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We are the 99 percent

Dallas

Posted 8 years ago on July 8, 2016, 9:14 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: micah white, dallas

The murder of five police officers in Dallas has killed street protest. Activists are partly to blame.

You knew your protest marches weren't working. And yet you failed to acknowledge the crisis. The result was predictable and horrifying.

As I warned in April: “it is dangerous to continue to use tactics that aren't effective. What we don't want is for people to lose hope in the possibility of protest entirely. Because then they become more violent.”

Who will march in the streets now that in the best of cases it achieves nothing and in the worst of cases it is used as a cover for lone-wolf terrorism? This is the end of protest.

Now that protest as we know it is no longer an option, activists are faced with a dilemma: win wars or win elections.

Either we gain sovereignty through an armed insurrection that devolves into martial law; or we gain sovereignty by building an electoral social movement capable of sweeping the people into power.

Those are the only options remaining: nihilism or optimism.

I’m on the side of optimism. Will you join me?

Micah White

July 8, 2016

Nehalem, Oregon

10 Comments

10 Comments


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[-] 2 points by ImNotMe (1488) 8 years ago

And now Baton Rouge, 3 more dead cops (RiP) but:

''We need a profound shift in our collective consciousness in order to challenge an entrenched system of racial and social control — and build a new America.'' and guess what .. in order to raise consciousness and solidarity .. PROTESTS & PROTESTING may still be required!

ad iudicium ...

[-] 2 points by beautifulworld (23815) 8 years ago

Killing cops will never be the answer, but the killing of innocent black people has to stop too. We must all recognize both as wrong, immoral and unjust in order to move forward.

[-] 2 points by ImNotMe (1488) 8 years ago

Is all ''protest'' to be held hostage by any and all deranged, damaged or deluded ''lone-wolf terrorism''?! Maybe the main problem with protests is that there isn't enough of them nor are they large and regular enough!! By saying: ''Activists are partly to blame'' .. the danger is that the reactionary language of the American Right Wing is given undue credence!!! So, re."Who will march in the streets now ...?'' This is now being answered by many more in Atlanta, Arizona and elsewhere. Also fyi, please try to consider:

From which I excerpt .. ''Police violence and mass shootings are symptoms of a sick society. We need courage to imagine justice beyond the confines of what currently exists. The justice we call for must not only free ourselves but create a new world in which the full human potential of us all can be nurtured and realized and where the violence that inhabits our planet is eradicated. This requires, at minimum, livable wage jobs, full education and a society free from violence and senseless killings -- a society not organized around greed and profit, but around caring for the people and the Earth as a whole. We get there by remaining steadfast in our conviction that justice is on the side of the oppressed, and it is through our fight that we make it possible to create a society which enables liberation for all.'' + see ...

ad iudicium ...

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 8 years ago

''As PROTESTS Sweep Country, New Video Shows Off-Duty NY Cop Fatally Shooting Black Man Delrawn Small'':

From the OP - ''The murder of five police officers in Dallas has killed street protest. Activists are partly to blame.'' - REALLY?!

fiat lux ...

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

Nonviolence is a cornerstone of our Occupy Wall Street movement. I was bothered by this issue a few years ago when some OWS demonstrations turned violent so I asked jart for guidance.

She pointed out to me the rather obvious preamble that "encourage the use of nonviolence". I agree that nonviolence is the way forward although it will take a long time to succeed. Long time does not bother me because I have been around long enough. Let the torch of Liberty be passed to a new generation who will carry on as we had.

Our New Acropolis of the Spirits, "the Shining City on a Hill," cannot be Built On Earth in a thousand days, nor a thousand months, but we just need to press on for what God calls "a little while longer," perhaps, according to His Word, four hundred years (ten generations of "wandering through the Sinai wilderness" where manna falls from heaven and struck rock spouts water). Liberty starts at home.

Remember that Greater America is the Blue Marble. America the Beautiful just cradles the transfiguration of the departed souls of the Old World.

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 8 years ago

''The horrific slaying of five police officers should not detract from the Black Lives Matter movement, which remains peaceful in its demand for equal justice'' ...

From which, I excerpt .. ''Black Lives Matter was brought into existence in response to state violence; it does not have a monopoly on the grievances and pathologies that emerge as a result of that violence. It can only seek to direct the resentment in constructive ways. Given the considerable anger at the relentless exposure of police brutality, its work on that front has been commendable.

''The Black Lives Matter movement is essentially demanding nothing more for citizens who are black than the people of Dallas of all races now demand for its law enforcement in blue: justice.''

fiat justitia ruat caelum ...

[-] 1 points by factsrfun (8336) from Phoenix, AZ 8 years ago

Since I first came to the site in 2011 I have called for the death of the GOP, I received push back saying it was an impossible goal at the same time people called for a complete overhaul. I have always contended that allowing the GOP to win is an unacceptable outcome. As poor as the tool at hand may be, and I do think "tool" is an appropriate word, the time to kill the GOP has arrived and if that is done the whole system tumbles down because the two Parties do depend on each other. The first step is an overpowering win for one of them in order to crush the other. Now is time, but will we act?