Future of Occupy, Commonwealth Club Inforum Series
Channel: Kristine Magnuson
Date: 2011-12-16

(Transcript of Short Clip Follows) 

December 15. 2011 Nadim Haida was a featured speaker of the panel (which also included Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, cognitive linguist George Lakoff, Occupy organizer Iris Brown, and Diana Macasa, of Occupy SF outreach working group. The panel was hosted by San Francisco Examiner columnist Melissa Griffin.

Nadim Haida:
So first of all, let me respond to your previous comment, Mayor Quan, because you said that "we can tolerate the peaceful protest." This is the thing about Occupy, is that we're no longer asking for your permission to tolerate or not tolerate anything. This is not a protest. I mean who are we protesting to? This is a reclamation. This is about occupying the commons, taking back what we originally have a right to have.

As such, the Occupy camp is a social experiment in trying to engender new forms of social relations that do not depend on monetary exchange, that do not depend on the coercive authority of the state, but rather on the innate human decency, on moral values of freedom and equality.
So this is no longer a matter of protesting, because the very idea of a protest implies a hierarchy. Implies that someone is powerful and someone is powerless. It's like the slave talking to his master. This is about reclamation, insurrection and taking back what is rightfully ours.