Battle for the Soul of Occupy
Occupy will come out swinging May 1 with a General Strike in 115 cities … A month of visceral nonviolent actions will follow. We will flex our tactical muscles, dream of a new world order and #playjazz like never before.
From Slavoj Žižek in today’s Guardian:
“The protesters should beware not only of enemies, but also of false friends who pretend to support them, but are already working hard to dilute the protest. In the same way we get coffee without caffeine, beer without alcohol, ice-cream without fat, they will try to make the protests into a harmless moralistic gesture.”
The clicktivists at MoveOn are channeling Occupy’s intensity into legal, symbolic rallies that bolster Democratic Party campaign promises. Check out the 80 organizations backing MoveOn’s 99% Spring: most of them are the same old lefty cabal that’s ruled over and stifled the political left for the last 20 years. But there are also some flowers among the vegetables … and we should try to get them back. Folks like the Ruckus Society or the Rainforest Action Network … groups whose bold civil disobedience inspired us all in the past. We still remember how the tactical brilliance of John Sellers, a former Ruckus Society leader, was so feared that he was preemptively arrested, charged with 14 misdemeanors, including “possession of an instrument of crime” – his cell phone – ha ha! – and held on $1 million bail during the Republican National Convention protests in 2000.
Hey jammers, let’s get some of these wild flowers back … Head over to the 99% Spring and look through the list of affiliated organizations. Decide for yourself which groups you respect then call them for a chat or send them an email or a tweet. Ruckus Society is at 510-931-6339, [email protected], @Ruckusociety; Rainforest Action Network at 415-398-4404, answers@ran[email protected], @RAN… Let’s nudge our friends back into the Occupy camp in time for the May Day General Strike.
48 comments on the article “Battle for the Soul of Occupy”
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Anonymous
SHIT IS FUCKED UP AND BULLSHIT
Anonymous
Man, Adbusters must really be having its panties in a bunch over the 99% Spring to have this sudden influx of blog posts all about the same damn thing.
Anonymous
MoveOn could be the most useless organization on the left, period. They exist to raise funds for the Democratic Party, and GOTV for the Democrats. The rest is a dog and pony show.
What are the policy and bill passage achievements of MoveOn?
Their Petraeus Betray Us poster was a monumental failure. He's now head of the CIA, after being consistently promoted by Bush and Obama.
Maybe a 99%Spring acolyte can explain the point of petitions that politicians ignore, like this one: http://civic.moveon.org/rebuildpetition/scsocialsecurity/?rc=c4_rebuildpetition_scsocialsecurity_letter.fb.v1.g1
Remember, Obama's gimmick, to "make the 1% pay", didn't go anywhere in Congress. It was a stunt. He already extended the Bush tax cuts. If Obama was going to make the 1% pay, he purposefully ignored his opening.
As far as I can tell, the planned 99%Spring actions consist of attending several shareholder meetings. How can this possibly be effective, while the Obama administration, the SEC, the DOJ, the Treasury, the Fed, and Congress let Wall St continually commit crimes, write bills AND run the country?
Anonymous
Good point. Criminals and greedy people will always exist and will always do whatever they can get away with. On the other hand, it is the job of the government to stop criminals in the interest of society. While the corporations are heinous, that's a given, but a government that kowtows to them while taking taxpayer money to enrich them , is a far far more serious crime and problem of much more serious proportions.
Anonymous
Arson, black blocs, graffiti, and turning the pavement into rock throwing ammunition is what happened in the Middle East, Greece and it will come to pass that if the 99% Spring wants to get things done, then they'll either go down the well trodden gas mask road, or they'll get beaten by the cops like Occupy has suffered so many times already.
Sorry, Springers, but your idealism can't shield you from rubber bullets.
Hey, 99% Spring! Don't you get it? Either you FIGHT, or you DIE.
Anonymous
I agree with your assessment, but throwing rocks will not improve the position of anyone that understands the factual basis of your views. For every rock thrown, the movement has lost support. How then do we gain enough support to affect significant changes without that support?
I do not know the answer, but the 'occupy' phenomenon needs to somehow reach adulthood to be meaningful. It can't continue to appear as angry adolescents hanging out without direction or goals. I hope the May 1 strike is successful, but it seems that the day after there won't be much to provide traction for the message which is becoming lost in the cross-talk between progressive groups.
And BTW, many occupiers came to the movement already affiliated with those groups. What about them? How can inclusiveness and exclusiveness exist together, without a means of steering or incorporating any of the suggestions or taking into account the previous affiliations of it's pseudo-members?
Anonymous
The US is past the point where "nonviolence" would work. Believing that there's hope for democratic change in this country is denying reality.
Anonymous
Y'know what's great about being on the Right? We just sit back and watch you morons flounder, while we buy more ammo and wait for you actually make good on your empty promises. Then, we go to the range and enjoy a day of shooting, because we know we'll never actually need those bullets for anything other than target shooting.
Idiots. Just keep arguing amongst yourselves. If you can't convince each other, how do you expect to convince anybody else?
Anonymous
Actually, I'm very much of a leftist who just sees the writing on the wall. The American system cannot be changed by people who are only willing to wave around signs and "vote." It can only be changed by force. The "people" largely side with the corporations and rightwingers, and are largely happy with the status quo as long as they have TV and food ... you can't win over that with words.
Anonymous
At least you're honest. Thank you.
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