OWS GUT CHECK
LUCY NICHOLSON/REUTERS
Hey you nimble dreamers, believers and jammer tacticians out there,
Our movement has reemerged from winter hibernation to find that this spring we are different but so too is the political and tactical situation. Occupy now faces a series of existential challenges that will define the month of May and set the tone for our long-term future.
#1 challenge: Jump over the corporate media
It took the New York Times two weeks last year to wake up to the insurrection percolating in their own backyard. This May Day, we saw an insidious attempt to ignore and discredit us right across the mainstream media. Time to jam the corpo-commercial lie machine and shift the way information flows and meaning is produced. Here is occupier Charles Young’s take on the blackout:
“I know. It’s just a coincidence. Or conspiracy theory. The .01% who rule the United States would never stoop to such stunts to knock Occupy Wall Street off the front page and surround it with mentions of terrorism… But Occupy wasn’t on the Times’ front page, online or in print, either.”
Read more at Counterpunch.
#2 challenge: Block the co-optation of our movement
Last September, the old left didn’t want to touch us. Then Occupy captured the world’s imagination and now they are jumping in to channel our energy into electoral politics and symbolic actions. Founding Zuccotti Marisa Holmes warns that the co-opters are a deep threat to our movement:
“This is an election year. Everything is at stake. There will be many more attempts like The 99% Spring to come. The 1% have no intention of funding a movement that actually poses a threat to their power. They seek to manage social movements via foundations thru resource allocation, top-down structures, and co-opting language. In the past this strategy has proven effective at dividing, conquering, and integrating movements into respectable forms of activism, and it’s starting to take hold… We have realized our collective power, and we must not be pacified!”
Read more in the Occupy! Gazette #4.
#3 challenge: Occupy the future
Our most difficult task of all is to describe, build and sustain the post-capitalist future we want to live in. Here is Slavoj Žižek’s stab to get your juices flowing:
“It is not enough to reject the depoliticized expert rule as the most ruthless form of ideology; one should also begin to think seriously about what to propose instead of the predominant economic organization, to imagine and experiment with alternate forms of organization, to search for the germs of the New. Communism is not just or predominantly the carnival of the mass protest when the system is brought to a halt; Communism is also, above all, a new form of organization, discipline, hard work.”
Read more at the Guardian.
Hey occupiers: the old world has no future; their leaders have no solutions. Now everything from how we live to how we love and how the world is governed is up for grabs. Can we rise to the challenge? Let the tactical brainstorm begin.
for the wild,
Culture Jammers HQ
OccupyWallStreet.org / Tactical Briefing #29 and #30 / On May 12, retake the squares and on May 18, spark the #LAUGHRIOT then join the movement in Chicago
217 comments on the article “OWS GUT CHECK”
Displaying 51 - 60 of 217
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Anonymous
Democracy - who said it would be easy?
Anonymous
Seriously - fuck these "theorists" - You know what? You cannot claim in one breath you are "the 99%" claiming to speak for us - and then write a love letter to "communism".... Fuck that.
Ultra leftists didn't earn leadership! They are trying to take it just like Democratic
party people. And they are assholes for it.
You might as well be CIA.
Anonymous
And how is every citizen to manage society? I mean that can work in very small collectives but how does that work in a huge population of 313,466,000? Direct democracy entails long hours to reach consensus a lot of people are not prepared for that but let's say they are, how are you going to ensure positive results out of consensus? I mean there are whole populations in the US that would vote for say, remove every ethnic person or immigrant from their communities. There are whole communities that would democratically vote to say arm every man and woman to the teeth. How are you going to temper the conservative libertarians, the religious right (who would vote abortion out), those who reject universal health care etc.? I'm just curious. Don't forget that David Duke and the ANSP(you can google this) also came out in support of OWS, I wonder what world he would dream into existence! What would you do when you have a strong leader rises and they directly and democratically vote him into power?
