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Forum Post: Let's Take a Quick Look at 99% Spring

Posted 12 years ago on April 17, 2012, 9:58 a.m. EST by OccNoVi (415)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

First off, there's the lineup -- all the usual suspects. Then after that a consideration of what they are doing for training.

The following organizations have called for a 99% Spring:

-- Jobs With Justice -- United Auto Workers -- National Peoples Action -- National Domestic Workers Alliance -- MoveOn.org -- New Organizing Institute -- Movement Strategy Center -- The Other 98% -- Service Employees International Union -- AFL-CIO -- Rebuild the Dream -- Color of Change -- UNITE-HERE -- Greenpeace -- Institute for Policy Studies -- PICO National Network -- New Bottom Line -- Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement -- SNCC Legacy Project -- United Steel Workers -- National Education Association -- Working Families Party -- Communications Workers of America -- United States Student Association -- Rainforest Action Network -- American Federation of Teachers -- Leadership Center for the Common Good -- UNITY -- National Guestworker Alliance -- 350.org -- The Ruckus Society -- Citizen Engagement Lab -- smartMeme Strategy & Training Project -- Right to the City Alliance -- Pushback Network -- Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment -- Progressive Democrats of America -- Change to Win -- Grassroots Global Justice Alliance -- Campaign for America's Future -- Public Campaign Action Fund -- Fuse Washington -- Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment -- Citizen Action of New York -- Engage -- United Electrical Workers Union -- National Day Laborers Organizing Network -- Alliance for a Just Society -- The Partnership for Working Families -- United Students Against Sweatshops -- Presente.org -- Get Equal -- American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees -- Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement -- Corporate Accountability International -- American Federation of Government Employees -- Training for Change -- People Organized for Westside Renewal (POWER) -- Student Labor Action Project -- Colorado Progressive Coalition -- Green for All -- DC Jobs with Justice -- Midwest Academy -- The Coffee Party -- International Forum on Globalization -- UFCW International Union -- Sunflower Community Action -- Illinois People's Action -- Lakeview Action Coalition -- Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada -- International Brotherhood of the Teamsters -- Resource Generation -- Highlander Research and Education Center -- TakeAction Minnesota -- Energy Action Coalition -- Earthhome.us.

And when you get to what exactly they are doing for training. It turns out to be the exact same system that the Occupy Nonviolence page at www.nycga.net promulgated before the *&^%$%^& shills in the tech clique deleted it.

Traditional Gandhi + King nonviolence. The stuff of the Civil Rights Movement. Exactly what minimized casualties when Freedom Marchers put their (our) bodies in KKK-harm's way.

Movement Strategy Center, Color of Change, Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, SNCC Legacy, and constructive application of materials from the Civil Rights Museum (which is heavily intertwined with SCLC Memphis.)

This is more a Change Yourself First approach than a "variety of tactics" approach. Gandhi and King get the preference over a plan that rushes pell mell into Gene Sharp's 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action.

Gee, they are careful.

They are also not advising that camping out in public parks is going to be a major way to cure America of right wing extremism. Nobody at 99% Spring is saying that what OWS NYC did last September-November was bad, per se. They say that it's time to collect up The 99% and move ahead.

God bless 'em.

56 Comments

56 Comments


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[-] 4 points by GypsyKing (8708) 12 years ago

Terrified of a united left-wing, combined with the majority of sane Americans? You should be.

PS This theme is getting really old. Please everyone (other then me, the sucker) let's just ignore this one.

[-] 3 points by OccNoVi (415) 12 years ago

The criminal element in the 1% should be....

P.S. why would anyone be surprised that Occupy begat 99% Spring?

Occupy insists on such as anarchy and this "leaderless" rhetoric. The dozens of organizations doing 99% Spring have been around for decades because they are competently organized. People want results, not chaos.

[-] 2 points by jrhirsch (4714) from Sun City, CA 12 years ago

If these other groups are so effective, why does occupy exist?

[-] 4 points by epa1nter (4650) from Rutherford, NJ 12 years ago

Without many of them working hard for years, Occupy would not exist. It is easy to look down on someone when you're standing on their shoulders.

[-] 2 points by jrhirsch (4714) from Sun City, CA 12 years ago

We seem to be standing on the "Arab Spring's" shoulders.

