Published on Wednesday, September 28, 2011

by The Indypendent

by Arun Gupta

What is occurring on Wall Street right now is truly remarkable. For over 10 days, in the sanctum of the great cathedral of global capitalism, the dispossessed have liberated territory from the financial overlords and their police army.(Photo courtesy of Flickr.com/pweiskel08)

They have created a unique opportunity to shift the tides of history in the tradition of other great peaceful occupations from the sit-down strikes of the 1930s to the lunch-counter sit-ins of the 1960s to the democratic uprisings across the Arab world and Europe today.

While the Wall Street occupation is growing, it needs an all-out commitment from everyone who cheered the Egyptians in Tahrir Square, said “We are all Wisconsin,” and stood in solidarity with the Greeks and Spaniards. This is a movement for anyone who lacks a job, housing or healthcare, or thinks they have no future.

Our system is broken at every level. More than 25 million Americans are unemployed. More than 50 million live without health insurance. And perhaps 100 million Americans are mired in poverty, using realistic measures. Yet the fat cats continue to get tax breaks and reap billions while politicians compete to turn the austerity screws on all of us.

At some point the number of people occupying Wall Street – whether that’s five thousand, ten thousand or fifty thousand – will force the powers that be to offer concessions. No one can say how many people it will take or even how things will change exactly, but there is a real potential for bypassing a corrupt political process and to begin realizing a society based on human needs not hedge fund profits.

After all, who would have imagined a year ago that Tunisians and Egyptians would oust their dictators?

At Liberty Park, the nerve center of the occupation, more than a thousand people gather every day to debate, discuss and organize what to do about our failed system that has allowed the 400 richest Americans at the top to amass more wealth than the 180 million Americans at the bottom.

It’s astonishing that this self-organized festival of democracy has sprouted on the turf of the masters of the universe, the men who play the tune that both political parties and the media dance to. The New York Police Department, which has deployed hundreds of officers at a time to surround and intimidate protesters, is capable of arresting everyone and clearing Liberty Plaza in minutes. But they haven’t, which is also astonishing.

That’s because assaulting peaceful crowds in a public square demanding real democracy – economic and not just political – would remind the world of the brittle autocrats who brutalized their people demanding justice before they were swept away by the Arab Spring. And the state violence has already backfired. After police attacked a Saturday afternoon march that started from Liberty Park the crowds only got bigger and media interest grew.

The Wall Street occupation has already succeeded in revealing the bankruptcy of the dominant powers – the economic, the political, media and security forces. They have nothing positive to offer humanity, not that they ever did for the Global South, but now their quest for endless profits means deepening the misery with a thousand austerity cuts.

Even their solutions are cruel jokes. They tell us that the “Buffett Rule” would spread the pain by asking the penthouse set to sacrifice a tin of caviar, which is what the proposed tax increase would amount to. Meanwhile, the rest of us will have to sacrifice healthcare, food, education, housing, jobs and perhaps our lives to sate the ferocious appetite of capital.

That’s why more and more people are joining the Wall Street occupation. They can tell you about their homes being foreclosed upon, months of grinding unemployment or minimum-wage dead-end jobs, staggering student debt loads, or trying to live without decent healthcare. It’s a whole generation of Americans with no prospects, but who are told to believe in a system that can only offer them Dancing With The Stars and pepper spray to the face.

Yet against every description of a generation derided as narcissistic, apathetic and hopeless they are staking a claim to a better future for all of us.

That’s why we all need to join in. Not just by liking it on Facebook, signing a petition at change.org or retweeting protest photos, but by going down to the occupation itself.

There is great potential here. Sure, it’s a far cry from Tahrir Square or even Wisconsin. But there is the nucleus of a revolt that could shake America’s power structure as much as the Arab world has been upended.

Instead of one to two thousand people a day joining in the occupation there needs to be tens of thousands of people protesting the fat cats driving Bentleys and drinking thousand-dollar bottles of champagne with money they looted from the financial crisis and then from the bailouts while Americans literally die on the streets.

To be fair, the scene in Liberty Plaza seems messy and chaotic. But it’s also a laboratory of possibility, and that’s the beauty of democracy. As opposed to our monoculture world, where political life is flipping a lever every four years, social life is being a consumer and economic life is being a timid cog, the Wall Street occupation is creating a polyculture of ideas, expression and art.

Yet while many people support the occupation, they hesitate to fully join in and are quick to offer criticism. It’s clear that the biggest obstacles to building a powerful movement are not the police or capital – it’s our own cynicism and despair.

Perhaps their views were colored by the New York Times article deriding protestors for wishing to “pantomime progressivism” and “Gunning for Wall Street with faulty aim.” Many of the criticisms boil down to “a lack of clear messaging.”

