Can We All Agree Occupy Was A Tactic?
Lloyd Hart | 01.03.2012 16:08 | Workers' Movements | Cambridge
Can We All Agree Occupy Was A Tactic?
By Lloyd Hart
Occupy was a public relations tactic in the purest sense and now that the occupy tactic has failed to change any policy for the betterment of the working people of this country, now has to evolve from the purely public relations version of itself which is "Occupy" which can on longer occupy the public square, into two different but effective tactics, the militant labor tactic of direct confrontation to blockade the economy and the Gandhian non-violent civil disobedient non-cooperation tactic to also blockade the economy. Take away the oligarchs profits and we will have leverage to negotiate.
Occupy was a tactic that the oligarchs dealt with very effectively. They simply removed the occupiers from the public space they occupied. Now Occupy occupies office space that they pay rent for. The occupy tactic claimed to have changed the conversation from the economy to income disparity but thats not true. The public was already talking about the economy and income disparity and have been since the mass lay offs and mass foreclosures spiked in 2008. Actually the coordinated and deliberate assault on the living wage began in 1987 and led to the Free Trade deal with Canada and then the North American Free Trade Agreement, Work for Welfare, deregulation of the banks, deregulation of the electric utilities etc. etc... The public who have been taking all this oligarch crap for decades now are perfectly aware of the screwing they have been taking and have been talking about it.
All of these legislative activities have artificially lowered wages and artificially raised the cost of living and finally with no real investment in jobs for the working people after the mass lay offs and mass foreclosures since 2008 have made the job market meaner, having workers clawing at each other to get a low wage part time job or nothing at all. Because almost all human needs have been bundled into having currency in your pocket, the response from those us suffering homelessness, hunger and joblessness tend to be very emotional indeed. Occupy tapped into these emotions but failed to strike the iron while the iron was hot and has lost public support as a result. There was also the co-opting of Occupy by the liberal elite's who the public is very disappointed in. When Occupy activists lose their footing because they get addicted to seeking stardom on MSNBC and in the democratic party instead of watching what is really happening to the public good will toward Occupy you have a recipe for public disillusionment.
Occupy had promise but the general assembly was infiltrated liberals and libertarians and manifested a completely ineffective strategy of orthodox non-confrontation. Now Occupy activists with their hands on dwindling bank accounts refuse to evolve to the two tactics I have pointed out above. What I have learned in all the years I have been active is that the public will back your play as long as you show integrity in resolve to win concessions from the oligarchs for the health and welfare of the public. Occupy activists have not shown integrity and have allowed the media to pigeon hole the Occupy movement as the liberal version of the tea party. Public support has completely collapsed as donations are radically down from the peak when a glimmer of hope in the campaign occurred on the Brooklyn Bridge when an actual confrontation between Occupy activists and the NYPD blossomed. Since then OWS squandered nearly a million dollars.
If you don't actually confront the economy of the oligarchs with traditional tactics that work, your simply a wet rag slapping against the hot boiler of hate the oligarchs have for the working people on this planet.
So, can we all agree that Occupy was a tactic that has run it's course and that the working class must now confront the system to get democracy in the most important area of our lives, the distribution of wealth?
Can we all agree that both the democrats and republicans are in cahoots to screw the working class as they continue to ratify and sign into law free trade deals with slave labor states that only deepen poverty here in America?
Can we all agree we are only going to be thrown crumbs from the democratic party and that the democrats never really represented the working people and must be confronted as much as the republicans, the generals and the oligarchs?
Can we all agree that the main problem in the economy is forcing the working people in America to compete against slave labor in China, Mexico, Columbia, Panama, Guatemala etc. etc. destroying working class power and shifting the wealth of the nation and the world radically and disproportionately up to the oligarchs and that going back to tariffs on trade is the only way to protect a living wage?
Can we agree that articulating clear messages embodied in deliberate confrontational actions is the only way to maintain public support and win the ages long battle for democracy in the economy?
By Lloyd Hart
Occupy was a public relations tactic in the purest sense and now that the occupy tactic has failed to change any policy for the betterment of the working people of this country, now has to evolve from the purely public relations version of itself which is "Occupy" which can on longer occupy the public square, into two different but effective tactics, the militant labor tactic of direct confrontation to blockade the economy and the Gandhian non-violent civil disobedient non-cooperation tactic to also blockade the economy. Take away the oligarchs profits and we will have leverage to negotiate.
Occupy was a tactic that the oligarchs dealt with very effectively. They simply removed the occupiers from the public space they occupied. Now Occupy occupies office space that they pay rent for. The occupy tactic claimed to have changed the conversation from the economy to income disparity but thats not true. The public was already talking about the economy and income disparity and have been since the mass lay offs and mass foreclosures spiked in 2008. Actually the coordinated and deliberate assault on the living wage began in 1987 and led to the Free Trade deal with Canada and then the North American Free Trade Agreement, Work for Welfare, deregulation of the banks, deregulation of the electric utilities etc. etc... The public who have been taking all this oligarch crap for decades now are perfectly aware of the screwing they have been taking and have been talking about it.