[-] 3 points by epa1nter (4650) from Rutherford, NJ 12 years ago

You are standing on the shoulders of and gleaning the wisdom from every single progressive, leftist, activist movement that has happened before you. The Arab Spring was a spark and an inspiration. But the tactics, methods, ideas, and targets have all been developed out of movements that have come before in Europe, South America, and the particularly (in our case here) the States. Indeed, even the Arab Spring was influenced by them.

Don't spit at your parents: they may not have been perfect, but they gave birth to you and loved you enough get you to survive to adolescence, if not adulthood.

[-] -2 points by jrhirsch (4714) from Sun City, CA 12 years ago

The Egyptians weren't leftist, they just want the right to choose their own government. Occupy must include left and right and in between, or it will never accomplish anything.

All of these sub groups that support 99 spring will anchor Occupy to the left and there it will drown.

[-] 4 points by epa1nter (4650) from Rutherford, NJ 12 years ago

Occupy is a decidedly leftist movement. Being in opposition to the 1% automatically makes it so. It was founded by leftists and anarchists. Its core remains leftists and anarchists, as well as liberals. The right's main objective, by definition, is either to go backwards or maintain the status quo. In America, the right by definition is corporatist and uber-capitalist, regardless of political party. The entire purpose of Occupy is to turn the country leftward, not rightward, and not to stay the same. The only movements in all of history, including Occupy, that sought greater freedom and representation for the people have been, and continue to be, exclusively on the left. The Arab Spring was indeed leftist in the context of what the conservatives in their countries were: the Mubarack government was the conservative right wing 1%. The right is the enemy. Including the right would be the death of Occupy.

[-] 0 points by jrhirsch (4714) from Sun City, CA 12 years ago

Justice doesn't discriminate between right and left. It only stands where the truth is. If we choose to stand with justice, we must move to it, no matter where it rests.

[-] 3 points by epa1nter (4650) from Rutherford, NJ 12 years ago

Considering that justice has never been with the right, that the very definition of conservatism (the right) is to maintain the status quo or to go backwards, and since OWS is all about moving forward, Occupy cannot be aligned with the right in any way.

What single position has the right articulated in the entirety of your lifetime that you could say aligns with one single thing in Occupy?

"the Right [treated as sing. or pl. ] a grouping or political party favoring conservative views and supporting capitalist economic principles.

Does Occupy support conservative (status quo) policies and capitalist principles? Or is its very reason for being the opposition to Neo-liberalism (a peculiar word actually meaning right-wing expansionist capitalism) ?

You are using words without understanding their definitions.

[-] 2 points by jrhirsch (4714) from Sun City, CA 12 years ago

Between Bush and Obama, ask someone in Afghanistan which of their bombs they prefer, the one from the right or the one from the left. Justice chooses neither.

[-] 3 points by epa1nter (4650) from Rutherford, NJ 12 years ago

Why are you defining Obama as being on the left? As I thought, you have no idea what the words "right" and "left" mean, and are confusing them with party affiliation. Obama is a bad president because he is a conservative right winger, not because he is a leftist.

[-] 2 points by jrhirsch (4714) from Sun City, CA 12 years ago

I would bet that all of the groups supporting the 99 spring will also be supporting that conservative right wing president Obama.

[-] 2 points by epa1nter (4650) from Rutherford, NJ 12 years ago

Want to start that fight again? Perhaps people, like me, who supprt the 99% spring, and vote for Obama agin know exactly ow conservative he is, and also know that he is a sweetie lamb compared to the alternative, and further, that whoever gains the White House will make federal and Supreme Court appointments for the next 4 years, appointments that will remain with us for the rest of our lives. We know that however conservative he is in most areas, his court appointments are NOT among them, and that allowing the republicans to gain control means packing the courts completely with fascists.

[-] 2 points by hchc (3297) from Tampa, FL 12 years ago

"A sweetie lamb"....like the other person said, tell that to someone who has had a family member blown away by one of his drones.

I want you to put yourself in their shoes, and imagine that you lost a family to on of his drones. And then think of the reaction you would get when they found out you voted for him AFTER your brother or sister was blown up. (dont forget that its just warmongering too, there isnt a justified reason for the drone attack).