But what’s wrong with that? A fully formed movement is not going to spring from the ground. It has to be created. And who can say what exactly needs to be done? We are not talking about ousting a dictator; though some say we want to oust the dictatorship of capital.

There are plenty of sophisticated ideas out there: end corporate personhood; institute a “Tobin Tax” on stock purchases and currency trading; nationalize banks; socialize medicine; fully fund government jobs and genuine Keynesian stimulus; lift restrictions on labor organizing; allow cities to turn foreclosed homes into public housing; build a green energy infrastructure.

But how can we get broad agreement on any of these? If the protesters came into the square with a pre-determined set of demands it would have only limited their potential. They would have either been dismissed as pie in the sky – such as socialized medicine or nationalize banks – or if they went for weak demands such as the Buffett Rule their efforts would immediately be absorbed by a failed political system, thus undermining the movement.

That’s why the building of the movement has to go hand in hand with common struggle, debate and radical democracy. It’s how we will create genuine solutions that have legitimacy. And that is what is occurring down at Wall Street.

Now, there are endless objections one can make. But if we focus on the possibilities, and shed our despair, our hesitancy and our cynicism, and collectively come to Wall Street with critical thinking, ideas and solidarity we can change the world.

How many times in your life do you get a chance to watch history unfold, to actively participate in building a better society, to come together with thousands of people where genuine democracy is the reality and not a fantasy?

For too long our minds have been chained by fear, by division, by impotence. The one thing the elite fear most is a great awakening. That day is here. Together we can seize it.

© 2011 The Indypendent

A founding editor of The Indypendent, Arun Gupta writes about energy, the economy, the media, U.S. foreign policy, the politics of food and other subjects for The Indypendent, Z Magazine, Left Turn and Alternet. Gupta is a regular commentator on Democracy Now! and GritTV with Laura Flanders. He’s writing a book on the decline of American Empire to be published by Haymarket Books. From 1989 to 1992 he was an international news editor at the Guardian Newsweekly.

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96 Comments so far

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Posted by B

Sep 28 2011 – 9:38am

Concessions?!?

Is that what you think this is all about, concessions from the feudal overlord?

This is about reclaiming the planet, not about hanging around long enough to get some scraps, I mean of course concessions (!?!)

The system is broken because the system is a crime against humanity and a crime against the ecostructure of our planet. The criminals must pay the price of their iniquity, period. Just like Hitler or any other criminal engaged in deliberate subterfuge and mass scale murder of innocent people; Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Vietnam, come readily to mind. Not to mention the FACT that starving an American kid to death is about the same as torturing him to death…all in order to reap personal material and social benefit at any cost to others or the ecosphere.

This isn´t in any way about “demonstrating” to beg for rights already extant, this is about ratcheting up the peoples will to fight. fight by any means necessary and/or appropriate, for a world worth living in which it certainly is, and a future for our childrens children worth having which they certainly have every right to presume.

Concessions. What a joke. We need people now on the steps of every single capitol building around the world demanding the immediate surrender of the criminals or their immediate termination, whichever is most convenient at the time and place.

People begging in their pitiful hundreds is not “Democracy”. It is certain proof of slavery and bondage.

Posted by vaialdiavolo

Sep 28 2011 – 10:47am

Very good B. I would add, however, because it is necessary, that not only the nations you mention but Japan and numerous Latin American countries and –the oldest and continuing injustice– the theft, rape of Turtle Island herself and the genocide of its people and the crimes of slavery and torture, psychical genocide of millions of Africans from the western coast of Africa,

Posted by B

Sep 29 2011 – 1:59am

YES!

Of course you are right. If I were to try, in an initial comment, to clearly and extensively delineate the crimes that have been commited and that MUST and CAN

be rectified through simple human honesty and compassion, I would have taken up far too much, althought o be sure, before this is over the crimes you bring to our attention as well as many others around the planet caused by the same type of deliberate venal criminality WILL be recompensed…

Posted by dave gresham

Sep 28 2011 – 11:37am

“concessions” the author wrote. You’re right, to call that comment tepid would be tepid itself. But otherwise the article was pretty good and his final summation got it: “….The one thing the elite fear most is a great awakening. That day is here. Together we can seize it.”

The future is hard to predict (duh), but I think this protest will ramp up a little bit longer, then abruptly sputter at the first real cold snap or torrential rains. It’s just too late in the season. However, the seeds are sown. My guess is A LOT more participation next summer. I fully expect at least 100,000 people protesting in New York City on the Fourth of July, 2012.

Posted by raydelcamino

Sep 28 2011 – 3:17pm

Yes, during the past 2 1/2 years we have been buried in token concessions as a means of addressing every issue from health care to financial industry controls, to foreign occupations.

