Call to action: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET 3

I had to share this...

Why I support Occupy the Hood by Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin

Quote:

The new mass movement, Occupy Wall Street, has already birthed a number of movement of oppressed peoples of color:Indigenous/African/Carribbean, etc. They are DeColonize OWS, the People of Color Working Group, and Occupy the Hood. It is Occupy the Hood, which is an actual Black working class political tendency, which has the most promise as far as Africans in America are concerned. They are not only trying to pressure the white majority to make a place the for voices of Black/POC people, but also organzing an independent tendency which can organize inour communities around issues effecting us especially. it is that latter dimension which really excites me.

..........

Occupy the hood is that movement best situated to make that hapen in this period. They are part of the Wall Street tendency, and can unite with other POC tendencies and even anti-racist/anti-colonial whites to wage an internal battle inside OWS to make it accountable to POC's instead of just white middle class workers who have lost their jobs, homes, or money in this period. We have suffered far worse.

Over 1 million Black/POC people are in the prison system, which destroys not just the prisoner but his family and community. We have the highest levels of unemployment in the USA, "officially" 16.7%, but actually far higher at Great Depression levels of 26%. We have the highest number of urban homeless. We have record levels of infant mortality, approaching the 3rd world. On and on we are catching hell more than anybody, and we are the class of surplus labor that all economists speak of who have considered the matter.

But we need to organize, not not just bemoan our fate or curse our luck. We can change everything with our all-out struggle, on our own terms. We do not have to be shackled by the racism and backwardness of white workers. Through a movement like Occupy the Hood, we can orgnize not only our own communities, but through that organize the world who would unite with our struggle. So, to end this, I see the
potential of this movement more than anything else to come along in the hip hop era. They seem to "get it", and understand instinctively that they can organize their peoples to not only destroy Wall Street, which is based on our slavery and exploitation, but the entire system of capitalist oppression.

Dont let some of the negativity on this board get you down, epaulo. There are those here who think that any person who actually lifts themselves off their hindquarters and educates, agitates and organizes (as opposed to yammering impotently from their desk) must be either a dupe or an agent of the CIA. To verify this, simply read their posts on mass movements taking place, well, anywhere.

Keep up the good fight. I salute you.

Occupy Wall St Offensive: Hundreds Arrested, Thousands Join In (and vid)

http://rt.com/news/occupy-wall-thousands-street-735/

"...The American anti-bank movement is anticipating a global presence Saturday.."

Who Owns Wall Street Anyway?

http://readersupportednews.org/pm-section/256-justice/7858-who-owns-wall...

"The stewardship of the Mahican Tribe with regard to Wall Street is not a threat to anyone other than those whose fortunes are dependent upon the continuity of the unconstitutional empire.."

Someone should remind the settler-occupiers of the obvious fact that Wall Street was 'occupied' before...Apparently the last of the Mahicans hasn't forgotten even if everybody else seems to - including the US Supreme Court.

On the topic of holding ground against the inevitable police aggression, one has to wonder how this is to be accomplished in the Canadian context. Will local organizers fire off the usual barrage of 'after the fact' complaints to the same authorities who will send the police battalions out to pepper spray, beat and arrest the demonstrators? Will organizers advise citizens of all age groups who are contemplating attendance, to come prepared to defend themselves against the arbitrary violence of the corporate police? Will the mass assaults and arrests of unarmed protesters on their own streets send the unions and the usual political opportunists scurrying for cover? Will the youth once again be left to lick their wounds in the makeshift cages of the security state?  For the time being at least, the answers are self evident given the last 20 years of 'organized' protest.

Agreed - I'd love to see some MPs standing in solidarity with the Occupy Canada movement. By the way, Harper gave a press conference this morning reminding viewers that Canada is not the USA. Totally different and better regulated banking system. He doesn't get it.

M. Spector wrote:

the #Occupy movement vulnerable and rudderless - an easy target for repressive measures. 

see what I mean epaulo?

You'd be much better to select a disciplined leadership caste to tell everyone what to do. After all, once pseudo-military cadres of pseudo-intellectual weaklings have taken over a spontaneous revolt, these cadres have never been taken over by forces of repression.

hahohaharharhardeeharhar

M. Spector wrote:

The visible presence and support of Canada's official opizishin party at the protests would go a long way towards preventing them from being isolated and defeated by police repression.

