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An Analysis Of The OccupyWallStreet (OWS) Movement in USA
international
| anti-capitalism
| opinion/analysis
Saturday November 05, 2011 22:59
by John Throne and Richard Mellor. - facts for working people
loughfinn at aol dot
com
Oakland general strike How the movement can be expanded and taken forward
I was at an Oakland City Council meeting last night that was called to discuss the ongoing Occupy Oakland encampment and activities. A resolution from one of the liberal council members aimed to reaffirm the council’s support for the OWS movement. Before the vote (I left before it was taken) the city gave a detailed account of what it considers all the negative aspects of the Occupy Oakland encampment. The unsanitary conditions are a danger to the community the council believes. There have been fights, a reporter bitten by a dog and even worse, condoms and needles were found after the cops cleared the group out last week. I am sure if you threw 100 families from their homes in the hills and went through their belongings you’d fine some good quality dope, no shortage of condoms and probably plenty of other useful sexual novelties. The council is also concerned about public health with food being served to the poor and the homeless. Barbecue pits and fires for cooking have been seen. Perhaps the most astonishing piece of information was being told that there was trash in or around the intersection of 14th and Broadway. The hypocrisy of this fools no one. All the conditions the council describes here exist throughout the poor and working class districts of Oakland and the city does nothing about it. In fact, these conditions are a product of the city council’s policies as representatives of the corporations. I have been involved in tenant struggles against some of Oakland’s worst landlord. One of them, who owned at the time 200 units in the city, was one of the worst slumlords in town and I visited every one of his units at one point. I have seen apartments and rooms that we wouldn’t put pigs in never mind human beings. There were leaky roofs, rats, roaches, mold, electrical hazards; you name it. Many tenants are single mothers with children some were immigrants or undocumented immigrants who were vulnerable and easy prey for landlords wanting sexual favors. I remember we had to occupy former Oakland mayor Jerry Brown’s office in order to get him to even talk to tenants. We occupied the DA’s office demanding they indict one slumlord but they never did. They have no time throwing youth and numbers of the young black men in the city in jail or indicting them though. The landlords have influence in the city government. At the council meeting last night many people spoke of the powerful movement and gathering the day before. It’s important to recognize that we broke the law too. We occupied the city center, shut down banks etc. But this was an action by a diverse cross section of the US working class and our families; it was the 99%. We make it clear that the state and its media's condemnation of vandalism that occurred after the General Strike and action has no credibility with us. The Oakland city Council and mayor has attacked workers’ living standards and pensions and has cut vital services on behalf of Wall Street and the corporations. Taking someone’s job away is violence, throwing someone from their home is violence. Closing public schools and cutting vital social services is violence. So while we give the state’s condemnation of violence and vandalism no credibility we do believe adventurist and individual vandalism by a tiny minority does serious damage to this movement. The previous night’s vandalism has been seized upon by the media and city council and has caused some division within Occupy Oakland. Obviously there are provocateurs but it is a mistake to pretend there is not a small element on our side that believes smashing a store window is a revolutionary act. Sure a provocateur can throw the first brick but if there was no grouping that had that as a strategy; it would not degenerate in to what it does. In order for us to build and strengthen the OWS movement, in other words, for it to be successful, we have to draw in the thousands of people that were at the strike the day before and the actions of those whose policy it is to smash up stuff or wage a personal war against the police for their own gratification does not make this easy to say the least. This adventurism does not draw the workers and our families we saw the day before in to the movement it drives them away. This does not mean we don't defend ourselves against police attacks when we need to. For the OWS to grow in to a powerful anti-capitalist mass movement that can challenge the 1% and transform the way we live it must link with the parents and teachers and students who are opposing the school closures and who would support a mass occupation of those schools and running them ourselves. The movement must draw in those who will support occupying the libraries that are scheduled for closing which would be a pole of attraction. We should also put to the movement that we should occupy foreclosed homes with those who have been thrown out or with the homeless if the original owner is not present willing or able. We can support tenants and help them stay in their apartments without paying rent until serious health and safety and other issues are remedied. We can have mass convergences on homes of tenants and of their landlords if conditions are not met. This is what will work. Imagine how difficult it would be for the police to deal with homes throughout the area being occupied as to simply camping out in the downtown. They didn’t stop the occupation of the intersections and shutting down of the banks on Thursday because it was too dangerous to do so, it would have emboldened the movement and strengthened it had they done so and the movement didn’t give them an excuse. This is what will draw the thousands, indeed millions of workers and families in to the movement and in to the struggle against capital and the 1% not acts of vandalism masked as revolutionary activity. At some point, the movement will become isolated if the movement was to pursue such activity. It is likely as the election nears that the pressure will come down to get the other Wall Street party elected. This will come from the reformist elements and the Labor hierarchy who will throw their support behind Obama. It is a utopian idea to claim that a movement is leaderless. There are always leaders and it is more democratic to recognize and formalize a leadership it than to pretend it doesn’t exist. The GA would still govern and set the boundaries and limits on it but our opposition is organized and so should we be. Our opposition has clear goals and so should we. What we stand for concretely is another important organizing aspect of any movement. One of the reasons the rank and file don’t attend Union meetings is that their leaders support concessions. Union members her the same thing from their leaders that they hear from the boss, “We all have to sacrifice in hard times.” We demand of our society a few simple things that include:
We don’t care what the bosses’ say is realistic or not. What is
realistic is what we need. What is not realistic is one person earning $10
billion a year and human beings being unable to receive medical care or
sleeping in doorways, many of them mentally impaired and veterans of wars.
