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Re: Occupy Wall Street

Verfasst: 10. Oktober 2011, 01:32
von Bwana Honolulu
Naja, bevor ich wirklich pennen gehe, noch kurz Nachschlag:
Crimethink hat geschrieben:Dear Occupiers

A letter from anarchists


Support and solidarity! We’re inspired by the occupations on Wall Street and elsewhere around the country. Finally, people are taking to the streets again! The momentum around these actions has the potential to reinvigorate protest and resistance in this country. We hope these occupations will increase both in numbers and in substance, and we’ll do our best to contribute to that.

Why should you listen to us? In short, because we’ve been at this a long time already. We’ve spent decades struggling against capitalism, organizing occupations, and making decisions by consensus. If this new movement doesn’t learn from the mistakes of previous ones, we run the risk of repeating them. We’ve summarized some of our hard-won lessons here.

Occupation is nothing new. The land we stand on is already occupied territory. The United States was founded upon the extermination of indigenous peoples and the colonization of their land, not to mention centuries of slavery and exploitation. For a counter-occupation to be meaningful, it has to begin from this history. Better yet, it should embrace the history of resistance extending from indigenous self-defense and slave revolts through the various workers’ and anti-war movements right up to the recent anti-globalization movement.

The “99%” is not one social body, but many. Some occupiers have presented a narrative in which the “99%” is characterized as a homogenous mass. The faces intended to represent “ordinary people” often look suspiciously like the predominantly white, law-abiding middle-class citizens we’re used to seeing on television programs, even though such people make up a minority of the general population.

It’s a mistake to whitewash over our diversity. Not everyone is waking up to the injustices of capitalism for the first time now; some populations have been targeted by the power structure for years or generations. Middle-class workers who are just now losing their social standing can learn a lot from those who have been on the receiving end of injustice for much longer.

The problem isn’t just a few “bad apples.” The crisis is not the result of the selfishness of a few investment bankers; it is the inevitable consequence of an economic system that rewards cutthroat competition at every level of society. Capitalism is not a static way of life but a dynamic process that consumes everything, transforming the world into profit and wreckage. Now that everything has been fed into the fire, the system is collapsing, leaving even its former beneficiaries out in the cold. The answer is not to revert to some earlier stage of capitalism—to go back to the gold standard, for example; not only is that impossible, those earlier stages didn’t benefit the “99%” either. To get out of this mess, we’ll have to rediscover other ways of relating to each other and the world around us.

Police can’t be trusted. They may be “ordinary workers,” but their job is to protect the interests of the ruling class. As long as they remain employed as police, we can’t count on them, however friendly they might act. Occupiers who don’t know this already will learn it firsthand as soon as they threaten the imbalances of wealth and power our society is based on. Anyone who insists that the police exist to protect and serve the common people has probably lived a privileged life, and an obedient one.

Don’t fetishize obedience to the law. Laws serve to protect the privileges of the wealthy and powerful; obeying them is not necessarily morally right—it may even be immoral. Slavery was legal. The Nazis had laws too. We have to develop the strength of conscience to do what we know is best, regardless of the laws.

To have a diversity of participants, a movement must make space for a diversity of tactics. It’s controlling and self-important to think you know how everyone should act in pursuit of a better world. Denouncing others only equips the authorities to delegitimize, divide, and destroy the movement as a whole. Criticism and debate propel a movement forward, but power grabs cripple it. The goal should not be to compel everyone to adopt one set of tactics, but to discover how different approaches can be mutually beneficial.

Don’t assume those who break the law or confront police are agents provocateurs. A lot of people have good reason to be angry. Not everyone is resigned to legalistic pacifism; some people still remember how to stand up for themselves. Police violence isn’t just meant to provoke us, it’s meant to hurt and scare us into inaction. In this context, self-defense is essential.

Assuming that those at the front of clashes with the authorities are somehow in league with the authorities is not only illogical—it delegitimizes the spirit it takes to challenge the status quo, and dismisses the courage of those who are prepared to do so. This allegation is typical of privileged people who have been taught to trust the authorities and fear everyone who disobeys them.

No government—that is to say, no centralized power—will ever willingly put the needs of common people before the needs of the powerful. It’s naïve to hope for this. The center of gravity in this movement has to be our freedom and autonomy, and the mutual aid that can sustain those—not the desire for an “accountable” centralized power. No such thing has ever existed; even in 1789, the revolutionaries presided over a “democracy” with slaves, not to mention rich and poor.

That means the important thing is not just to make demands upon our rulers, but to build up the power to realize our demands ourselves. If we do this effectively, the powerful will have to take our demands seriously, if only in order to try to keep our attention and allegiance. We attain leverage by developing our own strength.

