Good stuff, Devin. OccupyEverywhere it is indeed! (I don't think Occupy
the World was intended as a slogan/ parole, rather as a description)
Cheers, p+3D!
> I've been at Occupy Wall Street for nearly everyday since it began and
> engage in a wide variety of activities from tech to sanitation and GA
> politics. This article doesn't do anything for me.
>
> For one - "Occupy the World"...? Completely misses the point. Occupy
> your
> space and your life is more like it. I don't think this movement will
> ever
> "Occupy the World" - what it will do is connect local organizers to each
> other so they can occupy their spaces in some type of loose coordination.
> The semantics are important. Occupying the World implies some type of
> global decision making body when I think precisely the opposite is taking
> place. The movement is empowering localities to organize themselves - not
> to Occupy the World but rather to Occupy Everywhere - Together.
>
> Second, and this might be more true for New York than other places. The
> "Left" - at least operationally - is feeble. They don't uinderstand
> self-determined action. A pretty substantial "left" political
> organizer/communications consultant came up to me a few days ago to tell
> me
> he'd been looking for the tech/strategy people for a week and couldn't
> find
> anyone. He literally said to me: "I'm a bureaucrat, what can I do?" He
> doesn't get it. I watch "left" organizers tweek out daily because they
> can't
> operate in an unstructured anarchy and are constantly trying to find a
> center that doesn't exist. In practice, this is more PorcFest than it is
> Left Forum.
>
> That being said, this article gets it right in a few places.
>
> 1.
> Faced by these twin challenges, the worldâs middle-classes
>> might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape
>> transnational processes in their own class interest.â
>
> Yes - this is an open source revolution.
>
> 2.
> We're going to achieve William Morris's dream articulated in 'useful work
> vs. useless toil,' but I think it'll be through the mechanisms of anarchy,
> not socialism.
>
> meanwhile - I've been creating a resource for techies involved in the
> occupation. It's getting better: wiki.occupyeverywhere.org
>
> We need lots of help! :)
>
> On Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 2:44 AM, Patrice Riemens <patrice@???>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi Bricos,
>>
>> Found this on the Sarai Reader list, x-posted it to nettime, and got a
>> mail back from Brian Holmes saying it was the best analysis around
>> 'occupy' he had seen yet ...
>>
>> So enjoy & think...
>>
>> Cheers, patrizio & Diiiinooos!
>>
>>
>>
>> On 10/21/2011 12:58 AM, Patrice Riemens wrote:
>> > Bwo Sarai Reader list/ A.Mani
>> >
>> >
>> > http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27157
>> >
>> > Occupy The World! To the Barricades Comrades?
>> >
>> > by William Bowles
>> >
>> >
>> > Four years ago in a Ministry of Defence Review, the Whitehall
>> Mandarins,
>> > more astutely than any so-called Lefty, determined the following:
>> >
>> > âThe Middle Class Proletariat â The middle classes could
>> become
>> a
>> > revolutionary class, taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by
>> > Marx. The globalization of labour markets and reducing levels of
>> > national welfare provision and employment could reduce peoplesâ
>> > attachment to particular states. The growing gap between themselves
>> and
>> > a small number of highly visible super-rich individuals might fuel
>> > disillusion with meritocracy, while the growing urban under-classes
>> are
>> > likely to pose an increasing threat to social order and stability, as
>> > the burden of acquired debt and the failure of pension provision
>> begins
>> > to bite. Faced by these twin challenges, the worldâs middle-classes
>> > might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape
>> > transnational processes in their own class interest.â
>> >
>> > â âUK Ministry of Defence report, The DCDC Global Strategic Trends
>> > Programme 2007-2036â (Third Edition) p.96, March 2007
>> >
>> > Yeah, I know, I'm always using this quote (I first used it four years
>> > ago) but it illustrates the great intellectual divide between the
>> > political class and the citizens they rule, including our Left, now
>> made
>> > so apparent by what the pundits are now calling the 'Occupy The World'
>> > (OTW) movement. It seems that only our very own ruling class foresaw
>> > OTW.