The money is there, the 1% has it and their political representatives
spend our money on endless wars and empire building. We fight them through
direct action mass defiance campaigns perhaps through 99% clubs we can
organize in our communities and workplaces. Whatever we call this process
we have to broaden the movement and as campaigns grow we can run 99%
candidates for political office, candidates rooted in the campaigns and
the movement that, when elected, can use the office in order to further
the interests of such a campaign and the transformation of society form
one that serves the interests of the 1% to the interests of the 99%
majority that presently has no real voice in the running of society.
I’ll close this entry with a few words from the declaration of
independence that seem fair enough to me that we have an “unalienable”
right to “life liberty and the pursuit
of happiness”, and, “That
whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is
the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
safety and happiness.” Pretty basic stuff. |
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9 | * http://www.opednews.com/Diary/Opportunity-Knocks-by-William-Finnerty-110812-874.html * | 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
10 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/PresidentialHopefuls/12August2011/Email.htm | 10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
11 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/BritishMonarchy/12August2011/Email.htm | 11 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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13 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/ChristopherHarding/13August2011/Email.htm | 13 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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15 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/MayoNews/13August2011/Email.htm | 15 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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September 15th 2011 Updates: "Opportunity Knocks?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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75 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/Dail31TDs/Group1of2/18September2011/Email.htm | 75 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
September 19th 2011 Updates: "Opportunity Knocks?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
76 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/24thSeanadMembers/19September2011/Email.htm | 76 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
September 20th 2011 Updates: "Opportunity Knocks?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
77 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/Dail31TDs/Group2of2/20September2011/Email.htm | 77 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
September 21st 2011 Updates: "Opportunity Knocks?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
78 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/MEPs/21September2011/Email.htm | 78 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
September 22nd 2011 Updates: "Opportunity Knocks?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
79 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/MayoNews/22September2011/Email.htm | 79 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
September 23rd 2011 Updates: "Opportunity Knocks?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
80 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/BritishMonarchy/23September2011/Email.htm | 80 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
September 23rd 2011 Updates: "Opportunity Knocks?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
81 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/CelticParty/23September2011/Email.htm | 81 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
September 24th 2011 Updates: "Opportunity Knocks?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
82 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/PresidentialHopefuls/24September2011/Email.htm | 82 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
September 25th 2011 Updates: "Opportunity Knocks?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
83 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/IrishLegalProfessions/25September2011/Email.htm | 83 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
September 26th 2011 Updates: "Opportunity Knocks?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
84 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/23rdSeanadMembers/26September2011/Email.htm | 84 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
September 29th 2011 Updates: "Opportunity Knocks?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
85 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/GalwayCountyCouncillors/29September2011/Email.htm | 85 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
September 29th 2011 Updates: "Opportunity Knocks?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Patrick
Mahassen of Transparency International (Global Coalition Against Corruption) |
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86 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/SocialProtectionMinisterJoanBurtonTD/29September2011/Email.htm | 86 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Patrick Mahassen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 1st 2011 Updates: "Opportunity Knocks?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
87 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/CelticParty/1October2011/Email.htm | 87 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 2nd 2011 Updates: "Opportunity Knocks?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
88 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/IrishLegalProfessions/2October2011/Email.htm | 88 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Registered Letter to Social Welfare Inspector Martin Mc Hugo dated October 3rd 2011 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
89 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/MartinMcHugo/3October2011/Email.htm | 89 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 4th 2011 Updates: "Opportunity Knocks?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
90 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/PresidentialHopefuls/4October2011/Email.htm | 90 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 6th 2011 Updates: "Opportunity Knocks?" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
91 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/PresidentialHopefuls/6October2011/Email.htm | 91 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 7th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Letter requested from you by Martin Mc Hugo (Social Welfare Inspector)" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
92 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/NationalAdvocacyService/7October2011/Email.htm | 92 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 8th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Letter requested from you by Martin Mc Hugo (Social Welfare Inspector)" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
93 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/CelticParty/8October2011/Email.htm | 93 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 9th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Letter requested from you by Martin Mc Hugo (Social Welfare Inspector)" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
94 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/24thSeanadMembers/9October2011/Email.htm | 94 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 10th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Letter requested from you by Martin Mc Hugo (Social Welfare Inspector)" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
95 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/Dail31TDs/Group1of2/10October2011/Email.htm | 95 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 10th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Letter requested from you by Martin Mc Hugo (Social Welfare Inspector)" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
