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#OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

PostPosted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 7:27 am
by 2012 Countdown
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Alright you 90,000 redeemers, rebels and radicals out there,

A worldwide shift in revolutionary tactics is underway right now that bodes well for the future. The spirit of this fresh tactic, a fusion of Tahrir with the acampadas of Spain, is captured in this quote:

"The antiglobalization movement was the first step on the road. Back then our model was to attack the system like a pack of wolves. There was an alpha male, a wolf who led the pack, and those who followed behind. Now the model has evolved. Today we are one big swarm of people."
— Raimundo Viejo, Pompeu Fabra University
Barcelona, Spain

The beauty of this new formula, and what makes this novel tactic exciting, is its pragmatic simplicity: we talk to each other in various physical gatherings and virtual people's assemblies … we zero in on what our one demand will be, a demand that awakens the imagination and, if achieved, would propel us toward the radical democracy of the future … and then we go out and seize a square of singular symbolic significance and put our asses on the line to make it happen.

The time has come to deploy this emerging stratagem against the greatest corrupter of our democracy: Wall Street, the financial Gomorrah of America.

On September 17, we want to see 20,000 people flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices.

Tahrir succeeded in large part because the people of Egypt made a straightforward ultimatum – that Mubarak must go – over and over again until they won. Following this model, what is our equally uncomplicated demand?

The most exciting candidate that we've heard so far is one that gets at the core of why the American political establishment is currently unworthy of being called a democracy: we demand that Barack Obama ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington. It's time for DEMOCRACY NOT CORPORATOCRACY, we're doomed without it.

This demand seems to capture the current national mood because cleaning up corruption in Washington is something all Americans, right and left, yearn for and can stand behind. If we hang in there, 20,000-strong, week after week against every police and National Guard effort to expel us from Wall Street, it would be impossible for Obama to ignore us. Our government would be forced to choose publicly between the will of the people and the lucre of the corporations.

This could be the beginning of a whole new social dynamic in America, a step beyond the Tea Party movement, where, instead of being caught helpless by the current power structure, we the people start getting what we want whether it be the dismantling of half the 1,000 military bases America has around the world to the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act or a three strikes and you're out law for corporate criminals. Beginning from one simple demand – a presidential commission to separate money from politics – we start setting the agenda for a new America.

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Adbusters #97: Post Anarchism – How To Live Without Dead Time (with #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign materials inside), hits newsstands on August 2. Go to adbusters.org/subscribe and subscribe!

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ADBUSTERS BLOG
#OCCUPYWALLSTREET
A shift in revolutionary tactics.

http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbuster ... treet.html

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Re: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

PostPosted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 7:45 am
by MacCruiskeen
This is the kind of thing that needs to start happening. I wish you the best of luck with it, and I hope 20,000 or more do indeed turn up for it.

Re: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 1:44 pm
by 2012 Countdown
Just wanted to kick this in hope of more exposure.

Re: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 1:53 pm
by Wombaticus Rex
I'll be there. Give a shout if you wanna hang out.

Re: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 1:53 pm
by 82_28
But, in just my back of the napkin theory, wouldn't a terror attack somewhere, some place else simply just take the cause off the table? I hate to say it, but they hold 51 of the 52 cards and then you can always implement the use of the Joker. And still then, is the old Ace up the sleeve. Not trying to be a Debbie Downer, seriously am not. House holds the cards though and is the final rule maker.

They will have a memetic answer to this should it prove popular. Just, IMO, be aware of that.

Re: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:06 pm
by Laodicean
82_28 wrote:But, in just my back of the napkin theory, wouldn't a terror attack somewhere, some place else simply just take the cause off the table? I hate to say it, but they hold 51 of the 52 cards and then you can always implement the use of the Joker. And still then, is the old Ace up the sleeve. Not trying to be a Debbie Downer, seriously am not. House holds the cards though and is the final rule maker.

They will have a memetic answer to this should it prove popular. Just, IMO, be aware of that.


Forget about your House of Cards
And I'll deal mine.

Re: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:13 pm
by Wombaticus Rex
82_28 wrote:But, in just my back of the napkin theory, wouldn't a terror attack somewhere, some place else simply just take the cause off the table? I hate to say it, but

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Re: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:19 pm
by 82_28
Laodicean wrote:
82_28 wrote:But, in just my back of the napkin theory, wouldn't a terror attack somewhere, some place else simply just take the cause off the table? I hate to say it, but they hold 51 of the 52 cards and then you can always implement the use of the Joker. And still then, is the old Ace up the sleeve. Not trying to be a Debbie Downer, seriously am not. House holds the cards though and is the final rule maker.

They will have a memetic answer to this should it prove popular. Just, IMO, be aware of that.


Forget about your House of Cards
And I'll deal mine.


The house intends on staying the house, however. And with the cards we've been dealt we can either fold or riot like never before. I still "hope" for reform. I think we need some good old fashioned Seattle circa 1999, but Seattle's gonna have to wait for its own hockey team for that to happen.

Re: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:26 pm
by Laodicean
Absolutey. This card game has been rigged from the start. They've been playing with a stacked deck. This House of Cards analogy is apt, IMO. It's collapsing on itself. I'd like nothing more than to see the House go down in flames. Not that I'm endorsing such a thing here on these forums though. Just my opinion.

Re: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:43 pm
by 82_28
I think the analogy was borne out of a short conversation I was having with a fairly well off dude yesterday. He said, compared to Wall Street, Las Vegas is perfectly legitimate anymore. And it's true. You know exactly what you're getting into in anything you do there. Sure it's stacked against you, but the odds are posted right there, by law. But Vegas is for people on vacation. Wall Street, people gamble their entire lives on or allow their brokers or 401k contributing employers gamble for them, because they trust it -- or should say once trusted it.

Could you imagine asking somebody to "here, take this $1k and have fun with it in Vegas. But just remember it's my money and I'm trusting you to win and bring me a return."? Of course not.

Re: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:57 pm
by Laodicean
82_28 wrote:
Could you imagine asking somebody to "here, take this $1k and have fun with it in Vegas. But just remember it's my money and I'm trusting you to win and bring me a return."? Of course not.


Actually, I would most def give at least 1K to someone like Phil Ivey for example. I'd have a much better chance of seeing a return on that investment than buying a particular stock. Of course with poker it's not just the cards you're playing, but more your opponents. The Wall Street game is more poker than blackjack.

Re: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 3:15 pm
by norton ash
The Wall Street game seems more like a video poker game being hacked and reprogrammed from numerous sides, with a table full of dim bots who will always do the same thing automatically, and a few human hotheads, chasing...

Re: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 3:25 pm
by 82_28
Oh fully. I would totally entrust 1k to Phil Ivey or Tom Dwan to bring me some return in a poker game. Sadly, I'd have to ask them to loan me that 1k in advance. Which, I think is the whole problem in the first place.

Re: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 3:35 pm
by Bruce Dazzling
Wombaticus Rex wrote:I'll be there. Give a shout if you wanna hang out.


I work in the hood (though NOT in the financial industry), and plan on showing my support every day at lunch, at the very least.

Maybe we can set up an RI tent.

Wombat can spin the jams, Riddler and BKS can do their podcast, and I'll bring the Alan's falafel.

Re: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

PostPosted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 4:35 am
by Project Willow
:yay

I've been playing with this:
http://guillotinerevival.com/

I'm planning to use it as a news and commentary aggregator tracking political and economic based uprisings in North America. Suggestions, writing, links, and bloggers welcome and encouraged.

BTW, where is Vanlose? :(