Forum Post: Next target: Black Friday
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 19, 2011, 6:55 p.m. EST by Var
(195)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
It is time to sacrifice the sacred cow called Black Friday. It is time to goad suburban consumers into recognizing their responsibility.
Take this sign with you into the suburbs:
Enjoy Black Friday
You scramble for minor deals
While criminal bankers steal
Billions of your tax dollars
& Spend the loot on mega-yachts.
We still need to take back Zuccotti
Why the fuss over a tiny strip of land? I swear, it is as though the people saying go back to Zucotti are the actual provocateurs, trying to get people pulverized by ex-mafia cops.
Since when are revolutions about land? They are about ideas and collaboration. They are about forcing the middle class to get off their asses.
One of the things that Tahrir Square demonstrated, though their are previous examples, is the importance of holding a visable, public strip of land on a 24/7 basis as a public presence and base of operations. If anything the very existence of the Occupation at Zuccotti Square reinforced this with the explosions of occupations around the world within days of 9/17. The continued need and utility for such a presence has not disappeared just because the cops took it down a couple of days ago.
Except the world had excellent high-up views of Tahrir. I've never seen Zucotti on a map, and all photos of it so far have been street level shots of gaggles of people. The protest should be somewhere more symbolic if it is going to be at one spot. Like the Federal Reserve building, or Wall St itself, or even Ground Zero since obviously the 1% perpetrated 9/11.
OWS tried to get to Wall Street on day one but was unsuccessful. Zuccotti was the next closest open space. I've heard both that it was a target of opportunity and that it had been previously scoped out. I'm not sure that matters either way. What does matter is that it is only 2 blocks from Wall Street. The physical geography of lower Manhattan is also significant. Unlike the District of Columbia with its wide boulevards, the narrow streets of lower Manhattan make it especially effective for civil disobedience by relatively small numbers. There might be somewhat larger public spaces relatively nearby such as Foley Square or City Hall Park, but another important aspect of Zuccotti Square is its peculiar public/private status. So far we have not been able to beat curfew issues in completely public spaces. The cops have faced us down in Washington Square, for example, though I do think that 24/7 assembly in public spaces is probably a First Amendement issue and may hit the Court on that basis. But regardless of how the Court may rule on such an issue, I personally believe that it can be won in the streets nonviolently with sufficent people. After all, we did face down the cops once at Zuccotti with the help of organized labor and if we get enough people together I think perhaps we may be able to hold a genuinely public space.
I see your point, but non-New-Yorkers wouldn't know that Zucotti is near Wall St... Agreed that the layout is important. I've only been to NYC once, yet I could see real opportunities for gridlock like what worked in Argentina. Still if this is going to take that turn, people do need to gear up. Helmets, American flags, goggles, etc. If the middle class in the suburbs is going to back Occupy, it won't want to see any more photos like the bloody head kid from Philly...
Visitors figure out pretty quickly how close Zuccotti is to Wall Street. When I was there on 9/17 I walked all the way to City Hall Park for a subway, not realizing that the Wall St station was barely two block back. Personally, so long as the movement itself remains as nonviolent as possible (ultimately there is no controlling some elements) I'm not sure exactly how suburbanites might react to the sight of bloodied activists. Is that more likely to turn them off or infuriate them to the point where they want to join in? I don't know and I think it can vary on a case by case basis. Take the big arrest at the Brooklyn Bridge for example. My first take was it was an adventurist move on the part of the Direct Action Working Group that got a lot of innocent people in trouble. But it turned out I was wrong, the movement got lucky and got a big boost out of the whole event, but it might not have turned out that way. One never knows, as Fats Waller used to say.
I think spending what you need to spend locally might be the best tactic here. While I agree with what you want to happen, I think calling people cattle might not be the best idea.
The Black Friday consumers are complacent people with something to lose and no appetite for risk. They do not realize that everything is now at risk, and that a New World Order of globalist corporatism (worldwide fascism) has begun. They think they are safe.
And please understand that Obama is with them not the 99%. OWS supporters need to stop thinking he is on their side. He was a dream who turned out to be a phony. Not one word from him about the police brutality. He was in the country when it started and he could communicate his disgust from another country if he wanted too. Can't wait to see his spin on why he didn't condemn it, if he mentions it at all.
Obama was selected by Bilderberg and anointed at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a lieutenant of a mafia don named Rockefeller.
Ah, Bilderberg, playground for the Clintons and the likes of them, Reps and Dems alike. I can see that.
I just posted a link like this on reddit about 15 min. ago! Let's hope it takes root. But then I thought is spending locally on that day a good idea? Don't the bean counters add that amount as well to determine whether Black Friday was successful or not?
This is true. I think picking another day might be a good idea. I never shop on Black Friday anyway. Too many people and I'm with my family.
Yes, Black Friday needs to be targeted. It would hit big corporate interests right were they would feel it.
In fact the whole holiday shopping season should be targeted. It is time to take back America!!
I think the term "Black Friday" is insensitive to African-Americans.
It should either be renamed African-Amercan Friday, or maybe Walmart-Centric-American Friday, or something. No?
When companies are making money they are in the black, as in profits used to be written down in black ink and losses were written in red ink. The term has nothing to do with race.
Listen if we called it Red Friday it would be insensitive to Communists.
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3 Weeks to shake the sheep as they blow all their money and literally trample each other for cheap shit.
Doesn't matter to me. I don't shop with the rest of those fools. I wait and pay a little more and shop like a human being. It's worth it and wtf I have the,money.
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