PULLMAN, Wash. – The anti-Wall Street protests spreading around the country could have an effect on the upcoming presidential race and national tax policies, according to a Washington State University professor and author of a book on social movements.
It could even act as a check on the Tea Party, but the Occupy Wall Street movement must first hold the media’s attention, join arms with labor and hone its message, said T.V. Reed, WSU’s Lewis E. and Stella G. Buchanan Distinguished Professor of American Studies & English.
“The policies most immediately impacted will probably be efforts to return tax levels for the wealthiest Americans to the pre-Bush era level and to support the president’s new jobs bill,” Reed wrote in a post on Washington State Magazine’s WSU Discovery blog. “But the wider impact is likely to be on the presidential campaign.”
Reed is author of “The Art of Protest: Culture and Activism from the Civil Rights Movement to the Streets of Seattle.” (Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2005). The book documents key U.S. social movements from the civil rights era to the movement against corporate globalization.
To continue, the Occupy Wall Street movement will need to hold the eye of the media, which often loses interest in a story, Reed noted. It would also grow with the organizational strength of labor behind it.
“Historically, the combination of students and union members has led to very powerful movements,” Reed said. “That combination nearly brought down the government of France in 1968, and it was at the heart of the success of the 1999 Battle of Seattle protests for greater justice in globalization processes.”
The movement will also need to sharpen its message and demands beyond the claim that the government is focusing largely on the wealthiest 1 percent of the population.
Ultimately, the movement could act as a check on the conservative Tea Party, moving President Obama and fellow Democrats back towards their liberal-progressive base, Reed said.
Reed’s blog post can be found at http://wsm.wsu.edu/discovery/.