Understanding and respecting the reformist/revolutionary spectrum
It should be a common axiom in teachings and understanding around movement building that there is a spectrum of radicalness, and this spectrum is actually necessary for large scale and long term social change. But in the past decade social movements in Canada have practically disappeared this concept -in specific, labour leaders and leftist politicians bad mouthing and baiting anarchists and anti-capitalists, with pacifist activists chiming in along behind them.
This tension, is often couched in the contrast between ‘peaceful’ vs. ‘violent’ protesters, but is actually more about goals than tactics. There are the liberals and moderates, who push for conservative lawful means of action and there are the radicals and revolutionaries who push for immediate systemic changes often outside of or counter to the law. It’s the reformist/revolutionary spectrum. Both ends of the spectrum have overlapping goals but often come into conflict with each other over both the means and the ends of social struggles. Unfortunately, peaceful protest has become equated with lawfulness in ahistoric precedents. Somehow, moderates forget that the participants of the Civil Rights Movement, though devoutly pacifist, were considered radical extremists and menaces to society in their day. Lawfulness and peacefulness are not interchangeable words, and further, are often adversaries of each other.
http://tinyurl.com/6qy3vpq
The City as University: Occupy and the Future of Public Education
For quite a long time now, we precariously situated students and faculty in CUNY have been practicing the art of what Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o calls “poor theory”- “maximizing the possibilities inherent in the minimum… being extremely creative and experimental in order to survive.” Unable to isolate ourselves within the velvety quicksand of armchairs and seminar table solipsism, we have instead pursued a kind of crowd scholarship that jettisons “interest” for “involvement.” Discussions among crowds of people-in and out of assemblies, street marches, virtual forums, shared meals, space-transformations, and yes, even jail stints-have assembled critical lessons and experiences not yet valued by scholastic frameworks of singularly rendered knowledge. Thousands have co-authored this document itself.
We are engaged in a process of defending our educational and social futures from a threadbare past and present. US student debt has surpassed $1 trillion-a third of this debt is held by graduate students. Crippling tuition increases and education cuts in some cases triple tuition and erase whole departments. Meanwhile, our campuses become increasingly militarized. As recently spotlighted in UC-Davis and CUNY’s Baruch and Brooklyn Colleges, administrators unabashedly welcome the surveillance, intimidation, and brutal arrests of students and faculty who peacefully dissent. But after our pulses shudder from being followed by armed officers, after our indignation roils from reading lies that presidents and chancellors print about our political acts, and after our bruised bodies heal from being treated like enemy combatants on our own campuses, we gather in crowds again because we have no other choice.
Millennials, Activism and Race: A New Study
Politically active, young progressives most often find themselves in the work as a result of family influences. They aren’t having grand epiphanies at lectures by prominent people or even recruited heavily by their friends. Their understanding and commitments come from observing or experiencing daily struggle.
People active in Occupy and those active in community organizations are similarly disenchanted with the electoral system. Their frustration was less about the Obama administration than it was about the dysfunctionality of the electoral and legislative systems generally.
All our participants named a dominant doctrine of individualism as a critical barrier to progressive change, but people involved with Occupy had a more explicit critique of capitalism as a system than those involved in other organizations.
Most respondents felt the need to address the racial dimensions of inequality, but they both wanted to include other systems in that analysis, and had few tools with which to bring in race with any combination of other systems like class, gender and sexuality.
Occupy Charlotte holding anti-KKK rally near where white supremacy group meeting
Members of Occupy Charlotte said they plan on being in the small town of Harmony on Saturday in anticipation of Ku Klux Klan gathering there.
“There’s going to be signs; there are going to be banners,” said Adam Nubar, of Occupy Charlotte. “We’re going to try to create somewhat of a scene.”
According to a Klan website, the “Loyal White Knights” will be holding a “cross-lighting.” A flier for the event said only whites were invited to attend.
But members of Occupy Charlotte said they plan on lining the streets of Harmony, along with other protestors, as the Klan makes its way into town.
http://tinyurl.com/brn6pwq
Sherrif’s department retreats from second eviction attempt, broken door from raided home delivered to sheriff
A 4:00 PM sheriff’s raid on the foreclosed home of the Cruz family on May 23 was foiled by the aggressive efforts of Occupy Minnesota. The deputies retreated. They returned again at 4:00 AM, May 26 armed with battering rams, jack hammers and massive bolt cutters. There were about a dozen occupy volunteers sleeping at the house. All but two were ordered outside – the two couldn’t find their shoes. The five people secured to the building were forcibly removed and arrested, currently held until Tuesday morning.
Again the sheriff’s crew was driven back by the occupy volunteers who came up the alley and entered the back of the house. The deputies retreated with their prisoners leaving the home is shambles.
A rally in front of City hall at noon on May 25, featured the broken door and speeches by supporters including three members of the Minneapolis City Council. The door was then delivered to Sheriff Stanek’s Office in City Hall. The sheriff declined to meet with the demonstrators. The broken door was left at the front door of his office. A major source of frustration was that the bank was working with the Cruz family to clear up the situation and renew the mortgage. The sheriff’s actions cut across this progress and was seen as unnecessary and punitive by those close to the situation.
http://tinyurl.com/7vbvb6l
Occupy Port Jefferson Member Started Protesting Later in Life
What do people on a corner in a small Long Island village hope to accomplish by protesting every week? These Occupy Port Jefferson protesters are not the out-of-work, digital youth generation just out of college camping out in tents. Most are Baby Boomers. Many are even older. What attracts these people to go out and protest every week? We asked three regular Occupy Port Jefferson demonstrators some questions about what they do and why.
http://tinyurl.com/7j6z4ck
EU health commission: Monsanto strain won’t be banned
Invincible agricultural giant Monsanto has once again demonstrated its ability to crush countries on the legal battlefield. The EFSA has ruled there is no “scientific evidence” of damage caused by consuming genetically-modified maize.
France is the latest country to try and battle Monsanto over its genetically-modified corn. In February it requested that the European Commission ban the MON 810 strain from EU markets, supporting the request with scientific argumentation. While awaiting the decision, French government unilaterally reinstalled a ban on MON 810, though the country’s highest court had earlier ruled in favor of Monsanto.
It took the European Food Safety Authority three months to come to a quite predictable conclusion – that the strain poses no threat, and will not be banned.
The Occupy Monsanto movement is planning to launch another round of protests during the harvesting season 2012.
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