Activism

The Metamovement’s message: “We’re not buying it any more”

by

Instead, what is needed is for the 99% to walk away from the current unsustainable, rapacious, soul-destroying and Earth-destroying systems the 1% have so effectively exploited to their own advantage — the political, economic, work, media, education, health, and technology systems on which we are all, today, utterly dependent — and build a new culture with new systems and infrastructure, bottom-up, egalitarian, community-based, focused on the welfare and well-being of all, without the 1%’s help or the need for their support.

#Occupy – VOICES – Nov 6

by

– How I Got Off My Computer And Onto The Street At Occupy Oakland
– Anthropologist Graeber Turns Radical Side Loose in Zuccotti Park Protest
– #Occupy and Transition: resources for creating lasting change
– Jan Lundberg: How The Occupy Movement May Be Off-Base, and How It Can Evolve
– What’s the Black Bloc? And why is it important for the fate of the Occupy Movement? (links)

The Occupy Movement and the Black Bloc

by

The Occupy Movement is the most significant development of the year – together with Arab Spring and the Indignados protests in Mediterranean countries. Occupy is important for those of us who follow Peak Oil and Transition, because it has the potential to change the political equation. As the rising price of oil and other commodities continues to threaten living standards in the US and other countries, protest movements are inevitable.

The Occupy Movement has struck a chord with the “99 percent.” Occupy Oakland, for example, saw somewhere between 5,000 and 25,000 people out in the street during the General Strike there Wednesday, November 2. I was struck by the presence of the black clad groups that appeared in the midst of the demonstration to trash stores, break windows, etc. These are the Black Bloc, a phenomenon which first appeared in the 80s and has been with demonstrations across the world ever since. How the Occupy Movement deals with the Black Bloc is critical for its future.

Below is a collection of excerpts/links for those who wish to learn more.

Capitalism and environmental catastrophe

by

The Occupy Wall Street movement arose in response to the economic crisis of capitalism, and the way in which the costs of this were imposed on the 99 percent rather than the 1 percent. But “the highest expression of the capitalist threat,” as Naomi Klein has said, is its destruction of the planetary environment. So it is imperative that we critique that as well. (Also – video of a talk by Fred Magdoff)

Oakland and after: Lessons from the general strike

by

There’s a lot to be said about the general strike yesterday in Oakland—in which thousands of people shut down banks and the fifth-largest port in the country—but here’s what I found especially striking about the strike: extreme message discipline. We usually think of message discipline in relation to political campaigns and the conscious attempt to mechanically repeat talking points. But here I found another kind of message discipline—of a more organic variety—in which people spoke about the same issue not out of a pre-designed plan but because their shared experiences were remarkably similar.

Elinor Ostrom Outlines Best Strategies for Managing the Commons

by

A breakthrough for the commons came in 2009 when Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel Prize for Economics. The first woman awarded this honor, the Indiana University political scientist not only made history but also helped debunk widespread notions that the commons inevitably leads to tragedy. In 50 years of research from Nepal to Kenya to Switzerland to Los Angeles, she has shown that commonly held resources will not be destroyed by overuse if there is a system in place to manage how they are shared.

A choice of contemplations

by

Last week’s post on the problematic nature of binary thinking went out of its way to sidestep the most explosive of the binaries in contemporary industrial culture: the binary between society as it is and society as we want it to become.

That’s become a hot issue in the news of late, and a significant part of that unfolds from the presence of the Occupy protests in various downtowns. There’s a complex magical context to that fact. The vast majority of Americans these days believe that something has gone very wrong with their country, but there’s nothing like a national consensus about what has gone wrong, much less how to fix it. By chance or design, the Occupy movement has capitalized on this by refusing to be pinned down to specific demands or specific critiques, mounting a protest in which protest itself is the central content. Tactically speaking, this is brilliant; it’s created a movement that anyone with a grievance can join.

Wall Street by the book

by

Once upon a time, no one imagined that an American world of home ownership and good jobs, of cheap gas and cheaper steaks, would ever end.  Nonetheless, it was kneecapped over the last few decades and it’s not coming back.  Not for you or your children, no matter what happens economically. So don’t kid yourself: whether you know it or not, young as you are, you’re in mourning, too, or Occupy Wall Street wouldn’t exist. Unlike the Tea Party, however, you are young, which means that you’re also a movement of the unknown future, which is your strength.