Press Release Regarding Seattle Police Department Rumors

Thu, 04/26/2012 - 10:29am — Anonymous

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

To all concerned,
Representatives from the City of Seattle and the Seattle Police Department held a meeting on April 25th with members of Occupy Seattle, a representative from the Real Change newspaper, and a representative from the May 1st Action Coalition. During this meeting, the City and the SPD expressed their concerns regarding the May 1st General Strike and revealed some startling pieces of information.

Firstly, the SPD claimed to have an “intelligence report” on the table in front of them. Throughout the meeting they constantly referenced this report and the information contained within it. Apparently, their “intelligence” teams have gathered that the anarchists are going to fill light bulbs with gasoline. For what purpose the anarchists would do this was left unclear. Perhaps the light bulbs would merely be filled with gasoline and left inside the secret anarchist headquarters where they would slowly accumulate enough electrical charge to spontaneously explode and destroy all of the evidence in their dreaded lair. Or maybe the gasoline-filled light bulbs would be sold as decorative ornaments in fancy Ballard boutiques, with the gasoline serving as a novelty that would increase the sale price. The SPD did not make clear what these strange devices would be used for and a cursory Google search does not reveal very much. Nevertheless, the “intelligence report” is filled with mention of these light bulbs.

Secondly, the report also mentions that various people are holding physical trainings to prepare for battle on the day of May 1st. During the meeting, the SPD revealed that they are very worried that people will attempt to de-arrest each other if the police attack them. The idea of people resisting arrest and defending each other is a nightmare the SPD wants to avoid. This was what they spoke the most about during the meeting.

Regarding the “intelligence” about the gasoline-filled light bulbs, we would like to assure the public that such devices do not exist. The SPD is so stupid that they have literally invented a device with which they can alarm people and stoke fear. However, being the moronic half-wits that they are, the SPD cannot even invent a believable threat and have revealed their cheap strategy of psychological intimidation before they even got started with it. Very few people will be influenced by their ploy and we would like to make it perfectly clear that we are on to them.

As for their concerns with people learning to defend themselves, this obviously would be a concern to a gang of crack-smoking, steroid-taking, wife-beating, murderous sociopaths who cannot stand to have their authority challenged for even a moment. The thought of thousands of people rising up against their arbitrary and disintegrating authority is enough to make them invent stories of secret cabals training in the dark. Oddly enough, this is something the SPD does routinely. All of their training and planning is done in secret, hidden from the public.

During the meeting, Assistant Chief of Police Mike Sanford was clearly externalizing his own guilt and shame for overseeing a conspiratorial and corrupt organization that hides in the dark like a band of diseased pigs, constantly attempting to bury their own filth and outrun their legacy of drugs, lies, and murder.

In short, the City and the SPD attempted to stir up fear during this meeting but failed due to their own inherent stupidity. Our highly sophisticated and virtually impenetrable intelligence team was right there in front of them and they didn't even know it. Any further attempts to spread more lies and disinformation will be met with further humiliating secrets, [ridicule], and insults. We are not to be trifled with.

Any further questions should be directed to Mark Sanford
His personal cell number is 206-423-0288

Sincerely,
John “Private Eye” Diaz, Chief of Police.

We Know What Time It Is....

Thank You, Jesus...

1,000 Hoodies For Trayvon.

" I am Trayvon Martin. And I'm standing my ground!" 

 

On Making Demands of the 1% and their Low-level Cronies and Knee-Grows.

FSP, ISO, 21st century 'menshevik' ideologues, 'left-demokkkrat' demagogues, and other politically backward, amerikkkan, a$$hats:

"Cede Political Power To The 99%...or Else!" (as part and parcel to specific demands-as-goals-of-the-new-Occupy regime-asserting-itself) is a concrete proposal, for this literally dictates the terms and conditions of the unconditional surrender of the 1%. Especially, if done with a massive occupation of Olympia with all the 'bells n' whistles' (strike actions, blockades, building seizures, etc). An all 'NW G.A.'s send troops to Oly' type situation!