96 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/Dail31TDs/Group2of2/10October2011/Email.htm | 96 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 12th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Fw: Missing e-mails" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
97 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/CelticParty/12October2011/Email.htm | 97 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 12th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Fw: Missing e-mails" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
98 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/DrMiriamOCallaghan/12October2011/Email.htm | 98 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 13th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"The Government Impunity Problem" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
99 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/NationalAdvocacyService/13October2011/Email.htm | 99 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 14th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Fw: The Government Impunity Problem" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
100 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/CelticParty/14October2011/Email.htm | 100 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 18th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"True but ..." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
101 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/CelticParty/18October2011/Email.htm | 101 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 20th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"... the general problem is much, much bigger, ..." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
102 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/PresidentialHopefuls/20October2011/Email.htm | 102 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 22nd 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Text of registered letter to Denise McMackin (Social Welfare Deciding Officer)" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
103 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/NationalAdvocacyService/22October2011/Email.htm | 103 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 22nd 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Fw: Text of registered letter to Denise McMackin (Social Welfare Deciding Officer)" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
104 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/CelticParty/22October2011/Email.htm | 104 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 23rd 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Fw: Text of registered letter to Denise McMackin (Social Welfare Deciding Officer)" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
105 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/PresidentialHopefuls/23October2011/Email.htm | 105 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 24th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Fw: Text of registered letter to Denise McMackin (Social Welfare Deciding Officer)" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
106 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/Dail31TDs/Group1of2/24October2011/Email.htm | 106 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 25th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Fw: Text of registered letter to Denise McMackin (Social Welfare Deciding Officer)" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
107 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/24thSeanadMembers/25October2011/Email.htm | 107 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 26th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Fw: Text of registered letter to Denise McMackin (Social Welfare Deciding Officer)" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
108 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/Dail31TDs/Group2of2/26October2011/Email.htm | 108 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 27th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"A badly missed opportunity" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
109 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/CelticParty/27October2011/Email.htm | 109 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 27th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"A badly missed opportunity" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
110 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/SocialProtectionMinisterJoanBurtonTD/27October2011/Email.htm | 110 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 27th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"A badly missed opportunity" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
111 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/MEPs/27October2011/Email.htm | 111 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 27th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"A badly missed opportunity" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
112 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/PresidentialHopefuls/27October2011/Email.htm | 112 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
113 | * http://www.opednews.com/Diary/A-Badly-Missed-Opportunity-by-William-Finnerty-111027-972.html * | 113 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 31st 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Article 6.1 of Bunreacht na hEireann | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
114 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/President-elect_Michael_D_Higgins/31October2011/Email.htm | 114 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 31st 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fw: Article 6.1 of Bunreacht na hEireann | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
115 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/CelticParty/31October2011/Email.htm | 115 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 1st 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fw: Article 6.1 of Bunreacht na hEireann | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
116 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/24thSeanadMembers/1November2011/Email.htm | 116 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 1st 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fw: Article 6.1 of Bunreacht na hEireann | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
117 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/Dail31TDs/Group1of2/1November2011/Email.htm | 117 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 2nd 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Registered letter to Chief Appeals Officer (copied to President-elect Michael D Higgins) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
118 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/PensionAppealsOfficer/2November2011/RegisteredLetter.htm | 118 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 5th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
119 | * http://www.opednews.com/Diary/The-Global-Threat-For-Huma-by-William-Finnerty-111105-357.html * | 119 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 5th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Global Threat For Humanity Posed By Unconstitutional Legislation And Activities | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
120 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/President-elect_Michael_D_Higgins/5November2011/Email.htm | 120 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 6th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Global Threat For Humanity Posed By Unconstitutional Legislation And Activities | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
121 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/GalwayCountyCouncillors/6November2011/Email.htm | 121 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 7th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Global Threat For Humanity Posed By Unconstitutional Legislation And Activities | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
122 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/24thSeanadMembers/7November2011/Email.htm | 122 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 8th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Global Threat For Humanity Posed By Unconstitutional Legislation And Activities | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
