Naomi Wolf on Occupy

“So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week it was the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence.

(so it’s not really a war but perhaps she meant it will be a precursor to a civil war) 

It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they represent.

Occupy has touched a third rail: personal congressional profits streams.

Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy

The three demands she says we had based on an internet survey are

“The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process”.

“No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks.

This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.

No 3: was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.

++++

In Canada the protestors who camped would know very little of this…

the enmeshment of state and business cannot be avoided in a capitalistic system where money de facto buys power, land and people.

2. The debt in the system has structurally shifted from asset backed to debt backed…the debt is further removed from underlying assets in ways Wolfe does not see clear.

The separation of investment banks and commercial banks cannot occur again without structural damage to the current system. 

3. No one doubts the politicians are enriching themselves.

*****

Another example how far removed the professional activists are from understanding the crisis…they blather inanely around some NGO fuelled trend…lets reform the banks and close loopholes…microfinance, remittance, bankable frontiers etc. etc. etc. while the world burns and Iran is about to get bombed to Timbuktu…

What do you expect from Americans who believe they are part of the solution while all can see they are adding to the mess  yet it is important they not stop…

but their attitude must change…

views from the top down are inaccurate and impotent, the push will come form the street…once that number hits critical mass and the sooner the better as surveillance and technology create a tighter and tighter world…militarization will only increase…the revolution will not be blogged…but the rebellion should be.  

they must believe they will be leaders of great reform but not insight and somehow the ship will be righted…

human nature should not be governed or controlled…

 

ha!ha! i scream at the sun who whispers give me time…

the occupy movement was outside the confines of current constructs 

we did not need  external policing…that’s when the professionals left

 

we carved out space and made room for ourselves with nothing and gifts…

though we believed in our cause we believed in each other more…

 

Wolfe cannot know this through her symbolic way of thinking…

 

Liberal liberal liberal 

womens movement and gay rights are pushed in Egypt

the games keep getting worse and just repeated

with cultural diversions allowing the lock down

to continue…unabated

 

security and comfort

is all you deserve.  

 

60’s anyone?  

It’s Never Been Easy

In Egypt the noise, the language and the mistake of taking an apartment close to the road, just off Tahir square, where the taxi drivers honk through the night in a defiant conversation.

A race being persecuted for oil they are unable to defend.

At Occupy the anger in North America is directed at corporate fat cats primarily in the financial industry and what an industry that has become…the only place to really “make belief money”…

media problem…

once they have your image…

they have your soul.

 

And of course since I spend lots of time alone

as readers and writers must

big crowds are eventually overwhelming

Stimulus overload…

I

got drunk and yelled at everybody one night especially the Indians

that was fun so they put out the sacred fire

no one from money is expected to work in the trades and very few do…

and since money begets money…the divide between the rich and poor

becomes starker and starker.

 

And before you start jabbering about defining my terms

first let me say fuck off.

 

Poor is not owning a home, having a negative net worth…

and for you pathetic few rich is defined as over $10,000 a day

 

Capitalism has immersed us in her cold calculating grasp

Completely invading your social relations and so called media

 

With nowhere to expand the game is up…

 

we live off the land

we fish from the sea,

need clean water and air

yet we continue to pollute

and in fact pollute more

 

a system

of waste

excess

high unemployment,

overproduction

is lionized

through coercion

 

do you like having to pay for everything?

you people are so stupid you don’t even ask the question

just shuffle along and do what you’re taught.

It ain’t going to be pretty for your grandkids

but what do you care?

http://www.lacan.com/essays/?page_id=303

Saturday

The last vestiges of an Occupy were visible on the steps of the art gallery last night…i said hello to some of the faithful and headed to the downtown east side to drink my fill                  as is my habit.

As usual i blacked out and when i came to I was far from home.

I jumped a cab and forty dollars later arrived in Richmond.

I woke early, checked to see what i had lost and was presently surprised.

I have a bruised hand and a cut above my lip which would suggest some horseplay.

On the CBC i was informed that NATO had bombed a check point in Pakistan killing 24 soldiers.

I grabbed my shorts and towel and went for a sauna to sweat the beer out.

The Grey Cup is ninety nine years old and Vancouver is hosting the party. 

It’s lonely on the wet coast with low clouds and lots of rain.

The Fraser River calms and i feel resigned.

Occupy the Internet

As a right wing male white journalist comments

we should take our grievances as if we work for him

to a more appropriate space…

like the internet and we have followed course.

it is only by taking physical space as all oppressed groups have noticed will those in power noticeably get upset i.e. feel threatened

A war of words has already long ago been lost in symbols of symbols endlessly careening and refracting in a virtual world and corporate interest is well protected in mainstream press and de facto owned by such.

Like paper money we write more and more hoping we can reason our way out of this particular conundrum…but have those days of reason ever existed?

Marxists critique of capitalism has yet to be answered.