As your proposal stands, the state legislature and governor will move forward with these [budget] cuts WITHOUT penalty from you [as they did- G.L.], OS, the dems, or the far-right. Maybe (hopefully) from the anarchists. Lol.

This proposal sells Obama-like dreams and false hope to a [faux]letariat that still has something to lose materially (besides its chains) and thus still needs to suffer more, lose more, and learn more. You all, in essense, "tell the workers in the handful of rich countries where life is easier, thanks to imperialist pillage, that they must be afraid of ‘too great’ impoverishment, [which] is counter-revolutionary." (Lenin).

This proposal in fact obscures global class analysis, as in REAL Marxism. The astute amongst the 99%, the vanguard element, wish for real power in our day-to-day affairs. We're seizing parks, buildings, and more; and making honest attempts are running our little mini-societies in a fair and just manner as best we can. Out of this dynamic struggle we now see the seeds of dual power being sown.

How does your proposal, during this embryonic stage of worker's democracy in amerikkka, nurture those seeds here and globally? It doesn't. Why? Because it doesn't go far enough!

Further, we the 99% of amerikkka, are 13% of the world's wealthiest, which shapes larger attitudes and worldviews amongst amerikkkans, even, including, and especially amongst the 99% of amerikkka. Thus, we can see the reasoning behind your proposal's appeal to "low information voter/Homer Simpson 'proto-socialist' ". There's a world of difference between your line, that of the Egyptians in Tahir Square, and that of the Greek militants. Or the Naxals in India.

Lenin, one your organization's major prophets, tells us why this is:

"Is the actual condition of the workers in the oppressor and in the oppressed nations the same, from the standpoint of the national question?


No, it is not the same.


(1) Economically, the difference is that sections of the working class in the oppressor nations receive crumbs from the super-profits the bourgeoisie of these nations obtains by extra exploitation of the workers of the oppressed nations. Besides, economic statistics show that here a larger percentage of the workers become “straw bosses” than is the case in the oppressed nations, a larger percentage rise to the labor aristocracy. That is a fact. To a certain degree the workers of the oppressor nations are partners of their own bourgeoisie in plundering the workers (and the mass of the population) of the oppressed nations.


(2) Politically, the difference is that, compared with the workers of the oppressed nations, they occupy a privileged position in many spheres of political life.


(3) Ideologically, or spiritually, the difference is that they are taught, at school and in life, disdain and contempt for the workers of the oppressed nations."

 -V.I. Lenin; A Caricature of Marxism and Imperialist Economism: (#5.) Monism And Dualism”.

It was Trotsky, another one of your major prophets, who pointed out how much more the workers learn via real-world struggle than by study alone. Here we have an almost perfect classroom, and now some of the teachers want to teach bourgeois revisionism, instead of genuine scientific socialism, in a real-world situation! This is duplicitous and opportunistic! Either be Marxists or be bourgeois liberals. You cannot be both and not come off as 'fake'.

"Only when the individual worker realizes that he is a member of the entire working class, only when he recognizes the fact that his petty day-to-day struggle against individual employers and individual government officials is a struggle against the entire bourgeoisie does his struggle become a class struggle." (Lenin).

Your proposal puts political dead weight and drag on this process and historic period of self-discovery, as a CLASS, within the hearts and minds of those in amerikkka you seek to reach, while at the same time alienating those who are the most militant and willing to "go there" along side you. This proposal preaches and teaches defeatism and lesser-evilism to both!

You all can do better than this piece of used toilet paper written in 'crazy' talk with a broken crayon.

For the liberals in and amongst this body, "Be unreasonable!" - Tony Robbins.

The 1% & Their Lackeys Behind OccupyTheCapitol.org

 From http://pugetsoundanarchists.org/node/993 


A domain name lookup of occupythecapitol.org reveals that the name was registered and is administered by "Fuse Technology Director" with an address of 1402 Third Avenue, Suite 310, Seattle, WA 98101. The registrant and admin contact email is webmaster@fusewashington.org .