Restoring all of FDR’s New Deal financial industry regulations that were overturned during the past 33 years is step one to getting Wall Street under control. Step 2 is adding new regulations that control the “new products” Wall Street has introduced during the past 70 years.

Thirty years ago financial industry professionals’ compensation was comparable to their counterparts’ in other industries…manufacturing, mining, construction, agriculture. Today, financial industry professionals pull in more dough in one year than their counterparts in other industries pull in during a lifetime career.

We will know we got it right when financial industry compensation returns to pre-Reagan era comparables.

Posted by B

Sep 29 2011 – 2:10am

YES!

I agree with you and do not wish to detract from the fact that the writer has hit the nerve of it all, in general terms. My certain conviction however, is that the criminals that temporarily control our planet will never relent based on mere words and anguished placards.

They will relent when they are brought to feel the full force of the personal consequences of their deliberate criminal actions across the globe, in all “nationstates”.

In the meantime, by all means necessary, all good people of heart and conscience do need to be demonstrating, disrupting, disputing, anatagonizing and generally making a serious nuisance of themselves in as many places as possible, as often as possible, and preferably at preplanned moments in time. Such as the horror that is pretended to be a “national holiday”, the 4th of July as one example.

We need to develop a global clearing house in which various types of actions are planned and presented for consideration/further action as required…

You bring up a very good point which is appreciated; since the weather is turning colder and wetter, and since most people suffering already have a hard time “rampin up” further, we should be considering alternative actions for the cold season…

… small, but effective actions

… actions that contain an element of humor perhaps

… actions that deliberately smear a specific individual on a global stage

… events that cause local disruptions to the agenda as it were

I am sure we all get my drift.

Truly, a modus operandi for the cold season should be developed further. Great!

Posted by Cathy Mason

Sep 28 2011 – 4:29pm

You must not have read the whole article. Here’s more:

“There are plenty of sophisticated ideas out there: end corporate personhood; institute a “Tobin Tax” on stock purchases and currency trading; nationalize banks; socialize medicine; fully fund government jobs and genuine Keynesian stimulus; lift restrictions on labor organizing; allow cities to turn foreclosed homes into public housing; build a green energy infrastructure.”

These are much more than concessions. More:

“Now, there are endless objections one can make. But if we focus on the possibilities, and shed our despair, our hesitancy and our cynicism, and collectively come to Wall Street with critical thinking, ideas and solidarity we can change the world.

How many times in your life do you get a chance to watch history unfold, to actively participate in building a better society, to come together with thousands of people where genuine democracy is the reality and not a fantasy?

For too long our minds have been chained by fear, by division, by impotence. The one thing the elite fear most is a great awakening. That day is here. Together we can seize it.”

You focus on one perhaps poorly chosen word and turn your back on the rest of the article? Your proposals, a vague call for everyone to “fight,” people to gather on captal steps demanding immediate surrender of the criminals are so impractical, it doesn’t sound like you’ve thought this through very much at all. If you were able to do so, would you join Occupy Wall St. and see what’s going on? Or remain mired in negativity and purposeless anger, mocking people like Arun Gupta and the protesters who are really trying to make a difference? Maybe you’re the one enslaved and bound by cynicism.

Posted by B

Sep 29 2011 – 2:30am

I appreciate your comment and expected it from somewhere;

1. Do you want me to comment on the article or give you a complete analysis and game plan for the global revolution?

2. I focus on the choice of word for it demonstrates the mindset of the author; ASK the criminals for their acquiscience to rational thought and impartial justice for the entire planet and all that lives within the ecosphere.

3. A few hundred pitiful souls begging does not a revolt against the criminal agenda make. It merely accentuates the realities of our times.

4. I do not choose, personally, to “watch” history unfold, I AM history in the making, just as every human soul is. To let others with criminal intent continue one day longer is to ensure the certain death of a few million more innocents, a few million more acres ruined, a few million more trees gone from the rain forests, et al.

5. I do not, as you put it ” vaguely call others to fight”. I most emphatically insist that merely waving signs on a street corner (with permission granted of course) will NOT get the job done, although it does engage (IF presented by the propaganda machine which you know very well it is NOT) and encourage others while serving as a litmus test of the regime´s abilities and tactics. I hardly believe you actually think this is the right time and place, in the comments section of one several day old article in one public forum, to delineate specific strategic and tactical plans on a global scale…do you?

In closing, I appreciate your criticism and you are right to try to offset those who would cast a negative light on the efforts of those who are trying by any means at their disposal to contain the beast. I am not of they, however, and we should try to reach an accord in order to go further together. As I have already stated, the writer has assuredly hit the nerve, in general terms.

Begging concessions however, will not achieve victory against the criminals that afflict our planet. It will, if used properly and in conjunction with other such events around the globe simultaneously, generate hope and build morale..

