Battle for the Soul of Occupy
sinkers.org
As we prepare for the May uprising, two power centers of our movement have announced plans for a spectacular bi-coastal May 1st bridge blockade. On the West Coast, Occupy Oakland and Occupy San Francisco are planning rush hour disruptions on the Golden Gate Bridge while in New York City, occupiers say they will block one or more Manhattan-bound bridges. These acts of nonviolent direct action will set the tactical tone for the next phase of Occupy: they signal the turn towards Strike actions aimed at disrupting the flow of money. And, on a deeper level, these blockades come at a pivotal moment for Occupy as the movement grapples with a battle for its soul.
The question many occupiers are debating is whether the spirit and voice of Occupy will stay with the new left horizontals who launched the uprising or whether it will move towards MoveOn’s 99% Spring, and their old left buddies at The Nation magazine, Ben & Jerry’s, et al.
For the first most spectacular days of Occupy – such as on September 24 when eighty Zuccottis were arrested and shocking footage of women getting maced was replayed on national television – MoveOn ignored our movement. They decided to jump on board much later when 700 nonviolent occupiers were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge. They saw this mass arrest as an opportunity to fold Occupy into their electoral Rebuild the Dream campaign to bolster Obama. At a time when Occupy was inspiring hundreds of thousands of people across the nation to take the squares, set up leaderless encampments and reinvent democracy in people’s assemblies, MoveOn held an October 5 online “Virtual March on Wall Street” with their friends at Rebuild the Dream.
At the peak of Occupy, when the people’s movement had catalyzed a global day of action on October 15 that saw millions of us in 82 countries rally in financial districts and capital cities for real democracy, MoveOn tried to cash in on Occupy’s momentum with a donation pitch. “We have to capitalize on this momentum now,” wrote MoveOn in an email to its members. “Can you chip in $5?”
And now, MoveOn wants to hijack our movement with their 99% Spring.
MoveOn is an existential threat to our movement because they don’t have a revolutionary bone in their body … if we give these clicktivists any more room then they will pull off a managed cooling of our revolutionary fervor … they will neuter the kind of bold, militant nonviolent direct actions that are the key to the next phase of our movement. Don’t let them do it!
Jump, jump, jump over the dead body of the old left!
159 comments on the article “Battle for the Soul of Occupy”
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Anonymous
Using social networking services means this was co-opted by day 1.
It's incredibly stupid to organize protests over Facebook, Twitter, and the like. That's all I have to say about that.
Anonymous
Facebook and twitter eat themselves by allowing OWS to use them. You understand? They can be reigned in using their own system against them.
Anonymous
Graffiti = free speech
distribute zines
get a radio, get on the radio
talk to strangers
spread the word
Anonymous
Also, as well as this site, what about spreading the word on RT.com? Watch out for Max, watch out for the World Tomorrow!
Anonymous
It makes no sense for OWS to be co opted by the party of Wall street, the Dems. The main complaint of OWS is that the levers of government have been co-opted by two parties who basically work for one small fraction of people and they are handing them simply everything, including cart blanc use of the citizens for their enterprises and complete control by allowing monopolies on life sustain necessities.
As we talk, they are buying up or purposely fouling all the water on the planet. The kind of control this points to is chilling beyond measure and a world where the culture is totally acclimated and accepting of people dropping to their knees to the one percent for bjs or whatever is the obvious goal. Complete control of the water will give these people Marquis de Sade like power over the masses and obviously this is their goal. This is an extreme example but one that is clearly doable if things get any worse and the kind of implications that are had with Gitmo, torture, NDAA, and the constant surveillance of people that is more than crossing the line of Marquis de Sade like domination of people's every moment.
I think that Occupy needs to focus some serious energy on the presidential elections. This election is pretty much a lost cause, but we can talk about the fact that we are given only two candidates that belong to the One Percent and that this is no choice. We should be talking about that none stop. What happened to Ron Paul is seriously a concern. I was not a RP supporter because I think his views on single payer and health care are antiquated and bias towards people that grew up and lived Beaver Cleaver lives, but watching him being outted illegally by the control of the MSM and those controlling vote counting illustrated clearly WHY our candidates are always serving the thin slice called the one percent at our expense.
By continually and exclusively serving this thin slice, our Congressmen, senators, and SCOTUS have turned this country into a country of rule by royalty. I believe that while the one percent has been criminal, our leaders are the larger criminals as they have allowed it and sold out our great nation and the protections our families have died to preserve for generations. Criminals are a problem and always will be, but the problem we have is far beyond the problems of criminals, it is criminals in charge of an entire planet. This was done by buying our government with money they stole from us and acquired by false flag wars etc.
This was done one immoral cold blooded politician and judge at a time. With all "plants" basically controlling our government, we cease to have one, which is where we are now. What was once our government has been co opted by the elite. That's their MO and why they have come for OWS.
OWS can only merge with people that are trying to restore the government and its offices back to WE the People. The Dems are clearly not these people particularly in light of NDAA which is all on the Dems' tab. This is an unbelievable slap in the face of Obama constituents. Clearly he sees us as servants to the one percent as well, and the founding principles of this nation mean less than nothing to him. These are principles the rest of us have held dear as did our parents before us.
I am very afraid of the people that are running this country and are obviously happy to turn the US into a war colony for the worldwide control of the elites. We are in serious trouble and we are on the edge of no return. The elites are changing the world into a cruel and Star wars like cultural wasteland of warring serfs who will think nothing of killing over a scrap of food. Our kids will live horrible lives if we allow these people to continue. We are already seeing what these royals really think and want.
dravazed
MoveOn exists to channel spontaneous uprisings like Occupy into the Democratic [sic] Party. Period.
Anonymous
Good point.
@groobiecat
This doesn't make any sense. How will they co-opt you? How will they "cool" down your movement? They are but another organization. OWS is OWS, unless it allows itself to be co-opted. This is just paranoia, IMO. OTH, the old left is actually doing a LOT at the policy level. Ever heard of the war on women? It ain't being waged by dems, but it IS being defended against by them. Where's OWS on this front? The old left is imperfect, at best, but there are still very real policy issues and concerns, most of which a lot in OWS conflate, wrongly, as being of no important or have no bearing on the world. They do. Ignore them if you want, but while the revolution you foment--and which I support--continues, there are legislative battles being fought in state houses across the country (ever heard of Stand your Ground? How about invasive ultrasound procedures? Voters rights?) that the "old liberals" are fighting every day.
These are real issues. They impact real people. It's not all or nothing, and trying to eliminate those who are not "pure" smacks of something very very different from the progressive movement that I support. It smacks of veiled fascism, whether you know it or not. What's next? Special clothing that indicates that you're not a liberal? Badges? Letters? Yeah. Be very careful here, my pure friends. Your own worst enemy may not be old school liberals, it may be staring you in the mirror...
Anonymous
UGH YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT! Fascism? You can't possibly understand the word. YOU ALREADY LIVE IN A FASCIST NATION. The state/Democracy is used to make money for corporate power. How did you get fascism out of anti-consumerists?????????????
Anonymous
So the small farmers rights group should happily join with Monsanto because they should avoid demanding purity. Wake up, your understanding of what is going on is superficial, based heavily in propaganda about authority and what good boys and girls do, and part of the problem.
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