[-] 1 points by flip (7101) 12 years ago

all true but very sad don't you think - this is our choice

[-] 0 points by hchc (3297) from Tampa, FL 12 years ago
[-] 0 points by OccNoVi (415) 12 years ago

Better than outright theocult fascism.

[-] 0 points by hchc (3297) from Tampa, FL 12 years ago

Because all those "seasoned groups" you talk about only want to elect more Dems, get their kickbacks, and keep things moving very slowly.

[-] 1 points by epa1nter (4650) from Rutherford, NJ 12 years ago

You are comparing throwing a bullet with firing a gun. You are being played if you believe that both parties are equivalent evils, and you are being played specifically by the right. That is blindness.

http://www.salon.com/2012/04/17/is_obama_no_better_than_the_gop/

[-] 1 points by hchc (3297) from Tampa, FL 12 years ago

I dont think they are equals, they obviously have different levels of corruption at different spots.

But they are both horribly corrupted, and have been for decades. They are both so bad that I know foreigners that laugh at our "democracy"..

We are really just picking who we'd like to get screwed by. Maybe one of them sends a card afterwards. Thats about it.

[-] 1 points by epa1nter (4650) from Rutherford, NJ 12 years ago

Reply to post below:

Due almost entirely to Rebuliitard and tea party and libertarian pressures. The fact that you can't see that is you blindness, not anyone else's. And if you want to go backwards at breakneck speed, continue to divide the left and ensure an immediate and complete republitard victory. See what happens to the courts. See Planned Parenthood destroyed, See universal health - of any sort - eliminated, see more tax breaks for the rich , see war with Iran, See elimination of every single environmental regulation and complete destruction of labor unions.

You are pissed, for good reason, at all the compromises the Dems have made. But you fail to understand that those are COMPROMISES, not initiatives, and those initiatives are SOLELY from the republitads. Yet you wish to hand them complete and absolute power, unfettered, unmitigated, absolute, which is exactly what will happen if the dems lose the white house. You live in a fantasyland of ideals, and don't have a clue that it takes time and effort, and interim compromise, to get to those ideals. Process won't go away because you wish it to. Grow up.

[-] 0 points by hchc (3297) from Tampa, FL 12 years ago

You are so fuckin blind. You really think that the Democratic party doesnt enjoy the perks from serving the Corporations that the Republicans do.

Dont worry, many voters on the Right are still convinced that its only YOUR party is bad, and theirs, while flawed, is the path to greatness.

Go turn your TV back on, and have a head tell you how to think. Anyone that thinks the Dem or Rep party is EVER going to serve them is a fuckin fool.

You're being played. And I suspect you probably work for them, because there is no way you can be this fuckin dumb.

[-] 1 points by epa1nter (4650) from Rutherford, NJ 12 years ago

Most of these groups you mention have never received a kickback of any sort at any time. Most of them want to see Democrats in office because the alternative is unthinkable in terms of the country moving forward. And moving things forward slowly is a whole lot different, not simply lust a lesser of two evils, than moving things quickly to the abyss, which is precisely what would happen if a republitard were elected.

[-] 1 points by hchc (3297) from Tampa, FL 12 years ago

We have been going backwards, Einstein. Look around.

[-] 0 points by OccNoVi (415) 12 years ago

Liberal President Obama

VERSUS

Liberal Governor Romney.

Whoever wins, conservatives lose.

[-] 0 points by OccNoVi (415) 12 years ago

You funny !

"Gravity drowned" is a famous creation from an early automated language program at MIT, Minsky's lab. Same difference....

Btw: kris-schnee.livejournal.com/74280.html -- the story is retold thousands of times and this is a nice one.

[-] 0 points by OccNoVi (415) 12 years ago

Occupy has made it's largest impact with women, particularly unmarried women in the Republican Base. The brutality of NYPD, first, made clear that the enemies of Occupy Wall Street are also visceral enemies of women.

-- The "Tony Baloney" pepper spray incident (aggravated assault) got to every news program -- even Fox.

-- The image of the NYPD cop grabbing inside the girl's shirt to squeeze her right breast, with her screaming in pain, went out in tens of millions of emails.

