6 October 2011
OWS Is a Kick in the Ass to Intellectuals http://cryptome.org/0005/ows-intellect.htm

---

Date: Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:17:33 -0500
From: Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldrift[at]gmail.com>
To: nettime-l[at]mail.kein.org
Subject: Re: <nettime> more on Wall St (and Wisconsin)
Hey Dan, thanks for a great text and a reminder of one of the most important struggles in the US in recent years. Occupy Wisconsin! I would take this as an opportunity rather than a disadvantage. When the system, in its faceless abstraction, presents you with a bill you cannot pay, then there is an existential interest in confronting the abstraction itself. We have good names for that, ones that everyone can recognize: greed, dehumanization, capitalism. Since there is no single face to these abstractions, ultimately you have to look around and say, those concepts are in operation right here, where we live, in our town. They are what is faceless in the faces that we see. The abstractions are concrete. We must struggle with them in our own everyday relation to society.
The Wisconsin protests inspired people all over the United States. They showed us that a broad-based social movement on the left is possible. The movement that began on Wall Street is a kick in the ass to intellectuals: it shows us that people are ready to resist the faceless abstraction, and it challenges everyone - the organic intellectuals, ourselves - to develop ways of talking and understanding that can resist and transform "the great decentered multinational communications network in which we find ourselves caught as individual subjects." I fully agree that to do this, the struggles must be articulated in their particularities. But they also must be articulated to what is entirely new: the readiness of a broad-spectrum American social movement to confront the very heart of our society, which is a hierarchy, a rank order defined by the control over money.
"We are the 99%" has a lot of meanings. Such as: "We have to abolish the system of measurement that gives the faceless faces control of the world." It's really time to stop business as usual.

Occupy Wall Street, occupy Chicago, occupy everything -

Brian
# distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
# <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
# collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
# more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
# archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime[at]kein.org

An interesting little fact that all need to mull over.... It was HS and the NSC that ordered that the barriers be up and to stop protesters from entering Wall Street - not the City nor NYPD! So, HS et al. considers that area a 'National Security Facility'!! Think about it. Our money they play with [though they think it theirs], but we are not allowed to enter the holy of holies - their Temple of Greed. Of course 'Wall Street' is not just on Wall Street - but spread throughout the City and Country in Banks, Brokerage Houses, Insurance Companies, Corporate Offices, Homes, properties and hidden accounts of the ultra-rich, and Ancillary Bankster facilities - the other temples to that same cult. :mexican:

OCCUPY (Insert Your City Here): Protesting Capitalism's Crisis

Let me spool you up on what's going on with the Occupy movement. It's an open source protest (there's lots about how open source protests and insurgencies work on this blog, in posts all the way back to 2004). So, it's not like the protests you've seen in the past (just as the insurgency in Iraq was different than 20th Century insurgencies). This protest is more like what we saw in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, etc. You know, the protests that toppled governments. The big difference between this protest and those protests is that it's not directed at governments. It's aimed at companies. Not just any companies, it's aimed at the banks that run/own the global economy. The heart of the global Capitalist system.So, why have governments suffered disintermediation (either consciously or subconsciously by these protestors)? This protest is ignoring governments and standard political processes because:

• governments are much weaker than the global economy (they are bankrupt, hollow shells of what they were at the end of the Cold War),
  
• they are too ineffectual and/or corrupt to change anything even if they are coerced (see the US, Ireland and Greece for recent examples),
  
• too little will change even if the government changes parties (see the US for how lame politics and politicians have become).
  

What Occupy is Really AboutThe real reason we are seeing this movement right now is becauseCapitalism, the last great ideological system, is in crisis. This isn't merely a crisis of outcomes (economic depression, financial panic, etc.), it's a crisis of BELIEF. While people generally believe in the idea of capitalism, a critical mass of people now think that the global capitalist system we currently have is so badly run, so corrupt, so terrible at delivering results that it needs either a) a complete overhaul or b) we need to build something new. In short, in its tiny way, this protest may be the start of a reformation of the church of capitalism. A splintering that may change everything.... For better or worse depending on how well you did in the old, corrupt system.

This afternoon, a contingent of Occupy Wall Street protesters will march to Washington Square Park for a massive general assembly at 3 p.m. They describe it as an opportunity to recruit new supporters: "The Washington Square Park thing is a great way to bring us to the next level," said Michael Fix, an organizer of the demonstration. Already, a flock of skateboarders have started making their way down Broadway.