There are hyperlinks throughout Occupy The Capitol (OTC) site that take you to Convio (an internet marketing company used by many non-profit organizations) pages created by and copyrighted by Fuse Washington (FW).

For instance, as of this writing (11/26/2011), near the top of OTC home page, it says: "We will occupy our state capitol in Olympia during the special legislative session, and we will tell our lawmakers that we have had enough. Click here to sign up and join us!" Following the link on "here" takes you to a FW page.
It seems clear that FW is playing a major role in running the OTC web site and probably the OTC campaign itself. Curiously, you won't find any mention of FW on the OTC site.

So, what's the story on FW? Well, it's not easy to find out much about the origins of FW. I haven't had time to request and read FW's incorporation records but the Washington Secretary of State's site does reveal that FW was incorporated in 2007. But let's take a look at some FW's decision-makers, its Board of Directors. FW has the Board's bios on its site and in what follows I will examine the partisan and economic orientation of just the four officers on the eight-member Board of Directors (I didn't do any research on the other Directors). Here goes:

• Suone Cotner, Chair, lived in Washington DC for ten years prior to moving to the Pacific Northwest in 1983. Once here, Cotner served as President of the Mt. Baker Group, a fundraising and public affairs consulting company. As a consultant for 14 years, Cotner advised clients on fundraising strategy, and designed and supervised the implementation of both short term and long term fundraising plans to raise between $250,000 and $12 million. In 1997, she joined the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association, now the Washington State Association for Justice, which represents attorneys and professionals in the legal field committed to champion the cause of those who deserve redress for injury to person, property or civil rights. As the Development Director and now Deputy Director, she is responsible for the organization's major donor and special project fundraising efforts.
  

It would be nice to know who the Mt. Baker Group consulted for but I couldn't find that information. Although it's not listed in her FW bio, Suone Cotner is currently listed as a member of NARAL (formerly "National Abortion Rights Action League") Pro-Choice Washington's PAC Committee. This, arguably, ties her tightly to the Democratic Party establishment as the PAC gave 95.83% of its funds to Democratic party candidates in the 2008 election cycle. This is atypical in only one regard--usually Republicans don't get any of their PAC money. Cotner was also the "finance director" for Barbara Boxer's (D-CA) 1992 US Senate campaign.

• Dean Nielsen, Vice President, is the National Political Director for Progressive Majority, a national organization that recruits, trains and elects progressive champions at the state and local levels. In this position, he directly manages state programs from coast-to-coast. Prior to being promoted, Dean served as Progressive Majority's Washington State Director, where he helped elect more than 100 candidates using Progressive Majority's innovate "farm team" program. After four elections, he held the highest candidate win rate in the organization. Dean is a career politico, having worked in various capacities on more than 250 campaigns throughout the Western United States and Eastern Europe starting with Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign. His lengthy client list includes Governor Gary Locke (WA), Solidarity Party (Poland), the Gore/Lieberman Campaign, as well as issue campaigns for groups such as EMILY's List, NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, SEIU, Harborview Hospital and the Democratic Party in several states. In addition to campaigns, he helped build and expand a grassroots and grasstops lobbying program for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, conceived and launched the Institute for a Democratic Future, did qualitative research for several casinos in Las Vegas, and managed a crisis communications project for a Fortune 500 company.
  

Among other things, this bio blurb nicely establishes Nielsen's Democratic Party bona fides. Some non-trivial number of Democratic politicians in Congress and the Washington state legislature are folks Nielsen helped get into office. In addition to a PAC, Progressive Majority also runs a 527 organization aka "Stealth PAC" or "Silent Partner". Progressive Majority's 527 organization has allowed it to raise and spend millions of dollars for political campaigns, with minimal public oversight and disclosure. According to a 2008 report by the conservative Capital Research Center, Progressive Majority received at least $5 million in grants from the Democracy Alliance, which counts billionaire George Soros and millionaire Tim Gill as its major donors. Interestingly, Progressive Majority was founded by its current President, Gloria A. Totten, who's worked for NARAL in various capacities including as its Political Director NARAL from 1996-2001.

