Remembering the Love of Occupy

Documents in the New York Times have now revealed extensive surveillance of the Occupy movement using resource networks that were originally created by Homeland Security for preventing terrorist attacks.  Local authorities in several major cities were regularly sharing information on individual activists and speculating about the nature of demonstrations and protests.

Seems like a good time to remember some of the inspiration that brought thousands of people all across the nation to participate in Occupy events.  Bill Ritchey from Occupy Portland was one of the Anarres Project’s first speakers and he has shared with us his talk.  In it, he notes the frustrations that fed into the creation of Occupy and the love that kept it going before it was repressed (probably using information gathered in these networks).

Bill Ritchey

“Thinking outside the tent.” Bill Ritchey


Greeting sisters and brothers, and thanks for inviting me to speak. My name is Bill Ritchey , I’m from Occupy Portland.
Occupy is vast, it contains a huge amount of social and political ideas and expressions. I’m only going to speak from my experience about what I think we did that had the most important.

Everything that occupy did was amplified greatly by the spectacle of many brave people who were physically occupying public space. This was our first creative act. Because of the spectacle many people learned new ideas and are still learning.

Occupy showed Love, that was the 1st thing that it did. We led with Love. That was New, Bold and Creative. And Occupy offered Hope, in a time when Hope was the disappointing taste from a broken campaign promise.

Occupy began making history not by demanding but by defining the ideas of the left and the right. We spoke to peoples’ problems as Leftists in a country that was in an economic depression designed by the Right. Occupy spoke of left ideas like sharing, medicare, public transportation, the right to safe housing, socialism, anarchism, democracy, basic universal rights , food stamps, student debt reduction and so on as GOOD things. And Occupy spoke of right wing ideas such as privatization of public property, bank bail outs, wars for resource stealing, austerity, lowering taxes on the wealthy, private health insurance, cutting social services for everyone and so on as BAD ideas. Occupy spoke with a Class Consciousness and related it to specific ideas which immediately undid some of the ruling class’s lies about economy and gave more people an ethical framework paired to political ideas, we gave people a political vocabulary. We attracted the widest range of people by speaking this way, the young to the old, political activists to people who have never thought about politics, from the homeless to the rich.

Occupy flipped the story about the economic depression being the cause of a liberal president to it being the design of corporations & government corrupted by money and capitalism.

Its important to remember the political and economic world that Occupy was born into. The Designed economic decline of 30 years had reached to the middle class- suddenly this group was hurting-they couldn’t get jobs, they were losing their homes, often due to medical bills, they had student loans they couldn’t pay, their pensions vanished in a planned market crash. the list goes on…private charities and food panties were running out of funds, sick veterans were returning from two wars of imperialism, states were running out of food stamp funds, soup kitchens were even being overwhelmed with college educated people out of work, homelessness was on the rise, more families were living in cars, the whole country felt bleak. Poverty had spread from the bottom up to the educated middle class just as it had done during the great depression of the 20’s and 30’s. This was the USA that Occupy was born into and arguably it was these economic conditions that caused Occupy to be born in the first place.

Prior to Occupy there was little vocal challenge to the ruling class’ explanation of the rapidly deteriorating lifestyle of most people in the USA. As the economy became worse more middle class began to suffer and began to wonder why. It didn’t seem that they’d done anything wrong, they had played by the rules as seen on tv and magazines, they didn’t feel like they were to blame for their troubles. The corporate media, began to supply answers- its the fault of liberal school teachers, of liberal elites, of postal workers, of bus drivers, of people with public pensions, people who borrowed too much and people on food stamps.

The ruling class used the Tea Party to further shift the cause from capitalism. Its important to remember how the Tea Party only repeated the message of the ruling class. Occupy was also populist but it blamed the ruling class and capitalism for the problems.

