Those who are prisoners of the delusion that theory precedes rather than grows from action cannot understand this. But that is not the message _only_ of the Commune. It is the central demand of every demonstration ever. Demonstrations are not directed at the state: they are directed at those who have not joined them yet. The goal is to grow.
The first step in "criticizing" an entity is to identify what it is: Is it a dewberry; is it a fur glove; is it a relation (e.g. gravity); is it a Christmas tree. Only then can one "criticize' it. None of the "critics" of the Occupy Movement have bothered to ask this simple question -- for to ask it is to recognize that we do not yet know what we are. A couple years ago when I used "we" as I used it in the last sentence someone grumped, how arrogant. (I believe my "we" was in reference to an achievement of the '60s in which I had not personally participated. But the grump showed that the grumper did not know what a left movement was. Were I to write a critique of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, I would proceed by saying that we did such and such athing, though at the time of that Boycott I didn't even know it was going on. Now those who occupied the Wisconsin Capitol can say or should say we in referring to the Montgomery Boycott.
Now, what are the Occupations? We call them a Movement but that is vague and hey do not 'fit' the cookie cutters we are in the habit of applying to Movements. The Oakland Occupation have (provisionally?) defined themselves as an Insurrection (that is the only relevant meaning of "Commune"), and the 'shape' of the Occupations is indeed that of an insurrection. But since they obviously are not that, we have a problem. And it can only be explored usefully by those who whether they are down 'there' or not say We as they think and write of the Occupations. I argued on this list in its first year that criticism could only occur among those who share premises, who are on the same side. "Criticism" from the outside is either a polemic or mere kevetching. Repeat: You do not have to be actually at the site of an Occupation to say We in respect to anything you have to say about them. You merely have to have accepted the Occupations as THE current expression of the left, which cannot be criticized by those who do not accept it to begin with as a correct (wholly correct) expression of what The Left is in 2011. Then we (I'm not interested in what you have to say if you can't or won't use "We" as I am using it) we can begin the process of immanent critique, aimed at finding out what we are, what we are doing. And only as we find out what we are doing can we begin to theorize it in such a way that criticism and self-criticism become anything else but kvetching from the bleachers.
Carrol