#OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

[Project Willow]

Plu, I just wish it worked the other way, .... er, maybe it does, we'll see!

Holy MSM:

[Plutonia]

Plu, I just wish it worked the other way, .... er, maybe it does, we'll see!

Haha. I have no doubt!

[Plutonia]

David House will be livestreaming from Zuccotti in the am: http://www.livestream.com/lockean

I'll be sleeping

[Wombaticus Rex]

Highlight of tonight's general assembly: taxi drives by and a dude screams out the window: "GET A JOB, FAGGOTS!!"

Less than 5 minutes later the taxi comes back, the driver gets out, apologizes, tells everyone he loves us, then hops back in and leaves.

Actually, no: the highlight, by far, was a tearful speech from a vietnam vet who said he regretted his work in a "fascist war" and he had given up on America after Bush but seeing us out on the sidewalk doing the Democracy dance was the greatest thing he'd seen in decades. I gotta admit, I shed a little tear, I did. Looking forward to giving that cat a hug on Saturday.

[Hammer of Los]

This is getting zero play in the British media.

I wouldn't know it was even going on were it not for this thread.

I knew they wouldn't televise the revolution.

[seemslikeadream]

I'm awake and watching two live feeds

http://www.livestream.com/avaazwallstreet

http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution

such an interesting time we live in

[seemslikeadream]

they're saying the cleaning been postponed

[seemslikeadream]

lets hear a little of what the reptiles, the vampires are vomiting

October 14, 2011 12:00 A.M.
The Scapegoat Strategy
Obama now blames people instead of events.

What do you do if you can’t run on your record — on 9 percent unemployment, stagnant growth, and ruinous deficits as far as the eye can see? How to run when you are asked whether Americans are better off than they were four years ago and you are compelled to answer no?

Play the outsider. Declare yourself the underdog. Denounce Washington as if the electorate hasn’t noticed that you’ve been in charge of it for nearly three years.

But above all: Find villains.

President Obama first tried finding excuses, blaming America’s dismal condition on Japanese supply-chain interruptions, the Arab Spring, European debt, and various acts of God.

Didn’t work. Sounds plaintive, defensive. Lacks fight, which is what Obama’s base lusts for above all.

Hence Obama’s new strategy: Don’t whine, blame. Attack. Indict. Accuse. Whom? The rich — and their Republican protectors — for wrecking America.

In Obama’s telling, it’s the refusal of the rich to “pay their fair share” that jeopardizes Medicare. If millionaires don’t pony up, schools will crumble. Oil-drilling tax breaks are costing teachers their jobs. Corporate loopholes will gut medical research.

It’s crude. It’s Manichaean. And the Left loves it. As a matter of math and logic, however, it’s ridiculous. Obama’s most coveted tax hike — an extra 3 to 4.6 percent for millionaires and billionaires (weirdly defined as individuals making over $200,000) — would have reduced last year’s deficit from $1.29 trillion to $1.21 trillion. Nearly a rounding error. The oil-drilling breaks cover less than half a day’s federal spending. You could collect Obama’s favorite tax loophole — depreciation for corporate jets — for 100 years and it wouldn’t cover one month of Medicare, whose insolvency is a function of increased longevity, expensive new technology, and wasteful defensive medicine caused by an insane malpractice system.

After three years, Obama’s self-proclaimed transformative social policies have yielded a desperately weak economy. What to do? Take the low road: Plutocrats are bleeding the country, and I shall rescue you from them.

Problem is, this kind of populist demagoguery is more than intellectually dishonest. It’s dangerous. Obama is opening a Pandora’s box. Popular resentment, easily stoked, is less easily controlled, especially when the basest of instincts are granted legitimacy by the nation’s leader.

Exhibit A. On Tuesday, the Democrat-controlled Senate passed punitive legislation over China’s currency. If not stopped by House Speaker John Boehner, it might have led to a trade war — a 21st-century Smoot-Hawley. Obama knows this. He has shown no appetite for a reckless tariff war. But he set the tone. Once you start hunting for villains, they can be found anywhere, particularly if they are conveniently foreign.

Exhibit B. Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin rails against Bank of America for announcing a $5 a month debit card fee. Obama echoes the opprobrium with fine denunciations of banks and their hidden fees — except that this $5 fee is not hidden. It’s perfectly transparent.