Posted by Anniemoto

Sep 29 2011 – 1:31am

AaAAaaAhHH! thank you! we need to stop being afraid of losing the “precious” commodity of currency and useless goods. We came to this stage of our evolution to discover why symbols of personal financial “triumph” do NOT serve humanity. They serve the ego which has been the vehicle intertwining our souls with a dog-eat-dog mentality which serves the 1%! It must be noted that to continue with a more healthy existence on this planet we need to go backwards in our raping of the world around us. We need to give up senseless luxuries that DO NOT serve human need and exploit our natural resources. I do not threaten recreation, but propaganda. We must work together with one another including the earth we tread on. It is about YOU. it is about me. it is about PLANET EARTH. It is our roadways, motor vehicles, water use, trade and monetary practice and other structural “realities” that need an absolute overhaul. It is up to us. We have all the knowledge we need for a solution that makes perfect sense. We just need to admit it to ourselves. There will be a lot of obvious physical sacrifice if there is truly a solution we can subscribe to, but NOBODY will be in need. This will create a less desperate and sick culture! All can live in bounty, maybe omit the gold-plated toilets and other obscene gestures of money’s wealth. The fact is that we’ve known for a long time that our daily practices are running out of sand in the hourglass. It does not work. The way we travel, work, grow and live could and should be entirely re-worked around equality, and recycling from the daunting waste we have created with this capitalist money-market scheme of a society. WE have let it get this far. WE are the only ones to stop it. Instead of sitting here with our hands out waiting for our piece of the pie, right? Have faith, all, I have to beg!!! IN EACH OTHER. IN YOURSELF.

Posted by DC-CPH

Sep 28 2011 – 9:44am

Besides the numbers, there is another huge difference between Occupy Wall Street and rebellions of the Arab Spring: the lack of response to police violence. When police attacked demonstrators in Tahrir Square, demonstrators fought back. What do we do when police brutally assault protesters here? Absolutely nothing.

Posted by gardenernorcal

Sep 28 2011 – 12:20pm

Bull. What made Tahrir Square effective is that they did not stoop to violence. I smell a “sock puppet”, that would just love for protestors to minimize their impact by responding violently.

I find those that use the meme “Arab Spring”, to be those that wish this protest against economic disparity to be only seen as only an ethnic conflict. It’s easy to defend against then. You can lump them altogether in some radical “terrorist” camp.

Posted by pjd412

Sep 28 2011 – 1:03pm

Actually, on Tahrir Square, they pilfered or vandalized buildings, and overturned cars and vans and trash dumpsters to get materials to erect the vital barricades that any street occupation requires, they forcibly “un-arrested” people and otherwise forcibly ejected the police-thugs, from the square, and they returned the molotov cocktails thrown at them by the thugs with a few molotov cocktails of their own.

All these things would be called “violent” by the US bourgeois peacenick community.

Posted by DC-CPH

Sep 28 2011 – 12:47pm

Your version of history is demonstrably false, typical of pacifists who would have us believe that Ghandian nonviolence is the only path to meaningful change. When police attacked protesters in Egypt, the protesters responded by setting police stations on fire and destroying police vehicles.

See here http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFLDE7521ZC20110603 and here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1350459/Egypt-Lebanon-protests-Thousands-clash-police-streets.html (for example).

Egyptians also employed meaningful and militant direct action (as opposed to pointless and symbolic civil disobedience), by for example shutting down traffic and making Egypt ungovernable. They forced the government to choose between escalating the violence or conceding, and the government chose the latter.

Why do pacifists have to distort history in order to make their case for nonviolence uber alles? Perhaps because the facts do not support their arguments?

Posted by gardenernorcal

Sep 28 2011 – 1:07pm

Don’t fall for it folks. I’ve seen no proof that protestors in Tahrir square were involved in any of this. Perhaps traffic was shut down, but I am thinking the tanks and the armed camel cowboys had more to do with that than anything else. As to Egypt being ungovernable, that was the point of the populus protest wasn’t it.

Have direct video of those acts and who committed them? And you’re mixing Tahrir Lebanon and Tunsia. Was that your intent?

Posted by pjd412

Sep 28 2011 – 1:15pm

Thanks; you made far better points in your rebuttla than I did.

Even in the realm of NVCD tactics their extreme interpretation of “non violence” reaches such levels of absurdity that anything but complete cooperation with your own arrest and the arrest of your friends – preferably pre-arranged-with-the-police “show-arrests” like that absurd Keystone pipeline protest last month, is considered “violence”. The ineffecivenes of such forms of “nonviolence” are so obvious that I have come to the conclusion that it is deliberate on the part of the privleged comfortable bourgeois who advocate such stuff. They are not advocating change, just seeking that narcissistic warm and fuzzy feeling one gets around the dying campfire singing “Kumbaya”.