All of these legislative activities have artificially lowered wages and artificially raised the cost of living and finally with no real investment in jobs for the working people after the mass lay offs and mass foreclosures since 2008 have made the job market meaner, having workers clawing at each other to get a low wage part time job or nothing at all. Because almost all human needs have been bundled into having currency in your pocket, the response from those us suffering homelessness, hunger and joblessness tend to be very emotional indeed. Occupy tapped into these emotions but failed to strike the iron while the iron was hot and has lost public support as a result. There was also the co-opting of Occupy by the liberal elite's who the public is very disappointed in. When Occupy activists lose their footing because they get addicted to seeking stardom on MSNBC and in the democratic party instead of watching what is really happening to the public good will toward Occupy you have a recipe for public disillusionment.
Occupy had promise but the general assembly was infiltrated liberals and libertarians and manifested a completely ineffective strategy of orthodox non-confrontation. Now Occupy activists with their hands on dwindling bank accounts refuse to evolve to the two tactics I have pointed out above. What I have learned in all the years I have been active is that the public will back your play as long as you show integrity in resolve to win concessions from the oligarchs for the health and welfare of the public. Occupy activists have not shown integrity and have allowed the media to pigeon hole the Occupy movement as the liberal version of the tea party. Public support has completely collapsed as donations are radically down from the peak when a glimmer of hope in the campaign occurred on the Brooklyn Bridge when an actual confrontation between Occupy activists and the NYPD blossomed. Since then OWS squandered nearly a million dollars.
If you don't actually confront the economy of the oligarchs with traditional tactics that work, your simply a wet rag slapping against the hot boiler of hate the oligarchs have for the working people on this planet.
So, can we all agree that Occupy was a tactic that has run it's course and that the working class must now confront the system to get democracy in the most important area of our lives, the distribution of wealth?
Can we all agree that both the democrats and republicans are in cahoots to screw the working class as they continue to ratify and sign into law free trade deals with slave labor states that only deepen poverty here in America?
Can we all agree we are only going to be thrown crumbs from the democratic party and that the democrats never really represented the working people and must be confronted as much as the republicans, the generals and the oligarchs?
Can we all agree that the main problem in the economy is forcing the working people in America to compete against slave labor in China, Mexico, Columbia, Panama, Guatemala etc. etc. destroying working class power and shifting the wealth of the nation and the world radically and disproportionately up to the oligarchs and that going back to tariffs on trade is the only way to protect a living wage?
Can we agree that articulating clear messages embodied in deliberate confrontational actions is the only way to maintain public support and win the ages long battle for democracy in the economy?
Lloyd Hart
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
Tactic ?
01.03.2012 16:25
Realist
No we cant
02.03.2012 09:36
Anthony
Nah
02.03.2012 11:47
Just like the anti-war movemen they ran into the ground as the wars esclated and expanded the left organisations priorities were to control and milk the movement rather than confront power or muster solidarity for those dragged before the courts for confronting the war or the economic masters.
Occupy was/is a breath of fresh air. It never had the numbers on the streets - but whether you blame those who turned up or those who didn't is up to you.
The anti-war movement had the numbers on the streets in '03 but a leadership so bereft of courage and integrity id didn't know wher eto go beyond cattle drives down main street lobbying power who had commited to war.
Nah
Reptile wedlock.
06.03.2012 19:09
So in part it was a tactic, but the tactic lost wind because 'events' ran away and merged into something else.
I think what you'll find with the Occupy movement is that it was 'placed' by a various numbers of states, to effect an agenda, and was then discarded and the pieces were then picked up by the also rans. This is why we fail, we are following what we are trying to remove, not walking our own path.
The Occupy movement was initially the result of an earlier skirmish between the US and the EU. Two very large power blocks. The US see's the EU as a possible usurper of the global reserve status of the domestic dollar. Without that status, America dies quickly in every scenario. The US wanted to disrupt the emergence of the Euro as a possible emergency replacement to the US dollar should the US economy collapse. The US and EU then began trading blows with each other with the EU taking several blows from the US financial/political sector.
This has left the Greek economy with serious problems and facilitated calls by the idiot classes for it to leave the EU. Greek leaving the EU disrupts the emergence of the Euro and strengthens the US dollar. A strengthened US dollar leads to a stronger US and a stronger US leads to problems all over the world, which of course, leads to a strengthened 'left-wing' in many states!
This all took roughly three weeks and the original Occupy movement had its place in this environment. After the skirmish was over, the 'players' moved on and the remnant movement was simply adopted by various disparate groups of opportunists and the marginalised and ineffective. The police 'clear-up' was defined by the Occupy movements inability to properly defend itself as a result of being led by these opportunists.
So what we have here is a movement created and dumped by the very thing that the later crowd attempted to take on. That was nothing more than smoke and mirrors. No prizes for guessing why this was an ineffective 'tactic'!
Everywhere you go, you are walking in the empires footprints! The empire cannot be defeated in this way. Which is why so much progressive rhetoric is meaningless and isn't supported by the masses, almost all of which, are now very tired of promises and yet more promises.
The current activist 'dialect' just isn't working.
You won't get anywhere until you have Toyota's in the streets, and a hit and run mentality.
In the bi-polar world of the western oligarch's, every candidate is bought and paid for with the empires gold. Any attempt to reform it, simply ends with the empire wearing different clothes.
Clothes do not maketh the man. They simply maketh his vassal.
Knot-Eyed Jaguar.