Battle for the Soul of Occupy
Alright you jammers, occupiers and Springtime dreamers,
First they silenced our uprising with a media blackout… then they smashed our encampments with midnight paramilitary raids… and now they’re threatening to neutralize our insurgency with an insidious campaign of donor money and co-optation. This counter-strategy worked to kill off the Tea Party’s outrage and turn it into a puppet of the Republican Party. Will the same happen with Occupy Wall Street? Will our insurgency turn into the Democrats’ Tea Party pet?
It’s up to you to decide if our movement goes the way of Paris ’68, the dust bin of could-have-been-insurrections, or something more daring, more inspiring, something not yet dreamed.
Will you allow Occupy to become a project of the old left, the same cabal of old world thinkers who have blunted the possibility of revolution for decades? Will you allow MoveOn, The Nation and Ben & Jerry to put the brakes on our Spring Offensive and turn our struggle into a “99% Spring” reelection campaign for President Obama?
We are now in a battle for the soul of Occupy… a fight to the finish between the impotent old left and the new vibrant, horizontal left who launched Occupy Wall Street from the bottom-up and who dreams of real democracy and another world.
Whatever you do, don’t allow our revolutionary struggle to fizzle out into another lefty whine and clicktivist campaign like has happened so many times in the past. Let’s Occupy the clicktivists and crash the MoveOn party. Let’s #DEFENDOCCUPY and stop the derailment of our movement that looms ahead.
for the wild,
Culture Jammers HQ
OccupyWallStreet.org / Tactical Briefing #25, #26, #27 and #28 / Check out Oakland occupier Mike King’s take on MoveOn’s 99% Spring
306 comments on the article “Battle for the Soul of Occupy”
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Mark Read
This is straight up paranoia. The fact that trainers might be urging people to do something on Tax Day (and this report-back is the first I've heard of that. Trainings seem to have varied a great deal, very much depending on the desires and interests of THE PARTICIPANTS) would seem to have more to do with the fact that tax day is coming up soon, and maybe they want people to get out and try something sooner rather than later. Most of the reports I've heard are that Mayday was the day talked about as a day to practice the skills they had just learned.
I don't think accusations of coordination between Obama and the 99% Spring are remotely credible, and would seem to be a strategy of provocateurs to splinter an emerging broad-based movement.
Or its just the sad sad impulse to self-destruct rather than grow, for the sake of feeling pure and righteous.
And yes, I agree 100% with the assessment of Obama and the corporate-controlled Democratic Party. I just wouldn't be so quick to paint MoveOn, Van Jones, the Union Movement, and every other organized progressive organization with the same brush. For the moment the enemy of our enemy (ie WALL STREET! Remember them?) is our friend.
New Old Left
Citizen's United has allowed not only corporation but unions to pump millions of dollars into political campaigns. The "99% Spring" is made possible by Citizen's United and so, uncomfortably, were the Wisconsin demonstrations. It's certainly not all black and white or good and bad but the idea that "Moveon.Org" doesn't have an agenda tightly aligned with the Democratic Party is pure fantasy.
Anonymous
So what if does?
Guess what, sunshine. No movement has ever succeeded except by building a broad and very large coalition. Some interests will converge, others not. You keep the main thing the main thing...here's the OWS Declaration if you need a reminder: http://zoom.it/MFXB#full
If you expect for OWS to go anywhere further and remain filled with only third party voter types and anarchists/survivalists, you might as well realize right here and now that the Weather Underground has already hoed that road to become a mere footnote in history.
If I were Karl Rover, I'd be hoping to God OWS rejects the Old Left. In fact, I'd be quietly pushing the idea inside OWS through various moles; so, worrying about being co-opted by MoveOn is the very least of your worries.
Time to grow up, kids.
Anonymous
it's not a movement it's an occupation. the time for political movements is gone,
Weather Underground was a terrorist groupOccupy is non-violent.
time to die, old man
RESEARCHER
Heh. Do you know who originally wrote that?
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/04/11414/%E2%80%9C99-spring%E2%80%9D-train-100000-activists
You just called John Stauber paranoid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stauber
Do you know his history with MoveOn and the entire American activist left? He has insider info on what moveon are up to, as well as direct experience with them in the past. One of the groups Stauber sponsors, exposed ALEC and the Koch Brothers. Please. Don't be dismissive of his personal warning.
Here's moveon's current campaign: http://civic.moveon.org/event/events/index.html?rc=homepage.sidebar&action_id=272
Here's Obama's: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2012/0414/The-Buffett-Rule-Tax-reform-or-political-gimmick/%28page%29/2
They run programs in tandem. It's how moveon works. The Unions are the biggest monetary backers of Democrats. They work under the Democratic umbrella. They organized in Wisconsin for the recall and the demonstrations. Van Jones is a former fellow of the Center for American Progress, which is the DNC's version of the Heritage Foundation or Cato Institute: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_American_Progress
He's no activist, he's an insider who wants to harness activism for his own ends. He tried it last year and failed. http://hypervocal.com/politics/2011/van-jones-american-dream-movement-it-should-work-but-will-it/#
Occupy's been physically disbanded under Obama orders (worldwide), and the next step was to hijack Occupy's message and use it for the Obama campaign in the upcoming election to garner votes from disillusioned progressives and independents.
This isn't about purity, self destruction, or bickering. It's about understanding what Occupiers are up against. If Occupiers want to ally with MoveOn, Van Jones and the Unions, that's great. More power to them. It's a personal choice. But don't be naive about what these groups are doing, why they're doing it and where they ultimately want to channel the energy. The real issue is how Occupiers handle the co-option, individually or collectively. It's too late to pretend it hasn't been done.
Anonymous
So, let me get this straight.
You're worried about being co-opted by the so-called Old Left, yet are seriously considering boycotting the 2012 elections or casting a "protest vote" for some no chance in hell third party candidate?
Being co-opted by the Old Left sounds the least of your worries. You sound like you've already been co-opted by some moles sent into OWS by Karl Rove himself.
Anonymous
You've posted this same comment multiple times you Democratic party shill. Go away you piece of shit.
Anonymous
did you read the link at the end? counter insurgency as insurgency?
no, you just couldn't wait to comment without investigating ? oh, yeah.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/13/yes-the-99-spring-is-a-fraud/
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/05/counter-insurgency-as-insurgency/
Anonymous
did you read the link at the end? counter insurgency as insurgency?
no, you just couldn't wait to comment without investigating ? oh, yeah.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/13/yes-the-99-spring-is-a-fraud/
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/05/counter-insurgency-as-insurgency/
Anonymous
This is not a competition. We are at a breaking point in our United States. $8.00 at the pump will be the first line of drop offs. We live in an evil toxic country that exports war. We as a country are not going to survive. The people that are awake need to stop claiming "ownership" of leftist movement.
T H I S IS S O O N T O B E C O M E A S U R V I V A L M O V E M E N T . We best govern ourselves as adults...accordingly. Go find your ego fix elsewhere...
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