For the week October 22 – October 28
First they removed the pick up boxes then they started delivering mail very late in the day I used to get mail at 10:00am now I’ll be lucky if I get at 5:00pm. Now they are telling us you can go to Walgreen’s for stamps and money orders do you believe that shit. And we all know that a lot of black folks don’t have checking accounts or belong to a bank and count on the post office to take care of their monthly business, not to mention how the small businesses in the area will be impacted by this. We also have a lot of elderly people who vote by mail. Republicans are trying every dirty trick they know to keep us from voting but as one woman said at the meeting we will walk, crawl and run to vote for President Obama In 2012.
Really.
Apparently the GA wants them to limit themselves to 2 hours a day in order to continue cooperation from people who’ve been helping them maintain their presence in Zuccotti Park, but the main group of drummers who’ve formed a representative group called “Pulse” won’t accept that suggestion. There’s a compromise recommendation of two 2 hour segments per day that’s still being discussed but apparently there are still a bunch of independent drummers that want to drum up to 10 hours per day. Worse still, apparently there’s a woman who keeps blowing up consensus and pitting groups against one another and hindering any attempt to come up with a workable solution. Sounded pretty ugly.
What really troubles me about this is not only how petty the whole thing will look if #OWS disintegrates because of this issue, but also the potential demoralizing effect it would have on many of the protesters who might end up feeling even more apathetic and withdraw from the political process completely – as in, refuse to register and vote in 2012.
If people in OWS were really serious about change they would be out there registering and mobilizing voters to take over Congress and pass legislations that is in their interest. So far, all I see is self indulgence and political naivety and may be a chance to appear on television.
All movements that have historically made a difference in the United States combined protest and the focus on gaining political power via electoral politics. That was true of: the movement to enfranchise white men who did not own property; the movement to enfranchise former slaves; the women’s suffrage movement; the labor union movement; the Civil Rights movement to regain rights lost under the Jim Crow period; and the movement to empower young people who were being sent to fight wars but were denied the right to vote. To me, any one who is urging people not to vote, or participate in electoral politics, is selling people false hopes about change.
Like Malcolm X said: It is either “the ballot or the bullet” for any one interested in change. I doubt that people in OWS are equipped to engineer an armed Revolution that will win the support of the majority of Americans. So the only change possible is through the ballot boxes. Sadly this is an avenue that many in the OWS seem to reject and belittle.
Sometimes people are so impressionable. Yes, the massive peaceful revolts worked in Egypt and Tunisia. But that is because Tunisia and Egypt were ruled by dictators. Yes, armed revolt worked in Libya, but that is because the majority of people run out of options. It also helps to have powerful supporters like the U.N, the U.S., and NATO. Without these supporters it would not have been easy for Libyans to overthrow a heavily armed dictator.
May be it is me, but it seems to me that this whole OWS is modeled after the so called “Arab Spring.” In my humble opinion this is a poor model because the United States is so different from the Arab countries that have been ruled by dictators for decades. Don’t get me wrong, I am in total agreement with many of the issues raised by the OWS. I just don’t think that focusing on just one tactic– occupation– is the most effective way of addressing the issues raised. But I especially reject the idea that you can bring about real changes in the economic system without actively participating in electoral politics.
I support OWS goals for a less income inequality, but they have no plan how to implement their goals and this is why folk in smaller cities, where parkland is limited is going to tell them to get the heck on because it just looks like a bunch of idiots screaming. The OWS Chicago article from yesterday where Rahm’s office was trying to speak with them and they wouldn’t meet with them just speaks to the idiocy of these groups. If you are not trying to engage the people who make policy, why should they listen to you?
And these are the folk that the PL are saying PBO should have patterned himself after since they are so much more “authentic” and “revolutionary.” They are the epitome of talking loud and saying nothing.
Occupy Chicago’ protesters confront Rahm’s chief of staff
excerpt:
The group of more than 100 people confronted Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Deputy Chief of Staff Felicia Davis inside Chicago’s City Hall, and chanted “drop the charges.”
(Yeah, like your chanting is convincing me…NOT!)
Davis told the group that the mayor’s office had tried to arrange a meeting with the protest’s organizers, but the offer was rejected. When she later tried to call the organizers, her calls were not returned.
(I guess they were too busy chanting…)
“Occupy Chicago” press liaison Evelyn DeHais told WBEZ91.5 that the protest’s general assembly had voted to reject meeting with the mayor’s office and had voted not to return their phone calls. The demonstrators have demanded that city officials come to one of their daily assembly meetings.
(Fuck that shit; I got work to do!)
“It’s very difficult to negotiate when the faces keep changing,” Davis explained. “I’m willing to sit down and have an open and respectful dialogue. I just need to know who the the real, appropriate, valid people are to have that happen.”
(It’s a bunch of stupid motherfuckers up in here!)
An “Occupy Chicago” protester who acted as an impromptu spokeswoman at City Hall said that the group would not participate in closed door meetings with the mayor’s office.
“Democracy does not happen behind closed doors,” she said.
(Really, now?
The stupid is strong with this one.)
“One hundred and fifty of you shouting at me actually isn’t democracy either,” Davis responded. “You can have an open respectful dialogue in a room, not with 150 people yelling at one time.”
(Fuck off, losers.)
Davis later walked away in frustration, claiming to have been misrepresented by the protesters’ “human mic” system of communication.
(That shit is whack!
That shit is whack!)
Good luck.
I don’t think anyone’s that pressed for you man; they got themselves some good Negroes and there are a couple more waiting in the wings. PLUS; that voter fraud card won’t play right now that the GOP is stealing the rights of Americans to vote across the country. They don’t want a national conversation on the issue.
