TACTICAL BRIEFING #18
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Hey you creatives, artists, environmentalists, workers, moms, dads, students, malcontents, do-gooders and aspiring martyrs in the snow:
The last four months have been hard fought, inspiring and delightfully revolutionary. We brought tents, hunkered down, held our assemblies, and lobbed a meme-bomb that continues to explode the world's imagination. Many of us have never felt so alive. We have fertilized the future with our revolutionary spirit … and a thousand flowers will surely bloom in the coming Spring.
But as winter approaches an ominous mood could set in … hope thwarted is in danger of turning sour, patience exhausted becoming anger, militant nonviolence losing its allure. It isn't just the mainstream media that says things could get ugly. What shall we do to keep the magic alive?
Here are a couple of emerging ideas:
STRATEGY #1: We summon our strength, grit our teeth and hang in there through winter … heroically we sleep in the snow … we impress the world with our determination and guts … and when the cops come, we put our bodies on the line and resist them nonviolently with everything we've got.
STRATEGY #2: We declare "victory" and throw a party … a festival … a potlatch … a jubilee … a grand gesture to celebrate, commemorate, rejoice in how far we've come, the comrades we've made, the glorious days ahead. Imagine, on a Saturday yet to be announced, perhaps our movement's three month anniversary on December 17, in every #OCCUPY in the world, we reclaim the streets for a weekend of triumphant hilarity and joyous revelry.
We dance like we've never danced before and invite the world to join us.
Then we clean up, scale back and most of us go indoors while the die-hards hold the camps. We use the winter to brainstorm, network, build momentum so that we may emerge rejuvenated with fresh tactics, philosophies, and a myriad projects ready to rumble next Spring.
Whatever we do, let's keep our revolutionary spirit alive … let's never stop living without dead time.
for the wild,
Culture Jammers HQ
394 comments on the article “TACTICAL BRIEFING #18”
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Anonymous
to distinguish this movement, and embarrass those who do not join, I suggest a ten-day fasting. No consumption orally between sunrise and sunset. On the eleventh day a fine celebration would be in order.
Anonymous
to distinguish this movement, and embarrass those who do not join, I suggest a ten-day fasting. No consumption orally between sunrise and sunset. On the eleventh day a fine celebration would be in order.
Anonymous
Much as I appreciate the efforts of the diehard campers, mainstream America--the ones who sympathize with OWS' premises but have not taken to the streets, and may never--want to know what our demands are. They want things they can do large and small, like Bank Transfer Day.
Today's NYT has an interactive graphic showing that even people who support OWS are ambivalent about the tactics. #Occupy must renounce violence and vandalism.
And while I believe speech and assembly are protected, this movement is about so much more than camping, and endless standoffs with police (who are sent in with tear gas--but aren't really the enemy). It's an important fight, but it's also a distraction from the economic issues.
I don't mind if it's messy and leaderless--for now. But we shouldn't lose sight of our core message.
It's time to start making demands of our elected representatives and put them on notice. It's a year till November 2012.
Diana
San Francisco/Oakland
Anonymous
Much as I appreciate the efforts of the diehard campers, mainstream America--the ones who sympathize with OWS' premises but have not taken to the streets, and may never--want to know what our demands are. They want things they can do large and small, like Bank Transfer Day.
Today's NYT has an interactive graphic showing that even people who support OWS are ambivalent about the tactics. #Occupy must renounce violence and vandalism.
And while I believe speech and assembly are protected, this movement is about so much more than camping, and endless standoffs with police (who are sent in with tear gas--but aren't really the enemy). It's an important fight, but it's also a distraction from the economic issues.
I don't mind if it's messy and leaderless--for now. But we shouldn't lose sight of our core message.
It's time to start making demands of our elected representatives and put them on notice. It's a year till November 2012.
Diana
San Francisco/Oakland
Anonymous
Diana, thank you for this. Too many Occupiers are so caught up in the frenzy of it all, that it seems they sometimes forget about the bigger picture. While I don't sympathize with OWS, if more of its members were like you, I'd be far more likely to be swayed.
Anonymous
Diana, thank you for this. Too many Occupiers are so caught up in the frenzy of it all, that it seems they sometimes forget about the bigger picture. While I don't sympathize with OWS, if more of its members were like you, I'd be far more likely to be swayed.
Anonymous
Occupy members are like everything--just whoever's moved to get out on the streets. The campers are more hardcore than old school liberals like me; but I've met more nice people just sitting on a bench at #occupyoakland and handing out batteries and sweaters after a police raid and marching with #occupysf.
I've worked on lots of political campaigns, going door to door in swing states begging people not to vote for George Bush or McCain/Palin.. And it doesn't work. What inspires me about Occupy Wall Street is it's organic. A genuine populist opening. People here actually believe they can change things. They may be crazy, but I hope they're right.
It's up to us to turn this into something real.
Diana
Anonymous
Occupy members are like everything--just whoever's moved to get out on the streets. The campers are more hardcore than old school liberals like me; but I've met more nice people just sitting on a bench at #occupyoakland and handing out batteries and sweaters after a police raid and marching with #occupysf.
I've worked on lots of political campaigns, going door to door in swing states begging people not to vote for George Bush or McCain/Palin.. And it doesn't work. What inspires me about Occupy Wall Street is it's organic. A genuine populist opening. People here actually believe they can change things. They may be crazy, but I hope they're right.
It's up to us to turn this into something real.
Diana
Steven Matherly
About ten years ago I owned and ran a Blues Bar. Every now and again we'd get people coming in who would say something along the lines of "Oh, I would come here more if the music weren't so loud, it wasn't quite so dark, you had more something other than burgers and fries, and if you'd make it non-smoking". This was usually said while holding a glass of water I gave them for free because they drank neither beer nor soda.
This is what your comment reminds me of. Here's what you said:
While I don't sympathize with OWS, if more of its members were like you, I'd be far more likely to be swayed.
Really? Go on, pull the other one. You already said you don't agree with OWS. Let me guess: You are white, somewhere north of thirty years old, don't work with your hands, and you vote Democratic most of the time. If I had listened to this garbage from my supposed "customers" I wouldn't have lasted as long in the bar business as I did. Thank God for my African American, Latino, and working class White clientele.
Steven Matherly
About ten years ago I owned and ran a Blues Bar. Every now and again we'd get people coming in who would say something along the lines of "Oh, I would come here more if the music weren't so loud, it wasn't quite so dark, you had more something other than burgers and fries, and if you'd make it non-smoking". This was usually said while holding a glass of water I gave them for free because they drank neither beer nor soda.
This is what your comment reminds me of. Here's what you said:
While I don't sympathize with OWS, if more of its members were like you, I'd be far more likely to be swayed.
Really? Go on, pull the other one. You already said you don't agree with OWS. Let me guess: You are white, somewhere north of thirty years old, don't work with your hands, and you vote Democratic most of the time. If I had listened to this garbage from my supposed "customers" I wouldn't have lasted as long in the bar business as I did. Thank God for my African American, Latino, and working class White clientele.
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