The presence of a group like the Tea Party is predictable during a depression. During the 1930’s during that depression which was also planned and also global, Back then the RCA radio corporation had a right wing religious- radio show on several times a week which promoted rightwing solutions to the economic depression and cautioned against left wing solutions such as government job stimulation. Governmental job stimulation worked so well in the 30’s that we built the economy and infrastructure of the country w/ it until the 1980’s. How it worked is simple, some level of government agrees to buy something like a public school or repair a road and capitalists hire people and buy materials and do it. The jobs stimulate the economy and the government eventually gets back the cost of the project in taxes.

So the historical context of Occupy leads from one depression to the next. The country that most of us grew up in is a product of the response to the depression of the 1930’s. It is currently the leftwing gains made since then that is keeping the current depression from being worse. We still have some of the safety net such as unemployment insurance, minimum wage, overtime pay, social security, job related health insurance, medicaid and medicare, and pensions. These things didn’t exist before the left fought and won them since the 1930’s and and many people are not living on the street now, are still alive. because of these things. It is also this social safety net, that the ruling class wants to take from us now under the name of austerity.

. The fact that the ruling class is presently using the legal means of the corrupt government is using to shut down many portions of our public services is a signal that the economic situation isn’t on the verge of changing for the better, were it so the government would be undertaking a massive jobs stimulation program like building nation- wide solar and wind energy capabilities or dispensing w/ the fight over healthcare reform and just convert the medicaid- medicare system to full healthcare for all. Notice that during this current government shutdown the army isnt shut, the irs isn’t shut- the government entire state didn’t go away like in the libertarian dream of small government, we just now have more of a government by and for the rich.
Given facts like these its clear Occupy had the correct analysis about who is to blame. But that Occupy wasn’t the magic wand that would instantly reverse the situation.

Occupy held open meetings in public places, to practice democracy one has to practice democracy.
We invited everyone to come into the public parks to decide together what their local problems were and how to solve them. We modeled a democracy for everyone right outside their own front door. This was probably the most creative thing that we did and the least understood by people who didn’t see it up close. Occupy took over public spaces and rather then make demands which would have excluded people who didn’t agree with certain points, we held public meetings. This is traditional anarchist practice, using the affinity group as a basis for democracy but with Occupy doing it in more than 500 cities at the same time, most of it available live on the internet it was the biggest real time example of the networked affinity method of democracy that the world has ever seen. . The fact that we did this proved that people can meet democratically across wide areas at once. For most Occupiers it was the fact of a General assembly that made an Occupy, not the fact of occupying public space.

Occupy modeled a community that was self governing and that could provide social services to the most needy and with little resources. Our camps had everything a community needed, media, counseling,food, security, first aide, entertainment libraries, massage, art spaces, child care sanitation… we had all of that, in most Occupies the people who desperately needed social services overwhelmed the resources of the camps which were also under siege by the police. They were in fact disasters but they showed that people could build communities on their own which under better circumstances would have continued to function and they unfortunately demonstrated how many people in our society don’t receive enough love and material attention which is further proof that the capitalist system of resource distribution isn’t humane.

Occupy demonstrated solidarity by working with other groups and other occupies. In actions and issues such as public transportation, school board and postal cut backs and blocking the ports, solidarity always produced better results than what would have been expected by small groups working alone. Again, the concept of solidarity isn’t new but Occupy demonstrated its effectiveness to many people who had never experienced it. Occupy’s power came from its physical solidarity.

Occupy asked the question: is consumerism the problem? whether capitalist, reformist or socialist, isn’t our 1st world lifestyle unsustainable and unfair to the rest of the world? This question wasn’t something that the media picked up on. But it was a constant debate within Occupy.

Summary:
occupy showed love
we clarified the ideas of the left and right in ethical terms
we switched the blame for our many problems back to capitalism
we showed people how they could have direct democracy wherever they are
and we taught a more democratic way of deciding things.
we modeled diy city planning and social services
solidarity works.
is the 1st world lifestyle sustainable and ethical.?

But what next?
Many people who dream of radical social change study the history of John Brown.
In 1859, the anti- slavery proponent, John Brown lead an unsuccessful raid on a military base hoping it would cause a massive armed slave revolt. He was captured and tried. The mass uprising didn’t happen. But the Civil War began and slavery was ended, but John Brown didn’t know because he had been executed six years before.

