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Occupy Movement Split over Confrontational Tactics
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Dan Clore
Feb 5, 2012, 3:40:37 AM2/5/12
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News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-occupy-oaklandtre8101bi-20120201,0,3096250.story
Occupy movement split over confrontational tactics
by Laird Harrison
Reuters
8:53 AM CST, February 1, 2012
OAKLAND, California (Reuters) - When anti-Wall Street protesters set out
to take over Oakland's shuttered convention center on Saturday, they
left no doubt about the reception they expected. Scores concealed their
faces with bandanas, and dozens carried shields, some painted with
anarchist symbols.
What happened next -- a 10-hour street battle in which demonstrators and
police pelted each other with tear gas canisters, smoke grenades and
other projectiles -- has intensified a debate within the Occupy Wall
Street movement over what forms of confrontation it should embrace.
Activists calling for greater equality in income and tighter regulation
of financial institutions have clashed with police across the country
since September, usually while advocating non-violence. But a series of
conflicts with police in Oakland have stood out as the most violent,
with one activist, Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen, suffering a brain
injury on October 25.
Protesters on Saturday said they were trying to establish a new
headquarters and community center to take the place of the tent camp
police dismantled at Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of City Hall last fall.
Police lined up on street corners and in front of the convention center
to thwart the would-be occupiers.
Objects began flying through the air as soon as demonstrators tore down
a section of chain-link fence in front of the building.
"Of all the (anti-Wall Street) marches and rallies in the city of
Oakland, this has been the most violent and hostile to the police," said
Oakland Police Department spokeswoman Johnna Watson.
Some 400 protesters were arrested, and several police officers and
demonstrators were injured.
"While we respect every citizen's right to protest peacefully, we will
not tolerate individuals who come to Oakland with an organized strategy
to riot, clash with police officers, vandalize property and wreak havoc
upon the city," Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said in
a statement.
Demonstrators accused the police of beating them with batons and of
trapping them between police lines, then arresting them for supposedly
disobeying orders to disperse.
People in the San Francisco Bay Area appeared to be turned off by
Occupy's tactics on Saturday, according to an opinion poll by SurveyUSA.
Of 500 people surveyed on Sunday, 26 percent said they had once
supported the Occupy movement and now do not. Added to 31 percent who
said they always opposed the movement, the poll suggests a majority of
public opinion opposes the group.
Some leaders within the movement were distancing themselves from tactics
employed by fellow occupiers on Saturday.
"A lot of conversation is coming out of that, a lot of self-reflection,"
said Nichola Torbett, a self-described devout Christian who took part in
the first Occupy Oakland organizing meetings in September.
Torbett said she has participated in nearly every major Occupy Oakland
event and was arrested when police cleared out a protest encampment on
November 15. But she stayed away from the march on Saturday.
"It was organized by a very militant anarchist segment of the movement,"
she said. "I support the idea of taking a building, especially for
housing those who don't have housing. But I don't support it with the
kind of triumphal attitude I saw expressed."
In November, following a day of mostly peaceful Occupy Oakland rallies
that gave way to a night of unrest and over 100 arrests, some activists
joined city officials in blaming small bands of agitators who they said
provoked police.
Mike King, an organizer of the movement's effort to shut down West Coast
ports on December 12, stayed away on Saturday because of "personal
obligations."
He defended the demonstrators' attempt to take over a building but said
he prefers to devote his energy to building relationships with labor
leaders.
Without condemning the attempt to occupy the convention center, labor
leaders kept a low profile during the demonstration and its aftermath.
Representatives for the Service Employees International Union, which
helped organize Occupy rallies in a number of cities, did not return
repeated calls seeking comment, nor did the Alameda Labor Council nor
the California Teachers Association.
The California Nurses Association, which has staffed medical stations
during previous Occupy Oakland marches, had no official presence at the
demonstration Saturday, said spokesman Chuck Idelson. "We don't support
violence no matter who is doing it," he said.
Still, many occupiers defend Saturday's action. Shake Anderson, who took
part in the march, acknowledged, "it could have been better organized"
but insisted the goal was worthy.