Where, once all is used up, will we expand?

The optimist must believe in evolution

and that we do not create problems which we cannot solve.

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The state has tested our resolve…and we went with only a whimper

a guy from Richmond giving the Indians a hand and getting arrested and released

and mat the hat still holding vigil and sleeping on the stairs of the art gallery.

---------------------------------

Perhaps my favorites philosophy and poetry can save us

and then we need to attack mercilessly the end of history

as reported by fukyama of the rand corporation. 

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no one knew we would have an eight hour work day          

Run Vancouver Run

with apologies to Updike

Well the Occupy Vancouver encampment moved then moved again only the second time they didn’t pitch tents and last night they held another meeting at the art gallery.

That meeting i didn’t attend but unfortunately i was at the rest.

I cleaned up the area with the help of Jessie that was the library but most everywhere else was a mess.

The courts ordered us off the property by 2pm Monday and the city gave all the homeless people shelters so they didn’t mind and the professional activists weren’t going to put up a fight so everyone was in compliance…

as a group zero resistance

which for a city this size is unusual.

The city was in peace overdrive because of hockey riots in the spring.

The moonbeam mayor is a new age spiritualist with big money backing from rich US kids who believe they have achieved higher consciousness and are de facto running  Vancouver as a social experiment.

Through a not so complicated financial network they fund both politically and at the NGO level to set city policy.

The Occupy Vancouver move was heavily infiltrated by these Vision people who are basically any one who works for an advocacy or NGO or political party in any way…all young clamoring for power.

I met a woman on the last day who was condescending to the homeless and said she moved money into various accounts as part of her job description on the behalf of Joel Salomon who is partnered with Gregor.  

The helping world has become an industry and the children of rich capitalists are running the show unawares of their prejudice and context.

The people who work for them are pathetic in that awesome sort of way.

But there is nothing we can do…capitalism will implode through well critiqued internal contradictions…we will continue to believe in the magnitude of the first person…our collective well being will be through the individual…and we will continue to believe things are getting better…

Oh to be the elite in these end times is indeed heady

i can afford to do anything i choose or at least get lessons       

 

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.       

Occupy the Gong Show

The economy is a plutonomy and a precarious working class

an insecure working people who do not want to rock the ship

and will not ask for extra benefits or wages

and just be happy with what they have…

let them watch you tube

better to be exploited by capitalism than not…they say

Not having an income stream in a capitalistic system is dry

this is class war fare

 

Worker owned factories.

Obama took over the auto industry ie the people owned it de facto

and then he gave it back to the business or the monied class.

 

the us is extremely backwards in high speed transportation…

their are things we need which the people could provide…

via jobs…we need to work in the north

 

environmental destruction is an increasing  growing catastrophe

which the business community openly argues does not exist.

 

we must continue in a sustained dedicated way

there will be failures and set backs

but unless we stop neo liberal imperialistic agendas

or the complete submission to monied interests 

the chance for a decent future are not very high  

most people do not know this is happening

 

get people to understand and what they can do about it

 

no person should be deprived of rights

 

we need to gain the understanding of organizing

we need to learn from the people

we need to learn from…

                                                books not bombs

 

since the personal growth movement took off in the seventies

the whole world has gone to shit

so sitting in a circle sending out good thoughts

starts where it ends

 

we need to start taking over the civic elections

 

at the gong show

we have moved to the stairs of the courthouse

which like the rest of vancouver is kind of funny

as whole we offered zero resistance

which is quite zen like 

only bamboo blows in the wind

and big trees fall

 

unfortunately

we are a generation or two

from real trouble

so things are urgent.     

A Religious Blog

When i entered the court house they made me remove everything from my pockets and walk through a metal detector and then the wand and then my possessions were returned.

No cell phones but for the accredited media electronical devices were ok. 

This was an impediment on my freedom of movement and as a potential council person said every time you went through you felt violated or at the very least helpless.

It was a dehumanizing experience as most attempts at coercion and force are.

I was seen as a threat to the court house and our room had the most security.

In Palestine where the guards are not polite checkpoints are a daily reminder.

I shall no know hatred is a testament to the potential of mankind while the military is a continuous reminder of the worse.

Here the Occupy is symbolic while elsewhere it is not.

For the most part we are not seen as the enemy but just as wayward family members to be looked on with curiosity and pity not fear.

For the occupation to end in Palestine the people would have no bounds to their joy…and of course life must go on. 

In internetized countries we are under constant surveillance, there is no where to hide and even going underground is not the viable alternative it once was. I have very little experience not having a bank account and am enmeshed in the system for my very survival.

Capitalism has infantilized me and made me dependent.

At this stage it would be a stretch to live off the land or even by my wits.

As an extra measure instead of talking to people i type on a computer screen further atomizing my discontent and looking to subjective cures (personal growth and development, pharmacology, etc.) for relief…

The most damaged believe it is really all about them.

