Tactics, philosophies varied at D.C.’s three left-leaning protest camps
It was hard to keep straight exactly who was speaking for the 99 percent in Washington last week.
Was it the young, self-described anarchists who got arrested after tossing newspaper boxes into K Street to block traffic during a raucous demonstration Wednesday? Or was it a middle-aged jobless woman from Miami who traveled here in a chartered bus to lobby her senator?
The answer, of course, was both. But the differences were telling, and they highlighted the challenges facing the left-leaning spectrum of American politics as it tries to capitalize on the newfound energy of the Occupy movement.
No fewer than three liberal protest encampments were operating downtown from Monday to Friday. Two, at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, were part of the national Occupy movement. The third was set up temporarily on the Mall in front of the Smithsonian Castle by a national coalition of labor unions and liberal groups.
Each of the three had its own ideas about how to achieve social change. The different groups are cooperating a bit but are wary of one another.
Many Occupy activists worry that labor unions want to co-opt them into traditional electoral politics. One McPherson Square protester said there was a risk of becoming “drones for Obama.”