Limbaugh has always, always been one of the men who hate women. He sealed the deal potty-mouthing Sandra Fluke. He reminded us that he had called an awkward 13-year old Chelsea Clinton "the White House dog." But the table had been set with all of the physical brutality aimed at the Occupy women and a few of the men, such as Scott Olsen.

Altogether, between Occupy and Limbaugh, the Base women are dropping abortion as a single-issue identifier. They are waking up to False Front lying.

[-] 2 points by JadedGem (895) 12 years ago

WOW! Its about time! Its retarded how many people only voted republican because they were for the babies. I've heard women say all the time this is their issue, saving the fetuses.

[-] 1 points by OccNoVi (415) 12 years ago

Women aren't stupid. They're just drawn that way (in the cartoon mentality of our Mad Men authoritarians.)

I think that my bunch are the only ones doing in-depth research on Republican Base women. DNC/DLC types have blithered for a couple decades about how impossible it is to make inroads with them.

But now, that's dead wrong. Occupy gals getting assaulted and sexually assaulted by cops -- the straws that are breaking this camel's back.

[-] 0 points by OccNoVi (415) 12 years ago

The model is additive, not fixed-sum.

Get yourself a good, cheap thick 1990s college text book that includes Inductive Logic. There's all sorts of stuff that expands your model repertoire for analyzing political and business situations.

[-] 0 points by hchc (3297) from Tampa, FL 12 years ago

The type of results they are going to get us are the same tired bullshit, because they are willing to work in the duopoly.

[-] 2 points by brightonsage (4494) 12 years ago

Right on GK. Getting everyone to move in the same general direction is, what do they call that again? Oh, it's a "movement." Right, it's a chance to see the marketplace of ideas at work. If you want to impose my blue print on everybody, I guess I will have to finish writing it. Otherwise I will just try to pull on the ropes that seem to be accomplishing something I like.

[-] 1 points by GypsyKing (8708) 12 years ago

You said it. It's called a movement!

[-] 1 points by DCInsider (54) 12 years ago

Ignore what? The 99%? Or the attempt to make OWS sound better than the 99%? Or the comparison?

[+] -4 points by Zombiefighter (-16) from Ione, CA 12 years ago

Hmmm...a united left wing. Re education camps?Total loss of freedom and liberty? Confiscation of property and wealth? Dogmatic indoctrination of youth? Reduced production of food? Yeah, real paradise. But don't worry, there are more than a few of us that will stop it. In any way necessary..

[-] 3 points by GypsyKing (8708) 12 years ago

Oh sure, like they do in Sweden and Denmark.

[-] -1 points by Zombiefighter (-16) from Ione, CA 12 years ago

When are you leftists going to get over this " Scandanavia is paradise" stick? It's apples and oranges. You can't form this country along those lines. We are so completely different in nearly every way. And all is not paradise in Norway and Sweden. Try reading a newspaper once in a while.

[-] 1 points by GypsyKing (8708) 12 years ago

Yeah, they're not immune to right-wing nut jobs either.

[-] 1 points by OccNoVi (415) 12 years ago

"Dogmatic indoctrination of youth" -- are you referring to the role of a Stake President managing the system that teaches "revealed scriptures that had been long-hidden. These scriptures are a record of some Israelites whom the Lord led out of Jerusalem before its destruction by the Babylonians in about 600 B.C. They were led to the Americas, and Christ visited them after He was resurrected. A prophet named Mormon organized and abridged the hundreds of years of the people’s record ..." which was seen and then lost in Missouri.

And the HEFY program.

And the hundreds of hours spent preaching anti-science and anti-history.

That cult stuff? "Cult" because it insists on its own dishonest set of made up pseudo-facts. That what you want taught to children?

[-] -1 points by Zombiefighter (-16) from Ione, CA 12 years ago

No, that's not what I want. And what the fuck does any of that silliness have to do with the issue at hand?

[-] 2 points by DCInsider (54) 12 years ago

Interesting article from Al Jazeera that ponders the same thing. Has the 99% co-opted the OWS movement. I would say no, they are two separate movements with different aims. Is one better than the other? I think that is a personal question for everyone to come to themselves.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestoryamericas/2012/04/20124187187119299.html

[-] -1 points by OccNoVi (415) 12 years ago

OWS has to be separated from the specific clique that parades itself as NYCGA and runs the web sites. That bunch also fronts for a number of shills. Occupy Wall Street in New York was always about 100 times as large as the GA clique/shill head count.