Is it worth it to sit in parks and try to build a model for a new democracy?
history happens whether you pay attention to it or not, whether you try to influence it or not. Everything that is good in this world was made by people learning and struggling. Even if you do try to make the world a better place you will probably not know precisely or even if your actions have any effect whatsoever. But everything that is good in this world was created by people just like us, people who took the time from their lives to try to make things better. Nothing was given to us, it took work and it was the only thing that has been proven to work.

Thank You.

Until the Rulers Obey

Join us for an afternoon discussion with Clifton Ross and Marcy Rein, the editors of the new book Until the Rulers Obey, on Tuesday, March 4, 2014  from 12:00 – 2:00 PM.

Until the Rulers Obey brings together voices from the movements behind the wave of change that swept Latin America at the turn of the twenty-first century. These movements have galvanized long-silent—or silenced—sectors of society: indigenous people, campesinos, students, the LGBT community, the unemployed, and all those left out of the promised utopia of a globalized economy. They have deployed a wide range of strategies and actions, sometimes building schools or clinics, sometimes occupying factories or fields, sometimes building and occupying political parties to take the reins of the state, and sometimes resisting government policies in order to protect their newfound power in community.

This unique collection of interviews features five dozen leaders and grassroots activists from fifteen countries presenting their work and debating pressing questions of power, organizational forms, and relations with the state. They have mobilized on a wide range of issues: fighting against mines and agribusiness and for living space, rural and urban; for social space won through recognition of language, culture, and equal participation; for community and environmental survival. The book is organized in chapters by country with each chapter introduced by a solidarity activist, writer, or academic with deep knowledge of the place. This indispensable compilation of primary source material gives participants, students, and observers of social movements a chance to learn from their experience.

Contributors include ACOGUATE, Luis Ballesteros, Marc Becker, Margi Clarke, Benjamin Dangl, Mar Daza, Mickey Ellinger, Michael Fox, J. Heyward, Raphael Hoetmer, Hilary Klein, Diego Benegas Loyo, Courtney Martinez, Chuck Morse, Mario A. Murillo, Phil Neff, Fabíola Ortiz dos Santos, Hernán Ouviña, Margot Pepper, Adrienne Pine, Marcy Rein, Christy Rodgers, Clifton Ross, Susan Spronk, Marie Trigona, Jeffery R. Webber, and Raúl Zibechi.

See and hear editor interviews, book reviews, and other news on Clifton Ross’s Page HERE and Marcy Rein’s Page HERE

Transformation without Apocalypse – Episode #2: Susana Almanza

On February 14th and 15th, the Spring Creek Project sponsored a symposium entitled “Transformation Without Apocalypse:  How to Live Well on an Altered Planet.”  The second keynote presentation was given by Susana Almanza.

Susana Almanza is the Co-Director of People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER), and is one of three co-chairs for the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice. She has served on numerous committees including the EPA’s Title VI Implementation Advisory Committee and the City of Austin Environmental Board, and she is a former Planning Commissioner for the City of Austin. She resides in East Austin, Texas.   (www.poder-texas.org)

Continue reading “Transformation without Apocalypse – Episode #2: Susana Almanza”

What the climate justice movement can learn from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

Martin Luther King JrBy José-Antonio Orosco and originally published in the Times of Trenton guest opinion column on January 20, 2014.

Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize. One of the most striking aspects of his acceptance speech is the hope he expressed in humanity’s ability to overcome war. This was no mere idealism on his part. Less than five years earlier, the world had come to the brink of thermonuclear destruction because of Cuba. The United States and the Soviet Union eventually diminished their threats and, in 1963, signed and ratified an agreement to end the open-air nuclear testing that was blanketing the planet with radioactive fallout. These were small steps, but to King they indicated that human beings were capable of cooperation, even in the face of something as horrendous as the suicide of the human race.

Today, the possibility of the annihilation of humanity looms again because of climate change. In 1964, King could not have imagined the particular features of global environmental destruction that we now face. Yet, he had reflected carefully on the kinds of action needed to avert mass extinction before, so his work can still be useful today in thinking about directions for the climate justice movement.

