Occupy Wall Street: Basta YA!

Hey, Occupy Wall Street — what happened? Sixty-seven authors, including Tulane professors Nora Lustig and Eduardo Silva, address this question in The Occupy Handbook (Little, Brown). Edited by Janet Byrne, the book includes essays by luminaries such as Nobel economics prizewinner and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, financial journalist Michael Lewis and economist Nouriel Roubini.

In their article, “¡Basta YA! Chilean Students Say 'Enough,'” Lustig, Samuel Z. Stone Professor of Latin American Economics, and Silva, Lydian Professor of Political Science, discuss the 2011 Chilean student movement as a point of reference for how the Occupy movement could cause fundamental change. Their co-author is Alejandra Mizala, a University of Chile economics professor.

While Lustig and Silva credit Occupy Wall Street with giving the world the “99 percent versus 1 percent” terminology, Lustig deems OWS more of a “dropout” movement than an actual focused protest. Similarly, Silva calls for more positive, creative thinking about movement structure and strategy in addition to OWS' innovative “performance art–style” protests.

They point to the Chilean student movement as a good example of democratic organization and a clear-cut mission. While the students in Chile ultimately did not achieve all of their original goals, their occupation of schools, ritualized mass demonstrations and innovative flash-protests succeeded in the creation of more state-funded student loans with lower interest rates and more financial options for low-income students.

Silva and Lustig conclude that the most feasible victories for Occupy Wall Street could be found in calls for healthcare and tax reform, which Lustig points out were largely (and strangely) absent from the OWS rhetoric. The protesters “need to articulate a position,” Silva explains. Until then, OWS will remain on the sidelines at best.

Michaela Gibboni is a senior at Tulane, majoring in communication and Spanish.