Ideas for focus on for the future of Occupy Canada

15 posts / 0 new

Wed, 2012-02-01 00:32

Krystalline Kraus Krystalline Kraus's picture

As North Americas Occupy movement is in a state of transition (let me just take a moment to give a huge shout out to Occupy Newfoundland and Occupy Oakland!)....

MIC CHECK! MIC CHECK!

...I would love it if all of you smart and soulful political junkies, radicals and cosmonauts could come up with some advice for the Occupy movement as to

1: what is should be spending its time on now

2: should we re-occupy in May, 2012?

Please leave your posts below and I will incorporate them into an Activist Communique!

You guys rock more than rocks! It's been such a pleasure working for you. I just hope I'm doing right by you all. I really hope.

Sincerely,

Krystal

Issues Pages:

Occupy

Regions:

Wed, 2012-02-01 01:33

Boom Boom

I think after the past week, senior citizens in Canada will join the Occupy Movement by the hundreds of thousands. If not, we should reach out to them.

Wed, 2012-02-01 04:30

epaulo13

http://rabble.ca/babble/activism/occupy-global

..i posted this in occupy global. it's getting down to the business of creating a new world inside the old. the speed at which the movement is growing is almost breathtaking.

Making Worlds: An OWS Forum on the Commons
February 16-18, 2012

An Invitation
The Occupy movement is entering a new phase, one in which many of us feel the need of combining a renewed engagement with direct actions and mobilizations with a deep reflection on the strategic objectives of our movement. In order to fulfill this need, the organizing committee of Making Worlds* is inviting all the Occupy supporters and sympathizers as well as other organizations to participate in this Forum on the politics of the commons. In particular, we are interested in understanding how groups and communities working on housing, health care, education, food, water, energy, information, communication and knowledge resources can develop a vision of these resources as commons, that is, as an alternative form of social organization to the state and corporate capitalism. Making Worlds has the ambitious goal of articulating a strategic vision from and for the movement as well as specific political initiatives aiming at its realization.....

http://makingworlds.wikispaces.com/

Wed, 2012-02-01 10:40

R.E.Wood

How about writing a coherent title for this thread?

Wed, 2012-02-01 11:21

KenS

Something to be considered, thrown into the hopper:

There is always a danger in repeating tactics. Thought needs to be put into whether we can expect the dynamic to be similar.

Is there more to be lost than "oh well, that didnt work this time" if the broad response to renewed [physical] occupations is yawning this time?

Maybe May 2012 is an opportunity that should be looked at as an opening that needs to be got right at the ouset? And maybe the interest and sympathy the broad public has shown requires that 'Occupy' not be taken so literaly?

A pause for thought that because renewed [physical/literal] Occupation highly appeals to the choir doing most of the singing, does not mean it is the most effective thing to do.

Wed, 2012-02-01 12:45

Slumberjack

If the consensus is about addressing the economic power structures in order to get their attention toward solutions, I wouldn't know how to do that, or why anyone would want to keep trying anymore for that matter, when power hasn't listened to anything for decades. Encampments and subsequent police violence will only retain the attention of media for so long, after which and after the cameras are gone, the police always feel they can really step things up.

I think a general coast to coast strike would stir things up, but that type of solidarity is only a fictional hypothesis nowadays, and what little history we've heard of such actions has faded from most memories, having taken place so long ago. Capitalism can't be fixed, that is the clear certainty, along with the demonstrated fact that the type of politics operating within it, or by its procedures, are incapable of effectively bringing forward petitions on behalf of the collective human agenda. It's the people who have to be awakened to this reality. Many already are, it's just that individually and within the communities there doesn't appear to be a way out. Is it right to continue asking a few representatives from among the many...the 99%...to place themselves before swinging batons in order to gain public recognition? Everyone I converse with...from family, friends, acquaintances, co-workers either union or non-union, say similar things. They are fed up with corporatism with its politics as usual even if they can't exactly define what it is and how it all operates together. They know what is wrong but not how to change anything, because there are no obvious avenues for change. 'There is no representation' seems to be a common theme everywhere...except that here, they tell us it is available if only the right candidate is selected who has the right personal appeal and such, style in other words.

Flash occupations might be one way to avoid the worst of the unpleasantries from security battalions....and not necessarily confined to squares and parks. There are tons of companies and retail outlets that are as responsible for oppression and bloodshed as the police and imperial military adventures are. Some of them even sell camping gear. There was an account from mythology where lamb's blood or something was spread on certain doors so that the vengeful spirit would pass from them. Something like that except that in today's circumstances, you'd want the vengeful spirit dropping in. And with there being not nearly enough lambs for that kind of work....anything red could be substituted. Anyway...its public awakening and not attention from power that might make for a better campaign this time around. Anything really that might avoid the martyrdom of people being beaten up and imprisoned.

Wed, 2012-02-01 14:00

Slumberjack

Occupy Oakland after the Crackdown

Quote:
I was embittered at the fact that at the end of the day hundreds of people were violently subdued, arrested, and thrown into Santa Rita jail and that we were unsuccessful in what we had set out to do that morning, our momentum squandered.

