On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 12:24 AM, Nicholas Roberts < nicholas at themediasociety.org> wrote:
> some comments from Berkeley, I think its an error to make historical
> precursors to Occupy Blah Blah a US story, its very largely also European
> and probably more UK activism that has spilled over - its the language that
> really unites, although its a global culture now. There has been the
> radical grassroots environmental movement, the many anti-summits (G8, now
> G20's, WTOs etc) and the ongoing World Social Forums, especially the
> European Social Forums, most recently in Turkey and previously in Malmos
> Sweden.
>
> the Seattle protest was not the start of anything. There was a protest in
> London months before Seattle, the European horizontal left had been very
> active during all the Thatcher years; Roads, Reclaim the Streets, Animal
> Rights, environmentalism generally, Poll Tax etc. Via the Indymedia and
> other internet based networks there was a global culture. In the early
> days, it was all about a few big indy media sites.
>
> within Europe, the Jul 2001 Genoa G8 set the pattern for totalitarian
> oppression of anti-globalization movements. See Berlusconi's Mousetrap, or
> the Super-Diaz Trial or the story of Mark Covell
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/17/italy.g8 Nick Davies Guardian
> journalist behind phone hacking and wikileaks
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4229777.stm
> http://www.indymedia.ie/article/75401
>
> for anyone who thinks that's just a conspiracy, you've obviously never
> heard of the mafia or spent much time in Italy
> anyway, the G8 summit in Genoa was the great successful counter-revolution,
> which was finally put to sleep with 911
> I am told that in Europe, and globally?, the Genoa G8 is considered by the
> security state to be the "high-water mark" in oppression, cooption and
> manipulation.
>
> In 2008-2009 there was a global wave of Climate Camps, with a few years of
> very large Climate Camps in the UK, with the London Climate Camp in 2009
> more like a mini activism Glastonberry, with civil disobedience and media
> stunts. in 2008 the UK police accidentally beat to death a street vendor,
> which was filmed by a US banker on his mobile phone, and that ended more
> brutal policing and in 2009 they switched to surveilance,
> counter-intelligence etc etc
>
> Certainly at Copenhagen in 2009 at the COP15, the police was heavily
> oppressive - concetration camps for activists, steel cages, sensory
> deprivation, pre-crime arrests, mass arrests etc etc - but no deaths. The
> prevalence of video cameras i.e. every mobile phone, makes mass violence
> easily recorded. Film it with the mobile phone and post it direct to
> YouTube. No need even to leave the demo.
>
> There has been a huge scandal in the UK with under-cover police - who
> heavily infiltrated the climate justice movement - being exposed and even
> potentially going native, i.e becoming activists. Millions of pounds,
> entrapping vegetarians and hippies. In Europe, except in some reactionary
> right wing outposts like Spain and Middle England, climate justice and
> environmentalism is highly regarded and its not been positively received...
>
> The global precariat is a convergance of highly educated,
> internet-connected formerly middle class unemployed young adults with the
> poor and working class. The radical direct democracy that has grown up in
> all of these hundreds of thousands of camps, events, summits, rallies and
> groups has been spread by international travel - cheap flights, newly
> integrated Europe allowing study and work withiin Europe - and of course,
> the internet
>
> as Chomsky keeps on saying, there is way more activism now then there ever
> has been, you just have to look, and get involved. Way more then in the
> high and crazy points of the late 60s and early 70s. Also, as Noam also
> says, this is Obama's Army, but its gone feral. Its broken ranks, gone
> AWOL, gone bush, and its never gone be the same.
>
> I also think the lesson from Copenhagen, which had a lot of European black
> bloc smash things up nonsense, was, that, in these big tent events, that
> stuff is counter productive. Security is way too tight. Surveillance all
> pervasive, and there is way too much spillover to civilians. The system is
> so oppressive, that you have to be pretty smart to survive as an activist
> and I think that the complete open planning via the general assembly brings
> authenticity and legitimacy that secret affinity group style radical stuff
> cannot buy. Also, from the UK, how do you know that the most radical
> activists advocating property damage and serious disruption arent cops ? In
> fact, they probably are.
>
>
> I heard from KPFA that the Oakland cops are actually sympathetic to
> the protesters. They've been losing jobs too.
>
>
> --
> Nicholas Roberts
> US 510-684-8264
> http://Permaculture.TV
> http://permaculture.coop
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