Yet here is a leading Democratic senator advocating a run on a major (and troubled) bank — after two presidents and two Congresses sunk billions of taxpayer dollars to save failing banks. Not because they were deserving or virtuous but because they are necessary. Without banks, there is no lending. Without lending, there is no business. Without business, there are no jobs.

Exhibit C. To the villainy-of-the-rich theme emanating from Washington, a child is born: Occupy Wall Street. Starbucks-sipping, Levi’s-clad, iPhone-clutching protesters denounce corporate America even as they weep for Steve Jobs, corporate titan, billionaire eight times over.

These indignant indolents saddled with their $50,000 student loans and English degrees have decided that their lack of gainful employment is rooted in the malice of the millionaires on whose homes they are now marching — to the applause of Democrats suffering acute Tea Party envy and now salivating at the energy these big-government anarchists will presumably give their cause.

Except that the real Tea Party actually had a program — less government, less regulation, less taxation, less debt. What’s the Occupy Wall Street program? Eat the rich.

And then what? Haven’t gotten that far.

No postprandial plans. But no matter. After all, this is not about programs or policies. This is about scapegoating, a failed administration trying to save itself by blaming our troubles — and its failures — on class enemies, turning general discontent into rage against a malign few.

From the Senate to the streets, it’s working. Obama is too intelligent not to know what he started. But so long as it gives him a shot at reelection, he shows no sign of caring.

I got a telephone in my bosom
And I can call him up from heart

[jam.fuse]

"Long before Wall Street there were drums here" -- OWS protester a couple minutes ago.

[seemslikeadream]

"Long before Wall Street there were drums here" -- OWS protester a couple minutes ago.

I hear there are 2000 people there now

[vanlose kid]

Baby, We’re All Anarchists Now - Malcolm Harris
tags:

Malcolm Harris
USA
anarchism
liberalism
Occupy Wall Street
pacifism
police

Chase Bank Burning by Alex Schaefer

Malcolm Harris writes about some of the emerging conflicts between anti-authoritarians and self-appointed leaders of the #Occupy Movement.

I got a certain amount of shit for cosigning this Cimethinc. “Letter from Anarchists” to occupiers, but what really strikes me is that anarchists and occupiers have become two distinct–albeit overlapping–groups. It’s become even more apparent in the streets. When I was at Occupy DC over the weekend, a guy who I would guess circles his A’s complained about being pushed from the street into the police-protected march by another occupier. I’ve seen the same thing happen in New York, and I’m willing to bet it’s happened elsewhere. There have been rumors out of Chicago that some occupiers have printed out flyers with the names and pictures of “known anarchists,” and certain committee members at Wall Street have grumbled about rooting out autonomous actors. In this context, the Crimethinc. letter seems restrained:

“Don’t assume those who break the law or confront police are agents provocateurs. A lot of people have good reason to be angry. Not everyone is resigned to legalistic pacifism; some people still remember how to stand up for themselves. Police violence isn’t just meant to provoke us, it’s meant to hurt and scare us into inaction. In this context, self-defense is essential.

Assuming that those at the front of clashes with the authorities are somehow in league with the authorities is not only illogical—it delegitimizes the spirit it takes to challenge the status quo, and dismisses the courage of those who are prepared to do so. This allegation is typical of privileged people who have been taught to trust the authorities and fear everyone who disobeys them.”

What’s most frightening, besides snitching among occupiers, is that these marshals and peacekeepers are acting in the name of the occupation. When they yell or push at people to get them to stay walking on the sidewalk like tourists, they invoke a structure bigger than themselves, one that has supposedly empowered them to do so. To trouble this representational claim, I want to go back to a beginning: the first planning meeting for the September 17 action that would become Occupy Wall Street.

To be honest, I got guilted into going by a friend, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered responding to a call from Adbusters and going into lower Manhattan for a meeting. The people who had prepared for the meeting were a coalition of non-profits, established activist coalitions, and a certain socialist organization. Despite calling it a “general assembly” supposedly modeled on the Spanish protests, they had a microphone stand and an agenda of speakers. Some of us were bored, and having sat though too many of these audience-less press conferences in the past decade, weren’t able to fake the necessary enthusiasm. A group of mostly strangers wandered to the entrance of the park a little ways away from the microphone and sat down. We traded names and started to chat about why we were there. After a few minutes, we were drawing the audience away from the microphone. One of the coalition organizers came and begged us to rejoin the group, and we grumbled and walked back over. But it quickly became apparent nothing was about to change, so we returned to our circle and began a facilitated meeting.