Posted by DC-CPH

Sep 28 2011 – 1:31pm

I dunno, I liked your points better.

The irony is that the pacifism-at-any-cost crowd thinks that by employing their absurdly theatrical “NVCD” they will somehow win over the corporate media and the general public. Of course, it has the opposite effect. The public views their “arrest me, please” theatrics with puzzled bewilderment, the pacifists lose the respect of oppressed communities who might be willing to join an actual resistance movement, and the media ignores and/or distorts the protests anyway.

Following the police brutality at Occupy Wall Street over the weekend, the media reported it as “Protests turned violent” not the more accurate “Police attack protesters.” Newsflash: you will never convince the media to report your actions sympathetically or even accurately.

Posted by gardenernorcal

Sep 28 2011 – 1:40pm

Violence is what the other side always wants. They have no idea how to deal with peaceful and intelligent protest. The “Media” is no longer relevant. We all know who owns them and it’s just a handful of very wealthy individuals.

They got GW elected and re-elected and they sanctioned his wars, much as they still sanction war over political dissent. They created “heros” out of uniforms, and “terrorists” out of a religion more closely related to Christianity than Judaism.

Posted by Jim Glover

Sep 28 2011 – 2:57pm

Don’t worry the jeer leaders here who push violence do not do anything they push.

It is the provocateurs version of “lets you and them fight”.

It is like the first comment that had to make a big deal out of the word “concession”,

when the article is about more than any particular concession but about a long drive for change and as if they were going to get more than any concession with some other plan that they keep to themselves under a pen name.

These folks protesting have more guts than anyone putting them down here including me who will support them with encouragement at least and hopefully more in my own State of Florida.

Posted by DC-CPH

Sep 28 2011 – 3:02pm

Don’t get me wrong — I am pleased to see these actions on Wall Street, which are certainly much better than nothing. And I am not “advocating violence”. It’s just that the Left’s obsession with nonviolence is borderline pathological in my opinion. The establishment knows exactly how to deal with these kinds of demonstrations: through repression, margninalization and ridicule. The Left makes this much easier by focusing its efforts entirely on street theater and ritualized nonviolent civil disobedience.

Posted by Jim Glover

Sep 28 2011 – 3:24pm

And don’t get me wrong either, the establishment knows how to deal with violence more than anything and all they need to get away with it is some provocateur, which is usually a police informant or somebody who wants to be the “Real Revolutionary” in the group.

The police know everything about any Demonstration or action you are in before you do so if you want to be the hero in the group and give the cops the excuse to riot, nobody can stop you but be prepared to pay the price and take responsibility for it. And don’t blame it on the “Left”, it is up to you too.

Posted by DC-CPH

Sep 28 2011 – 3:44pm

Obviously, the police don’t need an excuse to riot, they just do it. I’ve seen them attack peaceful demonstrations so many times that in my view, it is their standard operating procedure, it is what should always be expected. Protesters should be prepared on how to deal with this police repression, other than by standing around chanting “shame” or “the whole world is watching”. Once upon a time, the black bloc was known for un-arresting victims of police repression. Nowadays, the liberal left scorns such activities as “violent” or as the actions of agents provocateurs. I just wish people would free their minds a little bit from this dogma.

Posted by Jim Glover

Sep 28 2011 – 3:55pm

Oh I see, If the cops pepper spray and or arrest a protestor you are going to “un-arrest” them.

Good Luck, and make sure you are dressed in black so they know you mean business, or is this your dogma for somebody else to do?

Posted by pjd412

Sep 28 2011 – 4:55pm

So, are you proposing just standing by and saying “tsk-tsk; the guy getting tazed and arested must have been violent – else why are the nice policemen treating him this way?”

Will you old washed up peacenick hippies please get out of the way and let the youth take over?

Posted by Cathy Mason

Sep 28 2011 – 5:12pm

And what are you proposing? The protesters rush the cop – and it wasn’t a taser but pepper spray or Mace – and then what? The streetful of burly policemen stand idly by and watch? No they do not. They wade in, knock everyone down whether or not they had joined in resisting, grind their faces in the street pavement, and haul their asses out of there. Cops like protesters to react violently. They want them to because it leads to a quick easy end to the whole situation and they can go home.

Your implication that people against violence take that stand because they’re afraid or old is laughable. Try remaining quiet and steadfast while a cop slams your head into a car bumper. Sound easy?

Let the youth take over?? Who’s mostly running this protest?

Thank God it’s not people like you. The whole thing would have ended in a few days.