City officials are unable or unwilling to help the homeless, hungry and
unemployed, he said. Occupy Oakland was meeting those needs in its camp
at Frank Ogawa Plaza until it was evicted by the police, he said.
"We need a space so we can feed each other and educate each other," he
said. "Let us have our big house and leave us alone."
(Editing by Steve Gorman and Daniel Trotta)
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://tinyurl.com/3tyj9cq
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Skipper: Professor, will you tell these people who is
in charge on this island?
Professor: Why, no one.
Skipper: No one?
Thurston Howell III: No one? Good heavens, this is anarchy!
-- _Gilligan's Island_, episode #6, "President Gilligan"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-occupy-oaklandtre8101bi-20120201,0,3096250.story
Occupy movement split over confrontational tactics
by Laird Harrison
Reuters
8:53 AM CST, February 1, 2012
OAKLAND, California (Reuters) - When anti-Wall Street protesters set out
to take over Oakland's shuttered convention center on Saturday, they
left no doubt about the reception they expected. Scores concealed their
faces with bandanas, and dozens carried shields, some painted with
anarchist symbols.
What happened next -- a 10-hour street battle in which demonstrators and
police pelted each other with tear gas canisters, smoke grenades and
other projectiles -- has intensified a debate within the Occupy Wall
Street movement over what forms of confrontation it should embrace.
Activists calling for greater equality in income and tighter regulation
of financial institutions have clashed with police across the country
since September, usually while advocating non-violence. But a series of
conflicts with police in Oakland have stood out as the most violent,
with one activist, Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen, suffering a brain
injury on October 25.
Protesters on Saturday said they were trying to establish a new
headquarters and community center to take the place of the tent camp
police dismantled at Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of City Hall last fall.
Police lined up on street corners and in front of the convention center
to thwart the would-be occupiers.
Objects began flying through the air as soon as demonstrators tore down
a section of chain-link fence in front of the building.
"Of all the (anti-Wall Street) marches and rallies in the city of
Oakland, this has been the most violent and hostile to the police," said
Oakland Police Department spokeswoman Johnna Watson.
Some 400 protesters were arrested, and several police officers and
demonstrators were injured.
"While we respect every citizen's right to protest peacefully, we will
not tolerate individuals who come to Oakland with an organized strategy
to riot, clash with police officers, vandalize property and wreak havoc
upon the city," Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said in
a statement.
Demonstrators accused the police of beating them with batons and of
trapping them between police lines, then arresting them for supposedly
disobeying orders to disperse.
People in the San Francisco Bay Area appeared to be turned off by
Occupy's tactics on Saturday, according to an opinion poll by SurveyUSA.
Of 500 people surveyed on Sunday, 26 percent said they had once
supported the Occupy movement and now do not. Added to 31 percent who
said they always opposed the movement, the poll suggests a majority of
public opinion opposes the group.
Some leaders within the movement were distancing themselves from tactics
employed by fellow occupiers on Saturday.
"A lot of conversation is coming out of that, a lot of self-reflection,"
said Nichola Torbett, a self-described devout Christian who took part in
the first Occupy Oakland organizing meetings in September.
Torbett said she has participated in nearly every major Occupy Oakland
event and was arrested when police cleared out a protest encampment on
November 15. But she stayed away from the march on Saturday.
"It was organized by a very militant anarchist segment of the movement,"
she said. "I support the idea of taking a building, especially for
housing those who don't have housing. But I don't support it with the
kind of triumphal attitude I saw expressed."
In November, following a day of mostly peaceful Occupy Oakland rallies
that gave way to a night of unrest and over 100 arrests, some activists
joined city officials in blaming small bands of agitators who they said
provoked police.
Mike King, an organizer of the movement's effort to shut down West Coast
ports on December 12, stayed away on Saturday because of "personal
obligations."
He defended the demonstrators' attempt to take over a building but said
he prefers to devote his energy to building relationships with labor
leaders.
Without condemning the attempt to occupy the convention center, labor
leaders kept a low profile during the demonstration and its aftermath.
