Occupational Hazards: new zine on how to keep the Occupy Movement real

This information is re-posted from Infoshop.org. You can download a pretty pdf of the zine at: http://www.autonomousappalachia.wordpress.com

Politicians

The beauty of the Occupy movement is that it is truly grassroots and people powered. It is horizontal, explicitly organized without leaders. It is our resistance as a collective body that gives us power. However there are those with intentions both good and bad that are always eager to co-opt and utilize effective social movements for their own purposes. Soon enough politicians and political parties (especially Democrats and yes even the Green Party) will be making promises that they alone can bring the change we want if only we give our allegiance, our money, and our vote to them. That is, they are asking us to cede our collective power in the streets so that they can pursue their private power from city hall to the White House. Already the headlines on many papers are talking about how Obama can use the Occupy movement to push his agenda. Lets be clear, the Occupy movement has nothing in common with the Democratic Party, they are just as beholden to Wall Street., militarism, and ecologically destructive practices as the Republicans. Nor are third parties the answer. Putting aside the fact that the electoral system is hopelessly rigged against them, why would we give up our collective, horizontal power to hierarchical, top down political parties in which we have little say? The occupy movement is creating something new, that is beyond the reach of political parties, lets keep it that way.

Police (the other 1%)

The Police might just be doing their job when they eventually evict us from the plaza, but they do in fact have a choice, just like we have a choice in whether to call in sick for work or not. A question we should ask is: If the Police really were part of the 99%, if they were really with us, then why would they evict us?

The Police help the banks evict us from our foreclosed homes everyday, but if they really were with us in this struggle-then why don’t they stop? This struggle against corporate greed requires people giving up roles (such as the police) that are needed to lubricate the nuts and bolts that keep the status quo. This would mean for them to not follow orders from their superiors, this would mean no longer being police.

The Police might be blue-collar or part of the “99%,” but they enforce the laws that keep the divide between the rich and the poor intact. The police are the protectors of the 1%. The police are the ones firing tear gas and rubber bullets whenever a demonstration gets out of hand. They are the ones who stand between every hungry person and the corporate grocery shelves stocked with food, between every homeless person and the buildings standing empty, between every immigrant and her family. The police are the ones who beat Occupy Wall St. protestors, who gunned down Sean Bell and Oscar Grant, and who murdered Fred Hampton in his bed. They are the ones who once enforced segregation in the United States and who back the bosses and the 1% in every labor strike.

The Police are an institution, that is an extension of the 1%, and are fundamentally and very concretely in the way of what we really want-the end of a society based on class divisions. The downtown police officers might be the nicest people in the world, but they will still be the ones evicting us from the park. They are still part of that same extension.

This means they’re not to be trusted by any of us involved in the occupation.

Dogmatic Nonviolence

Tunisia and Egypt are commonly cited as one of the main inspirations for the Occupy movement. Indeed these revolutions were inspiring to many around the world. However they have been mystifyingly portrayed as “nonviolent” revolutions. This could not be further from the truth. A quick survey of news reports show that while protestors for the most part remained unarmed (as in guns), these were far from nonviolent revolutions. These revolutions utilized a wide range of tactics including many peaceful occupations and marches. But, when necessary, people regularly defended themselves from police and pro-government thugs with burning barricades, rocks, and clubs. Police stations were burned, government offices were ransacked, cop cars overturned. These actions were taken out of a combination of rage at a corrupt system as well as a necessity to defend oneself, and in the end it worked.

So why do we bring this up? With little debate the Occupy movement has adopted a stance of nonviolence while at the same time holding up two, oftentimes violent, revolutions as its main inspiration. On the surface this is simply hypocritical, but it also brings up an important question. Is dogmatic adherence to nonviolence in our best interest as a movement?

We are not interested in perpetuating the violence/nonviolence dichotomy. Nonviolent tactics and more militant ones both have their strengths and weaknesses. We should choose our tactics based on effectiveness, not religious adherence to nonviolence nor fetishization of violence. Just as the people of Egypt at times had to resort to self defense and property destruction to achieve there goals, there may be a time in which the Occupy movement finds it to be strategic to use these tactics as well. And we should be ready to support them. It might be that some people have been beaten down so many times, their rage bottled up for so long that they topple a police barricade, or fight back when the police try to tear down our tents, or break out the windows at a bank. And we should support them, for their rage is real and just. That day might be a month from now, a year from now, or it might be this very moment.

The Occupy movement should wholeheartedly embrace a diversity of tactics from peaceful sit-ins to self defense against police attacks and economic sabotage. That does not mean that we use all of those tactics or that everyone has to agree with them, but at the very least we should be willing to not denounce each other in the media or cooperate with the police over differences in tactics.

Reform

The bane of every uprising is reform. The root of the problems that we are rising up against is this ruthless, exploitive, ecologically destructive economic system known as capitalism. Taxing the richest 1%, regulating Wall St, or ending corporate bailouts might free up a little more money for social programs and stop some of the worst abuses of the banks. But these band-aid reforms will not change the fact that those who produce the wealth for the rich, the working class, remain so poor that they must wait in line at DSS for food stamps or the Salvation Army for some warm clothes and a bowl of soup. It will not change the fact that corporations kill people for profit every day through unsafe work conditions, poisoned water, and polluted air.

The allure of reform is tempting. It is so much easier to patch up the cracks in the pillars of this system rather than tearing it all down to the ground. Reform can be presented in nice, pre-packaged form, ready made to be carried through the halls of Congress by politicians who will throw us a bone just big enough to stave off our hunger for true freedom until another day. A bone just big enough to keep us biting at their ankles rather than going for the jugular.

How do we get beyond reform, to truly overthrowing this system? To be honest there is no One Big Plan or blueprint for getting there. It is up to us to figure that out together in our communities, at our daily general assemblies, amongst our co-workers, and in our affinity groups. The horizontal, directly democratic (dare we say anarchistic? Oh my!) structure of the general assemblies is a good start. The question is how do we utilize the general assembly to get beyond making demands and begin creating autonomous communities. How do we in a collective manner continue to mount effective resistance while finding ways to provide for our basic needs outside of the capitalist economy? These processes take time. Let the politicians do what they will, our power is in the streets and the only way we have a chance at a world worth living is if we keep it there. Let the politicians go the way of the dinosaurs.

Stagnation

One of the greatest threats to the Occupy movement comes from within. Stagnation. If we get stuck in ruts, doing the same thing day in and day out, this vibrant uprising will become little more than a stale ritual. We must remain a dynamic force, constantly trying new approaches, pushing new boundaries, and escalating our tactics. The daily general assemblies and marches are great for now, but they alone can only maintain the movement’s energy and effectiveness for so long. At some point they will become the normal, a habit.

We must Experiment, Evolve, Escalate!

What else might we do? Disrupt a bank, project subversive movies on the sides of downtown buildings, squat foreclosed houses, organize student walkouts and work stoppages, take over a vacant lot for a garden, evict a developer’s office, provide free classes and skillshares, free healthcare, free clothing, free food and other acts of mutual aid. We need to think beyond just the act of occupation and realize the possibilities of what we can do with the liberated spaces we occupy.