[TABLE="class: clear-block, width: 663"]
[TR]
[TD]Published Sep 30 2011 by Yes! Magazine, Archived Sep 30 2011
Five ways #OccupyWallStreet has succeeded

by Mark Engler
#OccupyWallStreet protests are now well into their second week, and they are increasingly capturing the public spotlight. This is because, whatever limitations their occupation has, the protesters have done many things right.
I will admit that I was skeptical about the #OccupyWallStreet effort when it was getting started. My main concerns were the limited number of participants and the lack of coalition building. One of the things that was most exciting about the protests in Madisonand the global justice protests of old such as Seattle and A16was that they brought together a wide range of constituencies, suggesting what a broad, inclusive progressive movement might look like. You had student activists and unaffiliated anarchists, sure; but you also had major institutional constituencies including the labor movement, environmentalists, faith-based organizations, and community groups. The solidarity was powerful. And, in the context of a broader coalition, the militancy, creativity, and artistic contributions of the autonomist factions made up for their lack of an organized membership base.
With #OccupyWallStreet, the protest did not draw in any of the major institutional players on the left. Participants have come independentlymostly from anarchist and student activist circlesand turnout has been limited. Some of the higher estimates for the first day's gathering suggest that a thousand people might have been there, and only a few hundred have been camping out.
That said, this relatively small group has been holding strong. As their message has gained tractionfirst in the alternative media, and then in mainstream news sourcesthey have drawn wider interest. On Tuesday night, Cornel West visited the occupied Zuccotti Park and spoke to an audience estimated at 2,000. Rallies planned for later in the week will likely attract larger crowds. People will come because the occupation is now a hot story.
#OccupyWallStreet has accomplished a great deal in the past week and a half, with virtually no resources. The following are some of the things the participants have done that allowed what might have been a negligible and insignificant protest to achieve a remarkable level of success:
1. They chose the right target.

The #OccupyWallStreet protesters have been often criticized for not having clear demands. They endured a particularly annoying cheap shot from New York Times writer Ginia Bellafante, who (quoting a stockbroker sympathetically) resurrected the old canard that no one who uses an Apple computer can possibly say anything critical about capitalism. Such charges are as predictable as the tides. Media commentators love to condescend to protesters, and they endlessly recycle criticism of protests being naïve and unfocused.
I am among those who believe that the occupation would have benefited from having clearer demands at the outsetand that these would have been helpful in shaping the endgame that is to come. But protesters have largely overcome the lack of a particularly well-defined messaging strategy by doing something very important: choosing the right target.
Few institutions in our society are more in need of condemnation than the big banks and stockbrokers based where the critics are now camped. "Why are people protesting Wall Street?" For anyone who has lived through the recent economic collapse and the ongoing crises of foreclosure and unemployment, this question almost answers itself.
The protest's initial call to action repeatedly stressed the need to get Wall Street money out of politics, demanding "Democracy not Corporatocracy." Since then, many protesters have been emphasizing the idea that "We Are the 99 Percent" being screwed by the country's wealthiest 1 percent. At Salon, Glenn Greenwald writes:

Does anyone really not know what the basic message is of this protest: that Wall Street is oozing corruption and criminality and its unrestrained political powerin the form of crony capitalism and ownership of political institutionsis destroying financial security for everyone else?....
So, yes, the people willing to engage in protests like these at the start may lack (or reject the need for) media strategies, organizational hierarchies, and messaging theories. But they're among the very few people trying to channel widespread anger into activism rather than resignation, and thus deserve support and encouragementand helpfrom anyone claiming to be sympathetic to their underlying message.

Notably, young protesters have been able to convey the idea that their generation, in particular, has been betrayed by our economy. This idea was picked up in remarkably hard-hitting commentary at MarketWatch.com, which reads like more like something you'd expect to find in the socialist press than on a business website:

[A]sk yourself how you might act if you were in school or fresh out of it or young and unemployed. What future has Wall Street, the heart and brain of our capitalist country, promised you? How does it feel to be the sons, daughters and grand kids of a "me" generation that's run up the debt and run down the economy?
Unemployment is between 13% and 25% for people under 25. Student loans are defaulting at about 15% at a time when more young people have no alternative but to borrow to pay for school.
Meanwhile, Wall Street bonuses continue to be paid at close to all-time highs. Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS), took home $13.2 million last year, including a $3.2 million raise.

Such a message resonates with many, and protesters did something important to attract them:
2. They made a great poster.