• Adam Glickman-Flora, Treasurer, is Director of Public Affairs for SEIU Healthcare 775NW, the long-term care workers union representing 30,500 home care and nursing home workers in Washington and Montana. As director of Public Affairs he oversees SEIU Healthcare 775NW's political, legislative, community outreach, and media relations work. Adam grew up on the East Coast and became involved in labor and other social justice work while at Wesleyan University. After graduating, he worked in New York doing communications and political work, including as the Communications Director for New York's Working Families Party. He is married and has two wonderful children - Micah and Asher.
  

On the SEIU 775NW web site, Glickman-Flora is listed as the local's Vice-President, "serving a two year term 2011-2013". Apparently, this isn't Glickman-Flora's first term as 775NW's VP. Labor Notes Director Mark Brenner mentions Glickman-Flora in a June 2008 post. It's worth quoting from the relevant portion:
"Behind me in line was a blast from the past, Adam Glickman (now Adam Glickman-Flora) ... Now he is vice president of SEIU Local 775 (the number three spot). Something tells me he didn't move out to Washington state and start working as a homecare worker and rise up through the ranks to get there.

"This is something that we don't talk a lot about, but which is a big contradiction inside SEIU right now. Is it appropriate for staff to be members of the local and get elected into officer slots? How does that affect the union's functioning? Its priorities? How it handles the tough choices, like winning higher standards for current members versus securing organizing rights to bring unorganized workers into the union? Does it make sense for folks who have never had to live and work under the contracts they negotiate to be the key decision-makers sitting across the table from management?"

Apropos this last question, a commenter to Brenner's post under the name "Former 775 member" writes:

"I was a homecare worker. Now I work in a residential setting. I use to be active in SEIU775 but I felt that the leadership did not encourage the real 'workers' to be leaders. I couldn't stand being ignored. I eventually stopped doing homecare and worked with people with disablities in a residential and group home setting. This new agency that I worked was not unionized. After a few months of working there, SEIU had some 'organizer' attempt to unionize the agency's workers. She did not know the difference between what homecare workers did compare to those who worked in group homes and those who in residential settings. She did not know the training is different, the expectations are different, and most importantly she did not know you deal with very different clientele (e.g. their behaviors ranging from mild disruptions to having to call the police). She was incapable of understanding real issues concerning us and that's why we didn't want to be unionized."

In Solidarity for Sale: How Corruption Destroyed the Labor Movement and Undermined America's Promise (2006), author Robert Fitch devotes an entire chapter to SEIU entitled "Andy Stern's Dead Souls".

Andy Stern is the international President of SEIU and Fitch describes Stern as "openly disdainful of union democracy" and makes the case that SEIU is a top-down union structured along the lines of "the conservative organizational principles of former General Motors president Alfred P. Sloan" and headed by Ivy Leaguers who, to the rank-and-file's detriment, have mostly never done the kind of work the union's members do. Needless to say, SEIU is a major backer of Democratic Party candidates and spent $28 million to help put Barack Obama in the White House.

• Sharon Smith, Secretary is a Partner at River Run ventures, which just completed a large-scale condominium building in downtown Spokane. For 25 years, Sharon Smith led national operations and marketing efforts for hotel brands such as Hilton, Doubletree and Red Lion Hotels. Sharon served as Chairwoman of the Spokane County Democrats in the 2005/6 election season leading to election victories unparalleled in Eastern Washington in decades.
  

Sharon Smith is a 1-percenter who gave away $19,400.00 to Democratic Party candidates in 2008 alone. In 2009, 22,090 Spokane households had annual incomes of less than $20,000, roughly the same amount that Smith spent on elections.

Smith's business partner in River Run Ventures is Don Barbieri, with whom Smith also shares a home. Barbieri ran for the US House of Representatives from Spokane in 2004. His Washington Post bio says: "In 1969, Barbieri returned to Spokane to join his father's company, later serving as its president and chief executive officer. The company became WestCoast Hospitality Corp., a hotel management company that bought the Red Lion hotel chain from the Hilton Corp., creating a group of more than 80 hotels in 14 states. Barbieri resigned as CEO and president in 2003, but remains as chairman of the board."

