Lessons from Populism: Build the Better World Yourself

There is a great value in the study of history. The populist movement did not catch on in Nebraska, according to Goodwyn, because farmers did not become involved in the direct work of building the cooperatives which would free them from debt peonage to the merchant class.

So my challenge to the occupy movement is this: occupying a park is not the immediate organizing towards a better world as I once thought it was. In fact, as many of us found, living in a winter-bound public park is way worse than living in a house. Our occupation is, instead, a living petition, a prayer, directed towards our governmental officials to change things for us.

Do we lack confidence in our political structures? Do we believe our government incompetent and undemocratic, thralls of the one percent and multinational corporations? Let's move in spite of our government. I ask, how can we go about the work of fixing, through our direct cooperative labor, the problems that this government and their corporate partners have engendered?

Occupying parks was never our end goal. It is a step in the process by which we build a populist movement.

And if we listen to the historical witness of the Populist Movement, a successful populist political movement is built in response to the frustrations that arise at being prevented from organizing a direct, on-the-ground project to acheive economic independence from state and corporate forces.

Many people ask, what is our "slavery" issue, a turn-or-burn negative for our movement? Instead, I ask, what is our worker cooperative movement? How can we build the solution to our own problems? How can we build our own banks, investing in sustainable, long-term green projects that affirm worker dignity and respect the environment? How can the unemployed organize employment among themselves? How can we create our own economies? Our own currencies? How can we work together, in our communities, to give our kids the critical thinking skills that our test-driven schools are lacking?