At first we had five, then 15, and then the microphone meeting had collapsed and the whole group had joined the circle. It shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s experienced with leftist activism that the group of discontents included a bunch of anarchists and anti-authoritarians who are used to a certain horizontal process of talking and decision-making in a group. It’s called consensus, it often involves twinkling fingers to signal agreement, and it’s useful for deciding things like “Which park should we occupy?” The basis for that first meeting, for the sequence of events, was a walking away from organizers. By now consensus and the oft-mocked twinkling fingers have become part of a common language on the left, but now some people without a background in the process are using it as a means of control.

Autonomous action has been the engine of Occupy Wall Street, providing what Hendrick Hertzberg describes as two of the three “shots of adrenaline” — the third coming from a deranged senior police officer. Instead of providing a basis for discourse and autonomous action, the General Assembly has become a tool of imposed accountability, treating consensus as if it were a way to implement policy upon a population. In addition to the police, occupiers now have to worry about getting harassed or undermined by self-appointed guardians of the non-violent movement. Try chanting something that deviates from the friendly universalist “99%” line and see what happens.

Listen: I think your permitted sidewalk march is cowardly, boring, and harms the sequence’s revolutionary potential, but you don’t see me shoving anyone into the street.

Now don’t fucking touch me or any of my friends, the cops can manage that all by themselves.

Representative politics asks people to act through their name, whether as a vote (for a politician, a union rep, etc.) or as a protesting signature. Non-representative politics, (under which I group anarchists, autonomists, anti-authoritarians, anti-political negationists, various insurrectionary communists, and ultra-leftists of a few stripes) is premised on the necessity of acting with your body itself, whether through your legs, arms, vocal chords, fingers, whatever. The latter is threatening as hell, especially to the professional left which is thrust into the conservative position of defending its requisitioned authority. Witness the giant anarchist-shaped aporia in Jodi Dean’s call for professional revolutionaries to protect the occupation from Democrats and Ron-Pauliens.

These managers are making a classic mistake, which is informed by the way the left has come to think about leaders. People who feel comfortable taking on managerial roles tend to think the folks they’re managing are more afraid and less militant than they are themselves. It’s always the masses that aren’t ready. As Dean writes: communists at Wall Street should “not push too quickly for something for which the proper support has not yet been built.” The potential action here isn’t doing, it’s “pushing” others. Maybe people will never be ready to get pushed around in the name of not getting pushed around anymore.

The standard argument at this point is that non-representative politics sounds nice, but that it’s tactically or strategically unfeasible. Unfortunately, that’s not really a defensible argument since the left has finally broken into the national consciousness by adopting the tactics, strategy, and slogans of a group of left-communist insurrectionaries at the Universities of California. So the new explanation, as offered by Todd Gitlin (seriously, who in the hell rang his bell on this one?) is that we did it on accident: ”Having set out to be expressive, the anarchists have found themselves playing, willy-nilly, a most strategic role.” He’s confusing the people who have adopted an anarchist process (which is everyone involved) and the folks who have been building this analysis for a while.

Not to go all Glenn Beck on you, but The Coming Insurrection and a bunch of other similar texts did get passed around the autonomist left in America in the last three or four years. We’re not talking about “expressive” drum-circle denizens here, these are people who have built and are acting according to a revolutionary analysis. But it’s not just theory nerds and self-identified anarchists who ignored the frantically waving marshals and got arrested; Take the bridge! is an accessible message and it was produced by the opportunity. We certainly didn’t need a French pamphlet to figure that one out.

And what is it exactly people want to do with their unrepresentable limbs? The capitalists aren’t so sure it’s the non-violent shuffle:

“An online ‘Occupy Threat Center’ created by ListenLogic says the company’s analysis of ‘over one million social media posts’ indicates a significant increases in all of the following:

-Social media activity from Occupy supporters and activists promoting physical destruction and violent action.

-Direct and specific threats from Occupy ‘hacktivist’ groups against specific financial and law enforcement targets.

-Social media posts, videos and images targeting: financial institutions that issue mortgages and student loans and that initiate foreclosures; corporate entities that received bailout money or government subsidies; companies that pay high executive salaries or bonuses; and companies perceived to be paying extremely low taxes.

ListenLogic is detecting, he says, a change in the tone of discourse about the so-called 1 percent richest Americans.

