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patrice

(47,992 posts)
15. That was the jist of what i said last weekend in OccupyKochTown ...
Thu Feb 23, 2012, 03:16 PM
Feb 2012

Awareness, in order to create respect for ALL occupiers' and supporting activists' (such as Sierra Club's) freedom to make THEIR OWN CHOICES about whatever happens, and creative awareness in "what you do about it" so that the message TTE "We are free autonomous individuals acting together to do WHATEVER IS NECESSARY to support OUR OWN collectively held objectives" is un-mistakable.

It happens that part of what worked for OccupyWichita et al and the Sierrans was the presence of a wild-card in our midst, a free-poet with OccupyKU who spontaneously began to riff on tree-money/people's-script, after dialogue between OccupyKochTown and counter-protesters in front of Koch HQ had gone on for a while and had progressed to a point at which things such as money, work, and "value" were under consideration in the discussion.

The free poet presented with a large enough presence, DRAMATIC appearance, and large vocal projection, that he dominated and broke to a certain extent the impromptu GA that was occurring between Occupy and counter-protesters. He brought a relatively large and INTERESTING element of anarchy to what was going on, not out of control, but also CLEARLY not under the control of the occupier who was facilitating that impromptu GA. What was also interesting and powerful about this was that the free poet WAS riffing about money, tree money, and after clearly establishing his self-chosen role in events at that point, he and the facilitating occupier spontaneously switched roles again, the GA continued briefly and then adjourned and then was followed by occupiers who chose to do so linking arms and standing at the police-barricade to people's mic their intentions to stay committed and to return to Koch HQ. They also repeatedly people's miced their solidarity with the police as workers and invited them to occupy with them wherever, which is to me another element of CLEARLY asserting the occupation's autonomy vs. TPB.

occupy is protest mdmc Feb 2012 #1
It depends on whether violence (including property destruction) is being forced 99th_Monkey Feb 2012 #2
I agree they should isolate BB and hand them over to the Police. In Toronto people were applegrove Feb 2012 #3
I disagree. This is red-baiting hysteria -- the idea of using bamboo poles (<sp) to corral Leopolds Ghost Feb 2012 #5
Please 99th_Monkey Feb 2012 #6
I apologize if I over-reacted, it's just that we don't experience all this stuff at my local Occupy. Leopolds Ghost Feb 2012 #7
We agree on pretty much everything. 99th_Monkey Feb 2012 #9
I don't think the NYPD would aprove of protestors UnrepentantLiberal Feb 2012 #10
I don't think it matters the structure zeemike Feb 2012 #4
The structure may not matter to you. 99th_Monkey Feb 2012 #8
And they need to be vigilant zeemike Feb 2012 #11
Agreed! Vigilance + to KNOW one another for REAL. patrice Feb 2012 #17
What should Occupy members do? I believe that they should distance themselves physically Vincardog Feb 2012 #14
That was the jist of what i said last weekend in OccupyKochTown ... patrice Feb 2012 #15
I would argue that violence itself is implicitly hierarchical starroute Feb 2012 #12
I agree strongly with what you are saying here. I also have a footnote derived from some observation patrice Feb 2012 #16
I participated in a GA for OccupyKochTown in which this question was a high priority when the patrice Feb 2012 #13
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