Politics

Book Review: Radical Gardening: Politics, idealism and rebellion in the garden

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The notion that politics only takes place in the voting booth or halls of state basically evaporated in the 1960s. We now know that political acts occur in a range of settings: in our neighborhoods, bedrooms, kitchens, and, yes, even in our gardens.

Occupy as a New Societal Model & Ways To Improve It

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How well Occupy grows depends in part on the effectiveness of the basic political and economic processes it borrows or develops, the ability of these governance processes to be both inclusive and efficient, and the way its internal economic process can shift resources and skills to areas where needed, avoiding bottlenecks. Below are some suggestions (some of which are already being tried out at a few Occupy locales) for things that can improve the Occupy movement’s socio-economic-political processes.

How do you illustrate corruption? Artist Rachel Schragis explains

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Rachel Schragis is a 25-year-old New York City-based artist, educator and activist who created a flow-chart visualization of the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City. Since the image was posted on Facebook, comments began pouring in and the image was disseminated widely, not only among Schragis’ friends, but eventually by complete strangers.

“This image is profoundly not a solution: to either the injustices we face or my own (infinitely smaller) creative concerns. It is a statement of the problem, and its material being does not reflect the world we want: to start, it is drawn with (toxic) sharpies and distributed through the (unsustainably powered) internet. And the reality it states, let us not forget, is pretty bleak. I dream about making spaces that inspire justice – not just collections of words that show what’s wrong. And isn’t this really what OWS is about, at its core? Believing that if we start by stating the problems correctly, a better world than we can currently envision is possible. Demanding that we dream up that world, and build that dream. “

Open letter to the Occupy movement: why we need agreements

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A mask and a lack of clear expectations create a perfect opening for those who do not have the best interests of the movement at heart, for agents and provocateurs who can never be held to account. As well, the fear of provocateurs itself sows suspicion and undercuts our ability to openly organize and grow.

A framework of strategic nonviolent direct action makes it easy to reject provocation. We know what we’ve agreed to—and anyone urging other courses of action can be reminded of those agreements or rejected. We hold one another accountable not by force or control, ours or the systems, but by the power of our united opinion and our willingness to stand behind, speak for, and act to defend our agreements.

Presenting the economic policy of the cccupy movement

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If there is one thing the Occupy Wall Street movement has generated, it’s the opinion that there is no unifying agenda or policy being advanced by the Occupiers. Perhaps that explains why we (CASSE) have been asked repeatedly to contribute to that agenda and identify that policy. And perhaps the time has come to oblige.

Occupy Main Street

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Flash forward to October 2011. Those ruminations and years of activism – and the rumblings getting louder everywhere – are finally surfacing in the public square. We’re getting it! Finally and gloriously and intelligently and courageously. The occupations have been going on long enough that good suggestions are arising for the direction of this movement. Get political. Sustain dialogue. Demonstrate democracy in action. No matter what one’s prescription though, the marvel is that the occupation continues and is a school of democracy itself, a sustained bonding among people who normally have nothing to do with one another, who keep their heads down in tunnels of adaptation, still believing in the American Dream.

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

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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.