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Resemblence
We tag the keystone to end the trial. Uvenk and his cronies show up before the shaman can get to us.
Grunt: We have company. Good. I want more.
Me: You know, I’m starting to believe that you two ARE related.
Mom: Yeah. We have the same eyes.
We make quick work of Uvenk.
OMG pls moar! I love this blog. :C
Thinking about all the hatred unleashed at the cops yesterday makes me sick. Yes, I understand that there has been police brutality, both associated with Occupy and otherwise. That still doesn’t excuse lashing out in anger. Turn the other cheek and all that.
Moreover, the cops you’re yelling at…
Let me tell you why, as a peaceful anarchist, I hate cops.
1. The Fraternal Order of Police (Police Officers’ Union) advocates the use of the Blue Code Of Silence within police departments and sometimes even across multiple agencies. The Blue Code Of Silence means that if, as a cop, if you see a fellow officer being corrupt you do not report that officer because of the comradery between one another. That makes cops who are not guilty of corruption guilty of enabling corruption.
2. Many people, such as anarchists, see the cops as oppressors of total freedom. Police officers are not protecting the people in the cases of the Occupy protests due to the fact that the police forcefully evicted the nonviolent protesters last time, engaged violently with no provocation in Oakland, rammed protesters with motorbikes in NYC, pepper sprayed peaceful and sometimes stationary students, children, and elderly, and obviously participated in hundreds, if not thousands, of unlawful arrests all around the country. Any organization that commits these sort of actions does not receive my support and will always receive my disdain.
3. Why did no police officers try and stop police brutality? If they really think police brutality is wrong then they should have made the effort to stop it instead of stand idly by as the innocent are beat. A person who does nothing in the face of injustice is just as bad as the injustice itself.
My post was not asking why people hate cops. I know that much. I was merely advocating not acting on that hatred--and perhaps even to diminish that hatred. As Buddha says, ill-will hurts the very person who bears it.
Since you're an anarchist, I highly recommend checking out Leo Tolstoy's "The Kingdom of God is Within You" if you haven't already. Tolstoy never officially identified himself as an anarchist, but most of his thoughts are clearly a form of anarchism. That essay contains, to me, a strong convincing case about not reacting to force with more violence, and was highly influential on Gandhi.
Thinking about all the hatred unleashed at the cops yesterday makes me sick. Yes, I understand that there has been police brutality, both associated with Occupy and otherwise. That still doesn't excuse lashing out in anger. Turn the other cheek and all that.
Moreover, the cops you're yelling at aren't necessarily the same cops who dish out brutality. You're generalizing them into one entity, just as their uniforms attempt to do. When I watch videos of people screaming at cops for really no discernable reason, it seems to me like, to the protesters, the cops are no longer cops or even people, but merely a symbol of the 1%, everything that's wrong with the world, and possibly everything the protesters feel is wrong in their own lives.
As if that's not enough, the entire way nonviolent resistance works is by manipulating the sympathies of the public via "political jiu-jitsu". By showing police brutalizing totally innocent, nonviolent people, the public's sympathies swing toward the protestors (as in the cases of the first Occupy protests). As soon as those protesters start screaming at--or, in one case in Los Angeles, even physically shoving the police, completely unprovoked--the sympathies of the public are only going to swing towards the police. I know mine certainly did. My heart aches for them. I'm sorry, I don't care what they did to you or whoever else. I'm not going to sympathize with the Hatfields when they kill one of the McCoy's even though a McCoy killed one of the Hatfields. Whoever kills or harms anyone else, for whatever reason, is at fault.
This is why some Buddhists say you have to become enlightened before trying to change society. In responding to hatred with hatred, you only unleash more hatred into the world.
13-page summary of Self-Liberation by Gene Sharp, which is basically an expansion of From Dictatorship to Democracy, which is THE how-to book on strategizing for nonviolent struggle.
Strategy and planning are essential if we are going to transform the world into one we want to see. This book (in conjunction with From Dictatorship to Democracy) is the best I've seen on how to go about it.
"Unstructured groups may be very effective in getting women to talk about their lives; they aren't very good for getting things done. It is when people get tired of 'just talking' and want to do something more that the groups flounder."
"The idea of 'structurelessness,' has moved from a healthy counter to those tendencies to becoming a goddess in its own right."