123 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/MEPs/8November2011/Email.htm | 123 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 9th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Global Threat For Humanity Posed By Unconstitutional Legislation And Activities | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
124 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/BritishMonarchy/9November2011/Email.htm | 124 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 9th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Telling the Truth is on Trial" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
125 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/CelticParty/9November2011/Email.htm | 125 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 10th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Global Threat For Humanity Posed By Unconstitutional Legislation And Activities | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
126 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/MayoNews/10November2011/Email.htm | 126 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 11th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Global Threat For Humanity Posed By Unconstitutional Legislation And Activities | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
127 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/IrishLegalProfessions/11November2011/Email.htm | 127 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 12th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Global Threat For Humanity Posed By Unconstitutional Legislation And Activities | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
128 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/DrMiriamOCallaghan/12November2011/Email.htm | 128 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 13th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Global Threat For Humanity Posed By Unconstitutional Legislation And Activities | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
129 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/ChiefJusticeSusanDenham/13November2011/Email.htm | 129 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 14th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"War Clouds Form Over Iran" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
130 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/Dail31TDs/Group1of2/14November2011/Email.htm | 130 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 14th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"War Clouds Form Over Iran" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
131 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/Dail31TDs/Group2of2/14November2011/Email.htm | 131 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 14th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"War Clouds Form Over Iran" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
132 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/24thSeanadMembers/14November2011/Email.htm | 132 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 15th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"War Clouds Form Over Iran" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
133 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/MEPs/15November2011/Email.htm | 133 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
November 15th 2011: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
One way the "Occupy Wall Street" movement might be expanded ... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
134 | http://www.humanrightsireland.com/ChiefJusticeSusanDenham/15November2011/Email.htm | 134 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
... more to follow ... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Google >>> Translations <<< Google | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
* Items 9, 113, and 119 on the above list are "Open News Diary Entries" * | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Jump To Comment: 12345678Thoughts on the Occupy movement and the struggle for hegemony with specific reference to Occupy Brisbane
Earlier this year I addressed a conference of the Socialist Alliance and I congratulated myself with a scandalous lack of modesty for successfully predicting the Arab Spring in the previous year’s conference. I then predicted that the firestorm from the Middle East would spread to the Western World and that I would turn up again at the annual conference and say“I told you so!”
In predicting the Arab Spring I had been of course recycling Emmanuel Wallerstein’s prediction that the Middle East would rise up because of American policy. My forecast about the West though was just a desperate guess and it has turned out to be a seemingly inspired one because of the Occupy movement which is now two months old, a movement which neither I nor anyone else could have foreseen.
There are important questions to ask of the Occupy movement especially in its American form. I tend to agree with those who say that there has never been anything like it before. It may be that the movement will lead to a Great Refusal, when everyone takes to the streets and demands change. The model here is the Egyptian uprising when after Mubarak’s final speech millions walked towards the army’s guns demanding change.
I am not at all sure here of my analysis, but I would hazard a guess that what we are witnessing is the re-birth of the American Left brought about in part at least by the immiseration of the middle class. If that is so and an American Left enters the arena, then almost everything is possible. We could be in business, comrades. The long lonely bitter years of mockery and isolation could be over.
The origins of the Occupy movement are well known. They spring from the Canadian group Adbusters and ended up in Zuchotti Park because they could not get nearer to Wall Street. They have evolved several unique features- GAs with hand gestures, an insistence on being leaderless and on not making demands, and a radical egalitarianism that springs from a strong commitment to prefiguring the kind of society they want. All this is summed up in two great agitational slogans – This is what democracy looks like and We are the 99%.
They have also stormed heaven. The movement has turned into a franchise which has spread across the States and the entire world and even come to humble little Brisbane. In so doing it has mobilised more members of the working class than the entire Leninist Left have been able to do in the last 30 years or so culminating in the shutting down of the mighty port of Oakland.
There has been much food for thought here for Marxist leftists like myself. I have been saying for years that the revolution would turn up somewhere unexpected like a mole and we would all say with Marx “Well grubbed old mole!” But I had begun not to believe that I would be around to see it. But I am and I welcome the Old Mole wholeheartedly, except I am muttering under my breath “What took you so long?”
I am also struck, I must admit, that the Old Mole of Revolution looks so different in some ways from what I expected it might be like. It is the struggle to think through the differences that this paper undertakes. I will do so by taking as my point of departure that all movements must struggle for hegemony. I then divide the endeavour for hegemony into the attempt to seize three components or high grounds – the moral, the aesthetic and intellectual. The corollary of this approach is that no movement can achieve hegemony which does not hold the moral, aesthetic and intellectual high grounds.
It is my belief that what we are seeing especially in Brisbane a movement which is primarily moral in impetus. That explains the talk of peace, love and respect and the attacks on being political and being anti-capitalist. Now for Marxists love etc is very uncomfortable terrain. There is a strong tradition which denounces such tendencies as Utopian and holds that there is no moral component within the Marxist corpus. The result is that the Leninist tradition has attracted people whose behaviour is, to be frank, quite manipulative and even brutish at times.