Posted by Cathy Mason

Sep 28 2011 – 5:00pm

“Once upon a time, the black bloc was known for un-arresting victims of police repression.” Care to give a a citation or example of what you’re referring to? The ONLY successful protest movement in US history was the non-violent black civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King. To the end of his days, even when he knew he was in grave danger of being assassinated, he never gave up his faith in the strength and efficacy of non-violent resistance. (Look it up in Wikipedia.) Befoer he was killed, Malcom X was moving toward King’s ideas and he broke totally with the violent Nation of Islam.

Of course the police brutalize protesters. Any idea why they do it??? To get protesters to react violently. The cops WANT that. They LIKE that. Because it makes it easier for them to just wade in, arrest everybody and Presto, protest over. and any legitimacy the protesters might have had with the public vanishes without a trace.

You jokers who are mocking non-violence loving peacniks and hippies are the ones deserving of mockery. Talk about dogma. What in the world do you think would be accomplished by using violence when surrounded by heavily armed police? The state can snuff out a violent outburst by civilians as easily blowing out a match. Such actions have zero effectiveness in attracting people to join up or in creating solidarity among the general population.

Posted by GwNorth

Sep 28 2011 – 8:23pm

>>The ONLY successful protest movement in US history was the non-violent black civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King.

While not in any way shape or from supporting those who call for violence , I would Point out that the Suffrage movement in the USA involved mass civil protests and Civil disobedience. Fully half the population of the United States population over the age of 18 gained the “Right to vote” via non violent measures.

In sheer numbers this was likely the single most successful movement.

They did not pack around guns to shoot down cops.

The more I read the claim that only through violence can people wrest away power from the State and obtain civil rights, the more I am convinced that those that post such nonsense do not see women as being people.

Posted by Siouxrose

Sep 28 2011 – 10:43pm

And the anti-Vietnam War movement qualifies, too.

Posted by Galenwainwright…

Sep 29 2011 – 3:07am

Kent State.

The National Guard murdered those kids and got away with it.

Posted by DC-CPH

Sep 29 2011 – 2:35am

If you enjoy weekends and an eight-hour work day, you might want to look into the militant labor struggles that won those victories. Saying “The ONLY successful protest movement in US history was the non-violent black civil rights movement” is exactly what I mean by dogma. It’s a distortion of history, just as the pacifist version of the Egyptian revolution is.

Example of unarresting tactics? See here: http://rnc08report.org/archive/263.shtml

In fact, just google “black bloc unarrest”, and you will find plenty of citations.

Posted by Cathy Mason

Sep 28 2011 – 5:15pm

Thanks, Jim for pushing back against these A holes. Jeer leaders – great!

I wonder whether these are their real “thoughts” – if you can call them that – or some agenda they’re pushing.

Posted by cdresearch

Sep 28 2011 – 10:27pm

________________________________

Just want to make some general comments about grassroots resistance movements relating to the article and the half dozen commentators on the portion of the thread starting from:

DC-CPH

Sep 28 2011 – 6:44am

(1) The “Occupy Wall Street” crowd is a new group focusing on economic corruption and disenfranchisement. It is simply too early to draw any conclusions about how successful they might become in reaching their goals, which are still understandably inchoate in nature. Let’s hope this group’s leaders are ultra smart and committed for the long-term.

(2) “Movements” that gain considerable success are built over relatively long periods of time through regular organizing and recruitment in their communities, and they also require from their adherent’s considerable sacrifice, along with disciplined, persistent, and “significant” participation over many years.

(3) There seems to be some misunderstanding about what “nonviolent political action” means, and how it differs from “pacifism” more generally. Effective nonviolent political action does not mean standing hundreds of yards outside the White House with a sign, making a speech, peacefully submitting to a 3-hour, temporary detainment, and then going home. That’s more of a pacifist stance, to in effect plead one’s case through words and symbolism, and to avoid putting oneself in the position where violence is more likely than not to occur, because pacifists abhor being a part of any form of violence. It is in essence a “passive” form of objecting to something one finds morally reprehensible.

On the other hand, the most effective “nonviolent political action” takes on an “aggressive” posture. For example, it won’t concern itself with obtaining “permits” before engaging in a direct action campaign (such “laws” are designed to guarantee quick & easy defeat), because its overarching concern is to substantially disrupt the “business as usual” operations that disproportionately benefits the dominant power structure. Without gaining leverage in such a fashion, activists will be left with crumbs for concessions, if they get any at all.

In short, effective “nonviolent political actions” are generally “proactive and provocative”, whereas “pacifism” is typically characterized by “high-mindedness and a decidedly peaceful orientation”. Both are committed to shun the commission of physical force for offensive or defensive purposes, but the former is “aggressive” in applying pressure to the oppressing party, while the latter adheres to more “passive, moral, and intellectual forms of persuasion”.

