#Occupy Mega-Panel: What Comes Next for the Movement that's Rocked Our World?
The #Occupy Movement has captured the global imagination much like the events that laid its foundations, the Arab Spring and the Wisconsin Wave. To figure out where this movement came from - i.e. its digital and real-world roots - as well as its potential to remake our world, we are hosting a mega-panel with 4 #OccupyBoston organizers, Robin Jacks, Brian Kwoba, Nadeem Mazen, and Marisa Egerstrom.
Also joining the conversation are Ben and Sarah Manski who are intimately involved with the grassroots movement that is challenging the anti-worker and anti-community agenda in Wisconsin. They will help us understand how their movement has sustained mobilizations and campaigns that continue to involve tens of thousands of people.
From Boston, Talia Whyte, a pioneering new media figure and close observer of Boston's communities, and Myrna Morales, also a new media activist and organizer with Community Change, Inc., an anti-racist non-profit with a storied history. Talia and Myrna will help us focus on how the #Occupy movement may not only spread geographically but perhaps also deepen its local roots. Also joining in on this theme is Chris Faraone of the Boston Phoenix, which - along with OpenMediaBoston.org - was among the first and most responsive news publications giving thoughtful coverage to the emerging movement.
Lesley University's Heidi Gautschi, who observed recent epic mobilizations in France and Nepal will add a global frame to this conversation.
As the panel facilitator, I will frame the conversation by asking our panelists to address (in a few minutes each!) some of my own observations about these movements, their tactics (including new media), and their capacity to make social change possible.
Specifically, I am interested in what the movement did right to help it enter the national conversation in a normally unresponsive national media. Also of concern is how the movement builds its relationships with long-standing social movement organizations that have not succeeded to the same degree. This may entail exploring media choices and their partners for dialogue.
Other mega-concerns for the mega-panel: given the range of issues that social movements like #Occupy surface, the capacity of the movement to frame and encapsulate its work in general and unifying terms should be a matter for conversation. That's where we hope this session will go!
- Suren Moodliar