The thing is, the cops are highly predictable, the MSM media is highly predictable. There is a global culture and industry of policing, thanks now to the War on Terror, Drugs, Everything.. that is nicely summarized as the New Military Urbanism. As 1/3 of the world population moves into cities, the military and the police converge there too. http://vimeo.com/8890155
I'd like to do a content analysis of the media output on Occupy. I imagine 99% is about the "confrontation" with police over the campsites, and 1% is devoted to discussion of the real issues. Let alone proposing or organizing around simple and realistic solutions. i.e. Tax the Rich, Shut-Down Tax Havens. De-Militarize the Police. Renew Democratic Institutions. Global & Local Fair Trade etc etc
The 84 year old woman in Seattle who was pepper-sprayed, said exactly that on Democracy Now., http://www.democracynow.org/seo/2011/11/17/paramilitary_policing_of_occupy_wall_street http://www.democracynow.org/2011/11/17/84_year_old_dorli_rainey_pepper
She tells a story about how at the Seattle WTO event she was teargassed while in a teach-in with Arundhati Roy. Obviously the teach-in was disturbed.
This is a microcosm of what always happens.
Nearly all the resources of the activists goes towards "riot porn" which nowadays amounts to one-way police brutality. Nearly all the attention, energy and effort by activists goes into media spectacles that are nearly always crushed. The policy alternatives is a side-show.
Solutions are so run of the mill, so obvious, they dont get attention.
I am starting to wonder whether its really such a great thing that the Occupy movement will be able to spend the winter catching-up on Leftist history.
The 30's ended in WWII & then the Cold War The 60s rolled into the start of neoliberalism and transformed into the counter-revolution of Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama
I think its a lot smarter to look at the history of the Climate Justice Movement, especially in Europe, and the Anti-Globalization Movement, which was actually global.
Technology, industry, society, was very different in the 60s, let alone the 30s.
We need to look at the entire arc of history, not just the spectacular demos or strikes.
I would like a new tactic to be entered into the repertoire of the Left. I calling it Winning.
We need to take government, based on popular movements and institutions.
If the policy and program vacuum continues, the system will default to reforms (and revolutions) that are pre-baked by the powerful.
Witness the Insider Trading at Congress thing from 60 Minutes. Its like the MP Expenses Scandal in the UK. Both suit the Government is Not the Solution, Government IS The Problem Line.
I would hazard a guess that a small but vocal minority of the Occupy kids, especially the white males, are Ron Paul fans. End the Fed, End Imperialism. etc
I'd like to think we could have a real strategy/tactics winter that creates a coordinated program for actions that matter.
Instead, I think its going to be a love in between Leftist Baby Boomers who have a nostalgic and romantic view of the 60s and 30s and young people who swim in the shallows of the internet.
In short, lets move past the obvious and the sensational society of spectacle and get a program.
These kinds of loose, network organizations are great for somethings, but not for peaceful transition in government.
Why are we afraid of government?
Tax the Rich Shut-Down Tax Havens De-Militarize the Police Renew & Expand Democratic Institutions Global & Local Fair Trade Social Planning Democratic Industry, especially Finance Worker-Consumer Cooperatives Transition For Corporations Global Peace etc etc etc etc etc
For each strategy there is a single issue and from that tapestry of single issues we can make a new world.
Donella Mathews has 12 points for leverage in systems, lets use that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_leverage_points
1 Leverage points to intervene in a system 1.1 12. Constants, parameters, numbers (such as subsidies, taxes, standards) 1.2 11. The size of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows 1.3 10. Structure of material stocks and flows (such as transport network, population age structures) 1.4 9. Length of delays, relative to the rate of system changes 1.5 8. Strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the effect they are trying to correct against 1.6 7. Gain around driving positive feedback loops 1.7 6. Structure of information flow (who does and does not have access to what kinds of information) 1.8 5. Rules of the system (such as incentives, punishment, constraints) 1.9 4. Power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure 1.10 3. Goal of the system 1.11 2. Mindset or paradigm that the system — its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters — arises from 1.12 1. Power to transcend paradigms