Sharon Smith is also the Executive Director and Treasurer of the Inland Northwest Leadership PAC. The PAC's mission "places special emphasis on candidates and initiatives that support a woman's right to choose and work to advance reproductive health education and freedoms". In other words, Democrats. The PAC's 2011 activities focused on the Spokane mayoral and city council races. Most of the largest donors to the PAC were labor unions with SEIU 775NW chipping in $5,000. The largest individual contributor was Don Barbieri, who gave a total of $3,000.

Now back to that "large-scale condominium building in downtown Spokane." The only condo project I could find linked to River Run Ventures is the 32-unit Upper Falls condominiums. An article in Spokane's Spokesman-Review described the development: "With upscale, spacious condos sold at prices from more than $500,000 to $1.5 million, Upper Falls is considered one of the area's most successful projects." The project was twice the object of litigation. "In 2005, Spokane attorney Steve Eugster filed a lawsuit alleging the city incorrectly sold parkland to the developer without a vote of the people; it was later dismissed." In 2008, a suit was filed by GVL Investors LLC, "alleging Barbieri and companies he owns overstated costs by more than $3 million to avoid sharing project profits."

And there you have it folks--the "progressive" officers of Fuse Washington--just a few of the the Big Money, Big Labor, and Democratic Party hacks trying to co-opt the Occupy Movement.

Demokkkrats Attempt To Seize Power Over Occupy Movement Via Front Organizations.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/05/counter-insurgency-as-insurgency/

As the Occupy movement begins to come into full bloom across the country this Spring – with plans for massive days of action and demonstrations on May 1^st, new campaigns for transit justice on both coasts, continued organizing against foreclosures and police violence, and a slight chance of a bank protest or two – there are several weeds sprouting in the prefigurative garden.  Not least of which is the “99% Spring” campaign, led and funded by every corner of the modern Democratic Party machine. 

One might ask themselves “What is wrong with non-violent direct action?” or “How effective could the ‘Democratic Party machine’ actually be, anyway?”  There is nothing inherently wrong with civil disobedience and it surely remains to be seen if this campaign can train 10,000 people let alone the 100,000 they plan to.   The campaign director at MoveOn.org, Ilyse Hogue, an organization that seems to be the key player in the 99% Spring, has recently written in the Nation that “Occupy is Dead” and that the 99% Spring will succeed where Occupy has failed – while mimicking their slogans.  What they lack in actual knowledge of Occupy’s health, they certainly make up for in co-optive obviousness.  Fertilized by decades of expanding inequality, Occupy needs to bloom and transform in the coming months, without getting mired in conflict with the various failed institutions of the organizational Left.  However, those flowers of resistance will have to rise above the weeds of a dying order, including the 99% Spring dandelions.
The organizations comprising this effort are a litany of individual trade unions, both trade federations, environmental groups, and a range of non-profits, including groups who have done very respectable work, such as Jobs with Justice.  There likely isn’t unified intent on behalf of every actor in this campaign.  In Oakland, I have heard of some local participants in the training having serious reservations about the effort, but are participating in it nonetheless.  The (potential) intent of these organizations, or the people they will train who will choose to lie down and get arrested, over some other tactics, isn’t the issue. 

What matters is the effect of this effort in the existing political context of counter-insurgency, the dismissive, patronizing and divisive terms in which this is being put, and the timing – right before the presidential election.  If successful, this will undoubtedly serve as a wedge over tactics, exacerbating the “good protester / bad protester” trope that is always used, and that we have heard in the last few months already – from liberal Mayors to Fox News and everywhere in between.  This attempts to bring organizations with sordid histories into Occupy, who will invariably try to wrestle legitimacy from a popular, radical movement, into political groups that are reformist at best, wholly complicit with the current order at worst. 

