A portrait of Van Jones at his home in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, October 23, 2011.
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An immediate challenge is to prevent the Occupy movement from turning violent or falling under the sway of lawbreaking anarchists. In mid-November, the American Dream network will host more than 200 teach-ins across the country focusing on the demands of Occupy, the issue of income inequality and the importance of nonviolence to retain credibility. "Those of us who are committed to nonviolent change have to get very clear and very loud," Jones says.
Had the Occupy movement started two decades earlier, there is little doubt that Jones would be camping out there in the rain. But he is 43, with two young children, living in Los Angeles, though more often than not traveling the country. He hopes to be able to guide the dialogue begun by Occupy into legislation and electoral results in 2012. His coalition plans to select a slate of candidates, "from dogcatcher to Congress," across the U.S. and train thousands of volunteers as local organizers.
On Nov. 17, Occupy Wall Street and the American Dream Movement are planning a major day of protest. It will mark the second full month of the encampment in lower Manhattan and, Jones hopes, send a clear message to the congressional supercommittee in Washington that the grassroots energy in the country has shifted to the left since the midterm elections. Jones is sure to become a target of the right again now that he has re-established himself near the front lines.
In recent weeks, he has traveled to Occupy general assemblies in Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Manhattan, speaking at each of them. There he has found a new generation of activists with new customs--like the "human microphone" practice of collectively repeating the words of each speaker--that he never used when he was a street activist. Few in these crowds would identify him as their leader or even be able to identify him at all, but Jones says he sees them all as potential leaders.
"This is new for me," he called out one night at a general assembly in Zuccotti Park before hundreds of protesters. ("This is new for me," the mass responded.) "I am used to having a real mike," he said. ("I am used to having a real mike.")
Someone in the crowd shouted an objection--"This is a real mike!"--and Jones flashed his broad smile, a glowing, ear-to-ear brightening of a man recently returned from exile. "Exactly," he said.