The Occupy Sydney movement has a focused and coherent political agenda, according to a research team from the University of Sydney (USYD).
However, the movement has no set timeline or specific demands, high school teacher and spokesperson for Occupy Sydney Tim Frank said.
“Occupy Sydney is different from any other political demonstration,” said Mr Frank. “It’s not about ‘we need this and we need it now’.
“I don’t know how long it’s going to take before people start opening their eyes to the type of world we live in.”
This “type of world” is one affected socially and politically by capitalism, according to 180 field interviews undertaken at the November 5 rally in Sydney by the USYD research team.
“The movement in Australia has been characterised as incoherent by the media and commentators,” Dr Stewart Jackson of the Department of Government and International Relations said.
“But it has a strong critique of the impacts of capitalism on social inequality and on politics. There’s a concern that money, politics and the impact of large multinationals have reduced the effectiveness of Australian democracy.”
While democracy may be at the heart of the issue, Mr Frank said the movement goes beyond concerns with capitalism.
“There is a problem with saying that it is coming out of capitalism, for there are problems society is facing for a variety of reasons,” he said. “The biggest problem is the majority of people aren’t even in a position to invoke change.”
This idea of giving power to the people is shared by Wenny Theresa, who speaks on behalf of Occupy Sydney.
“It is a really different way of doing politics as it is decentralised to empower people to be autonomous as well as working together from the bottom up.
“Even the way we are getting together to organise the demonstrations is in this same decentralised way; it’s about awareness in the wider community.”
However, at a press conference regarding the arrests of five protestors last Tuesday November 8 Superintendent Gary O’Dell of The Rocks Local Area Command told reporters the police operate within the freedoms of democracy.
“One of the messages we want to get across today is that it is the freedoms we have in this country and the democracy we have that make this country the great place it is,” he said.
“[W]e need to use the resources that we do to prevent people from committing unlawful offences,” he said in reference to protestors allegedly barricaded themselves inside a building on Clarence St, Sydney.
Mr Frank said the police arrests are indicative the protests are working.
“Every time they send in police it’s an indication that we’re upsetting some people with the openness and transparency we’re trying to encourage and our motivation to squash old systems and politics.”
“We just don’t know how long that will take.”
By Kristie Beattie
