Ignite: An Unspoken Address to the Occupiers

Abstract

This essay provides an account of the Occupy movement, from the perspective of a participant in Occupy Melbourne. It discusses the nature of the movement and why it exists, and it attempts (tentatively) to articulate several policy proposals that would seem to further the diverse goals of the movement. The essay concludes by drawing attention to how participants in the Occupy Movement, through their acts of consumption, might unknowingly be implicated in the very system they are opposing. There is also a short 'post-script' which describes the day of eviction from Melbourne's city square and how this and other evictions show that law has 'two faces.'

Keywords: Occupy, Occupy Movement, occupation, social movements, resistance, consumption