Anonymous
It doesn't make any difference what scale it is. You don't have a single logical reason why it can't be done.
If you can have a ballot initiative, a referendum or a proposition as there are in some states, there's no reason why you can't have various forms of these at the federal level, beginning with pressing issues the majority want to pass, but Congress won't.
Simply create a list of the most pressing issues, and let the public choose which one they would like to pass first, and so forth.
Then put your first draft up publicly on the web, for everyone to read, ask for contributions and suggestions and revisions. Create a set of rules that makes these bills corporate and crony proof (no sweetheart deals, no earmarks, no riders, no lobbyist input, no legalize, no loopholes, tax breaks etc) and vote on the revisions, then take a final vote - yay or nay, online.
Bills would be passed just as fast as they are in Congress, if not faster.
Anonymous
It's so retarded when people hear one word you say in an argument, isn't it? Like, you're saying all this stuff and you say, "I did love you!" and they say, "WHADDYA MEAN DID? YOU SAID "DID"!" Totally overlooking 20 minutes of discussion and now you have to explain the word "did" for twice as long as the original discussion. Don't do that to the word Communism. Just don't. It's so stupid. Get the point of the ENTIRE article, not just one word or sentence.
Anonymous
Why I Occupy
One of the ways that corporate-owned media is trying to downplay the importance of The Occupy Wall Street movement, on top of calling them "whiners" and talking about their lack of personal hygiene, is by telling people that occupiers "don't know what they want."
These are the things that my parents have repeated to me when the topic of Occupy arose. There's no doubt in my mind that this train of thought was distributed by either Fox News, or possibly, their church. I'm more sorrowful than outraged by this stance. When I continued to talk about it, my dad said, "It's probably best if we don't talk about it."
But I especially want to talk about it with people who disagree with protesters. I don't understand how people can be critical of what is clearly a democratic movement, or a movement of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Why am I siding with occupiers? What do I, a college-educated, white woman in the United States have to protest about?
Here are my reasons. I go to bed every night and wake up every morning thinking about them, still in disbelief that this is the world I inhabit.
1) NDAA for Fiscal Year 2012. It all started with the passage of the NDAA. I was irritated with government before this, but this was the eye-opener for me. I hit the books after this, trying to discover why anyone would want to take away the right to habeas corpus. In essence, NDAA allows the president to "disappear" people. They can be indefinitely detained, "disappeared", tortured. We don't know what will happen to us if we are labeled "terrorists" by officials who tire of us doing whatever it may be that displeases them. Sounds Nazi-esque to me.
2) ACTA, PIPA, SOPA, & CISPA. Once my eyes were opened by the NDAA, I started researching more. What I found wasn't pretty. Not only is the government threatening to "disappear" its country's dissident citizens, it wants to monitor what they do on the web, inhibiting freedom of speech and invading privacy. Why else would they come up with inventions like ACTA, PIPA, SOPA, and most recently, CISPA? http://rt.com/usa/news/cispa-internet-facts-figures-006/
3) Police Brutality. Remember the first amendment to the bill of rights? Let me refresh your memory:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Cranky about the government handing outrageous amounts of taxpayer money over to bail out banks and Wall Streeters? Want to peaceably assemble to petition the government for a redress of grievances? You now risk police brutality and arrest, and whatever financial and social repercussions may follow those two events. This is particularly risky if you don't have health insurance.
4) The Continued 2+ Year Imprisonment of Pfc. Bradley Manning without Trail. If you don't know who Bradley Manning is, it's not your fault. Try finding anything about him on corporate-owned mainstream news, and you'll likely have no luck. He allegedly helped WikiLeaks to uncover terribly ugly things about the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For example, "The documents revealed that United States Department of Defense private contractor employees hired local male child prostitutes." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_War_documents_leak Also, the "Collateral Murder" video (below) was released. I'm of the opinion that Bradley Manning should be out living his life, and the guys in the helicopter, happily shooting civilians, including reporters and 2 children, should be the ones in jail, worrying about their futures.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0
5) Endless Wars. I'm tired of reading about the deaths of young people so that the rich can prosper. (see above) I'm tired of knowing that my tax dollars are supporting this.