>> >
>> > Dig a little deeper into OTW and we find that with a few exceptions,
>> > there are no challenges to capitalism, mostly it's a 'clean up your
>> act'
>> > kinda thing. Throw a few billionaires in jail, add some regulation and
>> > things will eventually turn out just fine. Dream on...
>> >
>> > But we've been here before. This is what attempts at 'reforming'
>> > capitalism in the past have looked like. We lived under such a system
>> > from 1945 until the late 1970s, before the Empire reasserted itself,
>> > proving once again, that concepts like 'democracy' under capitalism,
>> are
>> > at best, mere conveniences and so vague a concept that it can be made
>> to
>> > resemble almost anything.
>> >
>> > And once the so-called Good Life that capitalism allegedly had offered
>> > us started to wear thin and capitalism once more plunged us into war
>> and
>> > poverty, so too the 'Good Life' had to be dumped. Belt-tightening time
>> > again.
>> >
>> > But unlike 1968, or even the 'Anti-Globalization Movement' that some
>> are
>> > comparing OTW to, socialism is barely mentioned, let alone the central
>> > motif. Yes, there are increasing anti-capitalist references but in
>> 1968,
>> > politics was at the very heart of the situation. It wasn't about money
>> > but about posing a real alternative to capitalism. The concept of
>> > belonging to a class still existed in the public's consciousness, even
>> > if it lacked the collective will to do anything about it.
>> >
>> > Am I being altogether too cruel to OTW? It is after all, early days in
>> > the development of OTW. It might all fizzle out or if it doesn't, the
>> > political class might have to use the logical response to the MoD's
>> > quote above: suppress it. Something for which, no doubt in another
>> > (secret) report, the Whitehall Mandarins have laid out the strategy
>> and
>> > tactics to be employed in suppressing a burgeoning (socialist?)
>> > revolution.
>> >
>> > After all, when "[f]aced by th[o]se twin challenges, the worldâs
>> > middle-classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and
>> > skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interestâ
>> ,
>> > says it all.
>> >
>> > You have to take this stuff seriously! It's not a game and the state
>> is
>> > very adept at employing whatever tactics it chooses to suppress
>> serious
>> > dissent including the use of agents provocateurs (a long-standing
>> > 'tradition') to infiltrate and provoke pointless confrontations with
>> the
>> > state, in order not only to justify suppression but more importantly,
>> as
>> > part of a propaganda war waged through the media, where we have no
>> > counter-voice.
>> >
>> > Repression of course carries its own risks and far from being a
>> solution
>> > could only further excerbate the problem. Timing is all. This is not a
>> > game. The political class is fighting for its life and that of its
>> > masters, the corporations. That's why they write those reports. Just
>> as
>> > with the insurrections earlier this year in the UK, the state had a
>> > clear response to it and the role of the media was central to its
>> > effectiveness in spreading the state's message.
>> >
>> > Let it 'burn baby, burn' and turn the world's cameras onto the
>> > conflagration, followed by a good dose of Victorian 'rough justice'
>> > (pity they've abolished hard labour and deportation to Australia).
>> Make
>> > an example of them should anyone else have ideas about following in
>> > their footsteps.
>> >
>> > The key here is the observation made by the Whitehall Mandarins about
>> > "class interests". Now if well-paid and no doubt loyal members of the
>> > political class' intelligentsia have gotten it figured out (and so
>> far,
>> > their prediction is right on the money), how come the 'Left' hasn't?
>> >
>> > Currently class is something almost entirely absent from the OTW
>> > movement. Without it eventually taking centre stage, OTW is bound to
>> be
>> > stillborn. But there are some positive signs that some kind of
>> > 'consensus' mechanism is emerging from the chaos akin to some kind of
>> > 'self-organizing' principle. After all, we have what the MoD report
>> > called "access to knowledge, resources and skills" necessary to
>> produce
>> > workable alternatives not only to capitalism but to fashion a new kind
>> > of inclusive democracy, one that hasn't existed before.