Representatives for the Service Employees International Union, which
helped organize Occupy rallies in a number of cities, did not return
repeated calls seeking comment, nor did the Alameda Labor Council nor
the California Teachers Association.
The California Nurses Association, which has staffed medical stations
during previous Occupy Oakland marches, had no official presence at the
demonstration Saturday, said spokesman Chuck Idelson. "We don't support
violence no matter who is doing it," he said.
Still, many occupiers defend Saturday's action. Shake Anderson, who took
part in the march, acknowledged, "it could have been better organized"
but insisted the goal was worthy.
City officials are unable or unwilling to help the homeless, hungry and
unemployed, he said. Occupy Oakland was meeting those needs in its camp
at Frank Ogawa Plaza until it was evicted by the police, he said.
"We need a space so we can feed each other and educate each other," he
said. "Let us have our big house and leave us alone."
(Editing by Steve Gorman and Daniel Trotta)
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://tinyurl.com/3tyj9cq
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Skipper: Professor, will you tell these people who is
in charge on this island?
Professor: Why, no one.
Skipper: No one?
Thurston Howell III: No one? Good heavens, this is anarchy!
-- _Gilligan's Island_, episode #6, "President Gilligan"
Jos Boersema
Feb 5, 2012, 5:46:27 AM2/5/12
to
Op 2012-02-05, Dan Clore schreef <cl...@columbia-center.org>:
Told you so: OWS is organized by the ruling class, who rely on them to
cause the necessary violence to restrict the law further, and antagonize
the police and justice systems against all forms of protest and political
action. How do you explain the intense media coverage, often positive (!),
of these miniscule protest camps that under any other condition would just
be wiped off the squares and nobody would give a sh*t about the affair,
not even locally none would care and almost none would care to know.
They allow it so that it grows and sucks in people, people who may mean
well. They place their funded agents there, and because these people usually
have no clue what they want; the few agents who are well trained in dealing
with these issues form a kernel around which the social process starts to
move. Secondly, htey can have the money they need, and money is power
especially when there is little such as within the rest of the OWS people.
The minute the OWS would become a real threat, they can still be put on the
ignore and wiped off 'as usual.' Conspiracy theory ? Sure ! Look up 'Gene
Sharp,' for example, this is how they work. Why wouldn't they, how would you
try to maintain control ? You have to try to control the opposition; and
the people are so clueless, how hard is it ? They prove they can do it in
OWS: incite them into violence, and they're canned.
OWS protesters themselves may end up murdered in camps; it is of course not
that they realize they do the dirty work of the ruling classes. They are
still enemies; through their violence they ratify their own imprisonment
later. What if they do get real successes ? OWS is a dumb movement, it can
never get anything done, they are a joke. Why are they on the squares anyway ?
Because they read about it in the New York Times. Why 'organize the left' ?
They are not organized, they're controlled from the top despite their claims
to the contrary. Another fake democracy. Letting 'the folks' blow off 'some
steam' before they will accept banker rule. The trouble makers will be in
prison later. Best of all: now these OWS people will not be looking for
solutions (such as on law4.org), all the usual garbage from the Marxist and
Anarchist past eras they are reading again, it will all lead to nothing again.
They think they know everything already, that they are 'in control.' They
feel powerful because 'their "movement" <cough>' is in the news. Enjoy
your poisen apple fools, you may not escape from your violent service to
these ruling class games alive. You serve a master who wants you dead, and
a master you don't even know because you don't think.
--
http://www.law4.org Communism, anarchy and capitalism are insufficient.
>> Why & how: Democratic and Sovereign nations, democratic companies, <<
>> natural resource distribution and socialized investment credit. <<
System for society provided (Constitution etc.) + how to get it done (+ more).
> News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
>
> http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-occupy-oaklandtre8101bi-20120201,0,3096250.story
> Occupy movement split over confrontational tactics
> by Laird Harrison
> Reuters
> 8:53 AM CST, February 1, 2012
>
>
> OAKLAND, California (Reuters) - When anti-Wall Street protesters set out
> to take over Oakland's shuttered convention center on Saturday, they
> left no doubt about the reception they expected. Scores concealed their
> faces with bandanas, and dozens carried shields, some painted with
> anarchist symbols.
