Forum Post: Strategies and Expectations
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 30, 2011, 1:42 p.m. EST by struggleforfreedom80
(6584)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
In my opinion the Occupy Movement has done everything right by so far only using non-violent protest and organizing. We have to remember that the Occupy Movement which is increasing in size in the US, but also around the world, is in a growing phase right now. We have to think in long term perspective. Big changes arn´t going to come over night, we´re not going to get total freedom and democracy in a few weeks, this is going to be a long hard struggle. This is the beginning of something huge! Now we´re in a time where we have to GROW: and we grow by doing exactly what we´re doing right now: protesting, making ourselves heard, organize, convince, getting more people to join, enlighten etc. We should also start thinking about organizing sit-down strikes and local general strikes in different areas where the movement has a lot of community support. Then when the Occupy Movement has become a dominant force in different communities and nationwide we can start making big changes thru huge general strikes, worker´s takeover of workplaces and communities, and in general establishing a more democratic, solidaric, just society.
During this struggle for a free democratic society we have to expect lots of opposition from the elites and their supporters and servants. Not only do we have to expect and prepare ourselves for media-propaganda, we also have to expect more of what we´ve seen lately: police brutality. Its a natural reaction of the finacial elite who are getting more and more scared of the Occupy movement. The police is a tool of the business-run state to try to crush the ones who want to take back from the wealthy what has been stolen thru bailouts, exploitation and speculation at the stock exchange. The elites are starting to feel threatened, they want to keep all that they have stolen, so naturally they want to stop Occupy movements with police force. These tendencies are however an indcation that we´re on the right track: The elites are getting scared, and react by increasing their effort in trying to crush us.
The finacial elite will however fail. Police brutality is counter-productive, it just leads to more support and sympathy for the Occupy Movement among the general population. Besides, as the system we have today affects more and more people, and naturally evolves in an unsutainable way, - like it always has – it will eventually sooner or later collapse in on itself. Increasing exploitation, increasing gap between rich and poor, the huge increasing concentration of private wealth and power, the destruction of the environment, this cannot continue much longer. The world and its inhabitants desperately need a new and better society, and this is the beginning of the end. We´ve had it! We want real change, and we must take action ourselves. The Occupy Movement will grow for each day, and the more we grow the more the non-democratic finacial elite will understand that their time of controlling our lives and destinies is over . The people will privail, because we are more powerful than private tyranny and its servants.
Videos to watch while taking a break from activism:
Noam Chomsky on Corporations being private tyrannies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqlTyAMVDUk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpd3grtjkK8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPUvQZ3rcQ
Noam Chomsky on today´s society and how to make changes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HvGy2gY0eM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN2Q6sdh6Bg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27gfHU6G-hI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cdSoMbwTA4
Noam Chomsky on where we go from here (at #Occupy Boston):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHse0oaddr8
(Entire #Occupy Boston lecture + Q&A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZbNT62aprM&feature=related )
Alternatives to capitalism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJnX96id-xI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDHBvQRyOr0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YftlB3AxBws
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu8J_UKKa-c
In debth:
Chomsky on today´s state-capitalist society, April 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iebK7VVDayY
Chomsky on Libertarian Socialism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOTBGrrDeXg
All my OWS forum posts:
The ”Free Ride” Society
http://occupywallst.org/forum/the-free-ride-society/
Replace Capitalism with Democracy
http://occupywallst.org/forum/replace-capitalism-with-democracy/
Strategies and Expectations
http://occupywallst.org/forum/strategies-and-expectations/
The Society We Should Strive For
http://occupywallst.org/forum/the-society-we-should-strive-for/
Thanks for your interesting and helpful post. I think democracy is basically a desire--to be yourself, to survive, grow. To have autonomy and dignity. If ows at heart is a pro-democracy movement in every sense, tactics should be ones that make it possible for the most vulnerable to participate fully. So how can tactics be more benign when you are challenging power that is innately, systemically predatory.
I believe it's efficient organising strike, boycotts, referendum, withdrawals from banks, etc. It's better to aim at one specific target at one time, to concentrate the mobilisation. OWS' power is its power to mobilise. I've been thinking of hijacking a system to make a referendum, since the current major task of politicians & media is NOT to allow people to speak. See how the EU is threatening the Greek government on its referendum proposal.
