Forum Post: Possible evolution for the revolution? :)
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 15, 2011, 5:15 p.m. EST by KiwiGal
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Bring up at the GA, and/or form a working party to develop the following strategy: Make the occupation a mobile one. Every few days, the GA agree on a new public space to occupy, and then the entire encampment moves location in the space of a few hours. The pseudo random nature of the occupation's choice of location makes it harder for the authorities to resist it. Just a thought, but one that we should seriously start considering.
Could the protestors form 4 hour shifts to walk the sidewalks around the park carrying signs? Are there laws prohibiting people from walking on the sidewalk in an orderly fashion all night long? The visual of moving lines of peaceful protest signs all night long would be impressive. Protestors could get some quality sleep each night without losing the momentum of the movement. Pass it on.
Excellent idea. Be sure to decide the next encampment location at the very last minute so that no mole within the group can alert the authorities where you are going. This strategy has historical precedent. General Stonewall Jackson used it in the Civil War as he led his troops up and down the Appalachian Mountains. He never told anyone where the troops were going, not even his right hand men. He kept it in his head only. When it was time, he told them to break camp and follow him on a march. No one knew where they were going. They would appear suddenly at their next target, taking the enemy totally by surprise. The enemy could never guess his moves. When Stonewall Jackson was killed, Robert E. Lee said he lost his best man. The loss of that general likely cost the south the whole war.
Arwin, your option is a good choice for a next step. This starts a mobile peaceful army. One can still use military tactics in a peaceful way. Another choice since we are all brainstorming at this point is to get all the people from every other location in the US and occupy both Washington DC and New York City. These two crowds should be so large that removal would be impossible. Just think if 2 million people occupied Washington DC and New York, than removal would be very hard if not impossible. This is a game of numbers so see if you can amass 2 million for each city. Just a thought.
Exactly. Now because one of the strengths IMHO of OWS is the use of grassroots democracy, I'm not personally suggesting that you have one person decide for the entire encampment, but how about this suggestion: have 2 or 3 small teams ready to set up key encampment facilities (such as media center/kitchen/etc) at 3 separate locations. At the evening GA, the group (having already packed up ready to move) decides which location is going to be used, and then immediately everyone from that location moves to the new one while the set up crew moves in to lay the encampment foundations. If you have the right systems in place, I believe you could have your entire encampment ready and moved in under 2 hours (depending on distance to the new location of course...). See how quickly the riot police can respond... Again and again and again...
I'm not suggesting that you will be able to completely avoid authorities, but I actually don't think that that should be the focus TBH. It is about evolving the movement so that it's more resilient to attempts to completely wipe it out.
Sure, there may be police waiting for you when you arrive at your new location, but part of having a group sussing out how to make this new way of protesting work is to develop plans on how to handle just that sort of eventuality.
A mobile center would make other protest strategies more effective, such as your idea... as well as being another way to get debate happening in the wider community - by actually moving the heart of OWS into other areas of the community. You are far less likely to wear out your welcome too - after all, community goodwill is like gold for a grassroots movement. And the mobile nature of the encampment would be harder to breakup on grounds of health issues - no prolonged occupation in one area lessens perceived build up of rubbish/etc.
I think the key here is that the OWS needs to keep building momentum at a basic community level, needs to keep bringing the discussion back to core issues such as income inequality/etc, and lessen the focus on civil disobedience, and health and safety compliance issues.
Hi KiwiGal, Excellent. Adapt. Best Regards, Nevada
Don't forget to incorporate my idea into your idea also. http://occupywallst.org/forum/flash-protesting-an-idea-to-consider/
And what is your plan of action if the authorities are there waiting for you. Run Baby Run???