Wow, when I first read this essay a few months ago, I was like, 'eh, Occupy's got it. The GA and working group system pretty much solves all the issues she raises.' NOW I know what she's talking about.
Destruction of property is NOT compatible with nonviolent struggle
This oughta straighten out a few things around here.
From Waging Nonviolent Struggle by Gene Sharp:
Sabotage—defined for this discussion as “acts of demolition and destruction of property”—is not compatible with nonviolent struggle. Sabotage:
• demonstrates a lack of confidence in the potential of nonviolent struggle, thereby potentially weakening the resisters’ tenacity in the use of this technique;
• is a physical-material action, not a human-social action, indicating a basic conceptual shift in how the conflict is best waged;
• attempts to undermine the opponents by destroying their property, not by withdrawal of consent by the population, thereby potentially weakening a fundamental approach of nonviolent struggle;
• creates an environment in which consequent physical injury or death commonly results in a relative loss of sympathy and support for the nonviolent struggle group and the resisters’ movement in general; and
• often results in highly disproportionate repression. This repression that has been provoked by sabotage is not likely to weaken the opponents’ relative power position, nor to bring support for the resisters.
From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp--the Executive Summary
In Waging Nonviolent Struggle--also by Sharp--he says: "Leaders of the movement need to become experts on nonviolent struggle." So if this is a leader-FULL movement, that means that we ALL need to become experts on nonviolent struggle. This executive summary--of the book considered to be THE how-to guide on taking down a dictatorship--is a start.
From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
TL; DR: Competent strategic planning of political defiance is necessary in order to take down a dictatorship. To be as effective as possible, this strategy must target the dictators’ most important sources of power at their weakest points.
Why strategy is essential:
You are more likely to end up where you want to go
Need to maximize resources since the dictatorship has so much more
Ensures that the current dictator isn't just replaced by a new one
Keeps you on the offenses instead of just responding to whatever the dictatorship does
Otherwise may just be wasting energy; just doing whatever you feel like doing isn't likely to be enough to take down the dictatorship. It may even increase the dictatorship's strength.
PROTIPS:
The movement must be nonviolent.
By using violence, you attack the dictatorship at its strongest point (i.e. military).
Don’t worry about infiltration.
Since it's bound to happen whether you strive to maintain secrecy or not, you gain more from including as many people as possible than being closed off and allowing paranoia to destroy the resistance group.
Can’t plan just to dismantle the dictatorship; have to also plan the democratic system that will replace it or else another dictator will.
The dictatorship’s power lies in:
Authority: the belief among the people that the regime is legitimate and that they have a moral duty to obey it.
The assistance of the people
Material resources (incl. financial)
Punishment of those who are disobedient
How to dismantle these bases of power:
Delegitimize the regime’s authority (e.g. through symbolic acts)
Overcome the people’s fear and habit of obedience; increase their desire and ability to withdraw cooperation by disseminating stories that illustrate this process
Strengthen social groups independent from dictatorship (isolated individuals not members of groups usually are unable to make a significant impact)
Use strikes, boycotts, economic autonomy, etc. to restrict dictators’ material resources
First plan grand strategy, then strategies for selected resistance on particular issues, then tactics for each strategy and the methods you will use.
Grand strategy: the basic framework for coordinating resources to attain objectives.
Strategy: how best to achieve particular objectives within the grand strategy (and how to measure success).
Tactic: a limited action employed to achieve a specific objective.
Method: specific means of action (from small-scale dissent, e.g. stalling or dressing a certain way, to large-scale protests)
How to figure out grand strategy:
Figure out the weaknesses of the dictatorship and how to exploit them.
Sketch out the broad strokes of the entire conflict
Make the grand strategy widely known (more people will be willing to participate when they see that taking down the dictatorship is actually possible and how to do it)
Once you’ve decided on a grand strategy, do not deviate from it to emotions of the moment or minor moves by the dictatorship.
How to plan campaign strategies:
Acquire a thorough understanding of the workings of nonviolent struggle.
Decide which campaigns will best move the grand strategy forward.
Each campaign should involve different segments of the population to avoid burnout.
Determine how to preserve order and meet the needs of the people during the conflict.
Reevaluate and develop alternative courses of action as needed.
While implementing campaigns:
Disseminate guidelines to participants on when and how to withhold cooperation.
