Forum Post: I Feel the Heat, but Where's the Light?
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 19, 2011, 12:42 p.m. EST by Samagdma
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This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I, like many busy, work-a-day people in America, was puzzled by the protests, mostly because I couldn't seem to get any idea of what the protest was about. "Stop Corporate Greed." Okay, I get that, but, how? It seemed to me that the protests are generating much heat but little light. So, I had a great idea; I'll go to the website. I was immediately confronted with three very disappointing words, that is, that Occupy Wall Street was a "leaderless resistance movement." A rudderless ship. Stop. Those three words could be replaced with "we're not serious." The last successful grass roots protest movement in this country had a leader, and his name was Martin Luther King, Jr. Without a leader, an agenda or even an intelligible list of demands (remembering that "stop corporate greed" is not helpful), what you have is not a movement, but a mob. Nothing on earth cries out more to be crushed -- or has more often been crushed -- than a mob. Don't be a mob. Be a movement. Or go home.
What happens to leaders like Martin Luther King? They get shot.
I agree that OWS being a leaderless movement has inherent risk. What is important to remember is that the civil rights movement in its inception and initial coalescence was a leaderless movement. I do see the wisdom in the "the leaderless resistance movement" because it allows for synergy to take place through it's multiple focuses and approaches and the autonomy of the local groups. It opens the door to dismantle hierarchy and create a foundation for dominion.
There are members of OWS who are involved in foreclosure blockades and foreclosure auction disruptions. A leaderless movement also allows the members to take on more responsibility in terms of choices and decisions to be made in their locale, and thus empower their local group with greater authority. In this day, with our communication capeabilities, we as a people have the opportunity to create a movement that is spontaneous in it's responsiveness and thus less predictable and controllable by the establishment. Leaderless resistance can enables a movement to be nimble.
There are no declared leaders, but there are definitely leaders to OWS. OWS is highly organized, and to be a highly organized movement, there must be leadership. If you spend time in Zuccotti Park / Liberty Square you will quickly identify who they are. How to identify a leader? These are the people who are running things -- same as everywhere else. The one at the Mic. The ones at the information booths. The ones speaking at the GA meetings. The ones that come up with the ideas or promote the ideas that actually go forward into the planning and action stages. Ruderless? Hardly. Bloomberg would not be nearly so threatened were it ruderless.
Btw, mobs have leaders. Mob control involves identifying and taking out the leaders. Do not doubt that Bloomberg's goons have clearly identified the leaders of OWS and are watching their every move.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w