Some modest suggestions to Occupy from a long time activist
The Democratic Party is a graveyard for independent progressive movements.
It’s meant to suck up militancy, divide and obfuscate. How to relate with the upcoming elections? Occupy ought to avoid involvement in campaigns for office. Leave it up to individuals to do what they want on their own, but no money, no energy, no time from Occupy itself.
Occupy encampments have been effective, initial in-your-face tactics that got the movement on the front page. But let’s not let turf wars suck up energy and cloud vision. A tactic is just that. It’s time to evolve and build on past lessons.
Where to go from here? Set goals, fight for reforms that galvanize and energize.
It’s time to branch out and spread. We need elected bodies, neighborhood by neighborhood committees. Let’s not be afraid of consensus-driven vertical organizing structures. They’re necessary if we want to be effective and have continuity. Set meaningful goals and reforms and fight for them. Be clear and on message with both local and national platforms. Fighting for and attaining worthwhile reforms galvanizes people and boosts energy. That doesn’t necessarily make you a reformist.
We need to be heard and seen
Community access TV is under-utilized and obscurely programmed. It could provide an effective community-wide or nation-wide source for getting Occupy’s word out. Our message should be bold, warm, appeal to the human spirit. It should inform and organize. Yes, I’m a die hard atheist, but we can learn from the religious TV stations. The most effective don’t rant. I know its bullshit, but their message is broad, not unappealing if you want to turn your brain off. With all the other crap that’s on TV, their bogus moral, anti-materialist message makes them attractive and unique. We can learn from that.
My comments aren’t meant as messages from on high. They’re meant to provoke discussion.
Kurabia
Awesome post, thanks. I agree with you. When I look at Obama and Romney, I see the same empty suit. I don’t want to even waste my energy on the battle between these puppets of the oligarchy. If anything, any energy that I’m going to put into the election (individually or with other people at Occupy or other groups), it would be into ridiculing their similarities and their debts to the corporations.
I think we are not stopping. There was all this talk about “hybernating” or something for the winter. Maybe it’s the weather, but we don’t feel like doing that in Oakland or San Francisco. We are doing this Jan. 20th thing, Occupy the Courts. We are marching on the 24th for Egypt. And big stuff on the 28th, move-in day and/or festival. So there’s not a lot of talk about “let’s think about the next tactic”, more like, “let’s do a bunch of stuff and see what works.”
It’s an interesting idea about public TV….. at first I want to dismiss that as too old school, but then sometimes that’s a key part of reaching people. We would reach people who aren’t on youtube or reading the papers or whatever. We are obviously not reaching enough people, even though we are still here.
Great points. I had an interesting experience regarding just this thing today. I was in this small mom & pop store, and I suddenly started paying attention to this talk show that they had playing on the radio. The reason it drew my attention was because I heard one of the speakers say something like, “,,,human slavery is the worst now than ever before in history” and I I think I heard them mention greed and corruption. Next they started quoting the Bible. Smooth.
Good stuff, though I think a physical presence is needed somewhere. Hopefully the forthcoming building occupation will provide a focal point for OO, but that’s precisely what the City wants to avoid, and they will fight tooth and nail to prevent it from happening.
I also think neighborhood committees would be great for OO, but if memory serves a proposal to approve such committees ‘failed’ at a GA some weeks ago…I recall it got in excess of 70% of the vote, but that the proposers declined to accept friendly amendments. Perhaps my memory is wrong…
I totally agree. I am not so sure about the topology you theorize. For example I think neighborhood affinity groups are more practical than committees. I think pirate radio is more akin to Occupy’s aesthetic than cable access (and quite a few areas do not have cable access, or severely limit it.)
But about the Democrats being a waste of time and energy, yes.
At this point I would rather vote for a Libertarian if they could just shed all that pro gun, anti Mexican baggage. But hey in dream land Obama is a socialist and Bush is intelligent.