And I felt angry that at the end of a day which was supposed to be about collective liberation, service through directed collectivization of material resources, and reappropriation of space to satisfy the needs of communities robbed of their most basic social, economic, and human entitlements for too long, I did not feel liberated, I felt angry.

I took from that day that anger was to be the dominant lens through which so many of us would experience the day's events, as that blinding emotion motivated a police officer to drastically overstep his authority in a disgusting display of sociopathology and knock the teeth out of a woman's mouth with his metal baton. I witnessed the power of that incredible motivator to extinguish all reason, or perhaps to amplify desperation, when plastic shields challenged kevlar armor and disparate bottles and stones freckled chemical clouds of noxious chemicals, their bearers picked off with rubber bullets traveling at sufficient velocity to rupture an inopportunely positioned spleen. My appreciation for their efforts at shielding the still less protected crowd was overshadowed by my sadness at our situational disempowerment and complete lack of strategic focus.

Wed, 2012-02-01 14:51

NDPP

This may assist. And I concur. Learn to and why to HATE THE RICH! Also keep clear of all politicians, and especially those that say they are for the same things you are for.

Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz Speaks to Occupy Oakland (and vid)

http://mobilebroadcastnews.com/Newsroom/Tom-Vee/Roxanne-Dunbar-Ortiz-Spe...

scroll down to 1/29/2012

Text of Above:

http://djripley.tumblr.com/post/16684755825/occupy-oakland-rally-january...

"...It should not have happened that the great civilizations of the western hemisphere, the very evidence of the western hemisphere, would be wantonly destroyed, the progress of humanity interrupted and on the path of greed and destruction.

Choices were made that forged that path of destruction of life itself, the moment in which we now live, and die. It is no longer a choice to know this history, rather a requirement for survival.

It's name is capitalism; it's method is colonialism and imperialism.."

Wed, 2012-02-01 18:00

milo204

OWS needs to i think start a dual reaching out phase as well as continued/flash occupations depending on whats better in that area. it needs to connect more with people who don't already think that way and get to people who aren't familiar with left wing politics. That's how we can reach the critical mass necessary to get something done.

also an underground urban art campaign to get the message out would be good. some well placed street art, music, theatre, writing, etc during the summer with free performances would get people out who could then be informed of the message behind OWS.

AND reaching out to rural communities would be huge. they mostly get the message, are ignored by other groups and have clout politically! Maybe an OWS tour that goes from town to town and hold info meetings, debates. etc.

Wed, 2012-02-01 21:35

#10

Doug

Some focus on the bread-and-butter issues around income inequality would be good. A general problem with Occupy in various places has been the tendency to go off on tangents and try to cram everything but the kitchen sink onto their agenda.

Thu, 2012-02-02 02:27

#11

milo204

agreed. as far as the outward message goes, but internally pretty much every issue is tied into capitalism in some way and that has to be a part of the internal discussion.

Fri, 2012-02-03 19:26

#12

JKR

These issues are all global in nature so it makes sense that the Occupy movement become an "Occupy the Globe" or "Occupy Earth" movement or some such thing.

Our nation-state system was established by the bourgeoisie in order to divide the world's working class. Maybe it's time that the worlds working class come up with an alternate system?

What would happen if the occupy movement supported the idea of setting up a global parliament elected by the world's people through proportional representation?

I wonder if the NDP could get behind such a proposal. Considering Saganash has so much experience with the UN, it would be interesting to hear his viewpoint regarding a global peoples' parliament.

Marx was right when he said "Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains."

Sat, 2012-02-04 14:40

#13

milo204

interesting, but we can't even organize a peoples government here, let alone one that spans the entire world. I think we have much work to do before that becomes a possibility.

Sat, 2012-02-04 15:30

#14

Howard

I think "we are the 99%" was a great slogan, but the movement didn't evolve into enough more than that.

I think the 99%ers needed to radicalise and occupy things that would inconvenience the 1% (and really only the 1%).

Before that, the 99%ers should have tried to get people to make personal pledges that would address the issues of inequality. Everyone in the country could have come up with at least one idea and/or personal commitment to make this a more fair and equal place. This way more people could get involved without feeling like they needed to camp out or take to the streets (which is not everyone's cup of tea). The same challenge could be put out to public and private institutions.

Mon, 2012-02-06 00:01

#15

JKR

milo204 wrote:

interesting, but we can't even organize a peoples government here, let alone one that spans the entire world. I think we have much work to do before that becomes a possibility.

One reason the Occupy Movement can't gain sufficient traction here is that many people here in our advantaged country benefit from global capitalism. The global race to the bottom is not respecting borders and overall the world's working class is losing the prospect of having a decent quality of life as the globes prosperous 1% make more and more gains.

Without a global perspective, people can't understand why the working class throughout the world is getting squeezed. To be succesful the Occupy Movement has to take a global perspective. Once they do that, coherent solutions will become more apparent.

Everyone in the Occupy movement and every progressive should be familiar with Foxconn.

Apple Boycott Urged Over Foxconn Investigation