that hold and control the retirement living quality for millions of people have been compromised much because our governments involved themselves in 'grace and favor' deals with big businesses like the gambling industry to invest OUR money in questionable shares that reinforce those very corrupt industries.

Now our governments have a vested interest in keeping those businesses afloat...as our retirement values [too] much depends upon it. Consequently, through the irresponsible government share-investment schemes that should never have been allowed in the first place, our gambling industry can now effectively do whatever it likes! Little is heard from governments about the truths of how the gambling industry is wrecking their bottom lines! Our governments know that any revenues from pokies gambling that they receive will eventually be paid out triple, in social costs caused directly by pokies. Every problem gambler HARMS ten innocent citizens around him...so millions of citizens are harmed by bloody POKIES? Yet we are told false statistics to stop us from being fully alarmed?

Our governments LOSE three times what they earn from gambling?...Does that make any sense at all...economically, sociologically or otherwise? WHY are our governments allowing such HUGE social costs to occur that WE will have to pay for decades later? Why? Because our governments are hocked up to the eyeballs in share deals with the 'powerfully-stroking' gambling business...and 'political donations / lobbying bribes' to politicians do the rest!

We should KNOW we have a problem when the head of BeyondBlue [ a peak Depression management agency...govt-funded] is ALSO the President of a football club that runs pokies! How cock-eyed IS our thinking there? We FUND that?

I have heard of other examples related to the electricity / energy industry, the chemicals industry, the pharmaceuticals industry where government grants and funds have been directly linked to 'grace and favor' deals. Lip-serving academics have been well-promoted for toeing the government 'policy' line! I do know that government-funded care agencies like Gamblers Help have been 'silenced' if they tried to show the depth of our gambling costs....as have some university academics, who were threatened with job loss and loss of research grants, if they did not twist gambling research results.

The head of our independent Victorian government gambling review panel, Linda Hancock was SACKED because she refused to 'doctor' her research findings that proved that Western Australia was better off because it runs NO local pokies! That is a disgraceful state of affairs! Yet such events happen almost weekly now...and not a whimper were we hearing for years! WHY? Our academics have been much silenced!

I object to the Occupy movement being maligned unfairly...because it poses a risk to shonky governments. I am well aware that business and government-employed and paid media monitors rove such discussion boards as these online...to present 'opinions' that are intended to sway public attitudes. For me the Occupy movement came as a breath of fresh air...a life-line at a time when I and some others had experienced significant 'silencing'. I have seen other interest groups treated the same way.

It is wrong. It is MORE than just wrong...it is a bloody fiasco if we allow such 'silencing' and manipulation to continue without more scrutiny and questioning! Governments and big businesses now must accept that the internet has irrevocably altered our lives and with that, the balance of power. The shift in that power balance has yet to occur fully...but like a precious plant...the Occupy movement will be nurtured by citizens and it will NOT be allowed to wither and die! The days of being 'told' by the governments that we elect upon trust,....only to have that trust broken by corrupt officialdom...ARE coming to an end! And for VERY good reason!

