Does 'Occupy Wall Street' have leaders? Does it need any?
| Los Angeles
As 鈥�Occupy Wall Street鈥� spreads around the world 鈥� now in more than 185 locales, and counting 鈥� everyone from politicians to media pundits is scrambling to identify the protest movement鈥檚 leadership.
ABC鈥檚 鈥淭his Week with 海角大神e Amanpour鈥� put protester and blogger Jesse LaGreca in its roundtable spotlight Sunday even as he prefaced his answers with the words, 鈥淚鈥檓 only speaking for myself.鈥�
On NBC鈥檚 鈥淭he Chris Matthews Show鈥� former CBS anchor Dan Rather 鈥� now with HDnet 鈥� tagged Priscilla Grim 鈥� a woman who launched a Tumblr page online 鈥� as 鈥渢he real moving force behind this,鈥� only to have the website mediate.com tartly observe that 鈥淒an Rather probably has no idea what Tumblr is.鈥�
At the same time, everyone from President Obama to several US senators to the Federal reserve chairman have tipped their hats to the power of the movement, which Monday staged demonstration from Washington to New York and Jacksonville, Fla., Mobile, Ala., and Portland, Ore.
But, say media and political pundits, efforts to locate the leader or leaders of this movement begs the ever more pressing questions: Does it have any? If it doesn鈥檛 will it fizzle? Who speaks for these vocal masses and do they have a unified voice? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the leaderless approach? What does 鈥渓eadership鈥� even mean in the social media era?
鈥淭he 鈥極ccupy Wall Street鈥� and related movements represent a resurgence of direct democracy 鈥� not really known since ancient times,鈥� says Fordham University communications professor Paul Levinson, author of 鈥淣ew New Media. 鈥淭he danger is always that such groups can degenerate into a mob. But the advantage is that their decisions can more truly represent the will of the people, and be more satisfying to the participants than decisions made by elected leaders.鈥�
Folks in the Los Angeles chapter are quite proud of the leaderless approach as more evenhanded. 鈥淚f an idea comes up and the majority don鈥檛 like it, it gets tabled,鈥� says Joe Briones, a 29-year-old film student camping on the lawn of Los Angeles City Hall with about 300 others.
鈥淪mall working groups are now forming, each devoted to some particular policy matter or task,鈥� says Cornell Law School professor Robert Hockett, who lives around the corner from the New York encampments. He cites for example 鈥渇inance or economic policy鈥� and 鈥渟tate and federal constitutional law.鈥�
Academics and those who study grassroots social movements are searching for historical examples of leaderless movements even as both major political parties contemplate how to embrace or distance themselves from the protesters.
鈥淢ainstream media won鈥檛 鈥榞et鈥� Occupy Wall Street unless they do some historical and theoretical reading in these anti-authoritarian-but-socialist sources, traditions and movements,鈥� says Dr. Ben Agger, director of the Center for Theory at the University of Texas, Arlington, Sociology Department. At the time of the Russian Revolution, 鈥�Karl Marx鈥檚 so-called dictatorship of the proletariat quickly became a dictatorship over the proletariat,鈥� Agger says, triggering the Kronstadt rebellion, what he calls 鈥渁n early progenitor of Occupy Wall Street.鈥�
Drexel University political science professor William Rosenberg points to lessons as recent as Ross Perot鈥檚 presidential campaign in 1992.
鈥淩ecall that Ross Perot鈥檚 Reform Party while initially powerful and impactful eventually collapsed and suffered after his exit,鈥� says Rosenberg. 鈥淭oday the Reform Party, while still present, has basically faded away as a 鈥減ersonalistic party鈥� party of Ross Perot.鈥�
Several others say it鈥檚 important to redefine certain key terms.
鈥淭he problem isn't leaderless-ness, but spokesperson-less-ness,鈥� says University of Southern California sociologist Nina Eliasoph, who studies grassroots social movements.
She says there have been many leaderless movements in the past 30 years of American activism, and some have been successful and well-organized.
鈥溾�楲eaderless鈥� doesn't mean 鈥榰norganized.鈥� It's the opposite,鈥� Eliasoph says. 鈥淚f a leaderless movement is going to survive, it has to be tightly organized, but just in a non-hierarchical way. There are pretty firm guidelines for running a leaderless organization. Leaderless-ness isn't the problem.鈥�
Vince Schiavone, founder and CEO of ListenLogic, a firm that analyzes social media, says, 鈥渢his is amorphous, without clear leadership, and this benefits its growth because it spreads virally, not from one central authority鈥�. But it can also be negative as things start to get out of hand, because there is not one Martin Luther King to call for calm or to rally troops behind one single response.鈥�
One should not assume that because some group doesn't have a visible leader or leaders it's not still being led, says Phil Wilson, president and general counsel of the Labor Relations Institute in Oklahoma.
鈥淚t's common practice for professional organizers, particularly union organizers to agitate and manipulate people into action in ways that make it all seem 鈥榞rassroots鈥� and thus more valid or authentic,鈥� Mr. Wilson says. 鈥淎s an added bonus, without a visible leader there is no one to examine more closely or attack.鈥�
Atlanta based Republican strategist David Johnson suggests that there is a larger guiding hand behind this strategy. 鈥淭he leadership in this case is behind the scenes and are close to the Democratic Party and other progressive organizations. I base this on the timing of the movement from when President Obama began his so-called populist theme related to his reelection campaign," he says via email, adding "the timing of Occupy Wall Street in relation to this鈥� is 鈥渉ighly suspect."
For news media to be able to identify leadership, meanwhile, it will have to emerge from the protest movement itself, says Richard Levick, CEO of Levick Communications, an international media consulting firm.
鈥淔or Occupy Wall Street to find a leader, the culture of the movement must change in some ways,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he led must be open to being led, and the leaders must not be afraid to assume a leadership role, which, by the way, includes actually using your own last name. One is hard pressed to see history changed by a young Carl, Walter, Martin, or Mohandas.鈥�
