Status of the Resistance Movement: Growing, Deepening, Succeeding

[marmar]

Status of the Resistance Movement: Growing, Deepening, Succeeding

Wednesday, 25 September 2013 11:55
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers , Truthout | News


So much has been accomplished by Occupy and other social justice movements in the past two years that it is incredible the corporate media and their pundits do not report on what is happening around them. Despite the lack of corporate media coverage, the movement is deepening, creating democratic institutions, stopping some of the worst policies from being pushed by the corporate duopoly and building a broad-based diverse movement.

This is not to say things are getting better for the 99%; in fact, quite the opposite is happening. Big business government continues to funnel money to the top while robbing most Americans of the little wealth they had. More Americans are being impacted by the unfair economy and realize that their struggle is not their fault but is the reality of living in a system with deep corruption and dysfunction. Economic injustice is the compost creating fertile ground for the movement to grow.

Too many commentators focus on the lack of encampments and think Occupy is dead. Camping out in public parks was a tactic - it was not the movement or the only tactic of the movement. Too many fail to look at what members of the Occupy community are doing along with other social justice, environmental and peace activists. We report on the movement every day at Popular Resistance so we see lots of activity all over the country on a wide range of issues and using a variety of tactics. And we see a growing movement having a bigger impact.

On the second anniversary of Occupy Wall Street (OWS), these writers captured the essence of Occupy. David Callahan, in Seven Ways Occupy Changed America And Is Still Changing It, correctly noted how we changed the debate, revived progressive populism, spurred worker revolts and challenged capitalism. Rebecca Solnit, who has been active in Occupy and other movements, also made important points. She writes, “Those who doubt that these moments matter should note how terrified the authorities and elites are when they erupt. That fear is a sign of their recognition that real power doesn’t only lie with them.” .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/19046-status-of-the-resistance-movement-growing-deepening-succeeding

[PETRUS]

1. K&R

[rhett o rick]

2. The Revolution is waiting. nm

[KoKo]

3. Their putting out the Meme of the "1%" as opposed to the "99%"

Was the best "Framing of an Issue" ever for focusing attention on what has been going on in this country the past decades.

The Framing of the issue unleashed all kinds of creative efforts and even focused the MSM to being to talk about the issues of inequality which they had avoided...preferring instead to use Repug Meme of "Class Warfare." We don't hear much about "Class Warfare" when everyone can see that the $1% have it all and are thriving while the 99% are struggling and falling further behind each year.

[Hydra]

5. That meme is very powerful

And the behavior of those people at the top is accentuating that gap.

If occupy does nothing else, it identified the real problem we're having,a and put it in terms that are not political.

Third way must hate the light that shines on them. Are you with the 1%, or the 99%?

[Zorra]

4. We're taking over, and they can't stop us, unless they destroy the planet first.

[Hydra]

6. They are destroying our habitat, so we'd better hurry if we're going to do something n/t

[L0oniX]

7. K & R

[Enthusiast]

8. "commentators"

Paid propagandists. Fuck 'em. And I mean that most sincerely.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

9. K&R n/t

[xchrom]

10. du rec.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

11. I'm afraid I think this is pure wishful thinking.

The truth is that the Occupy movement is almost entirely gone, having had virtually no impact on the course of American politics. When people come to write "The History of Political Movements in America in the early 21st century", the Tea Party will get half the book and Occupy will get a chapter.

The lesson is that if you want to change the world, you actually have to abandon the moral high ground and specify goals and leaders. The reason Occupy fizzled so comprehensively was that it refused to focus on getting a legislative agenda implemented, because it wanted to remain "open to all" and idealized being leaderless and equal. That didn't work, and will never work.

[marmar]

12. "Occupy movement is almost entirely gone, having had virtually no impact on the course of American"

Complete bullshit.

[randome]

13. Without goals and leaders, anarchy is the result.

http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/12/a-eulogy-for-occupy/

Because the GA had no way to reject force, over time it fell to force. Proposals won by intimidation; bullies carried the day. What began as a way to let people reform and remake themselves had no mechanism for dealing with them when they didn’t. It had no way to deal with parasites and predators. It became a diseased process, pushing out the weak and quiet it had meant to enfranchise until it finally collapsed when nothing was left but predators trying to rip out each other’s throats.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[socialist_n_TN]

16. Occupy, like all social movements, will morph and change........

but it won't "go away" until the conditions that led to it's rise go away. And those conditions ain't going away. Ironically, they won't go away until Occupy morphs into something a whole lot more militant and makes stronger alliances with working class organizations.

I expect the next incarnation of Occupy to be, in general, a whole lot more like Occupy Oakland than Occupy Wall Street. And the one after that will be even MORE militant.

[99Forever]

14. Bwahahahahahahah....

... talk about clueless.

Way to serve up the corporate kool-aid. Keep pretending while you still can, there's a shitstorm headed the 1%ers and their bootlicking lapdogs way and denial won't stop it.

[CanSocDem]

15. It's your "thinking" that is 'wishful'.

I suspect, from this reply and others, that you 'wish' you didn't have to work so hard to facilitate the social revolution. Clearly, it would be a mistake to put you up front carrying the flag or leading the cheers.
We'll call you when we need a leader to implement our specific instructions.


.

[Eleanors38]

17. I'm hoping and I'm ready.