Observing Okkupai: Practice, Participation, Politics in Moscow’s Movable Protest Camp (original) (raw)

These are a few raw reflections on Moscow’s OkkupaiAbai protest as a direct democracy experiment, in relation to organizational process (practice) and to the Occupy movement. I present fragments of the longer story of Moscow’s Okkupai protest, otherwise known as “narodnye gulianiia” (people’s festival), “dobryi mobil’nyi lager’” (good mobile camp), and so on. I have followed its development and attended it sometimes daily, later one or two times a week for one and a half months of its active existence. My reflections, like any other participant’s, are fragmentary. This story in itself is a part of the broader picture of Russia’s white-ribbon movement. My perspective is that of a participant observer with a history: I will refer back at points to my experience of the Occupy movement and “consensus” organizing in the UK, as well as to transnational online conversations within the “global” Occupy movement, and reflect a little on my position at the end of this article.