Warn participants what the risks of various actions are
Maintain nonviolence through pledges, leaflets; boycott pro-violent people
Keeping reporting strictly factual. Exaggerations will undermine credibility.
Determine how to withstand countermeasures by the dictatorship
Celebrate ALL successes, including small ones, to keep up morale.
Campaigns in the beginning of the struggle differ from those towards the end
In the beginning, choose attainable objectives since victories raise morale.
Weaken the people’s support of the dictatorship (e.g. reveal brutalities of the regime and
disastrous economic consequences from their policies)
In more advanced stages, restrict dictators’ power with mass popular noncooperation, then sever power completely to disintegrate dictatorship.
HIGH PRIORITY: It will be exceptionally difficult, or impossible, to disintegrate the dictatorship if the police, bureaucrats, and military forces remain fully supportive of the dictatorship and obedient in carrying out its commands. (However, the goal is NOT a coup d’état.)
Assess loyalty of military. What factors might make them vulnerable to democratic subversion?
Military can help through safe forms of disobedience: being inefficient, ignoring orders, offering safe passage.
Must concurrently build independent society/parallel government
Will take over once dictatorship falls.
Determine which aspects of the government need to be abolished and which just need to be revised.
Make sure it preserves civil liberties.
Plan ahead what to do with the former dictators (avoid a bloodbath!)
After fall of dictatorship:
Celebrate, but do not reduce vigilance. Utopia will not just suddenly appear. This is only the beginning point for long-term efforts to improve society.
Block attempted coups the same way you took down the dictatorship (deny legitimacy, withhold cooperation)
The formerly oppressed will now have more self-confidence in dealing with future problems.
The antidote to apathy
The great Indian Gandhian socialist Rammanohar Lohia once wrote that he was tired of hearing only of the need to change the hearts of the oppressors. That was fine, but far more important was the effort to change the hearts of the oppressed. They needed to become unwilling to continue accepting their oppression, and to become determined to build a better society. Weakness in people’s determination, and very importantly in their ability to act, makes possible their continued oppression and submission. Strengthen that determination and increase that ability to act, and these people need never again be oppressed. Such self-liberation can be achieved only through an increase in the power of the subordinates by their own efforts.
-Gene Sharp, Waging Nonviolent Struggle
THANK YOU
Behold, the American Empire.
Tell a Beverly Hills construction company to meet labor standards!
An injury to one is an injury to us all. Call Behrouz Soroudi, one of the principals at Maxxam Enterprises for using a subcontractor that is not meeting labor standards on a project in Santa Monica, CA.
310-246-6500
I talked to one of the union guys holding an enormous protest sign down the street from the 5-star hotel Four Seasons and he said that the subcontractor (Temecula Valley Drywall) was using non-union work so they could skate workers comp regulations. So if you got hurt, too bad!
Please call and let them know you do not approve of this and then reblog!! Apparently Maxxam is "working on" this issue, and the more pressure we keep on them, the wider this spreads, the better a deal the workers should get.
This sort of pressure has an effect. The union guy I talked to has asked them to take the huge sign down (which says "SHAME ON BEHROUZ SOROUDI" lol). Your call--showing that people not even involved actually care and that their name is being dragged through the mud--matters.
TL; DR: An incident with a truck driver stopped by our F29 action made me realize that during the May 1st General Strike and any other actions, we must let workers of non-targeted companies do their job and get paid—for both strategic and moral reasons.
In an open letter to the Occupy movement, workers employed by Rogers in a Schneider-run warehouse handling Walmart’s goods told of “working up to 72 hours straight [and] not receiving even minimum wage after working 16 hour days consistently for years.” Whoa, I literally just posted an article analyzing something that happened at this action: http://jacklindstrom.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/stay-focused-on-the-target-a-lesson-learned-from-f29/
Occupy invades “America’s storage shed” during Shut Down The Corporations (via mimiopoly)
Syrian and Pakistani students protest against Bashar al-Assad in front of the Syrian embassy in Islamabad on March 2, 2012. [Getty Images]
If you wish to fill the request of the gentleman on the right, I found this handy website "24 Ways to Help Syria": http://www.sacouncil.com/index.php/take-action/24-ways-to-help-syria/
It's not much, but it's something. :C