Hogue has stated that the plans for this effort pre-dated the formation of the Occupy movement in the U.S.  The original goal, likely, to generate systemically non-threatening actions to draw attention to inequality and injustice – not to stop it, but to gather votes for Democrats, who, ostensibly, address those issues.  Now that the Occupy movement has already done that, inadvertently, they seek to employ the same campaign to contain and defang that movement while preserving their positions as mostly poverty pimps and lazy labor bureaucrats that think strikes have lost their usefulness.

The existing powers, who some of these same progressives have consistently stood against (from their political position), deeply need to weld a safety valve on Occupy.  Homeland Security, who has been “advising” police and city governments nationally and who coordinated the mid-November 18-city raid on the Occupy movement, released an article this week entitled “The Occupy Movement: Rising Anarchy” which states:

“So far, Occupy protests in the United States exhibit a mostly peaceful nature. However, certain elements within Occupy that have been seen both here and abroad have the potential to inflict major damage to governments, people and the private sector. If not carefully monitored and mitigated, these elements pose a significant threat to modern democracies.”

The existing order needs an institutionalized, liberal super-hero-on-a-leash to be used (whether the organizations involved all intend to or not) disrupt, discredit and destroy, from the inside, those elements who organized the November 2^nd General Strike in Oakland, the militant demonstrations against police violence in New York in recent weeks, or community-led, anti-capitalist efforts against foreclosures in Chicago, or those that set barricades aflame in Seattle on December 12, 2011, or the scores of lesser-reported militant action that have taken place in the last half-year, out of nowhere.  They also want to suck the tens of thousands of young people all over the country, hoping to be able to do the same thing in their cities, into a more palatable strategy.  Those in power would like to see nothing more than for 100,000 people to be trained to chain themselves to local bank branches for 6-9 months, hooting about their “greedy side,” get disillusioned at how fruitless that is, and go back to playing video games and downloading pirated music after Obama’s re-election.

Counter-Insurgency by any other name
This is not primarily about tactics, it is about politics.  MoveOn.org and reactionary unions are not spearheading this for no reason.  Are we to believe that the same unions that discourage their members from taking non-violent direct action during labor disputes, have found both the time and the energy to do a solid favor for the radical Left, by resuscitating a movement they have mistakenly diagnosed as dead?  This is primarily about co-option and division, about sucking a large cross-section of Occupy into Obama’s reelection campaign, watering down it’s radical politics, and using these mass trainings as a groundwork to put forward 100,000 “good protesters” to overshadow the “bad protesters” (who actual take personal risks and/or have radical politics), to ease the State’s ongoing campaign to pick us off one by one.  In the words of MoveOn.org’s own campaign director, it is unabashedly and overtly a campaign of clear co-optation. 

This is not a riding of the coattails of a hip social movement; this will be a form of counter-insurgency.  This will be used to disrupt, divide, discredit and destroy the Occupy movement.  The parameters of acceptable protest will be imposed, not by some local non-profit starving for funding or wanting to remain relevant, but by city officials, the police, the major media, Homeland Security, Chambers of Commerce, police front groups like “Stand for Oakland,” and on down the line.

The Occupy movement has broken with the Left’s long-standing, self-defeating tendencies of meaningless, police-choreographed marches, 1-day pageant strikes, movement discourse that thinks the logic of the lowest common denominator that wins elections will win social justice (99% frames not withstanding), and non-violent civil disobedience designed to curry favorable media attention that gets de-contextualized and buried in the sea on nonsense entertainment that is the media.  This scares the hell out of capital and the State.  99% Spring is not part of some nefarious conspiracy theory with Homeland Security or “the illuminati.”  99% Spring is not Wall Street.  But they sure as hell are doing their work, whether some of them want to realize that or not.