6) Bailouts. I am outraged that taxpayer money went to banksters while so many people are struggling to make ends meet.
7) No Real Change. Before I voted for Obama, I was marketed to by companies who knew the country was fatigued from 8 years of G.W. Bush. I didn't do my research on Obama. I should have. I'm left with the sinking feeling of helplessness, feeling that no one in government cares about the well being of the population of the US, much less other countries. If I want real change, I'll just have to be my own leader.
So there it is. That's why I'm occupying. It's not so I can go around whining and stinking, causing traffic jams for the fun of it. I am absolutely exhausted when I think about all that needs to be done to make our this place a real "democracy." I am worn out by the burden of the knowledge of what's going on. I'd rather not have the burden of knowing there are people without conscience running this country, but I have it regardless. They have weaseled and lied and manipulated their way to the top.
So, what do I want?
I want to trust that I have a say in how my life goes. I want to live life without the worry of being spied upon or disappeared by anyone. I want the people around me to have that same privilege. I want to live in a world where sociopathy isn't normalized and rewarded. I want to be rid of bullies who use fear and anger and lies as tools to manipulate people. I want to live in a just place where people are free to care about each other and live in peace.
Until I live it that place, I'll be occupying.
The words that we chanted to the beat of a drum in an NDAA protest march come to mind when I get tired of keeping up the good fight. "ONE! We are the people. TWO! We are united. THREE! The occupation just got started."
Feel free to join me, but please stop criticizing me. I'm just going to keep going anyway.
Anonymous
Brilliant letter. I really appreciate your expression. However, note: if you are not enjoying occupying, you will not have the energy to continue occupying. I am not saying treat everything as superfluous. Joy motivates growth. Fear and depression motivate hiding and disunity. Win. Be joyful and learn.
Anonymous
That's beautiful advice for both the Occupiers & life in general. Thank you for that!
ljeanabldr
Status Update
By Occupy on July 4th 2012 in Washington DC
Large, intentional gatherings can be a catalyst for dramatic change. But only if we are prepared, as George Bernard Shaw wrote, "to dream things that never were and ask: 'Why not?' Let us dream about the America we want. And let us give our dreams firmament.
Let our dreams, our thoughts, become words. Let our words become deeds. Let our deeds bring action. Let our actions build a new America and a new world.
You shook the world once, can you shake it again? Will you?
Are you prepared to declare and demand, here and now that it is time United States bring an end to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya?
Are you prepared to demand our troops be brought home?
Are you prepared to demand America end our world-wide military presence?
Are you prepared to demand America must lead the world in the abolition of nuclear weapons?
Are you prepared to demand the Patriot Act must be repealed?
Are you prepared to demand that government spying, eavesdropping, and wiretapping of law abiding citizens must end?
That our sisters' Right to Privacy be protected and decisions about women's reproductive health be between a woman and her doctor?
Are you prepared to demand that our brothers and sisters who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered have equal rights, including the right to marry?
Are you prepared to demand we decriminalize and legalize marijuana, demand hospitalization not incarceration for those with drug problems?
Are you prepared to demand Not-for-profit Health Care for All?
Education for All?
Retirement Security for All?
Jobs for All?
Are you prepared to rescue our federal government from corporate interests by calling for a constitutional amendment which establishes only public financing of federal elections?
Are you prepared to rescue our planet, to protect our air, water, and land from further exploitation by demanding an end to drilling the earth, fracking the earth, cracking the earth, and end to poisoning the seas and the skies with carbon based energies, and a rapid transition to an environmentally friendly, socially responsible green economy?
Anonymous
"Let us dream about the America we want. And let us give our dreams firmament." Gorgeous! Let's!
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