-- 99% Spring is built out from permanent organizations.

-- 99% Spring took over as its own the traditional training program espoused by SNCC Legacy, SCLC, the Memphis orgs, and OWS's Occupy Nonviolence. Gandhi + King... put "change yourself" in there well ahead of the Gene Sharp tactics.

-- Community was the best of the Groups. The split could not have worked out better. (Community was ousted from the web site by shills.)

Tactical infighting matters. OWS NYC was never very good at cleaning its own house. It took the solid management skills of the 99% Spring operation to put this movement back on the tracks.

[-] 0 points by Cweiss (-8) 12 years ago

I have been an union worker for over 20 years. These big organizations don't care about the workers. They just care about keeping thier jobs and their cushy benefits and pensions. It's all the same.

We need to unite and get rid of all of these big organizatios - the banks, corporations, government and unions. They all steal from us the people.

[-] 2 points by OccNoVi (415) 12 years ago

Try doing your Inductive Logic problems by starting with facts:

$917 = Median weekly earnings in 2010 of union members.

$717 = Median weekly earnings in 2010 of non-union workers.

That's a yearly difference in salary of $10,400 for union members vs. non-union members.

You want to give back $10,400 a year then go for it.

The union advantage is even greater when you compare the percentages of union vs. non-union workers receiving specific benefits:

Dental Care: Union, 70% | Non-union: 44%
Vision care: Union, 53% | Non-union: 24%
Prescription drug benefits: Union, 90% | Non-union, 68%

Union workers nationwide are 28.2 percent more likely to be covered by employer-provided health insurance.

Give back your family's health care too.

[-] 0 points by Cweiss (-8) 12 years ago

The amount of our friends that are working is declining because our leaders are incompetent. Less and less people are enjoying these benefits. The bureaucracy is bloated and corrupt.

[-] 2 points by OccNoVi (415) 12 years ago

"The bureaucracy" is not the problem. Cost of government has had no impact on the economy whatsoever, apart from pension deals.

Wall Street and the mortgage industry RICO operations stole at least $7.3-trillion dollars out of the economy. That is what fucked up production and employment -- the automobile business, a prime example.

[-] 0 points by Cweiss (-8) 12 years ago

The bureaucracies of the unions and the government steal from the workers. Just look at this ridculous GSA boondogle to Las Vegas. They all just want our money and tell us to be quiet. Do you know how many times I have seen the union officials do the same thing?

[-] 2 points by OccNoVi (415) 12 years ago

Zero.

And look up the number of programs from Social Security in the 1930s to Medicare to Hate Crimes legislation where the unions have supported it critically, while the big business capitalists have fought it tooth and nail.

[-] 0 points by Cweiss (-8) 12 years ago

You obviously aren't in the brotherhood. Go away and allow us to help ourselves.

[-] -1 points by hchc (3297) from Tampa, FL 12 years ago

Sorry dude. but big unions have become horribly corrupted and played, mind you.

Otherwise, Dems would stop passing free trade agreements.

[-] 2 points by OccNoVi (415) 12 years ago

Shill-swill.....

"That's a yearly difference in salary of $10,400 for union members vs. non-union members."

Unionization is the # 1 path to the middle class. It takes Ayn Rand or Margaret Thatcher to believe that unions are useless and corrupt and ugly.

[-] -1 points by hchc (3297) from Tampa, FL 12 years ago

Whoah, easy man. Im pro union. But unfortunately, the apathy of america is in the unions too. Auto deductions that go to a party that signs massive free trade agreements is about as dumb as it gets.

[-] 2 points by OccNoVi (415) 12 years ago

Free trade agreements are dumb, yes indeed.

But unions do not have the numbers of voters or representation in the battleground states, generally, to block it. This is a head count problem, not apathy. Double union membership and there wouldn't be one free trade agreement as currently constituted.

Ohio and Pennsylvania are the two critical states where union vote can be a deciding factor in national elections. It's not enough.

[-] -1 points by tellTale (-3) 12 years ago

OWS or whatever they call their selves nowadays are way past the Spring "uprising" All 100 remaining members decided to bag it