Surely there is no intellectual hope as empire continues to build up military presence in the middle east to ensure a steady fuel for an imperial agenda.

With nothing left to conquer

Iran will fall…time time time

To exist is to resist and

the laughter of children

is always my revenge.                     

Occupy Vancouver

Judgment Day

After three days of trial where i had made acquaintances with many of the sheriffs and explained our grievances to mostly sympathetic responses the judge named Anne announces she has sided with the city and we must leave by 1 pm on Monday.

though i did not think she would allow us to stay indefinitely i did wish with all my heart she would have been more historical in response.

Constitutionally the question from my limited understanding goes.

We are in contravention of a by law, many actually while engaged in the act of political protest which is one of Canada’s most cherished rights and formalized by the Charter.

They kept saying balance of convenience as in the public interest was not being served while we took over the land de facto

was becoming a bit of a police state with un voted expulsions,

food, water and power and sanitation toilets provided by the enemy.

Chairman mao and karl marx would be shocked i think but who knows.

So ann said the public was being unconvinced by the protest and in fact being denied usage of the park which was kind of true but not in spirit i mean 99% is pretty inclusive.

again once again the grey cup is the deadline

same thing with the Shaw strike 2002 Edmonton.

On a personal note after hearing the verdict i bought six heinies and shot the shit with a downtown friend, went back to the library and yelled we got to take it to general assembly, poked fun at colors, got six more beers yelled we got to take it to general assembly, told the Indians to light the fire and left for the down town to drink my fill.

Hit the 340, bought another sketch from an artist who does crack, got cut off, went to a weird smoke filled basement where a video camera caused a violent reaction , stayed off the hard drugs, buzzed the drive, ate a pizza, puked, jumped a cab and took the train to richmond.

amazingly propositioned by a street walker in my quiet hometown mall parking lot, which i declined, thought twice, got head and went to sleep.

Today was Indian day at Occupy so i cleaned the house, ate and rested.    

They want to move the library books as the city has said anything removed after two pm on monday will be destroyed.

i know

they are people too…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sillygwailo/6324096204/

Occupy a bed

 

Slept on and a little off for a couple of days.

I exhausted myself with a date and needed the rest.

The encampment is tied up in the courts until the end of the week

and we look to be in relatively good shape.

i am a political protestor and feel a prisoner

in an ever increasing police state.

 

In canada i am protected by the charter of freedoms

in Egypt a blogger was just jailed…

 

wonderful institutions which the rest of the world cannot afford…

literally…only “affluence” buys rights at the cost of other.

 

…is free because Palestine is poor.  

Occupy Vancouver

printed from the world wide web

11/11/11

Globally

common people die in wars

and now in the 21st century

with an ecological crisis pending

militarization must stop.

 

remember “food not bombs”

 

Locally

tent city is getting it together

and the suburbs are fine

 

the peace keepers keep doin’ it

and the tea house is the tea house

 

the library is always open

and a fire warms the soul

 

Raven is taking the weekend off

and the medics are hanging tough.

 

Legally

An injunction states the organizers

are different from the campers

and rumor has it some of the early birds

have quit already…

 

the word awesome is heard less often

 

Che is not happy

Occupy Vancouver

a sacred fire was quickly doused

by firemen escorted by the police

 

The cameras recorded 

resistance and no arrests

 

No one who was there can doubt

the fact the state is violent

 

A system intent on exploitation 

is required to crush dissidence

 

2,000,000 Americans are in jail

the vast majority poor

 

While the crime rate decreases (in Canada)

Harper is building more jails

 

the imperialistic industrial

military complex

 

must stop

 

think!. 

Occupy Vancouver Monday

The rain has come and we have had our first casualty.

A young street woman died on site from causes unknown.

The city has threatened eviction but with an upcoming Mayoral election on the 19th it is unlikely any action will occur.

I suspect they may cut power and perhaps file an injunction

But with the encampment being on provincial land leased by the city it is a legal quagmire.  

The library continues to thrive and books and authors keep coming to visit.

The Food not Bomb tent serves over a 1000 meals a day and the medics are kept busy.

Tent city and the suburbs are fine.

The crowd is becoming more militant though at the general assembly non violence was voted in again.

The 99% encompasses a wide range of characters who live vastly differently lives and in fact inhabit spaces that are culturally, economically and socially foreign.

i.e. interrupting some one who is full of themselves is expected on “the street” but considered rude by the liberal class who love to hear themselves talk and use prevailing social constructs to dominate.

Really the bourgeoisie are incredibly boring and for the most part appear to want a bigger piece of the power pie in a society dedicated to the spectacle. 

At the very least they are elitist and strategic…

and thriving in late stage capitalism.

If not for….the movement would have no soul…

smile…

let it rain! let it rain! let it rain!

we got traction.