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Forum Post: OWS Does have leaders

Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 16, 2011, 10:36 a.m. EST by dalton (111)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

It's called the Spokes Council. Read about it.

http://www.nycga.net/spokes-council/

4 Comments

4 Comments


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[-] 1 points by Biker (-5) 13 years ago

Sure they do have.The real leasers of this movement are in jail now.

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[-] 0 points by fredastaire (203) 13 years ago

now that you have called them out, they will try and run you off the site. don't let them. the socialists are trying to hijack this forum.

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[-] 0 points by MBJ (96) 13 years ago

"Spokes have no authority and are not decision-makers." - from the link you posted.

That's not leadership.

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[-] 0 points by Thrasymaque (-2138) 13 years ago

There are ways to control the consensus decisions made at a general assembly. For example, one can hold assemblies when he knows only those who support his ideas can show up. If done correctly, this gives the assumption that democracy is pure when it really isn't.

Here is a nice article on various strategies that can be used to control a certain ideology within a system using direct democracy: http://commonstruggle.org/node/2570

Here is a short excerpt from the link above:

One role as anarchists we can play is to be conscious of the informal leaders that develop and encourage them to become more anti-authoritarian than managers of struggle. There is great possibility that informal leaders could end up taking over the movements media outlets or over the general assemblies, in fact this has already happened in some places. We should not be afraid to hold people accountable for their actions and work with them to better themselves, and if not challenge their power.

Just like we should guard against the fetishization of individuals, we should make sure to guard against the fetishization of any one form of organizing. It is important in order to keep the autonomous and popular character of the movement. We help to do this by proposing that we have a diversity of assemblies instead of just one centralized general assembly. Anyone who has been to a meeting of more than 25 people know that it is impossible to really be heard. As anarchists decentralizing the assemblies is an obvious tactic to push for.

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