I won’t mention names here, but we all of us have shuddered with fear at the thought of one particular Super Trot with state power. I am convinced he would slaughter us all. Every time I see him I am reminded of Winston Churchill’s remark about Sir Stafford Cripps – “there but for the grace of God goes God”.
Now I want to say that the Occupy movement’s success has shown quite dramatically that we Marxists have been very wrong to neglect the moral high ground and to scorn the pre-figurational tendency. I also want to suggest that the success of the Occupy movement in mobilising workers has been due in no small part to the fact that they have linked up with the fundamental decency of working people. Where we have frightened and repulsed they have reassured and attracted.
Let me now proceed briefly to the aesthetic high ground. If Marxists are uncomfortable about the moral high ground, then they are even more averse to matters aesthetic, despite Marx’s own interest in the area and the work of many fine Marxist aestheticians. The great Irish revolutionary, James Connolly, once said ‘Beware of the movement that sings”. However if the singing I heard on Saturday is anything to go by the bourgeoisie have little to fear. Nevertheless the occupy movement has striven to attain the aesthetic high ground through photography, rap and imaginative and creative slogans and placards. Some of my favourites are Jump you fuckers; I’m so angry I made a sign; I already regret choosing to carry a sign around all day; I hate drum circles but I hate corporate greed more.
We come now to the third component – the intellectual high ground. This is where we Marxists come into our own. I have spent a life time working within the Marxist research program and I have never doubted its intellectual strength. It is quite simply unparalleled in its capacity to analyse capitalism. In the period we are living through that of the Great Recession even the enemy have acknowledged the Marxist capacity to analyse crises.
But we have also been through an intense thirty year period where Marxism was hounded out of the academy by post-structuralists, the followers of Foucault, Derrida and Deleuze etc. I regard these as neo-Nietzscheans and I follow Lukacs in assigning them to the irrational. The triumph of post structuralism within the academy has meant that a whole generation of students has heard nothing of Marx except that he is somehow totalitarian. The collapse of Stalinist parties has also meant that a whole generation of workers has no idea at all of what a Marxist approach might look like.
It is then on this ground zero where we Marxists have become an absence that the irrational has flourished and feels able to reach for the intellectual high ground. Such is the extent of our contempt for the irrational, that we have not noticed when they have striven for the intellectual high ground. We have felt a mixture of pity or disdain, depending on how nice we are, when someone has got up to talk of Bohemia Grove or the New World Order or the Illuminati or the Zeitgheist. I myself have even made a joke “Who you going to call? The zeitgheisters!” However most of my audience were too young to get the classical reference.
The irrational camp peddles conspiracy theories. They thrive on the low level paranoia that most of us have experienced at one time or another. It is also true that the ruling class scheme and plot against us. But there is no such thing as Bohemia Grove and I am sure one of the world’s greatest capitalist bastards Rupert Murdoch is not one of the Illuminati. We do not live in a world scripted by a Dan Brown.
I attacked the conspiracy peddlers on Saturday because of their actions in Musgrove Park. I am angry at their deep stupidity and arrogance when it comes to Indigenous Australians. Their leadeer’s tactic of calling for extra police patrols in a park which is special to Aboriginal people. Places those very people at physical risk.
The conspiracy mob poses as harmless, sort of loopy people who come from the moral high ground. Instead their actions are manipulative and fundamentally undemocratic. They do everything they can to subvert the GAs. Moreover their irrationalism would condemn the movement to isolation and eventual decay. It is though a matter of political judgement whether I was correct to attack them.
So how do I see our task as Marxists at the present time? I think we should participate fully in the struggle for the moral, aesthetic and intellectual high grounds. We should not make the mistake of prioritising one of these just because we know we are better at it. That means we approach this movement prepared to learn from it as much as to teach it. We could do well here to meditate on Marx’s third thesis on Feuerbach and this phrase in particular – “it is essential to educate the educator himself”.
There is a debate to be had here and it is around the question of Marxist politics. I have done the Leninist party-building thing and I know exactly for instance what the party builders – the Socialist Alternative are up to. They are not there to build the movement. They are there to pose as the most radical and they are there to recruit- full stop. And the joke is everyone else knows that too and hates them.
I am happily ensconced in the Socialist Alliance. I don’t want to get involved at all in the bitter debates and splits that have taken place within the DSP tendency. I regard the split as a tragedy and one that should be undone as soon as possible. If the Occupy movement were bigger and stronger here in Australia I would, to be frank, be arguing for us to dissolve ourselves into it.
That is not a likely outcome at present because of the great unevenness of consciousness that exists within the movement. We are also severely handicapped by not having a safe space where we could begin the architecture of consciousness. Our numbers were not big enough and such was our marginality that we could not initiate and win a fight to hold on to Post Office Square.