>> >
>> > The aim is to create a venue for democratic deliberation and open
>> > debate in a place normally associated with secretive privilege. People
>> > working in the City of London have played a starring role in creating
>> > the global economic crisis. Since our representative institutions have
>> > thus far failed to address this crisis in a way that is both sensible
>> > and just, it is only fitting that we should use the City as a place in
>> > which [to] work on solutions ourselves. -- 'Talk Amongst Yourselves'
>> By
>> > Dan Hind
>> >
>> > It's not a 'peasants revolt' kinda thing, though of course inevitably
>> > those hit the worst by the crisis will revolt first. But the crisis of
>> > capital has now hit those who make up the very bedrock of capitalist
>> > society's justification for existing, its so-called middle classes.
>> > These are the major consumers in our economy, not only is their
>> > consumption a major chunk of our GDP (as well its debt), they are also
>> > the managers and technicians of capitalism and the state machine. Piss
>> > them off and things could get out of hand just as the MoD has
>> predicted.
>> >
>> > Some on the Left in the UK are still calling for revitalizing the
>> Labour
>> > Party as a potential force for socialism but if so, then it means that
>> > it would have to come from its decimated grassroots membership, a tall
>> > if not impossible order to carry out. At the first signs of revolt in
>> > the Labour Party's constituency membership, the Party Machine will
>> > intervene and purge its ranks just as it has done so many times in the
>> > past.
>> >
>> > For a Left largely pinning its hopes on a working class that no longer
>> > exists, it will have to broaden and deepen its knowledge of how
>> > capitalism has evolved and transformed the nature of the working class
>> > and learn to seek connections to a much more diverse and complex
>> > alliance of forces if we are to defeat the Empire.
>> >
>> > What an irony that the Leftâled largely by middle class
>> > intellectualsâfails to see what has happened, trapped as it is in
>> its
>> > own patronizing and nostalgic vision of the working class aka George
>> > 'middle class' Orwell's 'Road to Wigan Pier'. And this is the problem:
>> > it's always middle class intellectuals on the Left who have set the
>> > agenda, not for their own 'class' mind but for an idea that emerged in
>> > the middle of the 19th century; that the organized industrial working
>> > class would undertake the Revolution, led of course by middle class
>> > intellectuals.
>> >
>> > OTW is nevertheless a transcendent moment, one to cherish and sustain
>> > and no doubt just the first shot across the bows of Global Capital but
>> > for it to have a chance of success it will have challenge corporate
>> > capitalism's right to exist.
>> >
>> > To do this we will first have to dispel the 'bad apple' theory as the
>> > cause of the current crisis. That it's just a question of regulating
>> > capitalism, smoothing out the rough edges, eliminating the extremes
>> and
>> > above all, restoring 'competition', so-called real capitalism.
>> >
>> > But this could only be done by breaking up the giant corporations and
>> > abolishing the financial sector in its entirety as it currently
>> exists.
>> > Is it likely that advocates of 'real' capitalism aka Max Keisser could
>> > undertake such a mission? The way I understand it, a 'real' capitalist
>> > economy would consist only of small competing private businesses,
>> > cooperatives, public utilities and the self-employed, and one assumes
>> > massive state intervention in order to make it all happen.
>> >
>> > Sounds a bit like my favourite kind of socialism, William Morris's
>> > version and not an overly ambitious objective given the political will
>> > to carry it out.
>> >
>> > But who will break up Shell or Goldman Sachs? Who will smash the
>> > military-industrial-media complex? Only a state owned and managed by
>> the
>> > working class can undertake such a momentous task. OTY OTW...
>> >
>> >
>> > # distributed via<nettime>: no commercial use without permission
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Brico@???
>> http://lists.dyne.org/mailman/listinfo/brico
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Devin Balkind
> Director, Sarapis Foundation
> devin@???
> @devinbalkind
> _______________________________________________
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> Brico@???
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>
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