Tactical Turning Point
JESUS G. PASTOR
Hey you nimble dreamers, occupiers, believers,
Last May 15, a hundred thousand indignados in Spain seized the squares across their nation, held people’s assemblies and catalyzed a global tactical shift that birthed Occupy Wall Street four months later. Our movement outflanked governments everywhere with a thousand encampments in large part because no one was prepared for Occupy’s magic combination of Spain’s transparent consensus-based acampadas with the Tahrir-model of indefinite occupation of symbolic space. Now exactly a year later, a big question mark hangs over our movement because it is clear that the same tactics may never work again.
Spring re-occupations have largely failed here in North America. The May Day General Strike was stifled by aggressive, preemptive policing that neutralized Occupy’s signature moves. In light of these challenges, Saturday’s May 12 rebirth of the indignados could be a tactical turning point.
Across the world, authorities are using “lawfare” to piecemeal outlaw any tactic that we used last year. In Spain, there is an attempt to criminalize the use of the internet to catalyze nonviolent protests and occupations. The International Business Times reports that this is part of a larger European move to “punish those who use social media and instant messaging to organize and co-ordinate street protests.” Canada wants to ban wearing masks at “unlawful assemblies,” a legal designation often used to disperse nonviolent protesters. Meanwhile Germany is taking a more direct route: they have simply issued a decree “banning” the Blockupy anti-bank protest in Frankfurt. As in the U.S., when outlawing free speech and the right to assembly doesn’t work, authorities are increasingly using brutal, paramilitary force.
The power of Occupy lies in its ability to harness the collective intelligence of our leaderless movement to tactically innovate. We move at viral speed – always one step ahead. “Fight, fail, fight again, fail again, fight again… till victory.” When one tactical constellation fails, we innovate spontaneously – we play jazz.
Across the world, indignados are preparing for a big blast on Saturday, May 12. Some, like Occupy London, are planning to retake the squares and set up encampments. Others have totally new tactics in mind. Whatever happens, let’s learn from the indignados with an eye towards our Camp David inspired May 18 #LAUGHRIOT and the global convergence on Chicago to confront NATO …
Let’s be humble … let’s “fall in love with hard and patient work” – and keep in mind that this is all just the beginning.
for the wild,
Culture Jammers HQ
OccupyWallStreet.org / Tactical Briefing #29, #30, #31 / Be present on May 12 and on May 18 spark the #LAUGHRIOT then swarm Chicago.
120 comments on the article “Tactical Turning Point”
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Anonymous
The power of the Occupy movement is that it expresses the widespread disgust with the elites, and the deep desire for justice and fairness that is essential to all successful revolutionary movements. The Occupy movement will change and mutate, but it will not go away. It may appear to make little headway, but this is less because of the movement’s ineffectiveness and more because decayed systems of power have an amazing ability to perpetuate themselves through habit, routine and inertia. The press and organs of communication, along with the anointed experts and academics, tied by money and ideology to the elites, are useless in dissecting what is happening within these movements. They view reality through the lens of their corporate sponsors. They have no idea what is happening.
Dying regimes are chipped away slowly and imperceptibly. The assumptions and daily formalities of the old system are difficult for citizens to abandon, even when the old system is increasingly hostile to their dignity, well-being and survival. Supplanting an old faith with a new one is the silent, unseen battle of all revolutionary movements. And during the slow transition it is almost impossible to measure progress.
"The Black Panthers, the American Indian Movement, the Weather Underground, the Red Brigades and the Symbionese Liberation Army arose in the ferment of the 1960s. Violent radicals are used by the state to justify harsh repression. They scare the mainstream from the movement. They thwart the goal of all revolutions, which is to turn the majority against an isolated and discredited ruling class." These in-fact, alongside those who choose to engage through "socially acceptable"(but whos society do you live in?) avenues of protest, are essential in altering the course of the oppressed majority. Without more radical initiatives the status quo can never be changed. Those who demonize the protectors of their tyrannized people are ignorant and complacent in a system that strikes fear and obedience in those it wishes to hold down. There is a new Jim crow through our prison systems and 'war on drugs.' Why do we stay silent? Because we have to exist within the system,which means you must work for the system in order to survive. Even if only part-time, the dependents on civilization means consuming. Consumer base= consumption the the planet's resources, health, sustainability, animal populations (including humans) who are decimated by the the perverted sense of divine right. Only those who are sick, having no thoughts other than their immediate comfort or profits, would use logic combining exploitation and the teachings of a God in a corpro-suto religion. Subsistence farming, elevated learning of numerous teachings, AND the right of humans to stand together using ALL tactics to insight the positive change for everyone. There are no Utopians, that means there is not an ultimate end to achieve. So those who condemn your fellow brothers; without radical action your voices are silent, without a intelligible voice the actions are irrelevant.
Anonymous
elitist top-down regimes may crumble, but they are always replaced by new elites and new regimes
Yes there have been many revolutions, and these revolutions have all eventually led to more elitism, more control, and more disparities in wealth
Anonymous
The challenge for our generation is to avoid becoming "angry young men" or, perhaps worse, a generation that does not understand the reference.
Anonymous
explain both, o passive/aggressive one
Anonymous
is Occupy vs the Banks like Superman vs Batman?
the evil Batman I mean
Anonymous
ur joker from bizarro. opposite funny
Anonymous
I LOVE LOVE LOVE OCCUPY!!!!!!!
Anonymous
A hero is not a champion of things become, but of things becoming; the dragon to be slain by him is precisely the monster of the status quo. -Joseph Campbell
“Conflict is the essential core of a free and open society. If one were to project the democratic way of life in the form of a musical score, its major theme would be the harmony of dissonance.” –Saul D. Alinksy
The occupy movement is about celebrating true democracy overcoming plutocracy. But most people are so entrenched, so utterly enchanted by plutocracy-disguised-as-democracy that they cannot even begin to fathom such a celebration. We must remember that most people are so inured, so hopelessly dependent upon the system that they will fight to protect it. This is a kind of societal cognitive dissonance, the worst kind of cognitive dissonance actually. It arises from close-minded group-think, and one-right-way methodologies founded upon keeping the rich comfortable and the poor working like good little pseudo-slaves.
It is the ultimate lie of silent assertion. The menace of the past was that men became slaves; the menace of the present is that men become pseudo-slaves to a plutocratic regime.
http://letter-z.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-get-Power-over-Power-Capital-Munificence-and-Hero-Expiation
Anonymous
people prefer the slave-cubicles of capitalism to the mass graves of communism
Charlie Supertramp
squatting is one important part of ressistance.
do not forget this and start today..
http://charliesupertramp.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/from-porto-to-lisbon-8/
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