I will wrap up these thoughts here, but firstly I must acknowledge that I have not addressed the burning issue of the relationship of Anarchism to Marxism. This is being played out in the States with a debate around the tactics of the Black Block. There is great anger in Marxist circles at what they see as arrogant substitutionism by the Black Blockers. The peaceful Ghandian, Tolstoyan, Catholic worker wing of the Anarchist movement has also begun to weigh in about the strategic necessity of non-violence. I think the Black Blockers will lose that debate and eventually be forced out of the movement.
I won’t go on with this particular topic, because these thoughts address the Brisbane context and we are not faced with a Black Block or even a strong Anarchist tendency. Fate has given us the zeitgeisters. Frankly I doubt that this forum would have taken place if Occupy Brisbane did not claim to be part of the wider struggle.
However with regard to the debate on the Black Block, I will say that the huge demonstrations we had before the Iraq war failed totally, because they did not aim for a high enough level of radical non-violent action. The system simply absorbed and ignored what the protesters had to say.
Hopefully the occupy movement will provide us with another opportunity. In the mean time our task is to relate to the movement in Brisbane as best we can and to help them win the battle for hegemony by seizing the moral, aesthetic and intellectual high grounds. The decision, which of these high grounds to prioritise, has of course to be based on an analysis of the concrete conjuncture. I will only say that we Marxists should beware of our tendency to declare that the intellectual is the only high ground to struggle for.
Analysis Paralysis
and divisive infighting politics from the self important marxistsMeanwhile Occupy gets on with business.
With such a limited attention span how do you make it through the G.A.' s or
you one of those sucking on a can at the back of the scene?
Occupying a new set of prejudices while sitting on ya ass doesn't qualify you as an "occupier"
..there will always be "passengers" unfortunately
give me an analysis (any analysis) over the latest conspiracy theory...but I guess
it is panto season
You make a lot of assumptions don't you? Actually I don't drink at all. And I wish I had less of an attention span. That might have saved me because Unfortunately, I wasted half an hour of my life that I can never get back reading every bit of this crap. Also your oblique ad hominem insults. Im going back now to do something real instead of reading any more self important verbal masturbation. Good luck with that. Don't leave a mess!
Wow sexual analogies abound, "Occuipier" thinks any intelectual reflection by participants in the movement is "masturbatory" and Frank Miller thinks all Occupiers are "rapists".....see here http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/nov/14/frank-miller-occupy-movement-rant
The Occupy movement has faced repression in Brisbane, not experienced in Dublin and is worthy of reflection.
http://workersbushtelegraph.com.au/2011/11/05/%E2%80%98we-are-hope%E2%80%99/#comment-22554
What we see here is a dangerous hippy tendency that is anti-analysis, anti-reflection, anti-intellectual. It's worth reminding oneself that fascists have a penchant for direct action and a revulsion of the rational and debate.
Also worth reminding oneself, if you can't cope with analysis or can't muster reasoned rebuttal...why go to a thread with "analysis" in the title? You'll only find it upsetting!
feckin' marxists!
Just jealous because a movement which started off with just a bunch of people in tents with no specific agenda has garnered more support in a few months than marxists have ever done in all their years of self important theorising.
When challenged, all these marx brothers have to fall back on is supercilious ad hominem. So much for all that caring about the common man. When confronted with one their natural instinct seems to be to look down upon, ridicule and insult.
No wonder you have failed in such epic fashion to capture the imagination of the masses and have to resort to trying to hijack other grassroots movements to garner support.
To paraphrase Bill Hicks, "you seem to be at the wrong meeting (or on the wrong thread)"
This thread is entiltled "analysis", you seem to be looking for the "dickhead lazy cynical quips" thread....if there's not one out there, get of ya arse and start one.
Occupier's plagerising Martin Luther King by switching the words around from his "paralysis of analysis" is typical of his slovelnly aproach to this debate and movement.
Seeing any debate as "infighting" is also sad and childish
Occupier claims to have spent half an hour on the text "MarxBrothers" can't have done more than a poor skim read
"Just jealous because a movement which started off with just a bunch of people in tents with no specific agenda has garnered more support in a few months than marxists have ever done in all their years of self important theorising."
MacLennan's piece as a Marxist is self critical and has addressed this very point. Read the tet befor critiqing it.
"They have also stormed heaven. The movement has turned into a franchise which has spread across the States and the entire world and even come to humble little Brisbane. In so doing it has mobilised more members of the working class than the entire Leninist Left have been able to do in the last 30 years or so culminating in the shutting down of the mighty port of Oakland."
