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Published on Friday, December 23, 2011 by OccupyWallStreet
OWS Thanks Our Supporters!
What We've Done, Where We Are, Where We're Going
2011 was a revolutionary year for a new movement that is changing the world. From NYC to Cairo, we are just getting started. We are still busy building this amazing movement, and we couldn't do it without you -- our supporters! Let's make next year even better!
(This video was passed by consensus through the New York City General Assembly on Tuesday, December 20, 2011.)
Posted in #occupy
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26 Comments so far
Show AllOws has been coopted by politics. It's over.
Thanks for trying to promote the fear and hopelessness and powerlessness that Wall Street wants to infect us with, but no thanks! OWS is engaging politics on a whole (holistic) new level. As they say in this inspired and inspiring videao, "We're just getting started!" You ain't seen nothin' yet.
OWS lost it's faith in the decentralized process and began centralizing at the request of progressive writers and activists to confront Washington. Now it is no more than the anti-tea party, a much diminished role. OWS lost it's vision and surrendered to political forces. Now OWS has become politically divisive instead of unifying. Any fear and hopelessness rests in your mind not mine. I am hopeful but not because of OWS.
You don’t like it that this is spreading in scope and we should not confront Washington... why?
"I am hopeful but not because of OWS.”??
Your comments are the most “divisive" I have heard so what are you hopeful about now that you have no need of the people's movement?
Jim, OWS began as a social movement working to transcend Washington and build an alternative system so that when this current government collapsed there would be a system ready to succeed it. It was widely agreed that the current system was too entrenched and corrupt to confront successfully. Additionally confronting corporate America, not Washington, was seen as a unifying position. Noam Chomsky spoke of broadening the base first, and I agree. Confronting Bank of America and other big banks was a greatly unifying effort. Exposing corporate greed wherever it is found is a unifying effort.
Election campaigns seem to siphon away political anger and even basic political intelligence into this great vaudeville, after which we all end up in exactly the same place".
Arundhati Roy
______________________________
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Richard Buckminster Fuller
Give examples of OWS being co-opted by electoral politics. I don't see that happening. Put away your negativity or get out of the way.
Just ignore him. He has been negative of OWS from the get go. A troll whose arguments are weak and unsubstantiated.
The concept of decentralization is being traded for centralized decision making by core groups. That abandonment is what derailed Occupy. You are a relatively new comer here Memory_Hole, so you have no credentials to define a troll. Once again, here is the decentralized concept in a nutshell.
The fundamental difference between 20th Century change and 21st Century change lies in the ARCHITECTURE of change.
Change in the 20th Century was CENTRALIZED. It is represented by a triangle where power rests in the hands of the few at the top, and was dictated downward to the People.
Change in the 21st Century is DECENTRALIZED. It is represented by an inverted triangle where power rests with the people at the top.
The architecture if the Internet is one of DECENTRALIZATION. Now, each participating Citizen is a potential publisher and participant. The DECENTRALIZED change process is vitalized by free and open communication in all directions by the participants. A VISION results from the free and open communication when the majority of the participants adopt an idea or concept in their minds and hearts. VISIONS are FLUID and will change as the minds of people evolve and change.
The speed of change spikes complexity. CENTRALIZED entities lack the numbers of intellectual talent (people) to compete with DECENTRALIZED intellectual talent (people) when making decisions. In hyper-culture CENTRALIZED decision making breaks down, whereas, DECENTRALIZED decision making brings order out of chaos. The fundamental difference lies in the great numbers of people participating and sharing their ideas and beliefs. From this pool of ideas, the best ideas take flight and are adopted by the majority of participants.
The OCCUPY Movement is deeply decentralized and EVERY PARTICIPANT IS A LEADER. This process is highly useful when attempting to change or TRANSCEND the status quo. If one leader is isolated or eliminated by the status quo it has little effect because each person is a leader and each person has adopted the vision, so the Movement continues.
Another advantage of a decentralized movement is that it is strongly resistant to co-option. This is important. Political organizations or infiltrators have little effect on the movement once the vision is widely understood and shared by the participants. The adoption of a firm understanding and belief in the DECENTRALIZED PROCESS is first necessary to obtain the resistant nature required for successful transcendence of the current corrupt system.
A vision developed by the majority of people will survive traditional attempts to derail it. The participation of ORGANIZATIONS should be avoided, BUT individual participation encouraged.
