A mass protest is being organized in Washington, DC on January 17th. Occupy DC is actively involved with a group called Occupy Congress. The thought is to have day-long actions on the 17th through 21st because the 17th is the first day the House of Representatives is in session for 2012. It’s an opportunity to bring our grievances to the nation’s capitol and interact with occupations all over the country.
I propose we express solidarity with the event on the 17th and use all means at our disposal to promote it. I propose we begin organizing a contingent of OWSers to go to DC and offer our support. Occupy Congress is asking for a liaison between OWS and them, so if we express solidarity with the event we should reconvene at another GA to choose liaisons, or not and just organize autonomously.
Solidarity isn’t an endorsement. I don’t believe it’s necessary to endorse the action, unless we want to, because solidarity with them is enough. Each occupation is invited to bring its own list of grievances or to simply send individuals to participate. We don’t need to decide on any grievances, but protest and participate like we’ve done at other mass actions here in New York.
Occupy Congress may be contacted on Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Congress-January-17th-2012/203536356392018?sk=info or atwww.occupyyourcongress.info.
All individuals are welcome to participate autonomously; this proposal is only to seek consent for an expression of solidarity and the use of our social media to promote the event.
The 21st of January is also the anniversary of Citizens United – another opportunity to voice our concerns.
I have copies of their call to action for review by the GA (or find it here: http://wiki.occupyyourcongress.info/index.php?title=Call_to_Action_to_Occupations).
Aaron
Recently, during the General Assembly’s discussions about actions around government institutions — in particular, the NY city council vote on corporate personhood, and the upcoming January 17th
OccupyCongress action — I’ve seen on a number of occasions a line of argument that I feel is counterproductive. I’d like to address it here.
Some members of the community have expressed concern that interacting with legislative bodies is inherently “reformist” — by which they mean of limited scope in its potential for change — or that
acknowledging the existence of these bodies “legitimizes” them, subordinating our movement’s expression by packaging it in the language of demands. On an email group for OccupyCongress, a
commenter offered what I think was a succinct summary of these concerns:
“”
Petitioning, protesting and such is great for media and an education campaign, but it essentially acknowledges that the government is endowed with the power to dictate our lives. We are asking them for permission at every step of the way. I say fuck that and the second we stop obeying, they will be shit out of luck. We should stop going to work and break these chains.
“”
I think that this concern is understandable. We absolutely do not
want to devolve into another organization issuing policy prescriptions
that get roundly ignored. But it is misdirected when applied to J17.
Further, I think that our nascent movement should use the opportunity
provided by this discussion to reflect on our role within society, and
how best to continue raising awareness about the systemic problems
that find such great resonance with our friends across the globe.
Most importantly, I think there is a widespread misunderstanding of
the planned actions for OccupyCongress, on J17 and in the week
following. There are individuals who intend to meet with
Representatives, yes, but the main events involve a full-scale
Occupation of the public space that surrounds the institutions of
federal government. Some will occupy legislator’s offices. Some will
bring tents, some will bring drums, some will bring marching bands.
There may be disruptive actions throughout the city, bringing
attention to and perhaps even temporarily slowing the corrupt dealings
of lobbyists and special interest groups. There has been talk of a
plan to form a human chain around the Capitol, to symbolically (though
certainly not actually) “shut it down”, on the first day of the
legislative year. On the Mall, and on the steps of the Capitol
building, there will be ThinkTank discussions, people’s mic soapboxes,
and a full-fledged General Assembly. We will be explicitly
demonstrating what real democracy looks like, alongside the crumbling
pillars of our broken democracy. There are few more powerful,
poignant ways to display the political structures that we wish to
cause to exist.
And it is just that, a display — a way to engage with the public,
like almost everything else OWS does. The point is *not* to get
Congress to “pay attention.” The point is to get the _nation_ to pay
attention. People are spurred by their experience with Occupy, by
seeing a GA, by taking note of our presence, by seeing that we are
attacking what many people perceive to be the source of the problem.
By going to where they are looking, we have the opportunity to say,
yes, these people are corrupt, but what happens when you change the
people… what do you do with the next corrupt bunch? What are the
systems that make them corrupt? And by doing so, we invite many, many
more people into the conversation about deeper, systemic issues, and
how to address them. This is the opportunity of J17. The attention
is already focused. Thousands of Occupiers are already coming, from
around the nation. The whole world *will* be watching. What will we
make of it? That is up to you, as a participant.
—
But maybe none of this convinces you. Maybe we really need to speak
to the underlying concerns. So I’ll say it: This sort of
intransigence about tactics and targets is like shooting the movement
in the foot before it leaves the cradle. Will you wonder why it never
learns to walk?
By insisting that we only act in ways that involve completely
extracting oneself from society, you are marginalizing your own voice.
You are ensuring that only those who have left society or seen the
way out of it will hear you. You are not building the bridge that
takes people to where you are, and could bring us all to where we want
to go.
Further, you are dangerously close to hypocrisy. You do not currently
live in a way that is fully prefigurative of the society you wish to
enact. Nearly every single action we take: every time we ride in a
car, every day that we live in a major city, every time we use a
mobile phone or a computer or the internet or any product that
contains plasticizers and other industrial chemicals, every time we
pay sales tax or use credit, we are leveraging the tools and
furthering the operation of a system that inflicts daily horrors on
billions of people across the world. If you truly wished to break
those chains for yourself, you would completely withdraw from that
system.