There still are postings that talk about taxing the 1 percent more severely or even throwing them in jail. ‘But then,’ says Schiavone, ‘there’s an increase in ‘let’s kill’ them. We see ‘eat the rich,’ ‘kill the wealthy.’ There are images circulating of senior executives being decapitated, images of blood. Artists are releasing images of banks on fire.’”

The managers keep people in check, but we’ve achieved real gains when the occupation broadly considered shakes off its representatives and sets to our task with our own hands. We’re already seeing the power that comes with a more horizontal process, don’t let leaders fuck that up by assuming representative roles.

And stop pushing back onto the sidewalk.

http://libcom.org/library/baby-we%E2%80 ... olm-harris

reference:

Dear Occupiers
A letter from anarchists

Support and solidarity! We’re inspired by the occupations on Wall Street and elsewhere around the country. Finally, people are taking to the streets again! The momentum around these actions has the potential to reinvigorate protest and resistance in this country. We hope these occupations will increase both in numbers and in substance, and we’ll do our best to contribute to that.

Why should you listen to us? In short, because we’ve been at this a long time already. We’ve spent decades struggling against capitalism, organizing occupations, and making decisions by consensus. If this new movement doesn’t learn from the mistakes of previous ones, we run the risk of repeating them. We’ve summarized some of our hard-won lessons here.

Occupation is nothing new. The land we stand on is already occupied territory. The United States was founded upon the extermination of indigenous peoples and the colonization of their land, not to mention centuries of slavery and exploitation. For a counter-occupation to be meaningful, it has to begin from this history. Better yet, it should embrace the history of resistance extending from indigenous self-defense and slave revolts through the various workers’ and anti-war movements right up to the recent anti-globalization movement.

The “99%” is not one social body, but many. Some occupiers have presented a narrative in which the “99%” is characterized as a homogenous mass. The faces intended to represent “ordinary people” often look suspiciously like the predominantly white, law-abiding middle-class citizens we’re used to seeing on television programs, even though such people make up a minority of the general population.

It’s a mistake to whitewash over our diversity. Not everyone is waking up to the injustices of capitalism for the first time now; some populations have been targeted by the power structure for years or generations. Middle-class workers who are just now losing their social standing can learn a lot from those who have been on the receiving end of injustice for much longer.

The problem isn’t just a few “bad apples.” The crisis is not the result of the selfishness of a few investment bankers; it is the inevitable consequence of an economic system that rewards cutthroat competition at every level of society. Capitalism is not a static way of life but a dynamic process that consumes everything, transforming the world into profit and wreckage. Now that everything has been fed into the fire, the system is collapsing, leaving even its former beneficiaries out in the cold. The answer is not to revert to some earlier stage of capitalism—to go back to the gold standard, for example; not only is that impossible, those earlier stages didn’t benefit the “99%” either. To get out of this mess, we’ll have to rediscover other ways of relating to each other and the world around us.

Police can’t be trusted. They may be “ordinary workers,” but their job is to protect the interests of the ruling class. As long as they remain employed as police, we can’t count on them, however friendly they might act. Occupiers who don’t know this already will learn it firsthand as soon as they threaten the imbalances of wealth and power our society is based on. Anyone who insists that the police exist to protect and serve the common people has probably lived a privileged life, and an obedient one.

Don’t fetishize obedience to the law. Laws serve to protect the privileges of the wealthy and powerful; obeying them is not necessarily morally right—it may even be immoral. Slavery was legal. The Nazis had laws too. We have to develop the strength of conscience to do what we know is best, regardless of the laws.

To have a diversity of participants, a movement must make space for a diversity of tactics. It’s controlling and self-important to think you know how everyone should act in pursuit of a better world. Denouncing others only equips the authorities to delegitimize, divide, and destroy the movement as a whole. Criticism and debate propel a movement forward, but power grabs cripple it. The goal should not be to compel everyone to adopt one set of tactics, but to discover how different approaches can be mutually beneficial.

Don’t assume those who break the law or confront police are agents provocateurs. A lot of people have good reason to be angry. Not everyone is resigned to legalistic pacifism; some people still remember how to stand up for themselves. Police violence isn’t just meant to provoke us, it’s meant to hurt and scare us into inaction. In this context, self-defense is essential.

Assuming that those at the front of clashes with the authorities are somehow in league with the authorities is not only illogical—it delegitimizes the spirit it takes to challenge the status quo, and dismisses the courage of those who are prepared to do so. This allegation is typical of privileged people who have been taught to trust the authorities and fear everyone who disobeys them.

