Occupy Wall Street 3: Now What?

Zuccotti Park reoccupied

http://my.firedoglake.com/kitoconnell/2012/07/11/live-99-mile-march-sings-dances-in-liberty-square/

The MSM's effort to slime OWS with a murder charge falls apart:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/07/occupy-dna-murder-link-now-thought-be-lab-error/54471/

so, What Is to Be Done Now?

And so while the need for a political vanguard – not necessarily, indeed not ideally, the kind Lenin proposed – is general, the need for something that would serve that purpose in our circumstances is particularly acute. We live in a liberal democracy with a liberal component that remains fairly robust. But, in recent years, the democratic component, never very strong, has receded almost to the vanishing point.

In these circumstances, the electoral road to change and hope – not just for a radically transformed social and economic order, but even just for a more decent order within the framework of existing social, political and economic arrangements — is more than usually out of reach.

This is the real lesson of the 2008 election. Obama may be feckless, and he has certainly disappointed almost everybody who harbored any hopes for his presidency. He could have done much better. But the idea that he could begin to do what some of his supporters imagined he would was illusory from the start. One needn’t be a full-fledged Leninist to know that, but serious readers of “What Is To Be Done?” could hardly fail to notice – or to understand why....

Applying Lenin’s prescriptions mechanically in circumstances very different from the ones he confronted never made sense, though segments of the left went on for decades as if it did. What they ought to have done, and what we can still do, is appropriate the core principles of “What Is To Be Done?” to the conditions that actually obtain.

Then the next time resistance to ruling class aggression or to the outrageous inequalities generated by present day capitalism erupts, there will at least be a chance that enduring and beneficial change will come from it – not the meretricious kind some deluded voters imagined they’d get from Obama, and not the fleeting and largely illusory kind that the Occupy movements produced in their moments of glory, but the real deal.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/07/27/what-is-to-be-done-now/

Lenin is not useful fyi

some of his principles may be, if one is imaginative.

keep relying on the Democratic Party tho, it's working nicely

I'm more of a Makhno fan

lenin certainly worth reading even if he was a cromwell-esque lunatic -- i read all his major books in college -- but his concerns seem very remote from our own. i'd rather see ppl following the example of robert la follette.

yeah I mean sure's he's fascinating/valid from a historical standpoint but as a reference point for tactics in the present day? gtfo

I'd almost think you hadn't read "Applying Lenin’s prescriptions mechanically in circumstances very different from the ones he confronted never made sense"

otoh "let's improve our system by incrementally making the Democrats less awful" looks like a big GTFO

appropriate the core principles of “What Is To Be Done?” to the conditions that actually obtain

this is super-vague and unhelpful tho, and complicated by the fact that Lenin arguably had no intention of putting core principles in action, but instead developed them exclusively in the interest of consolidating power

and I'm all for jettisoning our current system - it's a mess! I wouldn't miss it. otoh it exists and refusing to deal with it or exploit opportunities to change it strikes me as myopic.

did you like even think about reading that at all

dude's bland point is that "we" need a leadership structure to enact a mass movement. he's not talking about the fuckin new economic plan or taking lessons from the liquidation of the kulaks, he's saying "bolshys 2012." i think he's wrong about the most effective way to build power for working class people, but read the damn thing.

sorry dude i just get dismissive at dismissiveness

even saying "working class people" kinda gives me the willies

aye. the working class are definitely considered "folk".

dude's bland point is that "we" need a leadership structure to enact a mass movement.

I don't disagree with this - but Lenin is a terrible example!

occupied Charlotte park

http://occupywallst.org/article/appeal-donations-support-marshall-park-occupation-/

A petition to demand inclusive debates.

http://occupythecpd.org/

Monday NYC schedule

http://s17nyc.org/schedule/

so where r u, HOOS?

concert in Foley Sq today, 1-6pm

http://s17nyc.org/files/2012/09/Occupyconcert02.jpg

More than 100 arrests were reported on Monday, the first anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement, as protesters converged near the New York Stock Exchange and tried to block access to the exchange.

Demonstrators had planned to converge from several directions to form a “human wall” around the stock exchange to protest what they said was an unfair economic system that benefited the rich and corporations at the expense of ordinary citizens.

Police officers and protesters squared off at various points, with protesters briefly blocking intersections and sidewalks before being dispersed and sometimes arrested.

The police appeared prepared to counter the protesters’ blockade with one of their own, ringing the streets and sidewalks leading to the exchange with metal barricades and asking for identification from workers seeking to gain access.

Meanwhile, Occupy supporters marched through the streets waving banners and accompanied by bands playing “Happy Birthday.”

Police officers repeatedly warned protesters that they could be arrested if they did not keep moving. Most of those arrested were charged with disorderly conduct, the police said.

At one point, at Broad Street and Beaver Street, a police commander grabbed a man from a crowd. Protesters tried to pull the man free, but officers surged forward and wrested the man back and placing him in handcuffs.