This movement is failing because it is a PR shit-show rather than a movement. Without the media attention there is nothing happening here. No direct political pressure is being applied. Just several complaints and vague notions about equality and anti-capitalism (which, by the way 95% of the country is totally against)...
Means are good, so far. We need to keep it peaceful. Ends are not good.
But DC is listening is to the right stuff. http://tomudall.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=968
You can't formulate a strategy without an objective. And you can't formulate tactics without a strategy.
This movement is failing because it's going about all three things backwards. Literally backwards, in reverse. They picked a tactic first (Tahrir Square) before they picked a strategy or objectives.
The first step toward success is to focus on a goal. A corollary to that principle that Occupy Wall Street demonstrates is that the first step toward failure is to avoid focusing on a goal.
Hi Struggle, Excellent. Best Regards, Nevada
thanks. Solidarity an Greetings from Norway :)
Good videos
Let Chomsky enrich our minds :)
Now, what the videos under "Alternatives to Capitalism" are advocating is what`s called "Libertarian Socialism" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism ). As we all now the word "socialism" has gotten a bad rep because of propaganda and misuse (even though it originally ment that workers should be in control of the workplaces), but alternatively these kinds of ideas can also be called "libertarian left". But what is the core of the libertarian left? The core is democracy - democratic workplaces, communities and so on; more direct democracy, more particiaptory democracy. Now, by organizing society in this fasion it will become more egalitarian and many hierarcichal structures will therfore vanish. By looking at statements from this movement and how the movement is structured, it seems to me that the Occupy Movement share a lot of the values of the libertarian left. My guess is that a vast majority of the occupy movement that has spread all over the world is libertarian left, or at least libertarian left-leaning. I just mentioned that the core of libertarian socialism, or the libertarian left, if you will, is democracy - democratic workplaces, communities and so on; more direct democracy, more particiaptory democracy, and that is exactly what you should advocate and strive for. Hope you all agree.
I do not.
Most succinctly, "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner".
Democracy is tyranny by the majority (or plurality).
Please think more deeply.
those who fear democracy have something to hide,. usually their greed.
if you do not need to take more than your neighbors,. you have nothing to fear.
"Democracy is tyranny by the majority"
Tyranny is a system that lacks democracy, like capitalism
Capitalism is the tyranny of the minority (the finacial elite)
Capitalism is private tyranny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqlTyAMVDUk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpd3grtjkK8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPUvQZ3rcQ
I beg to differ, do we not have democracy in the state we live in today?
http://occupywallst.org/forum/replace-capitalism-with-democracy/
no explanation...
Really?? Read it again please. It´s pretty hard to miss..
ok, fine, no good explanation. especially hard to explain this since capitalism is an economic system and democracy is a political system...
"no good explanation"
How so?
"capitalism is an economic system and democracy is a political system..."
And what if we had a democratic economy? Which category would that fall into...?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YftlB3AxBws
That's communism, this "democratic economy" he speaks of is just a clever disguise. and communism is bad because it leads to the loss of all rights, as you own nothing. also it has failed on multiple occasions.
What you call it is really irrelevant. I prefer to call what he describes libertarian socialism or anarcho-syndicalism. The "C-word" has been so perverted and misused that it´s hard to use. Origianlly it ment a classless stateless society. Now many associate it with leninism and stalinism, which are horrible systems. Libertarian Socialism fully rejects any type of leninist approach on the way to a free society. In anarcho syndicalism you have much more rights, fex the rigt to control your own work http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w4ThqMEpUQ and the right to participate in the things youre part of and that affects you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDHBvQRyOr0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu8J_UKKa-c
Lib. Soc. just means more democracy - expanding it to the economic institutions: democratic communitites and workplaces. If you like democracy you should favor libertarian socialism
Have you been doing any deep thinking? Care to share with the class?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLUpGGmku8g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SMrnx6nkRw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wg1bH6-1YY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgKS4i-u0OM
links with no explanation = no click
EXCELLENT! Very wise words, worthy of applause.
I completely agree that "the #Occupy Movement has done everything right by so far only using non-violent protest and organizing."
And that "The #Occupy Movement will grow for each day, and the more we grow the more the non-democratic finacial elite will understand that their time of controlling our lives and destinies is over."
This is good, clear thinking, some of the best I've read on this site. Thank you for posting !
Thanks for those kind words. Hope youll watch all the links too:)