>
> What happened next -- a 10-hour street battle in which demonstrators and
> police pelted each other with tear gas canisters, smoke grenades and
> other projectiles -- has intensified a debate within the Occupy Wall
> Street movement over what forms of confrontation it should embrace.
>
> Activists calling for greater equality in income and tighter regulation
> of financial institutions have clashed with police across the country
> since September, usually while advocating non-violence. But a series of
> conflicts with police in Oakland have stood out as the most violent,
> with one activist, Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen, suffering a brain
> injury on October 25.
[...]
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
>
> http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-occupy-oaklandtre8101bi-20120201,0,3096250.story
> Occupy movement split over confrontational tactics
> by Laird Harrison
> Reuters
> 8:53 AM CST, February 1, 2012
>
>
> OAKLAND, California (Reuters) - When anti-Wall Street protesters set out
> to take over Oakland's shuttered convention center on Saturday, they
> left no doubt about the reception they expected. Scores concealed their
> faces with bandanas, and dozens carried shields, some painted with
> anarchist symbols.
>
> What happened next -- a 10-hour street battle in which demonstrators and
> police pelted each other with tear gas canisters, smoke grenades and
> other projectiles -- has intensified a debate within the Occupy Wall
> Street movement over what forms of confrontation it should embrace.
>
> Activists calling for greater equality in income and tighter regulation
> of financial institutions have clashed with police across the country
> since September, usually while advocating non-violence. But a series of
> conflicts with police in Oakland have stood out as the most violent,
> with one activist, Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen, suffering a brain
> injury on October 25.
Told you so: OWS is organized by the ruling class, who rely on them to
cause the necessary violence to restrict the law further, and antagonize
the police and justice systems against all forms of protest and political
action. How do you explain the intense media coverage, often positive (!),
of these miniscule protest camps that under any other condition would just
be wiped off the squares and nobody would give a sh*t about the affair,
not even locally none would care and almost none would care to know.
They allow it so that it grows and sucks in people, people who may mean
well. They place their funded agents there, and because these people usually
have no clue what they want; the few agents who are well trained in dealing
with these issues form a kernel around which the social process starts to
move. Secondly, htey can have the money they need, and money is power
especially when there is little such as within the rest of the OWS people.
The minute the OWS would become a real threat, they can still be put on the
ignore and wiped off 'as usual.' Conspiracy theory ? Sure ! Look up 'Gene
Sharp,' for example, this is how they work. Why wouldn't they, how would you
try to maintain control ? You have to try to control the opposition; and
the people are so clueless, how hard is it ? They prove they can do it in
OWS: incite them into violence, and they're canned.
OWS protesters themselves may end up murdered in camps; it is of course not
that they realize they do the dirty work of the ruling classes. They are
still enemies; through their violence they ratify their own imprisonment
later. What if they do get real successes ? OWS is a dumb movement, it can
never get anything done, they are a joke. Why are they on the squares anyway ?
Because they read about it in the New York Times. Why 'organize the left' ?
They are not organized, they're controlled from the top despite their claims
to the contrary. Another fake democracy. Letting 'the folks' blow off 'some
steam' before they will accept banker rule. The trouble makers will be in
prison later. Best of all: now these OWS people will not be looking for
solutions (such as on law4.org), all the usual garbage from the Marxist and
Anarchist past eras they are reading again, it will all lead to nothing again.
They think they know everything already, that they are 'in control.' They
feel powerful because 'their "movement" <cough>' is in the news. Enjoy
your poisen apple fools, you may not escape from your violent service to
these ruling class games alive. You serve a master who wants you dead, and
a master you don't even know because you don't think.
--
http://www.law4.org Communism, anarchy and capitalism are insufficient.
>> Why & how: Democratic and Sovereign nations, democratic companies, <<
>> natural resource distribution and socialized investment credit. <<
System for society provided (Constitution etc.) + how to get it done (+ more).
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