Thank you Libby.
Andrew the photo at the top of the article doesn't look like an Occupy site to me. It looks like a bunch of people standing on a footpath holding a big sign (their main message) and a bunch of smaller signs in the back which they want viewers to to interpret as being related. Also there's a sign written in arabic and a picture of a man who looks like an Imam. Did the athor have to travel to the middle east to find someone with an anticapitalist sign?
The first clip, which shows how the nation states of europe are selling their populations out now and into the future, without any hope of redress, to the central bank is both disgusting and scary.
Kudos to Mr Schiff for entering into the lions den. I felt for everybody I saw, except that other 1%er who told him to shut up.
All I can say Andrew is that Occupy started because people know something is really wrong. They have sitting in their brains decades worth of manipulation so that it's hard to know now who is telling the truth. Especially as there are many who are telling the people who and what is to blame. As I said, I don't know much, even though before all this started I thought I did. What I've learned has been mostly self taught, partly because the questions I want to find answers for are buried in academic papers and books I never considered reading before. It's hard also because of the cross checking required so you get a view from both sides of the argument. It's exhausting. It's like ordinary working and middle class people trying to set up a tertiary level curriculum for themselves taking care where they can to include what is necessary to know and what's just distraction. Then one has to learn the information and synthesis it so it forms a coherent whole one now feels they canconverse about.
Perhaps we all just need lessons in what true capitalism is, what true socialism is, and how democracy is a fragile thing the people own but also have to protect through vigilance against attack - including from within.
Have you considered attending an Occupy and participating in their free universities - most large sites have them. The people need to learn and who shows up to teach them makes a difference.
By the way, the comment you made about the majority of people at Occupy sites, or perhaps the loudest, are anti business, anti capitalism - did you miss the number of hands that went up at the end of Mr Schiffs Youtube clip when the young man yelled out "whose pro capitalism." the vast majority!

Occupy Melbourne, Brisbane etc did look a bit like a very pale imitation of the Arab spring and Wall Street protest which clearly had greater symbolic value. Bandwagoning seems to be a feature of modern life thanks to 24hour TV the internet etc. To be more that a one day wonder the people who feel strongly about the various issues need to get down to the more demanding stuff of either forming new organisations with ongoing programs ( anyone remember SOS during the Vietnem War ? ) or joining existing organisations with similar concerns and being actively involved in them.

Wilma, what you are advocating is a peicemeal response to singular issues that crop up within the current system.
It's funny how you talk about Brisbane's Occupy in the past tense when it is continually growing and organising itself structurally and politically. If you didn't know this you are getting your news from sources that don't want you to know.
At a time in humanity's history where 7 billion of us exist there are many fundamental problems to be addressed. The planet can't go on supporting the number of us that exist now and the type and quanity of current levels of consumption. The people who know this now and have for some time are the poorest of us: 50% of total population that own 2% of the planets wealth. The people who are waking up to this fact now are 40% of total population who own 15% of the planets wealth. Yes I know that equals 90%, not the 99% slogan of the Occupy movement; 10% of the worlds population own 83% of everything, but 1% of the wolds population within that 10% own a significant proportion of that 83%. An article in The Economist January or February 2011.
What are the solutions? Here are some things I have learned. Get rid of the idea that we need to keep growing our economies to chase profit at the expense of the planets abaility to sustain us. Get rid of the debt money system so the wealth the planet provides can be more evenly distributed amoungst everyone. Get rid of religions which keep preaching to EACH of their flocks to breed themselves into theocratic dominance; drowning out the message from science that we need to reverse population growth. Getting rid of religion will also stop the anti birth control message they infect their flocks with. It will also permit the passage of laws that permit euthanisia, so that the elderly and infirm who decide they no longer want to live the life they are being made to by law no longer have to. It will also stop the subjugation of women, especially the poor, using theocracy to ensure millions of women don't get an education and don't have reproductive rights. Science has shown that educating women and giving them autonomy over their reproduction decisions massively reduces birth rates.
So please, don't minimise what the Occupy movement is trying to acheive. If you think these big issues are the ones humanity should be focusing on to ensure our survival, instead of peicemeal stuff which won't change anything, go to your local Occupy. If it doesn't succeed...............

Roxane I agree that this time we need big picture solutions...globally relevant, all-encompassing solutions. However unless we all join and become one world nation etc [not so impossible as it sounds either] we are all stuck with resolving issues within our own nations as a first priority and in that sense, the approach to the really big human problems does become a piecemeal response, when these are taken across our world.

An amazing article about Iceland was sent to me today...it shows exactly what a group of people CAN do...to work themselves out of this globally fired financial mess!

http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/728.1

We could do well to follow the methods used in Iceland...to get sovereignty back to the people! As the article states...no wonder we have not heard about this in the media.