I'm no Marxist, but I appreciate the analysis and other analysis coming out of activists, like MacLennan, involved in the Occupy movement. Such comments as Occupier and Marx Brothers revel in their own ignorance. A the old saying goes, "better to remain silent and be thought an idiot, than open your mouth and confirm it!"...as Occupier and Marx Bros have done here
I recently received a "circulation" type letter from a person living in England, which is apparently now being considered for use there.
Titled "We have had enough…", I have very hurriedly attempted to adapt it for possible use in the Republic of Ireland, which in some future form, might perhaps be used as a means of "How the movement can be expanded and taken forward"?
I feel my quick DRAFT (below) needs more time spent on it, which I personally do not have at the present time.
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We have had enough…
For the attention of all TDs, Senators, Public Officials and Public Bodies in the Republic of Ireland
This letter is a warning – from the people. It is not a request that requires an answer, but it does require a response – by way of action on your part which demonstrates that you understand its substance and the seriousness of our intent.
The collective political establishment has betrayed the people of the Republic of Ireland by transferring our national sovereignty to the global banking cartel. This is a complete violation of our constitution and an act of treason.
You do not need to know how many people we represent today, only how many we might represent tomorrow and you should know that our numbers grow daily. This letter thus serves as your window of opportunity to make amends and give remedy for the crimes committed against us. We will show compassion for those who recant, but we will be firm -- using the due process of the law -- with those who do not concede to the wishes of the people.
Ignoring this letter is not an option… if you think it is, then this serves only to demonstrate that your intellect is subservient to your arrogance. You may feel that you can ignore it because you are too powerful, but to do so is to underestimate the seething resentment that the people now feel for the political establishment in general.
I, the undersigned, did not write this letter, but it expresses and represents what I think and feel about the way that we are being misgoverned. You have acted in contempt of the very deepest and most important principles of genuine democracy -- as in "government of the people, by the people, for the people" -- and shown total disregard for our right to govern ourselves. It ought not to matter to you who exactly penned the words of this letter, what matters is what this letter says.
For some decades now the people of the Republic of Ireland have been treated with extraordinary and total contempt by the collective political establishment. It has not mattered which political party has been in office or “power” as you insist on calling it, nothing ever changes. We are now continually being subjected to the same tyrannical global agenda. We have been used and abused like pawns in your game of supremacy in which a semi-dynastic ruling class see themselves as ordained to rule as masters – with impunity, whilst we the people, as virtual slaves, are supposedly destined to obey you – without question. You have persistently and consistently undermined our democracy by agreeing (for example) to huge bank bailouts which should have been, but which were not, the subject of a constitutional referendum under the very clear and easy to understand terms of Article 6.1 of Bunreacht na hEireann (the Constitution of the Republic of Ireland).
You have rewarded yourselves with the trappings of office – high salaries, luxuries denied most of us, privileges, pensions, prestige and benefits that we can only dream of… whilst burdening us with ever-higher taxes, derisory pensions and rapidly declining standards of public services. It is we who pay the price for your malfeasance.
The story of the Republic of Ireland over the past few decades that will be told in the history books of tomorrow is the story of betrayal, greed, corruption, nepotism, treason and modern day fascism – the latter of which manifests itself in the tyrannical global agenda being imposed upon us against our will.
The European union – a step process towards tyrannical global governance is now fully exposed. Built on lies and deceit is being hoisted by its own petard – the edifice is crumbling but still the political elite, like semi-demented lunatics, continue to feed on their own delusions. The docile masses, mesmerised by trivia, propaganda, complacency and ignorance have still somehow managed to grasp some basic elements of the truth, alerted almost certainly by the blatant and arrogant refusal of the political elite to tell the truth even when it stands proud in the rubble of political deceit and betrayal.
The political class are discredited at every level. They rant about the benefits of our subjugation to a foreign enterprise, peace, prosperity and democracy where in reality chaos, dictatorship and corruption and government crime reign supreme. European economies are on the brink of collapse because of the entirely avoidable multi-trillion Euro gambling debts of the grossly corrupt global banking cartel, debts which you now wish to saddle us with even though they were not our responsibility. There is visible resistance on the streets and people call for peaceful and lawful rebellion. But less known, there is clandestine resistance behind closed doors. Whilst the vast majority advocate peaceful resistance, the extremes will always be in the mix and when passion and anger are fused and those aggrieved can find no remedy… violent resistance, though completely repugnant to almost all of us, is, as a very last resort, and under circumstances of extreme provocation, as understandable as the passion for life itself.
The Garda Siochana (Republic of Ireland Police) and the Army that you currently rely on to defend yourselves against the peoples retribution… are made up of our own, they are not your people – and when they learn about your betrayal and your intent… AND THEY WILL – they will turn against you. Their awakening, which you cannot stop, is your Achilles heel.
