On The Night Occupy Los Angeles Tore Itself In Two
I feel like the presentation here of a dichotomy b/w "process" folks and those trying to build a horizontal society is a misreading of the situation. The process folks are the ones trying to build a horizontal society. The problem arises when you have people who refuse to participate in that horizontal governance, and won't recognize the legitimacy of its outcome. Good luck surviving as a movement without process. But, this *is* about healing traditional rifts-- process can feel inaccessible to folks who have never been shown or shown themselves how to navigate thru issues of power. Even though we use a horizontal process which all can influence, folks who don't go, or who get bored and leave, don't get to influence it. This has led to issues in New York, but we've resolved them by getting people to the table and trying to make them feel more welcome and comfortable joining the process.
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On The Night Occupy Los Angeles Tore Itself In Two
@Matt Cornell you've hit something on the head here, but do get it straight that there are many agents provocateur and paranoia is something anyone organized in a movement like this has to deal with. trust is crucial for our success, but unfair play makes it hard at times. no one is cool with this state of affairs, but it is a natural result of circumstances.
While we do have a sense of purpose, for sure, occupations without good short-term goal creation and achievement are going to have a harder time building community and staying together. For many occupations, having to be clever in resisting first amendment abrogation has been a short term goal that has created that space. For those like LA not being targeted by police violence, it is more difficult.
I hope that occupations in safe locations can knuckle down and take a leadership role in the movement by using their resources inventively and creatively. There are many viable short term goals and because of where we're at in NYC, holding down the fort and dealing with myriad logistical challenges both inherent to our location and manufactured by Mayor Bloomberg, occupations shouldn't wait for us to demonstrate them. They should take front and center, like Oakland has, and move the ball fwd. It would certainly help if the media would stop treating the Liberty Square occupation as the face of the movement, because we're just another occupation in a horizontal structure, and other occupations deserve credit and shine for what they're accomplishing completely autonomously.