#OCCUPYWALLSTREET
Alright you 90,000 redeemers, rebels and radicals out there,
A worldwide shift in revolutionary tactics is underway right now that bodes well for the future. The spirit of this fresh tactic, a fusion of Tahrir with the acampadas of Spain, is captured in this quote:
"The antiglobalization movement was the first step on the road. Back then our model was to attack the system like a pack of wolves. There was an alpha male, a wolf who led the pack, and those who followed behind. Now the model has evolved. Today we are one big swarm of people."— Raimundo Viejo, Pompeu Fabra University
Barcelona, Spain
The beauty of this new formula, and what makes this novel tactic exciting, is its pragmatic simplicity: we talk to each other in various physical gatherings and virtual people's assemblies … we zero in on what our one demand will be, a demand that awakens the imagination and, if achieved, would propel us toward the radical democracy of the future … and then we go out and seize a square of singular symbolic significance and put our asses on the line to make it happen.
The time has come to deploy this emerging stratagem against the greatest corrupter of our democracy: Wall Street, the financial Gomorrah of America.
On September 17, we want to see 20,000 people flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices.
Tahrir succeeded in large part because the people of Egypt made a straightforward ultimatum – that Mubarak must go – over and over again until they won. Following this model, what is our equally uncomplicated demand?
The most exciting candidate that we've heard so far is one that gets at the core of why the American political establishment is currently unworthy of being called a democracy: we demand that Barack Obama ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington. It's time for DEMOCRACY NOT CORPORATOCRACY, we're doomed without it.
This demand seems to capture the current national mood because cleaning up corruption in Washington is something all Americans, right and left, yearn for and can stand behind. If we hang in there, 20,000-strong, week after week against every police and National Guard effort to expel us from Wall Street, it would be impossible for Obama to ignore us. Our government would be forced to choose publicly between the will of the people and the lucre of the corporations.
This could be the beginning of a whole new social dynamic in America, a step beyond the Tea Party movement, where, instead of being caught helpless by the current power structure, we the people start getting what we want whether it be the dismantling of half the 1,000 military bases America has around the world to the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act or a three strikes and you're out law for corporate criminals. Beginning from one simple demand – a presidential commission to separate money from politics – we start setting the agenda for a new America.
Post a comment and help each other zero in on what our one demand will be. And then let's screw up our courage, pack our tents and head to Wall Street with a vengeance September 17.
for the wild,
Culture Jammers HQ
Adbusters #97: Post Anarchism – How To Live Without Dead Time (with #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign materials inside), hits newsstands on August 2. Go to adbusters.org/subscribe and subscribe!
534 comments on the article “#OCCUPYWALLSTREET”
Displaying 81 - 90 of 534
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S.I.
One sure thing we can ask for are congressional amendments limiting the access and powers of corporations and lobbyists directly. In Egypt, there were several problems: poverty, unemployment, and disregard of natural, democratic freedoms: petition, speech, assembly, press, and religion. On top of that - the market system there is not capitalistic. This event may essentially be in the wrong place - the steps of Congress itself may be better suited for it. As Congressmen (Senators/State Reps.) walk into their respective place of work, they would have to deal with protestors directly.
I also recommend the individuals in charge of this initiative to reach out to entertainers of both the comedy and music industries that hold anti-corporate/lobby stances. This may spark the match on the event. Tweet. Post the event on your FB status, word of mouth, put up event flyers in your towns.
The framing of this may also need to change: if it is done in a way where average Americans will be pitted against what I've previously mentioned - this will succeed. If there has been triumph in several nations across the world - why can't we, Americans, citizens of one of the greatest nations in the world, do the same? This must speak to both ethos and pathos. What is being done in Congress has lost interest in it's country's average citizen: the first-generation college student, the blue collar worker, the immigrant, and one thing we all covet dearly: The American Dream.
Best of luck, Adbusters.
S.I.
