NYC DSA member Chris Maisano on the #OccupyWallStreet protests:

As the #OccupyWallStreet protests in lower Manhattan near their one-month anniversary, it’s worth taking stock of what has been accomplished so far and what remains to be done in the weeks, months, and even years ahead.

Since its birth on September 17, this phenomenon (I still hesitate to call it a movement) has accomplished very much indeed. It has captured the imagination of countless people in the United States and around the world, and garnered a great deal of attention in the mainstream media. It has shown that discontent with the exceedingly bleak political-economic situation that confronts us does not come exclusively from the libertarian and conservative Right. While the populist cry of “we are the 99 percent” may set my Marxist teeth on edge, it nonetheless speaks to the aspirations, insecurities, and interests of the working-class majority and points toward the construction of a solidaristic, collective political subject—a highly welcome development for a Left that’s typically been far more concerned with the politics of recognition and difference in recent decades. And in inspiring at least 150 copycat protests in cities and towns across the country, it has fired hopes that—at long last—a new period of mass social protest has begun.

Everyone who has been involved in #OccupyWallStreet, from the nucleus of activists who have spent weeks sleeping on cold concrete to those whose contributions have been far more episodic, should be proud of what we’ve done. Considering the chaotic and frustrating conditions that prevailed during the first days of the protests, as well as the rather unimpressive record of left organizing and activism in recent years, I’m still in disbelief that things have developed so far and so fast. This is no small victory.

Still, there is a staggering amount of work that remains to be done. Global capital can easily withstand a few weeks’ worth of political theater, no matter how brilliant or inspiring. As Slavoj Žižek put it in his moving speech to the general assembly in Zuccotti Park last Sunday, let’s not fall in love with ourselves and our beautiful gestures but with the long, hard struggle for a new society that lies ahead. Occupation can be a highly effective tactic, but it is not a strategy and it is not a movement. As fall turns to winter and the encampments in lower Manhattan and elsewhere inevitably disband, activists will need to build new organizations, institutions, and coalitions that can follow through on the promise of these protests and make concrete gains in the lives of the people they claim to speak for.

But not everyone among the multitudes on Broadway feels the same way.

Read the rest at Dissent’s Arguing the World blog.