Richard Aleman joins the Occupy Wall Street protest to spread the message of an alternative economic model far superior to both capitalism and socialism
Dissatisfaction over our economy is creating popular movements and encouraging radical changes to our social system. Led by the disillusioned young, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protestors are voicing opposition against the heart of American finance, large corporations, and the revolving doors of government. Occupy protests are held in hundreds of cities with the goal of building solidarity amongst citizens against institutionalised injustice which comes at the expense of the poor and middle class. As an elderly Jewish rabbi said to me, “Who did Jesus talk about in the Gospel? The poor. We no longer talk about the poor. We’ve lost our souls.”
One week ago, someone reminded me that if distributism is to leave a mark in the minds of the general public, we could not fail to show up at the OWS protest and offer an alternative model far superior to both capitalism and socialism. Indeed, it can be easy to live in ivory towers and forget how fundamental it is to walk among the common man, listen to him, and recognise that all of us are called to be instruments of the truth. For us to illuminate a tunnel we must walk through it and help carry the crosses of others while balancing our own.
With a thousand distributism flyers, I was not sure what to expect when I approached Cedar Street and Broadway, organisational heart of the movement and the designated spot a few blocks from Wall Street. The site is surrounded by protest signs and worn blankets for those braving cold New York nights. A makeshift kitchen feeds protestors and the destitute and rests alongside the laptop-filled headquarters of the movement. The “People’s Library” sits by a bulkhead stuffed with literature on economic justice and a hodgepodge of political ideas. Facing Broadway, people hold up cardboard signs such as “The People Need a Bail Out.” Pamphlets are out for the curious with material ranging from The Catholic Worker newspaper to The Distributist Herald just a few feet away from pedestrians, protestors and the police, all of whom seem mutually uncomfortable with one another.
Prejudiced by what I saw in the media, I anticipated a group of naïve, fresh-faced suburban kids standing around in Che Guevara t-shirts, the communist icon ironically made popular by capitalist merchandising. Instead, I discovered serious people asking pertinent questions about the direction of our economy and society. I met with Ron Paul supporters and other libertarians, the poor and destitute, socialists and capitalists. These protestors are upset with a nation that has forgotten the needy, a government that has left us with an enormous debt and jobless, while “Too Big to Fail” heads of finance make bonuses from taxpayer funds.
Based on my conversations with participants, most stood in support of a living wage for employees, job creation, elimination of corporate “personhood,” affordable health care and re-enactment of Glass-Steagall, all of which are laudable goals. This is not to say the movement is entirely clear about what it wants or how to get it, or that there is any cohesive position among those in OWS about how to fix our problems. “I’m not political. I’m just here because I have a master’s degree, can’t find work and have no place to go,” Justin said. “The system has to change.” I met few who didn’t share political aspirations but the concern amongst critics of the occupiers is that a leaderless movement without key goals will make it susceptible to coercion by status quo political ideologies, as happened with the Tea Party.
Nevertheless, these protestors represent the man on the street’s growing dissatisfaction with our political and economic system, and provide an opportunity for distributists to give the direction necessary to solve the mess we are in; goals critics refuse to address face to face and on the street, inevitably losing their relevance and support as a consequence. “THIS is a real alternative to capitalism and socialism,” we said as contributors and readers of The Distributist Review handed out almost 600 flyers. Whether in conversation with union members, press, or protestors themselves, the surprising interest in resurrecting family and worker-owned, local-driven businesses is encouraging. Indeed, capitalists and socialists talk a lot about jobs. Few repeat what G.K. Chesterton said best: “Our society is so abnormal the normal man never dreams of having the normal occupation of looking after his own property. When he chooses a trade, he chooses one of the ten thousand trades that involve looking after other people’s property.”
The problem with the Tea Party and OWS is that one group looks to Big Business and the other to Big Government in an effort to solve our problems. It is certainly true government’s primary task to oversee the common good and, with some exceptions, the OWS crowd is mostly right about what is wrong. They rightly stand against injustice, the overindulgence of corporations at the expense of the American taxpayer and those bordering on and under the poverty line. This appeal to government is natural, because, as Chesterton said: “A Catholic does not complain of there being a County Council or a Post Office, because recognised government has a right to rule; because social order itself has a natural and even a divine authority. But mere money has not even the smallest human authority.”
The question then becomes, if the collusion between Big Business and Big Government will not, at present, provide occupiers with a top-down approach, what do we expect in the aftermath of OWS? Our flyer was prepared in order to offer a new direction for those attending or passing by the protests. Our message is simple: job creation is a thing of the past. We can create jobs of our own through the bottom-up approach of the distributist program. Yes, we should discuss economic policy in America and when injustices are perpetuated against the middle class and the poor, it is absolutely right to protest, just as we should when the genocide of abortion is carried out with the support of private and public sectors. We march, we pray and we counsel.
But the debate shouldn’t be over which sector can offer us the sweeter deal. We should “change the terms of the debate” and ask if the discussion over who gets a job is relevant, and if perhaps creation of an ownership society is the remedy for over 100 years of conflict between capital and labour. Distributism eliminates friction between capitalist and labourer by making them one and the same.
Today, our flyer is being handed out not only on Wall Street, but in cities like Philadelphia and Minneapolis, one more reason why distributism is viable. It sparks the imagination in the common man and encourages him not only to write, but to act.
After looking over my pamphlet, the same rabbi said to me, “What you are doing is important. This is what we need. Keep doing what you are doing and continue to preach the Beatitudes of Jesus!”
Richard Aleman is the president of The Society for Distributism and resides in New York where he is working on a distributist anthology of G.K. Chesterton’s newspaper, G.K.’s Weekly.