Forum Post: Your opinion wanted. Is this the KEY TO OWS's FUTURE? Interesting article re how to grow Occupy to 100 times its size
Posted 12 years ago on March 5, 2012, 8:32 p.m. EST by therising
(6643)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Article about Chris Hedges piece -- how to protect integrity of Occupy movement and stick to nonviolent direct action so the maximum number of people feel comfortable identifying with it. We need middle America to buy in and Black Bloc interferes with that: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Chris-Hedges-is-Correct-Ab-by-Joe-Giambrone-120210-962.html .
Actual piece by Chris Hedges (please scroll down for link): http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_cancer_of_occupy_20120206/
What do you think of these articles? I'm curious about what other Occupy supporters think.
I think the best things we can do include: 1) Reduce the bureaucracy of the GAs. They tend to be long, tiring and unproductive. Democracy is important, but make it work, otherwise it's an effort purely in procedure. There's also been calls for "accountability" though of course the meaning of that depends highly on who/what is supposed to be "accountable" to whom. This might be done by direct democratic balloting procedures, or something. 2) Reacquire permanence. When camps were more common, this was /somewhat/ easier, but even camps aren't the best solution. Establish long term, sustaining infrastructure that can't be taken down at a whim by police, or worse, simply by bad weather. 3) Help people find fun and productive things to do, based on their interests. Help them network with others with similar interests. Relate to their hobbies and interests so that they don't have to leave the movement in order to pursue them. Empower and act.
And if your particular Occpuation seems to have people you'd suspect of being interested in black bloc tactics, don't be a dick. Tell them you respect their militancy, but that petty property destruction doesn't fuel insurrections, even if property is wrong. If they want to do black bloc, they can and should do it--intelligently and specifically for intelligence and nonviolent defense action. Practice ways of ensuring police aggressors don't manage to attack or harass the less militant participants, and especially not engage in provocation that invites these attacks in to those fellow participants. Learn to identify, monitor and document agents. Help scout and pace marches, etc. As much as they may not want to consider media bullshit as legitimate, it's unfortunately how most people have and still observe the movement, and it's easier to circumvent the bullshit than to overcome it. Just a few ideas to consider.
That all sounds pretty productive. Seems like it would move us forward.
The occupy movement should be a footnote in a history textbook-nothing more
Why do you wish for it to fail? Do you see your future and your children's future as more positive if it is controlled by corporate interests? Or are you just another paid troll?
The occupy movement is a big fat waste of everyones time. I'm just entertained posting on these forums. Corporate interests don't control people btw
Ooooooo walmart must obey..... must buy.....
Are you blind friend? Wake up. The average American watches 7 hours of television a day. Do you know how many commercials that is per month?? No wonder many have willingly allowed their government to be bought by corporate interests. Their marketing consultants by the way can predict with creepy accuracy what certain households will buy in the coming year and where they will buy it -- right down to brand names. At some point we must shed the role of mere consumer and once again become citizens.
Then we'll stop saying ignorant things like "the occupy movement is just a big fat waste of everyone's time."
Don't watch tv then
And my comment wasn't ignorant- it is a waste of everyones time- instead of being deadbeats, all the protestors should go out and produce value which will help everyone else. Trying to do things like shutting down the ports and government buildings just screws over everyone
Nope. Try again.
Not sure what you mean. Are you saying violence will do more than nonviolent direct action? Violence is exactly what the 1% are hoping for. It's they're dream come true. They know what to do with violence. They have all the guns and missiles, remember? Can't be beat on that front. But King and Gandhi beat them using other tactics. Gene Sharp's nonviolent tactics have helped bring down regimes. Powerful stuff from powerful radicals. It works. We should follow their playbook.
sigh
Huh?
post part of the article so people know what the link is
OWS should join with the Re-elect Obama 2012 team. They would have access to endless funding (a billion in Obamas war chest) and plenty of community organizing resources.
OWS could grow their membership by thousands with Obama's help.
Why not just Unionize OWS,or join SEIU...The SEOWSIU...Service Employees Occupy Wall Street International Union?
Become part of the DNC infrastructure.
These are all good ideas for OWS to consider.
That's the silliest thing I've seen on this forum. Who would want that?
From the political ideology that permeates this forum I'll bet most of these posters would be all for it.