First, King reminds us to think in terms of the “beloved community” in which we are all interconnected. That means that the injustices that we experience are also intertwined. For many climate activists, thinking about racism, sexism or poverty are side issues; after all, if there is no habitable Earth, then those problems won’t really matter. King cautioned against the view that injustices could be divided into neat, isolated silos. The world, he said, faces the danger of the “evil triplets”: racism, militarism and materialism. These are interrelated features, he thought, that are at the root of wars of aggression against distant peoples for control of natural resources needed to maintain the luxuries of a few.

Climate change activists today need to acknowledge the overlapping systems of injustice that make some people vulnerable to climate damage much more immediately. It will be poor countries, largely in the global south, that will suffer the most from environmental degradation of air, water and soil. In the U.S., extreme weather — as we have already seen with Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy — will disproportionately affect economically fragile areas, usually made up of historically marginalized communities: indigenous people, people of color, immigrants, the elderly and LGBTQ people. Climate justice activists will need to build alliances around these diverse issues and develop the capabilities to listen to, and lift up, the voices of disenfranchised people.

In his last years, King wrote about the forms of activism that were needed to confront the evil triplets. He warned activists not to get trapped by the usual mix of demonstrations and protests that were hallmarks of the early civil rights movement. With these forms of direct action, King believed the movement had fallen into “crisis thinking,” that is, reacting to injustice after it had already appeared. Complex justice would require mass protests, but it also meant getting out in front of social problems and building alternative civic and economic structures so that people would not have to rely on problematic state or corporate institutions. He called for organizing neighborhoods and creating diverse networks of allies that could support one another.

A glimpse of this kind of activism came about when Occupy organizers provided assistance in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Achieving climate justice, then, will mean not only protesting against this pipeline or that shipping port, but also working to connect local community gardens, alternative currencies, free libraries and medical clinics into thick webs reaching across urban and rural areas. This kind of organizing will enable widespread skill sharing and mutual aid, but also deliver a message that was dawning at the height of the Occupy movement: Another world is possible, and there are many across the world who desire to work together to build it.

King believed we had it within us to avoid mutually assured destruction. He also thought we were developing the insights and activist resources to radically align our world to the moral arc of the universe. The climate justice movement might become the place where we prove him right.

 

Guerilla to Grandmother

On October 31st, Katherine Ann Power spoke to a standing room only audience at Oregon State University about her evolution from student activist against the Vietnam War, to self-styled revolutionary guerrilla, to fugitive on FBI’s Most Wanted List, to her surrender and experiences as prisoner and penitent, to her deepening commitment to live as a “practical peace catalyst.”

Power was underground for 23 years, much of that time in the Corvallis area. She ultimately served six years in prison and 20 years of probation.

Her book “Surrender” is due to be released soon.

Surrender: Guerilla to Grandmother

Surrender: Guerilla to Grandmother
Join us for a noontime event and discussion with Katherine Ann Power on Friday, Oct 31st at Noon in MU206: Asian/Pacific Room.

Katherine Ann Power will talk about her evolution from student activist against the Vietnam War, to self-styled revolutionary guerrilla, to fugitive on FBI’s Most Wanted List, to her surrender and experiences as prisoner and penitent,  to her deepening commitment to live as a “practical peace catalyst.”

Power was underground for 23 years, much of that time in the Corvallis area, served six years in prison, and 20 years of probation.

Her book “Surrender” is due to be released soon.

Toward Collective Liberation: Leadership for Anti-Racist and Feminist Social Justice Organizing

Toward Collective Liberation Poster

Join us for a noontime event and discussion with Chris Crass on Friday, Oct 25th at Noon in Bexell Hall, Room 207.

Chris Crass is an American social justice activist and writer. He has worked to build working class-based, feminist, multiracial movements for collective liberation.  He has written and spoken widely about anti-racist organizing, lessons from women of color feminism, strategies to build visionary movements, and leadership for liberation.

His book Towards Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building Strategy was published in 2013.