One sure thing we can ask for are congressional amendments limiting the access and powers of corporations and lobbyists directly. In Egypt, there were several problems: poverty, unemployment, and disregard of natural, democratic freedoms: petition, speech, assembly, press, and religion. On top of that - the market system there is not capitalistic. This event may essentially be in the wrong place - the steps of Congress itself may be better suited for it. As Congressmen (Senators/State Reps.) walk into their respective place of work, they would have to deal with protestors directly.
I also recommend the individuals in charge of this initiative to reach out to entertainers of both the comedy and music industries that hold anti-corporate/lobby stances. This may spark the match on the event. Tweet. Post the event on your FB status, word of mouth, put up event flyers in your towns.
The framing of this may also need to change: if it is done in a way where average Americans will be pitted against what I've previously mentioned - this will succeed. If there has been triumph in several nations across the world - why can't we, Americans, citizens of one of the greatest nations in the world, do the same? This must speak to both ethos and pathos. What is being done in Congress has lost interest in it's country's average citizen: the first-generation college student, the blue collar worker, the immigrant, and one thing we all covet dearly: The American Dream.
Best of luck, Adbusters.
Zonnie
This demand for a "presidential commission to separate money from politics" is really weak. Why put the president in charge of investigating himself? Wasn't he elected in a campaign financed by Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase? I agree on the need for clear demands, but there have got to be some better ideas than this floating around.
Zonnie
This demand for a "presidential commission to separate money from politics" is really weak. Why put the president in charge of investigating himself? Wasn't he elected in a campaign financed by Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase? I agree on the need for clear demands, but there have got to be some better ideas than this floating around.
ormondotvos
My sentiments exactly. As we slide closer to a realization that Obama is, willy nilly, a tool of the establishment, the chance that anything would come of an investigation (what, the facts aren't clear enough?) are approaching zero.
ormondotvos
My sentiments exactly. As we slide closer to a realization that Obama is, willy nilly, a tool of the establishment, the chance that anything would come of an investigation (what, the facts aren't clear enough?) are approaching zero.
schuh072
I can't think of any specific demands to make. But I don't think we should waste time making demands of the United States Government which only has a semblance of power these days.
I think its better to make demands directly to the banks. Lets ask them for some money. Better yet lets cook up some "business plans" and pitch them to bankers during the occupation. Disguise our aims in the language of the enemy.
On a practical level I'm a New Yorker and I'm down for this, but expecting to find 20,000 people willing to take time off from trying to survive life for a demonstration of undetermined length of time is wishful thinking. Not that they aren't out there, but better to organize for something like this first. I say better to plan it out for next September. Find corporate interests to sponsor, donate food, shelters, (they compete against one another) get some prearranged media coverage and create a proper spectacle of it.
The most efficient way to destroy the capitalist system is to use it against itself. Forget about guerrilla tactics, learn finance, learn advertising, social media, get a job, infiltrate and subvert. The enemy has already invented all the weapons we could ever need.
schuh072
I can't think of any specific demands to make. But I don't think we should waste time making demands of the United States Government which only has a semblance of power these days.
I think its better to make demands directly to the banks. Lets ask them for some money. Better yet lets cook up some "business plans" and pitch them to bankers during the occupation. Disguise our aims in the language of the enemy.
On a practical level I'm a New Yorker and I'm down for this, but expecting to find 20,000 people willing to take time off from trying to survive life for a demonstration of undetermined length of time is wishful thinking. Not that they aren't out there, but better to organize for something like this first. I say better to plan it out for next September. Find corporate interests to sponsor, donate food, shelters, (they compete against one another) get some prearranged media coverage and create a proper spectacle of it.
The most efficient way to destroy the capitalist system is to use it against itself. Forget about guerrilla tactics, learn finance, learn advertising, social media, get a job, infiltrate and subvert. The enemy has already invented all the weapons we could ever need.
Zonnie
So, a movement to uplift the working class without the participation of the working class? Your thoughts? Just curious.
Zonnie
So, a movement to uplift the working class without the participation of the working class? Your thoughts? Just curious.
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