The abandonment of social activism by the NDP, however, leaves the #Occupy movement vulnerable and rudderless - an easy target for repressive measures. 

However, if the party jumped on that bandwagon and it turns out that stores have their windows smashed tomorrow, it would look pretty awful.

Corporate party politics in that case would represent a group of bandits returning to the scene of the crime offering to help track down the culprits implicated in the whole affair, while hoping no one will notice that they bear a striking resemblance to the wanted posters.

M. Spector wrote:

First political discourse was dumbed-down by the Twitterati to 140-character bumper-sticker statements and slogans.

Reducing that down to a one-word sound bite is simply the reductio ad absurdum of the same thing.

Easy to sit and criticize, MSpector.
I'm interested in observing how the 'one demand' idea works out. I've already learned a lot from watching/listening/reading about these millennial youth with their loose but structured democracy that astutely avoids hierarchical leadership and at the same time is well organized and effective without someone dictating what 'should' be done.
.The union movement is 'democratic' in the same way as our governments are - ie, representative democracy where those who speak for us also make decisions for us. Occupy is specifically NOT representative 'democracy' but participatory or participant democracy where all power for decision-making remains with the people, thus the 'General Assembly' twice a day. They may appoint spokespeople to communicate their consensus decisions and bring feedback/input/issues back to the Assembly, but those spokespeople do not make decisions/deals/agreements for the people. Only the Assembly can make decisions and all policies are formed by the whole group, not 'leaders'.
It's a 'new' model to those of us familiar with 'organizing', but the oldest form of democracy in the world, practiced by traditional Indigenous Councils.

If we observe and learn, instead of criticizing what is 'different' from our old way, we stand to be a more effective movement, imo.

One word that comes to my mind is 'decolonize'. :)

Slumberjack wrote:

its difficult to entirely avoid those fleeting positive emotions,

then dont bother to avoid them

but I know about the sorrow too, "how we gonna screw this one up?..."

Interesting article.  Nothing in it manages to surprise, but it does hightlight the fact that we're well past the point of being able to recognize the truth.

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/307253_2520769142340_1346...

takeitslowly wrote:

what does the article really imply? i dont understand it. does it mean there is no point to OWS?

I find very little research in their articles

This article by Mr. Chossudovsky, contains "citations" to other articles on the same subject by.... wait for it... Mr. Chossudovsky. These articles, in turn, contain citations to other articles by Mr. Chossudovsky

That's not scholarship.

Mr. Chossudovski also provides links to articles in support of his arguments which arent actually the articles he means to link to.

The first error is lightweight, all the more so because, while he may start his articles with a couple of ominous quotes, he's too slip shod to provide a reasoned case to back up his opening statements. Refering people over to another poorly written and researched article by himself is laughable. The second is just sloppy. Forgive me for stating that the combo of the two makes him look like a very big flake.

See this citation which actually links to an article about Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream

"Governments, too, have been significant financiers of protest groups. The European Commission, for example, funded two groups who mobilised large numbers of people to protest at EU summits at Gothenburg and Nice. Britain's national lottery, which is overseen by the government, helped fund a group at the heart of the British contingent at both protests." (James Harding, Counter-capitalism, FT.com, October 15 2001)

 

Come on guys, it's globalresearch what else did you expect?

On a more serious note OWS is staying in the news now and is geting into national politics more and more.

NDPP wrote:

Is Occupy Wall Street Anti-Jewish?

http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/is-occupy-wall-street-movement-a...

"Toronto-born American Jewish columnist David Brooks thinks it is..."

Quote:

MJ Rosenberg wrote in the Jewish Journal (October 14, 2011): “An ugly old tradition is back: exploiting anti-Semitism to break the backs of popular movements that threaten the power of the wealthiest 1 percent of our population. It is being used to undermine the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has conservatives in a state of near panic.”

The article you linked to actually contends that it is not anti-Semitic, but that a few neo-cons have attempted to brand it as such for other purposes than standing up to racism.

Do you ever actually read the articles you link to?