Politics

The Occupy primer: the essentials

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This is an emergency response to the destruction of the library at Occupy Wall Street, a clear attempt to destroy the education of passionate people who are tired of living in a deeply flawed system. Razing libraries and burning books has historically failed every time; this will be the most colossal failure to repress education in history, because the education will not be centralized.

[One of the 5 key books selected is “End of Growth” by Richard Heinberg]

Open letter to Occupy Wall Street participants: taking advantage of seasonal ‘down time’ ?

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We need to turn the “disadvantage” of seasonal down time to our advantage so as to be ready and able to push the Occupy movement much further, deeper and wider as winter becomes spring.

We need to come together, small group by small group, to begin the process of thinking things out. I’m suggesting that we start creating house parties, where people gather in people’s homes, to begin these processes.

Occupy – VOICES – Nov 17

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– Lessons from Iceland: The People Can Have the Power
– Ex-banker turned Hindu monk urges Wall Street to meditate
– Former Philadelphia Police Captain Joins Occupy Protesters, Gets Arrested
– Occupy the Skies! Protesters Could Use Spy Drones
– A Career Occupation
– 5,000 books reportedly thrown out in Occupy Wall Street raid
– Chris Hedges: This Is What Revolution Looks Like

Occupy – what next? – Nov 17

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– The end of OWS or the beginning of something else? (good article from Fortune)
– Adbusters, the OWS innovator, says movement should wind down and start up in spring
– Todd Gitlin: Liberty Park can be anywhere
– Occupy Wall Street: Time to become more overtly political? (CSM)
– As Occupy Camps Close, What’s Next For Movement? (NPR)
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Argentina learns not to pampa financiers

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As the credit noose tightens, it is not surprising that commentators are seeking examples of countries who found their way out of unrepayable debts – and lived to tell the tale. In the case of Argentina, whose debts at the time of its default in 2001 were $81bn. – a record for the time although dwarfed by current debts – life after debt has proved to be a very positive experience.

After the eviction: What’s next for Occupy Wall Street?

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It happens that just hours before, Adbusters magazine—which originally called for the occupation—promulgated “Tactical Briefing #18: Occupy the High Ground.” It suggested that perhaps the time has passed for the movement to be so focused on encampments, and that it might move on to bigger and better things instead. This is a notion that has come up repeatedly in my recent conversations with early organizers; after almost three months, they feel, the movement is starting to outgrow the occupation.

Aristotle’s Secret

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In an epoch when going to extremes has become one of the most popular habits in American culture, the very idea that a middle ground might be a more sensible place to stand is about as popular as garlic aioli at a vampire convention. Still, the obsession with binary thinking that’s done so much to back America and the industrial world into its present corner is unlikely to get us back out of it. With the help of a Greek philosopher, an Austrian mystic, and two famous California cities, the Archdruid explores some of the alternative territory.

Is global warming an election issue after all?

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Conventional wisdom has it that the next election will be fought exclusively on the topic of jobs. But President Obama’s announcement last week that he would postpone a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline until after the 2012 election, which may effectively kill the project, makes it clear that other issues will weigh in — and that, oddly enough, one of them might even be climate change.

The pipeline decision was a true upset. Everyone — and I mean everyone who “knew” how these things work — seemed certain that the president would approve it.