Looking at the occupy movements that are currently spreading over the Western world development educators could say:  “Is this not exactly what we have put into hundreds of funding applications and strategic plans as one of our main aims: Young active citizens acting for change. So let’s go home and celebrate the impact that we had and celebrate our success!” Well, there is a slight problem with the latter as it seems that the occupy movements happened without us and the work that we have been doing in development educators over the last decades.

Rather than going into an analysis of the movement (there are people better placed to do this, people who have involved themselves in it) I would like to share two observations about the role of our sector in this movement  and what we can learn from it (apart from the obvious one to join).

Firstly, I feel that there is a marked absence of a global dimension in the movement at the moment. The slogan of “We are the 99 %” exemplifies this for me. Even though it’s a great slogan (unless – as a German friend of mine involved in the protest has told me - you grew up in East Germany. He always gets nervous if somebody claims to have 99%) the slogan absolutely misses an awareness of the fact that most of the people claiming to be the 99% are in fact the privileged 20% in the North if you look at it from a global perspective. Is it our role to bring in this global perspective and how to do it without being seen to divert from the issues that got people on the streets in the first place? It is still difficult to get people on the streets to act in solidarity with the 80% of people who experience the huge inequalities globalisation has left us with every single day of their lives.

Secondly and on a more positive note, I think people who are involved in campaigning and development education (or in the NGO sector) need to look very closely at how these movements have formed and learn some lessons. For a few decades now movement building or campaigns was something you planned (clarity of concept and messaging, etc.). It seemed to be important to have “an ask” (something more concrete than “I am also somehow against banks”). The spontaneity of the occupy movement and its openness (despite the challenges it brings in terms of formulating alternatives) is exciting. For people working towards mobilising for global justice the question is, is there anything to learn for us in terms of movement building. Because this is what we have to do, if we want to make sure that the 80% are not forgotten while we march for issues that are seemingly closer to our own lives.