Occupy Brisbane
Kathy Newnam
The Occupy movement has created a new space for empowerment and grassroots participation. In Brisbane, the movement held an occupation for seven weeks in public spaces. The highlight was the 19 days in the city's Post Office Square.
During that time, the occupation created a strong sense of community – establishing the Free University of Occupied Brisbane; Occuplay; the People's Library; a kitchen providing food for the occupation and anyone who dropped in; various arts and cultural events and many new friendships and strong bonds of solidarity.
Most of all, the occupation created a vision and lived experience of a new kind of democracy. The decisions and work of the occupation were made through the General Assemblies which were held every day for seven weeks.
Just as in other cities throughout the world, the authorities in Brisbane made a conscious decision to try to crush the movement. The Brisbane City Council ordered the occupation to be dismantled and have since taken a 'zero tolerance' approach – scouring their books for any by-laws they could use to silence the movement. Since the eviction from Post Office square, the fines received by the movement total $7200 − for camping, playing instruments and even a $500 fine for holding an information table.
While the level of repression here pales in comparison to that being experienced in other parts of the world, the reasons are the same. The establishment, the 1% and their puppet governments, fear nothing more than people breaking down the alienation and divisions that keep us separated and fighting one another. They fear nothing more than the oppressed finding their own ways to organise and work together. The participatory democracy that is central to the Occupy movement breaks down the sense of disempowerment that results from the lack of democracy and intense alienation enforced upon us by the current economic system and the culture of individualism and consumerism.
The Occupation in Brisbane, as elsewhere, was not without its problems. There were many issues – challenges to the democratic process, the problems of breaking down the ingrained tendency toward individualism and the many problems posed by the realities of discrimination, oppression and violence that replicated themselves within the movement itself.
Despite this, or perhaps because of it, all who participated in the occupation and the broader movement learnt a great deal through the collective discussions, debates and the experience of trying to create a new way of organising. From those who had not participated in any protest action before to the most seasoned activists, everyone has learnt more about how to work together and solve problems collectively. This is perhaps the most important lesson from the first stage of the Occupy movement – our strength is in our collectivity.
Those who benefit from the way society is currently structured, the 1%, have immense political and economic power. Our collective organisation is our strength, and participatory democracy makes the most of that strength by striving to give equal space to the many different voices and experiences within the movement and by the process of collective self-empowerment.
The collective experience gained through building a movement together is laying the groundwork for the future: the future of this movement and the future of society. It is not easy – but how could we expect it to be any different? There is so much at stake and there is great resistance to the sort of change that this movement is inspiring.
Kathy Newnam is a local grassroots feminist organiser and coordinator of the People's Kitchen at Occupy Brisbane.