Likewise, countless past movements learned the hard way that establishing their own bureaucracy, however “democratic,” only undermined their original goals. We shouldn’t invest new leaders with authority, nor even new decision-making structures; we should find ways to defend and extend our freedom, while abolishing the inequalities that have been forced on us.

The occupations will thrive on the actions we take. We’re not just here to “speak truth to power”—when we only speak, the powerful turn a deaf ear to us. Let’s make space for autonomous initiatives and organize direct action that confronts the source of social inequalities and injustices.

Thanks for reading and scheming and acting. May your every dream come true.
Außerdem das hier... XD

Re: Occupy Wall Street

Verfasst: 10. Oktober 2011, 03:46
von Tarvoc
even in 1789, the revolutionaries presided over a “democracy” with slaves, not to mention rich and poor.
Die Jakobiner hatten sehr wohl die Sklaverei abgeschafft, und sie unterstützten die Sklavenrevolution auf Haiti. Erst nach dem Thermidor und insbesondere unter Napoleon wurde die Sklaverei wieder eingeführt. Auch die Tatsache, dass die Jakobiner nicht die Privilegien der Großbesitzer brachen, ist nicht auf eine Unwilligkeit ihrerseits zurückzuführen, sondern auf ihre Unfähigkeit, den Produktionsprozess zu politisieren. Der sprichwörtliche jakobinische Terror war auch ein Resultat dieser Unfähigkeit. (cp. Zizek, Slavoj: In Defense of Lost Causes)

Re: Occupy Wall Street

Verfasst: 10. Oktober 2011, 09:46
von Bwana Honolulu
Hm, 2 Aspekte, an die ich mich im einzelnen jetzt nicht mehr erinnern kann. :kopfkratz: Aber der Terreur war doch sowieso eigentlich nur als "Mittel zum Zweck", als "notwendiges Übel" in einer Übergangsphase gedacht, wenn ich mich recht entsinne, und wenn der sein Ziel erreicht hätte, wäre wieder Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen Freiheit, Gleichheit, Brüderlichkeit angesagt gewesen...

Noch mal zum eigentlichen Thema des Threads:
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Re: Occupy Wall Street

Verfasst: 10. Oktober 2011, 10:32
von Tarvoc
Bwana Honolulu hat geschrieben:Aber der Terreur war doch sowieso eigentlich nur als "Mittel zum Zweck", als "notwendiges Übel" in einer Übergangsphase gedacht, wenn ich mich recht entsinne
Naja, in Robespierres Auffassung schwankt der Terror zwischen bloßem Mittel zum Zweck und direkter Manifestation des Volkswillens. Die Frage ist aber viel eher, warum die Jakobiner den Terreur als notwendiges Mittel wahrnahmen.
"They don't even have to realize it while we're cutting their balls off. They will still yell at us, but at some point, their voices will get higher." - Slavoj Zizek

Re: Occupy Wall Street

Verfasst: 10. Oktober 2011, 11:38
von Bwana Honolulu
tarvoc hat geschrieben:Naja, in Robespierres Auffassung schwankt der Terror zwischen bloßem Mittel zum Zweck und direkter Manifestation des Volkswillens. Die Frage ist aber viel eher, warum die Jakobiner den Terreur als notwendiges Mittel wahrnahmen.
Aha? Und warum?
tarvoc hat geschrieben:"They don't even have to realize it while we're cutting their balls off. They will still yell at us, but at some point, their voices will get higher." - Slavoj Zizek
Danke, dieses Zitat hat mir den Tag versüßt. XD

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Glaub' ich gerade nicht dran, aber das Bild ist toll - fast schon zu gut.

Re: Occupy Wall Street

Verfasst: 10. Oktober 2011, 12:53
von Tarvoc
Bwana Honolulu hat geschrieben:Aha? Und warum?
Für diese Ansicht gibt es verschiedene Gründe, einige mehr, andere weniger berechtigt. Zuerst mal fällt der Terreur genau in die Zeit, in der alle anderen Nationen Frankreich den Krieg erklärten, und u.A. Österreich versuchte tatsächlich aktiv, die neuen revolutionären Institutionen Frankreichs mit Sympathisanten zu unterwandern. Robespierres Paranoia war in dieser Hinsicht also nicht völlig aus der Luft gegriffen. Ein anderer Punkt war wie gesagt die Unfähigkeit der Jakobiner, direkt in die ökonomischen (Besitz-)Verhältnisse einzugreifen. Diese Unfähigkeit machte es nötig, Mittel zu entwickeln, um Großbesitzer, denen man auf der ökonomischen Ebene nicht direkt beikommen konnte, auf der politischen Ebene an die Republik zu binden, letztlich eben mit Gewalt. Aber das sind natürlich nur zwei Gründe aus einer ganzen Reihe.
Bwana Honolulu hat geschrieben:Glaub' ich gerade nicht dran
Naja, das Wort "layoff" kann unter anderem heißen: Entlassung, Kündigung, unbezahlte Beurlaubung (bzw. zeitweise Entlassung). So gesehen ist das gar nicht so sehr aus der Luft gegriffen. Nur nach einem Layoff ist ein NYPD-Cop eben kein Cop mehr.