People are meeting in groups across the country, talking across oceans… they are disparate, disorganised and without an effective plan to repel the global agenda…as yet. BUT a leadership of sorts is emerging… organisers are co-ordinating and small groups are linking to form larger groups. The dichotomies of left v right, Christian v Muslim, black v white, Catholic v Protestant, Republican v Democrat which have been used to great effect to divide and conquer in the past, will find no favour in this largely invisible war of very strong feelings. The call that will unite us will be ‘the people of the world v the corrupt, greed-ridden and crime-ridden tiny minority of global ruling elite’ – the cry will cascade street to street and find easy passage and universal support – for our "common good" purpose has greater value and strength than yours.
We have a written constitution – large and crucially important parts of which you are arrogantly and criminally ignoring.
You speak in support of our views when in opposition, but act to the contrary when we elect you.
You consult and kowtow with corporate executives, international bankers, non-government organisations, international charities, academia, foreign dignitaries, political elites, think tanks and lobbyist – collectively a tiny minority, who do not represent us. These groups all emanate from the same social strata, with their own agendas to satisfy and all ultimately funded by the same grossly corrupt global banking cartel. You take note of their every whim, but you care not a jot for what we think or what we want. Your children are given jobs, with big salaries fresh from university and then rapidly climb the corporate ladder as a reward by the same corporate bodies who you have favoured with your decisions. Our children must make their own way in an increasingly desperate world. Your corporatism suppresses our freedoms with deliberate and malicious intent.
You accommodate bullies, tyrants, dictators, and all manner of dubious characters, with whom you are happy to keep company. You turn a blind eye when the smell of money wafts your nostrils… it suppresses the stink of corruption and evil. Your moral compasses are defunct… your values deplorable and motives despicable.
You are members of the "ruling elite" clubs and you allow these influences to override the consideration which should be paramount in service of the people. You have adopted the “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” philosophy… because you have learnt from your predecessors that corruption and deception and government crime do indeed pay. The European Union is awash with such problems and you have determined to get your snout in the same trough, and to keep it there. You take comfort from the fact that you control those who have the authority to indict you for your criminality… because they too have fallen prey to all the corruption. You have unconstitutionally given away our national oil and gas resources (estimated at 5.4 trillion Euros) to your friends, divided communities, deprived villages and towns, and bulldozed some of the most important ancient heritage sites in the Republic of Ireland into oblivion.
We suffer, but you do not suffer… you remain aloof, disengaged, uninvolved – removed from the debris and the misery that you have wreaked upon the rest of us.
We have seen our multi billion annual fishing industry handed over to foreign control for nil reward. Our farmers struggle to feed us at reasonable cost, half-crippled by wads of regulations made to favour foreign farmers.
You are dissecting our nation and planning to sell off our infrastructure. Many people are now dying and suffering unnecessarily because of run-down medical facilities and services. Pensioners die of the cold because they are unable to afford their heating bills visited upon them by foreign corporate greed. You are then rewarded by them with lucrative directorships when you slip quietly from office with your bulging and often multiple pensions. You remain oblivious, unconcerned… disconnected, and aloof from it all. We will no longer be ignored as you go about your globalist, tyrannical, bullyboy, and callous agenda. We will resist your controlling and petty rules and regulations… we will resist your fines and penalty charges and challenge your corrupt and biased judges, we will defy the over-zealous members of the Garda Siochana (Police), your attempts to corruptly criminalise those who stand up to your outrageous abuses of the law, and your oppressive taxes.
It is our intention to govern ourselves… we do not seek your permission – this is our right. You have had your opportunity and you have failed miserably. We will take control of our own lives in stages, as and when we can, and as it suits us. Our numbers will grow as we show by example that prosperity is the natural consequence of honest, just, and genuinely democratic governance. We will expose you for the callous parasites you are.
We have our customs, traditions and common law. We have the right of petition, free speech, and free movement and above all… we have the right to govern ourselves. These are our inalienable rights – they are not privileges granted to us by you or your ilk. They cannot be taken away or extinguished at the whim of political diktat or through corrupt judicial process and certainly not at the behest of foreign undemocratic institutions. You have no authority to dictate… your duty is to serve.
We are a sovereign nation. We have watched our country slowly destroyed… by you – we now see clearly what you have done… your purpose and your betrayal. We will honour our inheritance – the freedom and security fought for and secured for us by earlier generations of our people, and we will ensure that we do all we can to pass them on to the next generation, to our children, and to our children's children.
You have been sent this letter by a constituent. On sending a copy to you, they have also registered your name with the coordinators. This will remain with us as evidence for your trial… for treason, should it be necessary. It’s your choice.
We are many – you are few… and our leaders are emerging... slowly but surely.
You have been warned.
Signed…
Name…
Address…
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