I write this partially in jest. There is a joke among labor organizers that if you are spending all your time obsessing over the quality of your posters or handouts, rather than going out to actually talk to people, you are in big trouble.
In this case, however, there's some truth to the idea that posters matter. When you're not mobilizing an established organizational membership, but rather trying to capture the imagination of unaffiliated activists, protest planning is more akin to promoting a concert than staging a workplace strike. And if you're doing that kind of promotion, how cool your call to arms is makes a difference.
#OccupyWallStreet has benefited from a series of great posters and promotional materials. Foremost among them is a lovely depiction of a ballerina dancing on top of Wall Street's famous bull statue, created by the veteran leftist image-makers at Adbusters. The text below the bull reads simply: "#OccupyWallStreet. September 17th. Bring tent."
The poster hinted that the event would be exciting and creative and audacious. It suggested that culture jamming and dissident art would be part of the adventure. And it pointed to another thing the protesters did right:
3. They gave their action time to build.

Most protests take place for one afternoon and then are finished. Had #OccupyWallStreet done the same, it would already have been forgotten.
Instead, planners told participants to get ready to camp out. The event operated on the premise that challenging Wall Street would take a while, and that things would build with time. In fact, this is exactly what has happened. It took a few days for alternative press sources to catch on, but now the occupation is a leading story at outlets such as Democracy Now!.
The extended time frame for the protest has allowed for the drama of direct action to deepen, which is my next point about the protesters:
4. They created a good scenario for conflict.

By claiming space in Zuccotti Park (also known as Liberty Plaza), #OccupyWallStreet set up an action scenario that has effectively created suspense and generated interest over time.
Participants there have invoked Tahrir Square. On the one hand, the comparison is silly, but on the other hand, the fact that occupations of public space have taken on a new significance in the past year is another thing that made #OccupyWallStreet a good idea. If the authorities allow them to continue camping out in lower Manhattan, the protesters can claim victory for their experiment in "liberated space." Of course, everyone expects that police will eventually swoop in and clear the park. But, contrary to what some people think, civil disobedients have long known that arrests do not work against the movement. Rather, they illustrate that participants are willing to make real sacrifices to speak out against Wall Street's evils.
The fact that police have used undue force (in one now-famous incident, pepper spraying women who were already detained in a mesh police pen and clearly doing nothing to resist arrest) only reinforces this message.
When will the police finally come and clear out the occupation's encampment? We don't know. And the very question creates further suspense and allows the protest to continue gaining momentum.
5. They are using their momentum to escalate.

Lastly, but probably most importantly, the #OccupyWallStreet effort is using its success at garnering attention in the past week and a half to go even bigger. Their action is creating offshoots, with solidarity protests (#OccupyBoston, #OccupyLA) now gathering in many other cities. Protesters in Liberty Plaza are encouraging more participants to join them. And they are preparing more people to risk arrest or other police reprisal.
There's a lot of misinformation about the occupation of Wall Street. What's it really about?
It might seem obvious that a protest movement would treat a successful event as an occasion to escalate. But, in fact, it is quite rare. More established organizations are almost invariably afraid to do so: afraid of legal repercussions, afraid of the resources it would require to sustain involvement, afraid of bad press or other negative outcomes. Such timidity is anathema to strategies of nonviolent direct action.
In this respect, the fact that #OccupyWallStreet has not relied on established progressive organizations ends up being a strength. Its independent participants are inspired by the increasing attention their critique of Wall Street is getting, and they are willing to make greater sacrifices now that their action has begun to capture the public imagination.
This can only be regarded as a positive development. For the more that people in this country are talking about why outraged citizens would set up camp in the capital of our nation's financial sector, the better off we will be. #OccupyWallStreet protesters have gotten that much right.

---

Mark Engler is a senior analyst with Foreign Policy In Focus and author of How to Rule the World: The Coming Battle Over the Global Economy (Nation Books, 2008). He can be reached via DemocracyUprising.com. He is a contributor to Dissent Magazine, where this article originally appeared.


Original article available here


[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


The Conversation

Conservatives Support Protests

Posted on October 7, 2011 by WashingtonsBlog

Conservative Groups Support Protests

Last month, I called on conservative groups to endorse the Occupy Wall Street protests:
Yesterday, the Oath Keepers and a founding member of the Tea Party announced that they are supporting the protests:

Common Ground Between Conservatives and Liberals

As I've previously noted, both liberals and conservatives hate corporate socialism (where the federal government favors giant corporations at the expense of the little guy) . The Oathkeepers announcement zeroes in on this issue in a way that both conservatives and liberals can agree on:
Karl Denninger one of the founders of the Tea Party supports the protests (even if he doesn't agree with some of the positions taken by some of the protesters) Denninger posted the following letter today:

