As the wintry winds of December eerily creep in, the historic season of burgeoning protests —dubbed the ‘American Autumn’ — is seeking refuge.
With the recent removal of protesters in L.A. and Philadelphia, to the police brutality against peaceful student demonstrators at UC Berkley, the Occupy Wall Street movement is beginning to take hold and incite fear among the powers-that-be.
One response to these “radical uprisings,” as some have called the nonviolent protests, is the National Defense Authorization Act. The bill, which includes provisions that mandate military interrogation and detention for anyone suspected of anti-government activity, including U.S. citizens. If passed, the NDAA could strip Americans of some of their most fundamental rights and freedoms in this country.
While the Senate debates the legislation, Occupiers are still taking to the streets and continuing to have conversations about ways to redress government and corporate abuses that have gone on for far too long. And though civil unrest and race riots characterized protests of the 1960s and 1970s, our generation’s activism has adopted more of a more collective, peaceful mentality.
As students begin to see the real threats to their health, the environment and their futures, activist organizations have provided an outlet to collectively and peacefully address these concerns. Across America, citizens are participating in nonviolent civil disobedience and democratic assemblies to show their disapproval of the existing establishment.
Now more than ever students need to get active, especially those of us who are United States citizens. We have tremendous power in our collective efforts to vote, to make demands and to challenge the dominant narratives pervading our society. Together, we must challenge the institutional structures that allow police to pepper spray students and legislators to propose laws that threaten our First Amendment right to peaceably assemble.
In the wake of Occupy, youth should continue to build support and mobilize the masses of like-minded people. But they should also continue to link their individual causes and demonstrate their frustrations by resisting violent means, not reacting to them.
Students should use political education strategies to cultivate a collective knowledge around economic and environmental injustices. In this social movement, we must network with one another to develop leaders that can carry forward the energy and nonviolent action of our organizing efforts. It is critical we share tools that can strengthen our messages and change corporate policies to benefit, rather than exploit, the 99 percent.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Ithaca chapter.