Goals are a centralized decision making process. Visions are more complex and result from decentralized decision making. Many people feel that the current governmental and economic systems are so corrupt as to be unchangeable. Decentralized change can TRANSCEND the current system and establish a new system, and new pathways to better lifeways. Decentralized decisions will develop a new MYTHOS, a way of confronting the world as it is and developing NEW lifeways from it.
No one yet knows the shape of the future. What is sure IS the pathway to that future. It is in the PROCESS being envisioned by widely decentralized cooperating participating Citizens. As visions are developed and implemented, the old will be transcended as the visions take hold. WE ARE ON THE PATHWAY OF INVENTING THE FUTURE, A FUTURE THAT WILL UNVEIL ITSELF AS WE PROCEED. “ TRUST THE PROCESS.”
Finally, this is not a POLITICAL movement to be used by the media or political parties to divide us. This revolution derives from a deeper place in our minds, hearts, and spirits. Everyone is welcome to participate in this Movement and the greater the participation, the more meaningful and balanced will be the results. Seek to act with non-violence and unity as the system is transcended
If this decentralized process is followed, no secretive affinity group will succeed in co-opting the Occupy Movement because decision making is so widespread. If a New York Occupy group is compromised by political party, it will make little difference because the movement is so much bigger than the New York group. Participants will continue to make independent decisions in their local Occupy Groups. The movement will thereby NOT be COLORED by politics or wealth. The Movement is too decentralized to be controlled.
One perfect example is OWS marching to Washington with much fanfare, then meeting with politicians like John McCain. Another is Naomi Klein writing that OWS needs to organize and confront the political establishment. Writers here on Common Dreams perpetually attempt to define OWS as a progressive movement and the anti-tea party movement;. OWS in New York has centralized it's leadership leaving out most who were in the park. If you pay attention to the progressive writers here you will see the pattern.
No. The beginning is near.
The people’s politics is what this is about not your old politics of stone.
Stone, I agree. But that doesn't mean the Occupy Movement, the greatest social movement, since the 1960's, can't and won't go on, as a radicalizing force, to catalyse potentially great things. For example, Rocky Anderson has announced his candidacy for presidency in 2012. His platform is not like any normal candidate, and he fully embraces OWS. This is a situation where OWS, which wants fundamental change of how American life is ordered, can make a major difference, even if it wants to remain apolitical. It can do both with its energy.
For instance, although Rocky Anderson is brave and gets it, I think his campaign will get savaged. Why? Because this can't be about "one brave man" ala Obama vs. choose-your-Republican-wacko. Anderson, no matter how noble or brave, can not stand up to the Corporate Machine that has thwarted any expansion of the democratic process, which through duopoly it easily controls, at every turn. The presidential runs of Ralph Nader, one of the greatest, most intelligent citizens America has ever had, demonstrates this.
Corporate money owns over 80% of the politicians. This has crushed democracy in America. The loser: the rapidly disappearing middle class, with one in two workers in the low-income bracket -- this does not even count the many millions of unemployed, which depending on their age, will never work again. The Corporate State has co-opted the democratic party, once the party of the working man. Organized Labor, formerly its main benefactor, is now, though still potentially a force in electoral politics, in decline along with the middle class it created.
I believe the spirit and energy recently awakened by OWS uprisings and encampments, if it is to succeed in really changing things, need to be channeled into a huge mass movement, ala Solidarity in Poland in the 1980's, bringing together the Labor Movement, the Environmental Movement and the Social Justice Movement under one powerful political umbrella of progressivism. The size of the movement needs to create the political party, not vice-versa, if a third party is to have a chance in this country. If America remains a two party Corporate State, we are all doomed. All three planks would be important and interrelated, in order to clean up the current mess created by the Corporate State. I believe this is our best hope, maybe our only hope, to restore a semblance of democracy and counter the ravages of global corporate capitalism. The recent DHS violent smackdowns of OWS encampments nationwide and the panicked rush in Congress to further restrict our liberties has shown that like all totalitarian states, they want to criminalize dissent.