No government—that is to say, no centralized power—will ever willingly put the needs of common people before the needs of the powerful. It’s naïve to hope for this. The center of gravity in this movement has to be our freedom and autonomy, and the mutual aid that can sustain those—not the desire for an “accountable” centralized power. No such thing has ever existed; even in 1789, the revolutionaries presided over a “democracy” with slaves, not to mention rich and poor.

That means the important thing is not just to make demands upon our rulers, but to build up the power to realize our demands ourselves. If we do this effectively, the powerful will have to take our demands seriously, if only in order to try to keep our attention and allegiance. We attain leverage by developing our own strength.

Likewise, countless past movements learned the hard way that establishing their own bureaucracy, however “democratic,” only undermined their original goals. We shouldn’t invest new leaders with authority, nor even new decision-making structures; we should find ways to defend and extend our freedom, while abolishing the inequalities that have been forced on us.

The occupations will thrive on the actions we take. We’re not just here to “speak truth to power”—when we only speak, the powerful turn a deaf ear to us. Let’s make space for autonomous initiatives and organize direct action that confronts the source of social inequalities and injustices.

Thanks for reading and scheming and acting. May your every dream come true.

http://www.crimethinc.com/blog/2011/10/ ... narchists/

*

[2012 Countdown]

9NEWS ONLINE
VIDEO FEED-Police clearing Occupy Denver tent camp
http://www.9news.com/video/9newsonline.aspx

Its about to go down...

edit- happening now...full riot gear and pushing everyone out onto the street.

[Cedars of Overburden]

Occupy Knoxville has its second action and general assembly tomorrow. I hope to be there.

Encouraging second hand report -- last Saturday at the GA some democrat tried to convince them to undertake no action not in accord with and supportive of the Democratic Party. He was booted out of the group. YEE HAW!!!!! That story more than anything else is what led me to decide I was going to do what it takes to show up tomorrow -- even if they do still have their own sidewalk police....

We are small. The 24/7 occupation is a group of homeless people who've employed themselves with simply sitting there and holding signs. That's illegal just one block away. (DEREGULATE THE PEOPLE.) I began yesterday spending my lunch hour with them, sharing my lunch & cigs with them, and am encouraging other downtown clerical drones to do likewise.

Vanlose, the essay you just put up is great -- I may bring copies of it tomorrow.

When I read about the "clean up" in NY, I keep thinking about all the shit Massey Coal has gotten away with for years and years -- as in destroying other people's private property up to and including killing them. When will law enforcement treat Massey like they do these protesters? DEREGULATE THE PEOPLE!

[Bruce Dazzling]

I just got back from the protest.

I'd guess there are 3 thousand people there, which is an awful lot for that little plaza.

At 7:00 AM, the protesters split up, and one group (including yours truly) marched down Broadway a few blocks to Trinity Church, drawing lots of cops to follow.

We didn't march for too long; the whole maneuver only took about 20 minutes, but I think it succeeded in confusing the cops a bit.

Speaking of cops, there are way more of them there than usual, even though it seems as if Bloomberg called off his cleaning/eviction. In fact, as I was walking up Broadway to come to my office (two blocks from Liberty Plaza), several more police vans were coming down Broadway with their lights and sirens going. I just heard more sirens this second, which means that I'll have to get back over there soon to see what's up.

Anyway, I wanted to break away to post an update.

As usual, here are some photos:



As I framed the Wikileaks shot, the guy standing next to me was looking in my camera display and he said "that's a really good picture."

It was Russell Simmons, who unfortunately wouldn't sit still long enough for me to get a better shot than this (because people kept on recognizing him and calling his name...).





Some rest for the weary.



This drum line was set up in front of the FINRA building, right across the street from Liberty Plaza.

[elfismiles]

Really ... !?! ... those are awesome anecdotes Wombat!

Highlight of tonight's general assembly: taxi drives by and a dude screams out the window: "GET A JOB, FAGGOTS!!"

Less than 5 minutes later the taxi comes back, the driver gets out, apologizes, tells everyone he loves us, then hops back in and leaves.

Actually, no: the highlight, by far, was a tearful speech from a vietnam vet who said he regretted his work in a "fascist war" and he had given up on America after Bush but seeing us out on the sidewalk doing the Democracy dance was the greatest thing he'd seen in decades. I gotta admit, I shed a little tear, I did. Looking forward to giving that cat a hug on Saturday.