Re: Occupy Wall Street

Verfasst: 10. Oktober 2011, 13:00
von Bwana Honolulu
tarvoc hat geschrieben:Naja, das Wort "layoff" kann unter anderem heißen: Entlassung, Kündigung, unbezahlte Beurlaubung (bzw. zeitweise Entlassung). So gesehen ist das gar nicht so sehr aus der Luft gegriffen. Nur nach einem Layoff ist ein NYPD-Cop eben kein Cop mehr.
Ich hab's halt so interpretiert, daß im Falle von noch mehr layoffs - und zwar nicht all zu vielen mehr, darum ist nur von einem die Rede - die Cops, also auch und insbesondere die (noch) aktiven, angesichts dieser Bedrohung die Seiten wechseln. :kopfkratz:

Re: Occupy Wall Street

Verfasst: 10. Oktober 2011, 17:11
von Bwana Honolulu
Interessant, was drüben so im PD-Forum abläuft...
Luna hat geschrieben: http://occupywallst.org/forum/proposed- ... st-moveme/

The proposed list of demands for Occupy Wall Street. (My opinion of "Let's protest, THEN decide what we're protesting FOR is withheld, for the sake of the children."

Includes:
Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the "Books." World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the "Books." And I don't mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.
:facepalm:
Cain hat geschrieben: What's so stupid about that? Apart from the fact it's unachievable.

The simple fact is, paying off debt is economically unproductive activity, in the long run. When debt becomes unreasonably large, when people are being pushed into absolute povery to pay their debts, it is crushing potential and should be put aside. The Third World spent decades paying off the debts of dictators, and look at those poor bastards. Debt repayment turned Africa, one of the richest continents in the world in terms of resources, into an economic black hole in the global economy (corruption, by the same dictators taking out the loans, also contributed).

Athens became the city we know, the classical Athens of philosophy and democracy, precisely because the citizenry rose up, deposed their tyrants and their new leader, Solon, forgave all debts. Within a couple of decades, Athenians were dominating the Aegean sea and many of their markets.

Debt relief would be a jolt in the arm to the global economy.
Weiter hab' ich den Thread allerdings noch nicht gelesen...

Re: Occupy Wall Street

Verfasst: 11. Oktober 2011, 09:45
von Bwana Honolulu
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Lord Caramac hat geschrieben:
“Let me tell you a wonderful old joke from communist times.

A guy was sent from East Germany to work in Siberia. He knew his mail would be read by censors. So he told his friends: Let’s establish a code. If the letter you get from me is written in blue ink ,it is true what I said. If it is written in red ink, it is false. After a month his friends get a first letter. Everything is in blue. It says, this letter: everything is wonderful here. Stores are full of good food. Movie theaters show good films from the West. Apartments are large and luxurious. The only thing you cannot buy is red ink.

This is how we live. We have all the freedoms we want. But what we are missing is red ink. The language to articulate our non-freedom. The way we are taught to speak about freedom war and terrorism and so on falsifies freedom. And this is what you are doing here: You are giving all of us red ink.”
— Slavoj Žižek, from a speech given at Occupy Wall Street

Re: Occupy Wall Street

Verfasst: 11. Oktober 2011, 18:32
von Bwana Honolulu
Beim Spiegel gibt's ein Video zu der ganzen Occupy-Sache...

Anderswo geht's auch schon rund:
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Lord Caramac hat geschrieben:#OccupyDallas, #OccupySeattle, #OccupyBoston, #OccupySTL werden gerade von massivem Bullenaufgebot plattgemacht. Wer nicht im Krankenhaus landet, landet im Knast. In Boston wurde der Park geräumt und mit Zäunen abgesperrt, sämtliche zurückgelassenen Besitztümer der Parkbesetzer vor deren Augen zerstört.
:shock:
Erschreckend. Ich mein', OK, wir reden von den USA, wo Wahlen schon mal mit Gemauschel auf vermutetem Drittweltniveau ablaufen und Polizisten offenbar täglich 'ne Infusion Allmachtsgefühle bekommen, aber...