The majority of working Americans have been sold out by a global corporate class that no longer needs it. The democratic party has as rabidly as has the republicans colluded in this, both having sold its soul to Wall Street and Corporate America. It will take size and strength to fight this, and it still won't be a fair fight. Big Labor especially, because of its field organizing strength, should work together (not co-opt in a fragmentary power grab) to harness the energy of the Occupy Movement and really lead. It should give up on supporting democratic candidates, and go into politics for itself with the environmental movement and progressive social justice movement as partners. OWS can choose to join it or, if not, remain a radicalized force for progressive change, and to keep the political process more honest.
If Organized Labor plays it safe or tries to hedge its bets in 2012, it will have blown the best opportunity to save itself in recent memory, and life for working Americans will just get more bleak. Likewise, if OWS plays it too pure, people out there in the country will grow bored and tired of it because they will decide it has less potential than originally thought for radical change.
"Corporate money owns 80% of the politicians" WRONG!! Corporate money owns ALL OF OUR ELECTED FEDERAL OFFICIALS. Our Congress is totally corrupt and so are BOTH corporately funded political parties. We must not vote for anyone in Congress now. We must kick out the corrupt and allow new people to step forward to take positions in our Congress. The General Assemblies of Occupy are wonderful places where citizens are getting educated on just what democracy can be. I think Occupy must make a strong effort to educate the people on the voting records of their elected officials. Too many of us vote by the political party of a candidate---thinking that this has some meaning. WRONG! We must not vote by the party but for or against a candidate based on what you know about that person. It is very clear than NO ONE in Congress heeds the voice of the people. We want the wars to end. We want our government to care for the people and protect our environment and we want the rich to pay their fair share of taxes. Occupy has done a wonderful job of beating the apathy and giving people real hope that we can DEMAND change. We have been feeling so alone and as it our problems are just because of some failing in ourselves. Seeing that so many people share our concerns makes us able to stand up and say, "Listen to us!!! We are the 99%! We want corporations OUT OF OUR GOVERNMENT. Corporations are not people and have NO PLACE in our government.
Don't sit out the opportunity to join the Occupy movement. Go to a gathering or demonstration and get active. Get out and talk to people. You will enjoy the experience. It is so good to be with people who treat each other with such respect.
Rocky Anderson's candidacy is not about one man. You make it about one man by not standing with him. You cannot have a suitable government of 300 million people without representative government. You give up your power when you refuse to stand with and elect people who truly represent you. By not supporting him, you validate the people he is courageously standing up trying to displace. There's no reason why you can't occuply any space you think will help the cause and also support candidates who truly represent you at the same time. If you want to let that part of the 99% who still don't understand what you are doing and why, to begin to understand, then support candidates who are in a position to help you communicate why they are running and what you and they stand for.
Mark,
That Rocky Anderson has stepped forward to declare his third party candidacy is a great thing -- I'm sorry if I mislead. He is talking and sounding like a progressive candidate. He may be the real deal, rather than just the usual smooth-talking politician with a populist rap, like Obama fed to everybody. We'll see where it goes. I'm sure I would support him if no other third party options surface. Clearly, with the exception of a very few currently serving in the House and Senate, none deserve to be re-elected. They are all responsible for the current mess in the country because they are corrupt caretakers of a corrupt system of governance.
Having said that, it is my opinion that before it's over, we instinctively as voters will have fallen into the trap TPTB in the democratic party want us to fall into -- we will dutifully believe the powers that be that if Anderson gets a bit of traction but not enough, he will be portrayed as taking enough votes from Obama to be a spoiler -- and vote for the incumbent. The point I was making is that third party candidacies have always failed in this country because they are underdogs from the get-go and up against entrenched power that doesn't want to be challenged. It would be a shame if Rocky Anderson just follows in the same pattern.
What I was hoping to see, and it still may happen, is for there to be a well-defined political and social mass movement with massive support from the 99%, out of which would come the third party which could immediately challenge democrats and republicans nationally, followed by the states.
The point is, what you are doing is waiting to see what other people are going to do before you take the plunge. The problem is, that's what everyone else is doing too. What I say is that you have to think for yourself and you have to think outside the box. If you would do those two things you would not be waiting for others, you would be leading the way, because in your integrity you would be choosing to support what you personally, consciously believe in. When you wait for others to act, you are doing something else. You have to be willing to vote for what you want if you ever hope to get what you want.