But you have not, and you have very good reason not to. Every day,
you make the conscious decision not to. You make tradeoffs, you make
decisions of degrees. You make those decisions because you feel that
continuing to operate within this system will further the longer-term
goal of freedom and fairness for people around the world. You realize
that in order to get to that better world, you need to not just make
it for yourself — which you very well could, right now, today.
Instead, you want to “break the chains” for others, as well. You want
to bring as much of the world along with you as you can. You want to
undo the systems that are inflicting themselves upon those who did not
make the choice to take part in them. You want to expose the
possibility of another world to those who suffer within this one. You
strive every day to apply yourself to a more effective activism.
Which is not necessarily the most principled activism, because, as
we’ve said, you have already decided against that.
It is thus inarguable that our goal is twofold: to figure out how to
build the better world, and to bring people along with us to help
build it. So how do we do that?
It’s simply this: we draw attention to the fact that there are many of
us who are fighting this fight. You march in public thoroughfares,
you hold signs, you drop banners, you disrupt the flow of capital, you
Occupy public spaces. Merely becoming aware that others exist and are
ready to stand up has drawn hundreds of thousands of people to this
movement, and there are millions more who can be reached by continuing
to demonstrate this simple fact. This approach has worked because
people see in us the fight that they themselves want to take up. For
many, the targeting of Wall Street was exactly that fight. For
others, the message against Wall Street is less clear than the message
against Congress (the most reviled institution in our nation, with
nearly a 90% disapproval rating). There are a great many who, when
they see us there, fighting the fight they believe to be right, will
pause to listen to what we have to say, and will take the time to
observe how we say it.
How many of us came into this because we chanced upon a GA in Tompkins
Square or Liberty Plaza? How many because we caught a group of
strangers talking about the world in the way we always wished
possible? How many because we saw a sign or a march or a projection
or piece of art? How many have flocked to New York to join us,
because of the discussions they saw happening?
How many more have yet to have such an opportunity?
Remember yourself before that moment. Maybe you thought change would
come by the actions of a new leader. Maybe you thought change would
come only in the ashes of empire. Maybe you thought change would
never come at all. Maybe you were one of the lucky few who saw that
change would come from the collective visioning of freshly empowered
individuals, who saw within themselves the potential to live the world
that they wanted to see.
But before that moment of public prefiguration, before the mainly
performative display that caught and connected, you did not see this.
You did not see what we could become. And maybe you were even one of
the fortunate enlightened few who did envision this incredible time.
But even then i would hazard to guess that you did not see your place
in it, and you most certainly did not share this new vocabulary we are
creating, because we are creating it, all of us, together. So, by all
means, create that new vocabulary. Make a general assembly that truly
builds consensus. Feed and clothe and house anyone who asks to be
fed, or clothed, or housed. Make a new world in the cast-off husks of
the old. Build the new infrastructure and institutions. Because we
will need them.
But as we are living this new world and learning its language, let’s
not let it become the provenance of a tiny minority who, by dint of
fortunate experience, have chanced upon the alchemists workshop.
Let’s *bring* that world and these words and these tools to the people
who want them to exist, where they live, in those spaces that have
been outside of the chance encounter that brought us to each other.
Let’s show them we are here, we are them. Bring the display to where
people are looking.
I’m not saying we need everyone on board before we can make lasting,
systemic change. I’m not even saying we need some mythical majority.
But it would be the height of arrogance to pretend we don’t need to
reach a whole lot more people. To pretend that we can build a
participatory democracy without more participation is
counterproductive. We are, currently, given attention that far
outweighs our size — union marches, for instance, have vastly greater
participation, but a fraction of our coverage. This is due in large
part to our innovation in tactics and the resonance of our broad,
inclusive message. We will lose that voice if we do not continue growing, innovating, increasing the number of participants in our new global commons.
So, please, let’s bring this commons to the public, not obscure the way to it with inertia and exclusionary rhetoric. If you are skeptical of the value of engaging with Congress, I ask that you plan to amplify the institutions and discussions that should replace it. This action is happening, and its voice will be heard. Rather than withdrawing entirely, seize the opportunity to make J17 the action you wish to see. As you have been doing here, make the voice that is heard yours, as well.
LFKraus
Twinkle fingers.
Siobhan Ogilvie
Can anyone tell me why the hell we are “occupying the New Hampshire caucuses” yet we don’t want to “occupy the government”. We are funding state occupations all over, who ALL support J17, yet we hold back? I call SHAME on NY for not participating. This is a joke. This movement wastes months talking and no action. If we do not show up as a loud group in J17, we will entirely delegitimize ourselves if we haven’t already. Look at participation, look at contributions and those of you allowing this to happen better take a long look at yourselves. I am ashamed that this didn’t pass. We pass $30K to Egypt yet we don’t even support our own cause. It’s disgraceful. Wake up OWS – or just close shop and let the other occupies be the face of the movement because what is going on is destruction of the movement.
James Hanaburgh
Congress can’t get anything done because it’s full of bipartisanshit!
We need to get some non-Republicrats in Congress. Vote-in some 3rd party candidates!
I think OWS has much in common with the Green Party– why not help get some Green Party candidates elected to Congress?
Getting a third party candidate into Congress will be easier this term, as the public has never been less satisfied with Congress before.
Don’t get distracted by the Republican Primaries– they are irrelevant right now. The real battle is selecting Congress for the upcoming term. This can be organized at the grassroots level and will have a significant impact!!