One of the more tense episodes took place as several hundred people marched slowly along Broadway. As part of the group passed Wall Street, a line of officers separated the marchers into two parts. A few moments later, officers approached a man who had been objecting loudly to the metal barricades that cordoned off Wall Street. The officers grabbed the man, who yelled “I did nothing wrong,” then removed him. As they were leading him away, a line of officers pushed a crowd, which included news photographers, away from the arrest.

One officer repeatedly shoved photographers with a baton and a police lieutenant warned that no more photographs should be taken. “That’s over with,” the lieutenant said.

By midday, 124 people had been arrested. The arrests were mostly on disorderly conduct charges “for impeding vehicular or pedestrian traffic,” according to Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman. On Saturday and Sunday, the police arrested 43 people in connection with the protests, Mr. Browne said. While most of those arrests involved charges of disorderly conduct, he said that some were on assault and resisting arrest charges.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/protests-near-stock-exchange-on-occupy-wall-st-anniversary

a police lieutenant warned that no more photographs should be taken. “That’s over with,” the lieutenant said.

Always revealing when taking photographs is treated as a danger to ongoing police work.

still don't understand why the press doesn't throw more of a fit over the way the cops treat them. should be front page news every time it happens.

Photojournalists appeared to be the most frequently targeted. Two photographers and one journalist were arrested on Saturday night, and several more during Monday's protests. At least one journalist from the local WPIX station was arrested on Monday. In one instance, police arrested a photographer, Julia Reinhart, while she was wearing identification that listed her as a member of the National Press Photographers Association. Another journalist and illustrator, Molly Crabapple, tweeted about her arrest on Monday. "Can't wait to draw this," she wrote.

John Bolger, a student journalist at Hunter College, was also arrested.

The NPPA issued a statement saying that it was "deeply concerned and troubled by the aggressive and indiscriminate manner in which officers and command staff are allegedly treating those exercising their First Amendment rights."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/17/journalists-arrested-occupy-wall-street_n_1891068.html

http://www.pixiq.com/article/nypd-continues-arresting-photogs-at-occupy-wall-street

Lots and lots of friends there, but I couldn't afford to make the trip. Really proud of a lot of the local work we've been doing over the last few months though--a couple of ongoing foreclosure resistance & eviction defense campaigns, my prisoner solidarity letter writing group is getting a lot of replies from inside, we've formed an alternative media collective to share info and the radio network I'm on is moving to a full 24-hour stream with syndicated content from other Occupy-offshoot radio projects.

I'm told that this morning's mobile blockade on Wall St.--"we're swirling through intersections as we march to block 3 at a time, there's too many of us moving too fast for them to stop us"--was pretty thrilling.

wow hell yes

next big event: CASSEROLE MARCH

http://ht.ly/1mwaA1

#O13 update

http://occupywallst.org/article/160-cities-joining-globalnoise-o13-get-banging/

Last weekend we shut down or delayed the opening of every Bank of America in DC to help this guy in the fight to save his home: start2.occupyourhomes.org/petitions/stop-bank-of-america-from-evicting-a-reverend

hm

http://start2.occupyourhomes.org/petitions/stop-bank-of-america-from-evicting-a-reverend

Boots Riley · 11,015 subscribers

8 hours ago ·

The use of the blac bloc tactic in all situations is not useful. As a matter of fact, in situations such as the one we have in Oakland, its repeated use has become counter-revolutionary.

Yesterday in Oakland was a good illustration of this, in which the blac bloc kids- besides busting up bank windows- also busted windows of parked cars and threw stuff at another car- to which the Black driver of said vehicle got out looking to fight the crowd.

Similarly, the crowd of folks at Somar were there for the end of Matthew Africa's memorial- DJs and artists, and generally a group of folks who collectively probably know everybody in Oakland- I'm not exactly sure what or if anything happened before I saw the scene, but folks poured out of the club en masse to protect it, yelling at the march and telling folks to go home.

If "the job of the revolutionary is to make the revolution seem irresistible", the use of blac bloc has been making a revolutionary movement pretty damn resistible in Oakland, CA.

When almost every conversation I have with folks from Oakland about Occupy Oakland, has the smashing of windows brought up as a reason people don't like that grouping, scientifically it means the tactic is not working. It doesn't matter that technically it's only smashing corporate windows. It matters that people don't want to join because of that. It's not about violence/non-violence. The truth is that it's not always corporate windows. I'm for certain tactics that would be classified as violent- even ones that have to do with fighting human beings. But what it's about is a tactic that is detrimental in this situation. I would like to win, thank you. Not just lose with style. A style that the people around you don't understand.

Many folks bring up Greece when debating these things. I've been to Athens. What I witnessed there was that the movement was tied in with the people. Most of those involved grew up in Athens, they also are part of militant campaigns that happen throughout the year, which the people support, moreover, they just know the people of the city of Athens. And, perhaps due to this situation, there are way more of them.