Consider this: if everyone did what I am suggesting, we could win the election and move to a new paradigm where justice reigns. If everyone does what you are suggesting, we will never win... ever.
rgardner98 wrote: "Stone, I agree. But that doesn't mean the Occupy Movement, the greatest social movement, since the 1960's, can't and won't go on, as a radicalizing force, to catalyse potentially great things. For example, Rocky Anderson has announced his candidacy for presidency in 2012. His platform is not like any normal candidate, and he fully embraces OWS."
OWS is NOT a political movement. Read this: ". Election campaigns seem to siphon away political anger and even basic political intelligence into this great vaudeville, after which we all end up in exactly the same place."
Arundhati Roy
Or this: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Richard Buckminster Fuller
These are the people you are debating with.
"Stone" is a troll whose purpose is to undermine Occupy Wall Street by constantly announcing its demise, and criticizing it from a position of ignorance which attempts to deny its political (not merely social) significance.
I like this. We need more of this.
Thanks OWS for getting the Ball rolling.
Now the point is to bring the movement to the farthest corners of the lands......to talk to people and let them know the truth about this parasitic system, and enlist them in small actions (at first) that they feel comfortable joining.
Jumping into electoral politics in your region is an excellent way to spread ideas. If one goes into it with no expectation of winning (so that one is not pandering for votes) and speaks clearly and with principled ethics, others will be won to the cause.
Many tactics are needed to BUILD THE MOVEMENT TO EFFECTIVE SIZE.
The first activists out of the box cannot expect others to know what they know instantaneously............people with pre-knowledge need to spread the word so we can build an EFFECTIVE movement, one large enough to be EFFECTIVE in bringing about real change.............REAL DEMOCRACY where We, the People, make the decisions that affect our lives.
...we'll still witness many ups and downs; but one thing is for sure: the bell of change rang and there will be change, massive change, ...all over the world.
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thanks to our arabic friends, thanks to all the people world wide who speak up, thanks to OWS!
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stone-- decentralisation is the only way our human systems can further exist. all attempts to centralize will rather sooner than later break up, the central system dies.
"decentralisation is the only way our human systems can further exist"
Needs repeating.
There is time for everything. Now we shall start understanding all better and contextualize as well as try as much as possible to get the general and historical pictures right. What we now see is not a simple accident, though to some it might be a kind of myth that is not easy to decipher. A time for everything? some might still keep asking and I still say "Yes"! We are led though we are not all able to see, interpret and understand, because we are we: humans! Yet I am sure we will grapple as all will be unfolding. Our consciences should intimate us more to question things and carry out more ransacking of ourselves, institutions, values, practices...., etc. Such will open us more to see our fellow beings with love, concern and trust, beyond race, religious creed, but with more manageable and functional understanding of the creation and sharing of wealth - of nations, groups and individuals. I am concerned here about morals and proportions. Don't both belong? Yes, indeed they do!
A new unpredictable world and age might be on us from 2012 onwards. We cannot afford not to sit truly up for the challenges ahead! Common Dreams asks for monetary support but tends to forget and be ungrateful for spiritual supports. I hope I am not wrong! We are in the age of great "mixes" and I know its problem is how we mix right! Activism is partly the effect of lights that reach unto us: a form of awakening! If well mixed it can be very peaceful for the goal of new spirituality, community, national and global renewals and success with all what we ask for. In spite of the myth behind all, we can get all we want and yet it is conditionally so from above --- less I be misunderstood from below! Above belongs to us all irrespective of who we are..a paradox some might say or think! Yet there are sensible but difficult to interpret paradoxes...more-so if the spirit is allowed to sleep, rather than be balance and stay awake, but strong! We are given all including the styles and courage to carry curious messages across!
LET THERE BE LOVE, PEACE, UNDERSTANDING, RENEWAL AND SPIRIT OF SHARING IN 2012 ONWARDS, THEN IN THE "WAIT" WE SHALL BE BETTER-OFF!
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!
Thanks for this inspiring message! The OWS movement can and will endure, it will broaden and be a force for change. It is indeed just getting started. And you who are reading these words now (trolls excepted) are IT!
The OWS movement might very well "broaden and be a force for change", but I do not believe it can, by itself, bring about change.
As the OWSers awaken the non-participating population, the people will ask "so what do we do now?". If there is not a strong progressive party that these people can vote for, the movement will probably fizzle, as it did in the 70s.
The energies of those of us not participating in OWS should therefore be directed toward building that strong progressive party.