“Just Say, No” (to government-sponsored co-optation)
A New York lawyer and some folks from OWS have made an attempt to turn the direct democracy of Occupy into a representation democracy of elected “Occupy politicians” who would have a new-Constitutional Convention this July 4^th weekend in Philadelphia, comprised of elected officials from the Occupy Movement (“rising anarchy,” be damned).  In short time Occupy Wall Street, from which these charlatans emerged, publicly denounced this attempted event at a General Assembly, along with Occupy Philadelphia.  We have (imperfect) emerging direct, democratic institutions in our cities that reflect the will of the movement.  We should use them.  We should address the Operation 99% Spring Co-optation initiative the same way that New York and Philadelphia dealt with the “new founding fathers.”  It is time to weed out our garden, so that real, social justice efforts can bloom.

My knowledge of the Occupy movement is derived primarily from my experience in Oakland.  We have seen counter-insurgent efforts of this type before: when Mayor Quan’s Block-by-Block campaign organization tried to set up a “peace camp” right before the raid of the second Occupy Oakland encampment; when the one singular thing reporters wanted to know from press contacts before the December 12^th Port Shutdown was “How can we get the protesters to obey police orders?” or their myopic fixation on the property destruction that they consider “violence;” to Quan’s unheeded call for the “leaders of the Occupy movement” to condemn said “violence” (by which she means people carrying shields who were hit with projectiles and beaten, while groups of children were tear-gassed): or how permits, taken out behind Occupy Oakland’s back, were used to arrest people for possession of blankets in Oscar Grant Plaza – some of whom are facing prison time; to Quan’s use of non-profits as a palatable alternative to a violent, discredited, and costly movement in a press-release and subsequent “volunteer fair.”  All of this counter-insurgent misrepresentation, baiting, discreditation, and divisiveness is wearying and something we need to get better at combating.  It has also only been partially effective.  An Oakland Tribune poll found that 94% of Oaklanders support Occupy Oakland, even after all of the efforts I outlined above.  We shouldn’t find a false complacency in this.  It should be noted that even though most of these were attempts at co-optation, most came from clearly demarcated enemies.

99% Spring is attempting to graft itself to Occupy and hollow it out from the inside out, imposing rigid norms of non-violence and deference to police authority, while watering down our politics and introducing well-funded and trained institutions that are either fully invested in, or dependent upon, the exist power structure – and have the resources, connections and will of self-preservation to navigate the Occupy ship into a doldrums from which it will never emerge. 

Despite the undemocratic and self-defeating norm of consensus, we, as an Occupy movement, still have a sense of what we came here to do.  We didn’t come here to sign petitions or to get Obama reelected.  We didn’t come here to “have a voice in the system”; we came here to flip it on its head.  We will not be co-opted.  We should not have our tactics determined by the Democratic Party.  We should not let ourselves be undermined from within.  We have the capacity to call the 99% Spring out for what it is – a deluded attempt by the Obama campaign to kill two birds with one stone, to take the hundreds of thousands in the street demanding real democracy (laying bare the utter failure of the Obama administration and the American State) and turn it into a vehicle to re-elect him.  So that he can bomb Iran with impunity, or continue to deport more undocumented immigrants than any other president, or cover-up more massacres in Afghanistan, or think that half-baked rhetoric about inequality coupled with more tax breaks for businesses represents

“Change we can believe in.”
The Occupy movement may not have the power to change the talking points of duplicitous, liberal Mayors.  It may not have the capacity to change the preoccupations of the mainstream media.  It certainly doesn’t have much say in the manner in which the police try to suppress it.  But we do have control over what goes on in our own house.  These people only become part of the Occupy movement if we let them continue to say that they are out of one side of their mouth, while the other side says we are directionless, un-strategic and “dead.”  Every single Occupation that doesn’t want to turn into nothing more than an ample pool of chumps registering people to vote for the same Obama administration that has declared an all-out war against us, should bring forward a resolution at their General Assembly to condemn this clear attempt to destroy our movement.  This isn’t about violence versus non-violence; this is about autonomy versus co-optation.  History will not forgive us if we let the 99% Spring Trojan horse into out movement so that the injustices we rose up against can be perpetuated with our own sanction, in our own name.

Mike King is a PhD candidate at UC–Santa Cruz and an East Bay activist, currently writing a dissertation about counter-insurgency against Occupy Oakland.  He can be reached at mking(at)ucsc.edu.