It's not due to lack of outreach that Saturday's "West Coast Anti-Capitalist March"- meaning, one that not only reached out to the whole west coast- was only able to draw 150-300 people. It's because it's not what the people care about- not framed in that way- and because others are either bored with the tactic or scared of being arrested because some kid breaks the window of some used car that probably costs less than their own Honda Civic. But, that was in SF. Most of the folks doing this don't know anyone from Oakland, and- I believe- don't plan on doing any sort of base building to find out where the pulse of the people actually are.

If you ask most people in East or West Oakland what their problems are- they'll say being broke is there number one problem. Campaigns that use militant mass movement tactics to achieve changes in that situation are ones that have a revolutionary potential.

I've talked to many a person in Occupy Oakland and even in some anarchist collectives who agree with me on this, but the idea is that to criticize this publicly is to make the movement look divided. But, the public non-critique of this has the effect of making the movement look monolithic, hegemonic and uninviting. Instead, people talk shit about each other behind their backs, split and divide into smaller and smaller affinity groups. All the while, not critiquing the counter-revolutionary bullshit that's making them irrelevant in the minds of the people they ostensibly want to organize.

Let's get this shit right and win.

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all that otm i think, partic the bit about, if everyone is complaining about it, it is by def not working

i had another in an endless and numbing series of court appearances the other day. (going on a year now!) my lawyer showed up, said hi, told me she had to run over to another courtroom and she'd be right back, ran over to another courtroom, and never came back, so i at least got to say "your honor, my lawyer has disappeared". then i just said what she'd said she was gonna say, so i guess i represented myself. trial was pushed back again; i believe it's now scheduled for the same week we fix our electoral system.

Wish I was limber enough to do some pot-banging tomorrow, or go out to Hofstra for the next circus on Tuesday.

http://occupywallst.org/article/ows-updates-week-october-10th/

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 to both of those posts

tangentially related at this point but cops in oakland will be disciplined, some might be fired, and some might face criminal charges over their response to occupy protests.

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Oakland-to-punish-cops-in-Occupy-clashes-3943773.php

austin set up an ad hoc homeless shelter outside highland mall to mark their one-year, were immediately torn down by APD.

also not specifically occupy-related but definitely a product of the occupy climate:

http://www.freeleah.org/

i was genuinely surprised/dispirited/freaked out by that pnw anarchist stuff, partic because she says it was Joint Terrorism Task Force agents who broke down the door (portland refused membership in the JTTF under a police-chief-cum-mayor several years ago but has reversed this under lovable portlandia cast member sam adams) and that's, is it not, another example of the increased militarization/federalization of police in response to the Terrorism spectre + its implications for domestic political dissent. i might write her a letter or something. it's a shame the prison doesn't take used books.

v minor thing but it's where i spent my morning so

http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2012/10/15/occupy-portland-wins-right-to-jury-trialswill-dismissals-follow

good news, but it's totally ridiculous that a bunch of people (including me) who were basically well-treated are getting our jury trials (or dismissals) while liz nichols, who got peppersprayed in the face, cuffed, and then sat with us in jail for eight hours making do w wet napkins, still isn't, since her charge is only Interfering With A Peace Officer, which is code for "getting peppersprayed". basically, she doesn't get a jury because unlike us (we were inside chase; she was outside) she wasn't doing anything wrong, except being interfered with by a peace officer. and yelling, i guess. she can yell p loud.

ugh

good news tho yes

leah is out, and among other things, has this to say:

“I went against the advice of several people and did what one should never do, I read the comments. I read the comments on support pages, articles, and photos. While a lot of the messages were wonderful, so many of them were about how attractive or unattractive the commenter thought I was. They thought that because my face is all over the internet, they had the right to dehumanize me and reduce me to an object, just like the fucking state did. I am not number #42611-086 and I am not a number on your 0-10 scale of hot or not. They thought I would enjoy the attention if I knew about it. I am glad that many came to my defense and confronted the blatant misogyny, however it was mostly met with ‘stop being so serious.’ Someone even went to the extent to Photoshop my tattoos from photos in order to make me appeal more to the mainstream. I will say now, and let me be clear: I do not care what anyone on this planet thinks about how I look. I do not appreciate comments about my appearance. I do not want your compliments. I do not owe anyone a curtsy, a sweet smile and a ‘thank you so much.’ I do not have to be gracious about it, I do not owe respect to those who do not show respect to me. I also saw how people made a lot of casual references to me getting sexually assaulted. This is extremely disrespectful, especially because that is something I have dealt with too many times in my life as is. I am more than a face, a body, a (former)prisoner, a number. To anyone who reduces me to those things: you are my enemy, not my ally, you are not my friend, not my comrade, not my supporter and I do not appreciate you. I have despised sexism/misogyny my entire life and I have confronted it at every opportunity, as I am doing right now. If you support someone for something they do, just say that. What you think about their appearance is irrelevant. Keep your opinion to yourself because if you are furthering one kind of oppression while trying to fight another, you aren’t actually accomplishing anything.”

— Leah’s official quote on seeing the internet’s response for the first time after being released.

righteous

Letting that one soak in for a while, it's so good.

that is fucking awesome

I know it is wrong but after reading that just now I gis'ed her.

so great