Michael Moore Doesn't Speak for the Protest

While Michael Moore says that capitalism itself is the problem, Mr. Moore is wrong. Indeed, one of the main organizers of the protests told me that Moore's statement is very counter-productive.
As I've previously noted:

Corrupt Politicians Enable Wall Street Corruption

The Oathkeepers and conservative alternative media powerhouse Alex Jones also zero in on the Federal Reserve system as a core problem. As Oath Keepers notes in its announcement:
While progressives might assume that the Fed has helped the economy from getting worse, or that the importance of ending the Fed is being overhyped, top economists and financial experts disagree. Seethis, this and this.
As I pointed out Monday, whatever people think the government should do, the D.C. politicos have actually been a large part of the problem:

WWII Vet to Wall Street Protesters: "I Am So Proud Of All You People"

Posted on October 7, 2011 by WashingtonsBlog
WWII and Other Military Vets Support Wall Street Protest

A reader posted the following comment regarding the Occupy Wall Street protests: I'm not certain whether the reader is one of these gentlemen attending the Occupy Wall Street protests:


In fact, military men of all ages support the protests:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp-eapYpL...r_embedded

Posted in Politics / World News | 10 Comments

Libertarian Wall Street Protesters Demand End to the Fed

Posted on October 7, 2011 by WashingtonsBlog


Libertarians Support Wall Street Protest to End the Fed

Ron Paul says that the Wall Street protests are legitimate, and that they are really protesting against the Federal Reserve.
One of the protest organizers tells me that a large proportion of the protesters are Ron Paul supporters. Most of them believe that ending the Federal Reserve is the most important step to restore our country's prosperity. See this, this and this.
Remember, even the Wall Street Journal has called for the Fed to be broken up.
As I have extensively documented, the Fed is largely responsible for the economic crisis, and has failed to meet a single one of its stated mandates (let alone its implied ones).
The Fed has been enabler-in-chief for the corruption rampant on Wall Street.
And as I noted Tuesday: Obama Is Not the Answer

Libertarians also point out that while the Obama campaign and Democratic National Committee are trying to hijack the Wall Street protests they have been part of the problem, not part of the solution.
They point out that Obama has appointed Wall Street insiders to all of his key economic posts, andaccepted more money from Goldman Sachs and the other big Wall Street banks than anyone else (andis still raking it in). As such, despite his populist rhetoric, he's with Wall Street, not the protesters. Indeed, he is Wall Street.
They point out that Obama has continued the process of turning the U.S. into a banana republic, and whether you call it communism, fascism or crony capitalism, Obama has been at least as bad as Bush.
They point out that Obama has been a wolf in sheep's clothing, someone who thinks high levels of unemployment are good.
They point out that Obama has been more brutal than Bush and has destroyed our liberties even fasterthan Bush.
For these reasons, libertarians correctly state that re-electing Obama is not the answer. And they note that Ron Paul's consistent, decades-long positions are much closer to the American peoples' demandsthan Obama's.
Postscript: I voted for Obama. But anyone who still thinks Obama will save us is high.
On the other hand, libertarians have been out of power for a long time. Neoliberals and Neoconservatives two masks on a single face of corruption have been in the driver's seat for decades. Libertarians should welcome the protests as a chance to challenge the status quo, to promote liberty and to end the Fed the chief enabler of corruption in our country today.
Folks dismissing the Occupy protests as being Obama propaganda or left-wing haven't yet learned the facts, are blaming the fact that the mainstream Democratic party is trying to infiltrate the movement on the protesters, or are letting Fox, Drudge or other mainstream news sources blow a sub-set of the overall protests out of proportion. See this, this and this. Indeed, as the Associated Press notes, the protesters are fed up with BOTH mainstream parties.

Posted in Politics / World News | 7 Comments

DC Protest Pepper Spray Incident Incited By Agent Provocateurs

http://ampedstatus.org/dc-protest-pepper...vocateurs/

Keith Millea Wrote:How about this:

Respectfully not letting Rep.John Lewis(human rights icon)give a statement to the crowd.All decisions are by consensus voting.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QZlp3eGM...e=youtu.be

I think that is the only major mis-step this movement has made so far. He could have brought the Civil Rights Movement and many Blacks associated with it into this movement.....it might have alienated some; I hope he tries again and they allow him to speak. They likely didn't even know who he was, due to the age gap and historical amnesia in America. I know they have some fear the well-know persons could try to take over or co-opt their movement, but a speech by one - more so if it is an endorsement and asking those who respect them to respect OXS will not cause any harm. You can't build a movement without building a movement.