Occupy Cleveland canceled May Day protest plans to march in the city because of this:

[MADem]

59. That's the thing though--they haven't made their disapproval clear.

I catch shit for even mentioning that this stuff is problematic, like I'm the enemy for NOTICING that chaos-makers "own" the message of the day.

I am not "advocating...aggressive confrontation likely to provoke violence." I am advocating getting between the chaos-makers and their targets in such a way as to render it difficult for them to do what they want to do. Nuns do this kind of shit all the time, and they don't "aggressively confront" anyone. Mothers do this when they want to know what happened to their loved ones in countries where family members go missing on a regular basis.

I'm also recommending ratting disruptors out to the police. This requires a bit of adult behavior, to include getting permits for marches, not goading and baiting, and establishing trusting relationships with city figures. I'm recommending coming up with a Public Relations plan that includes police coordination, media coordination, and advance planning to deal with these kinds of jerks.

You have a choice--you can let the chaos-makers "own" the media story with their acts of senseless violence , or you can own it yourself. You can't own it for yourselves unless you ACT, though. Otherwise, it'll be "lather-rinse-repeat." Occupy comes up with a protest to highlight "X" issue, the chaos-makers come in and cause shit, and the media makes no mention of "X" issue but instead talks about the fires set and the blood on the sidewalk (which is the more compelling story, to their mind). How much longer will this go on before people are realizing that their message will never get out until those jerks are neutralized?

If Occupy is leaderless/organic, a website--even one called "occupywallst.org" can't purport to speak with any "real" authority. Who wrote that? Who agreed to it? It's got to come from the groups that are dealing with the disruptors--not someone behind a computer in NYC who isn't dealing with what's happening in, say, Oakland. If we are going to start taking words on a screen from an "Occupy" website or Facebook page as gospel, maybe it's time that Occupy think about changing their structural focus and getting a few "spokespeople," if not leaders, to articulate their message.

The Arab Spring paradigm might not resonate as time goes on, either. Sure, regimes were brought down in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and so on, but the cure is, often as not, worse than the disease. And in cases where Arab Spring tactics failed (Bahrain, Syria, Iran, e.g.) the repression has been fucking brutal. I think a "social justice" theme might sell better as the effort moves forward, but that's tangential to the essential discussion, here.