December 12, 2011

From Three Weeks Ago

For weeks now, I have questioned my loyalty to the movement, questioned the sincerity and depth of my commitment. I have pulled back from interacting on any level for days at a time. I have kept up with the media, the tsunami of information generated by OWS and the issues it addresses, which can consume 6 hours if I give everything its’ due, email included.

The drill is this: websites for cnn, msnbc, and nyt, about 30 minutes, turn on al Jazeera, then 3 hours to work thru Facebook. Mind you, these are only OWS related FB posts. I will read a few of the articles, view some of the vids, as I come to them. However, after a time, I will simply open the link and move on with the FB posts. Today, this took 2.5 hours to cover the posts from the last 20 hrs. I have been defriended by about 75 people since the occupation began, but picked up twice that many. That which is opened and left is then dealt with, consuming another couple hours.

Email is a matter unto itself. I have developed a method to prioritize my consumption of emails.

#1) Press requests. If a media outlet is requesting information, a confirmation of receipt email is immediately sent out. Another email is then distributed to media stating the request has received a response and outlining what needs to be done next.

#2) Media and livestream emails, most of which involve press releases being circulated for editing and approval / objections. This gets very cumbersome, many long email chains which breach the line of comprehension.

#3) Everything else. This category is often not dealt with for days. Sometimes I will skim the emails, see what they are about and deal with them or come back to them later. Increasingly, especially as national strategy conversations are beginning via email, the fluff, the not immediately relevant, falls by the wayside. I simply cannot keep up with the volume and the majority of what comes thru my mailbox goes unopened.

Of course, #s 1 and 2 open to the floodgates to more email which must be dealt with immediately. Such is the nature of the media. Deadlines rule.

Which leads me back to my dark hopelessness, the weight, of the past week. Occupy Nashville has survived and thrived solely because of the overwhelming victories in the media.

Let me be perfectly clear here: this success, these victories, are not the result of a crack media team. Yes the media, livestream and tech teams have done one hell of a job (honestly, we rock) of amplifying and transmitting the efforts of ON as a whole to the public.

That said, let’s do a quick recap of ON’s high points:

Two actions, before the occupation even began, brought out hundreds.

Last I heard, 42 tents full of occupiers in the Plaza, and the weather sucks. Our occupation, which began on October 8 is now over 2 months old.

Two nights of raids by THP result in charges being:

1) Thrown out because the curfew rule resulting in the charges was “changing the rules in the middle of the game” on the part of the state, as ON was several weeks old already

2) Thrown out because “there is no standing in TN law” vs ON or anyone else from assembling at anytime on the plaza. (Aside – we simply got really, really lucky in picking the plaza, it was totally random, decided on the fly, and involved only about 10 people)

Furthermore, a Federal Judge ruled the next Monday (2^nd raid was Saturday AM) in favor of ON, enforcing a temporary restraining order vs the state (Gov, THP) or any other police, stating something to the effect that no one, at any time, can be prevented from their 1^st amendment rights, as practiced by ON, on the Legislative Plaza. She went on to say that Legislative Plaza was the “quintessential” place for such a protest.

Quite honestly however, ON has not seen huge, growing numbers at actions and gas. From my distant perspective, 75 is a good night at a GA, only about 50, from what I understand, showed up to picket RUMSFELD. In other words, we aren’t bursting at the seams with frontline warriors so it’s not our efforts which are gaining anything more than a presence on the periphery of consciousness in the local media. This is no small feat, mind you, but it isn’t what we are doing that is getting the press, it is what is being done to us. Eg:

Nationally, the movement has been buoyed by huge protests (nyc last Thursday, and Oakland strike) and explosive shutdowns. The shutdowns gained far more press as the old rule “if it bleeds, it leads” still prevails.

The crackdowns were linked into the national chain of command, cohering 18 – 40 (Associated Press) mayors into a pat, militarized plan for suppression of 1^st Amendment rights of occupations across the country.

Armaments included the ubiquitous pepper spray, batons of all description, tasers, pepper bullet guns, rubber bullets, flash bang grenades, tear gas, armored personnel carriers, helicopters, hoards of riot cops, LRAD, and lest us not forget horses and police surveillance boxes on 50’ tall scissor lift thingies.

Methods included “kettleing”, beating, spraying, arrest of media, exclusion of media on ground and in the air, raids made in the wee hours, etc.

All this is to say, I have tried to judge the movement by seeking the balance of what we have done and what has been done to us. We began on our path wishing to topple the corporate powers that be, the so called 1%, and specifically those corporations who have hijacked not only the US government, but also the world economy.

We have been reduced to hand to hand combat over rights due every human being – freedom of speech and assembly. Our gov’t has preached this since February, calling on dictators and those barring free elections world wide to stand down and let the people be heard. Now, there will be a bill before congress, tomorrow, which recognizes the US as battleground in re: to militarized responses to national security, extending “extraordinary rendition”, “enemy combatant”, and “indefinite detention without charge” status and consequence to the American people. Goodbye posse commitatus, I think you’re done, for once and for all.

I read an article today which completely changed my thinking. Basically, it outlined why OWS has succeeded (it took protesting to a whole new level thru innovation like occupying) and where it was going. The where is it going question was answered, confidently and with great integrity, with no one knows. We haven’t known where we’re going day to day since the beginning. However, we have had our eyes on the prize since day one. That is one beauty of this whole, wonderful mess we’ve created: we have created a spirit where nothing is impossible, erasing the gouges modern economics have made from top to bottom of the food chain is tangible, patience and persistence, two qualities which I feel I possess in spades, will win the day.

I also read, yesterday, a good article about activist burnout, and watched a video about the levels of spiritual development. I connected with both of them, my feelings of the last week resounding through both.

Today, with a sudden moment of clarity, I found hope, and purpose. What has propelled OWS / ON into the world spotlight has not been progress to our goals but being shat upon by the system, which one can only imagine is scared, angry, and flummoxed all at the same time. Now, ON has a chance to pull off a biggie, an organized, pro-active furthering of our goals.

Nashville will host the first statewide GA next weekend.