(4) Much of the activism (with few exceptions) that has taken place since the “early” 1970′s has been more “pacifist” in nature, rather than via a truly aggressive and provocative “nonviolent” resistance movement. Also, outside of “reactive”, major, and highly publicized events (e.g., going to war), large numbers of sustained activity has been for the most part MIA.

“Occupy Wall Street” certainly suggests that young people are starting to get frustrated enough to “get in the faces” of those they see are suffocating their lives and their futures. It’s a good sign, but it’s a long grueling road from here. My wish is that the leaders decide to make a ‘long-term” commitment and sacrifice by broadening their perspective and collaborating with other groups (global warming, anti-war, etc.). It’s the only way to eventually get the “numbers” up high enough to potentially have a major impact. And then, they need to get serious about strategy, tactics, recruitment, goals, organization, etc. I wish them the best.

Posted by dave gresham

Sep 28 2011 – 3:58pm

He actually thinks that willing to kill is the same as willing to die. But there’s no shortcut to manhood and the non-violent confrontation we believe in takes a lot more courage. Any idiot can throw punch or wield a club, but it takes some real spine to suffer a brother’s cruelty without retaliating.

Posted by Cathy Mason

Sep 28 2011 – 5:20pm

That is a class comment and exactly right.

Posted by B

Sep 29 2011 – 2:49am

I understand your point, but take it a step further;

Would it not be better to recognize the enemy (let´s call it a specific individual in the streets at the time, just to keep it simple…) locate them, and then, at a time and place of one´s own choosing in order to ensure mission success, eliminate that target? Instead of throwing rather ineffectual rocks and other assorted pieces of junk at a prepared and outrageously superior enemy in the position of their greatest strength, ie the streets?

While rage is good, revenge is best eaten cold, and rational thinking will worst the pathetically inadequate criminal enemy we are facing. The Arabs who fight to free themselves as individuals from bondage are truly courageous examples for all the world to serve and protect as best we can, by any means. Their efforts in the streets have not worsted the enemy at all, however, merely given them pause to regroup.

As you will certainly have noted, there is no “outpouring of democratic proposals for a new social structure” emanating from MENA due to the revolt, nor is there any form whatsoever of support, military or otherwise, from the so called “democratic” regimes of the western states that were only recently claiming to be bringing “democracy and freedom” to the afflicted citizenry of the region…curious, no?

The enemy is global. The war to free the planet is global. There are many battlegrounds in social as well as physical terms.

The enemy has an agenda. the enemy is cooperating on every level. So must we.

All that be as it may, I think I understand your mindset, and you need to be doing something, to be sure. Another way to strike back can be to “take the battle to the enemy, where they least expect it…”

You think about that awhile.

Stay careful, stay safe.

Posted by ClassAct

Sep 28 2011 – 9:50am

Wall Street is 3,000 miles away from me.

Posted by gardenernorcal

Sep 28 2011 – 12:13pm

Doesn’t mean you can join them in solidarity. You can through personal banking and buying habits. You can through signing petitions, and writing letters. You can through casting your votes intelligently.

We broke South African apartheid through consumer pressure.

Posted by Truthseeker58

Sep 28 2011 – 1:33pm

Yup, I walked into the Bank of America and closed my accounts and took out my money. Down a couple windows, I heard another person say, “I’d like to close my account, please.”

Close your accounts in all the major banks if you can, and move them into your credit unions if you can.

Posted by PuffinThrush

Sep 29 2011 – 12:14am

ClassAct wrote:

Wall Street is 3,000 miles away from me.

- – - – -

Excerpt from “What the Media Aren’t Telling You About American Protests” by Lisa Romero, September 27, 2011:

Now in its 10th day, protestors are very much entrenched at Zuccotti Park (with people across the United States and around the world watching their activities via live-streaming video, as well as sending them supplies and money, even pizza via local vendors).

Article URL: www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/27-2

- – - – -

Excerpt from “Cairo in Wisconsin: Eating Egyptian Pizza in Downtown Madison” by Andy Kroll, February 28, 2011:

The call reportedly arrived from Cairo. Pizza for the protesters, the voice said. It was Saturday, February 20th, and by then Ian’s Pizza on State Street in Madison, Wisconsin, was overwhelmed. One employee had been assigned the sole task of answering the phone and taking down orders. And in they came, from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, from Morocco, Haiti, Turkey, Belgium, Uganda, China, New Zealand, and even a research station in Antarctica. More than 50 countries around the globe. Ian’s couldn’t make pizza fast enough, and the generosity of distant strangers with credit cards was paying for it all.

Article URL: www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/28

* * * * *

My Reply:

ClassAct,

Three thousand miles is a long way.

I suppose you could send some pizza with love to the protesters in Zuccotti Park.

In any case, the way things are going, there will probably be a protest coming your way before too long.

:>)

Posted by dwatkins9

Sep 28 2011 – 10:00am

By the time they got to Woodstock, it was 42 years too late. At least they missed Kent State. And I’m sure this is fun, too.

Posted by SEAGLASS

Sep 28 2011 – 10:03am

The Egyptian army still rules Egypt brutally, all those lives got the people what? Another military Dictatorship.

The Wall st. demo is a waste of time. Disorganized as it is, its merely a reflection of the anarchy inside Wall st. What we need is a real Progressive movement, not chaotic street theater that just plays into the weakness of the left narrative the MSM so loves.

Posted by DC-CPH

Sep 28 2011 – 10:09am

Interesting. If the Tea Party held a rally of comparable size, it would be touted by the MSM as evidence of the strength of the right. But you’re saying that this Wall Street demo is evidence of the left’s weakness. Perhaps the problem is not the demo’s size, but the media.

Posted by ezeflyer

Sep 28 2011 – 11:19am

“The Wall st. demo is a waste of time.”

Its a good start. Something we can all relate to and get behind. Who knows how far it can go? Leaderless rebellions work because there is not one head to cut off.

Direct democracy

Posted by dave gresham

Sep 28 2011 – 12:27pm

“Its a good start. Something we can all relate to and get behind. Who knows how far it can go? Leaderless rebellions work because there is not one head to cut off.” My sentiments exactly. (And your last sentence is critically important, especially since the government has LEGAL authority now to kill anyone it deems a threat to the status quo. And by nature itself, many leaders is the proper philosophical construct, too.)

Posted by gardenernorcal

Sep 28 2011 – 12:51pm

Maybe we should all ask candidate and nobel peace prize winner Obama about that Legal authority to kill anyone it deems a threat? I’d love to hear how he can justify it.

Posted by gardenernorcal

Sep 28 2011 – 12:08pm

There’s an election coming up in Egypt. Why don’t we wait until we and they declare a loss? All things are not instantaneous like the DOW. I commend the people of Egypt and I realize it’s not over there yet. I guess I have a longer attention span than some.

Posted by jclientelle

Sep 28 2011 – 12:22pm

I am trying to wrap my old fashioned working class mind around the post-modern approach of these demonstrators. “Our system is broken at every level.” So the pastiche of desires and approaches of the demonstrators is to be expected. Some have told me they are trying to live what they want, rather than make demands. I still cling to the Frederick Douglass approach that power concedes nothing without a demand. And I do want Wall Street to lose power.

Many there say that they do not see the end result yet, what could emerge. They are trying, which is all we can do. I love their energy and creativity. .

Yet I cannot help but reach for a unifying theme that communicates to passers-by. It is actually there – Wall Street has ruined life for so many in so many ways, not only in the US, but over the world. I think that somehow this take-home-message, and some ideas about what could be done, should be articulated in a simple way that people can easily understand. But then again, I have no clear solutions either.

Posted by pjd412

Sep 28 2011 – 1:01pm

Agreed.

This “don’t make demands, just live what you want”, seems to be a new attitude arising out of younger poeple’s experience with the failure of the anti-global-capitalism and later, Iraq-war protests – which DID make demands, then the complete collapse of protest organizing that followed. Here in Pittsburgh we saw the collpse of the formerly high profile and media-visible Thomas Merton Center due to the older generation’s distrust of the anarchism-orieneted youth, followed by the folding of even the anarchist, Pittsburgh Organizing Group. The anarchist community has moved to strictly low key community support projects in the manner of “Food Not Bombs.” Personally, I think that it is borne of resignation more than a change in tactics.

Posted by Cathy Mason

Sep 28 2011 – 5:35pm

I think you’ll find there is more to the thinking guiding this protest than that. Again, Gupta’s article mentions some specifics:

“There are plenty of sophisticated ideas out there: end corporate personhood; institute a “Tobin Tax” on stock purchases and currency trading; nationalize banks; socialize medicine; fully fund government jobs and genuine Keynesian stimulus; lift restrictions on labor organizing; allow cities to turn foreclosed homes into public housing; build a green energy infrastructure.”

BTW, if these were postmodernists, they would be sitting in their academic offices debating whether the theory that the moon is made of green cheese has equal validity with the blue cheese theory. Writing essays with titles like “Who put the A in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus?” Pomo was a huge damper on left wing activism.

Posted by dave gresham

Sep 28 2011 – 1:06pm

Your want a “take-home-message” and “articulated”?

Change We Can Believe In.

Irony is often painful.

Posted by jclientelle

Sep 28 2011 – 1:17pm

I meant something with, you know, content.