National General Assembly is tonight

[The Douche]

I just spoke with Miles who went to DC for the national GA, he said it starts at 9:00 so anybody in the area should head out for that.

Hopefully I, or some other posters who know miles/are at the event will be able to give some quick feedback on how it goes.

[bricolage]

not a very useful comment but... considering it will likely go on for a few hours 9 seems really late to start a meeting.

[The Douche]

not a very useful comment but... considering it will likely go on for a few hours 9 seems really late to start a meeting.

Yeah, beats me, but I guess since its the national GA and not a local one that it doesn't really matter as much since the participants are delegates from other occupations.

[bricolage]

Still though, will the pubs even be open when they're done?!

[Decolonize The Left]

Still though, will the pubs even be open when they're done?!

Given how long local GAs take to make decisions, I'm betting they will not. Better to come prepared with a flask or a jug of wine or something.

- August

[workersadvocate]

Is there to be any livestream of this national GA tonight?
What's on the agenda?

[The Douche]

I dunno, there are members on here who are closer to Miles than I am, he just called because I live kinda near DC and he wanted to meet up.

I plan to send him a text tomorrow to get at least some brief notes if he doesn't post anything or send something to another poster.

[workersadvocate]

Yes please meet up if you can, and share what you can with the rest of us. Been reading writings by Miles lately, and he seems to be exactly the kind of comrade I'd want beside me in actions and discussions with members of our class.

[The Douche]

Not gonna be able to sadly, me and my girl are going to the airport to pick up a friend, and I was hoping we'd be able to shoot over to DC, but it turns out she has a final for school that day so we won't have time.

[KurtFF8]

Hmm never heard about this. I'm guessing this wasn't largely promoted. Also strange to have it during a national day of action

I'm guessing this is unaffiliated with OWS

[The Douche]

Hmm never heard about this. I'm guessing this wasn't largely promoted. Also strange to have it during a national day of action

I'm guessing this is unaffiliated with OWS

I'm under the impression miles was sent as a delegate from the occupation he's been working with, which if I recall correctly, is a group of three occupations in close cities. He also said there were lots of delegates there.

I dunno, hopefully we'll have more to discuss tomorrow.

[Le Socialiste]

Is there anything specific on the agenda? Or is it more or less just a "wing it" type of setting? I guess we'll see if/when we hear back from Miles.

[tbasherizer]

This is very exciting! If the occupies coordinated on a national scale and became a revolutionary people's alternative to the bourgeois state, we'd have a genuinely revolutionary situation in our hands. I'm probably just being too optimistic though...

[RED DAVE]

This is very exciting! If the occupies coordinated on a national scale and became a revolutionary people's alternative to the bourgeois state, we'd have a genuinely revolutionary situation in our hands. I'm probably just being too optimistic though...Way too optimistic!

As an active member of OWS, I have never heard of this! As far as i know there has been no general discussion of this. It certainly has not reached, for example, the very large Labor Outreach Committee, which, at this point, is probably larger than the GA.

The "top levels" of OWS, for example, are petty-bourgeois to the core. They are incapable of coming up with any kind of progressive program that a leftist would want to support and incapable of relating to the working class.

RED DAVE

[KurtFF8]

Indeed. And granted I haven't been involved the past few days or so because of school work but I have also not heard anything about this.

Perhaps it's just one of those "autonomous action" kind of things

[Martin Blank]

I have a few minutes at a public computer here, so let me fill in the "gaps".

The meeting was impromptu. There are #Occupy people from across the country here in DC, who came as part of the TBTC event (or, as we've come to call it, "Mockupy"). All of us here from different #Occupy groups were notified of the event, and it was hosted by both of the Occupy DC (Macpherson Square and Freedom Plaza) groups. There were also people from Wall Street (I forget the guy's name; he's the one who wears the Civil War-era kepi and apparently trashed Fox News on air), Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Miami, Charleston (West Virginia), Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Northern Virginia, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Nashville, Little Rock, New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Tri-Cities of Michigan, Lansing, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Duluth, Kansas City, Houston, Denver, Seattle, Portland (Oregon), Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Hawaii.

The meeting was mainly reports from various people who came (there were no formal delegations or anything like that, because of its relatively spontaneous character). I gave a report on our work. It wasn't my best (I only had three minutes -- and that was over the standard two minutes), but it seemed to energize the crowd ... and set a higher bar for speakers following. I know the NGA was livestreamed.

But we only learned today that, in fact, it was the SEIU/TBTC who "called" the NGA as a means of finding out who was really with #Occupy (i.e., who would not stick with SEIU, even under threat of being left stranded in DC).

I'll be writing more about this when I'm back home. Right now, I'm surrounded by SEIU bureaucrats and am too ill and weak to fight them.

[Comrade-Z]

What do you mean by "being left stranded in DC"? Like, physically left stranded? What an odd and unbelievable maneuver from SEIU that would be. Are you being physically detained by SEIU bureaucrats? Is the SEIU planning a purge of radical Occupy activists? How would they do that? What the hell is going on? I'm afraid your post posed more questions than answers. Anyways, can't wait to hear more.

[Comrade-Z]

Here's a report I found that seems to confirm what Miles was hinting at, although fortunately it sounds like most of the delegates were predominantly radical, already on the lookout for co-option, and will not easily be co-opted:
http://www.occupylosangeles.org/?q=node%2F2655

Overall it sounds like SEIU made itself seem like some creepy Stalinist Central Committee. It doesn't sound like this event accomplished for SEIU what they were intending.

[agnixie]

Sounds more like some sort of weird mensheviks tbh >.>

[Le Socialiste]

Here's a report I found that seems to confirm what Miles was hinting at, although fortunately it sounds like most of the delegates were predominantly radical, already on the lookout for co-option, and will not easily be co-opted:
http://www.occupylosangeles.org/?q=node%2F2655

Overall it sounds like SEIU made itself seem like some creepy Stalinist Central Committee. It doesn't sound like this event accomplished for SEIU what they were intending.

So apparently there was much confusion over the event itself, with the SEIU and various other groups attempting to home in and co-opt the movement. Apparently there were some politicians involved as well, speaking at various events. According to Z's link, the guy giving the updates questioned a man (who I assume was in charge) about this fact, who responded by turning away and ignoring him. I agree with Z, though, it seems like the effort to co-opt the assembly and integrate the movement into friendlier channels failed (for the most part, at least). As 2012 gets closer and the Democrats begin gearing up for the election season these attempts to tie OWS to the party and major union leadership will begin happening on an ever greater scale. They want this movement to serve as an instrument for Obama's reelection campaign, and they'll do what they can to ensure this happens. Hopefully the radical elements within OWS will spread this news around and encourage local groups to resist these efforts.

[Comrade-Z]

It seems to me that this can only hurt the Democratic Party's attempts to co-opt the movement. What they've done with this event, it would appear, is blow their cover without getting much of an advantage in return. Now word is going to spread, and radicals are going to be encouraging others in OWS to be doubly on the lookout for dirty tricks from the liberal establishment. Plus, this sort of piece does not make the liberal establishment look good. Even politics aside, their methods come off as creepy and conspiratorial. Even right-wing liberals inclined otherwise to push OWS more in this direction might have been put off by this backstage maneuvering.

[Martin Blank]

But we only learned today that, in fact, it was the SEIU/TBTC who "called" the NGA as a means of finding out who was really with #Occupy (i.e., who would not stick with SEIU, even under threat of being left stranded in DC).

A small correction to this: The NGA was not called by SEIU, but they did have spies in the crowd taking copious notes about where people from #Occupy stood vis-à-vis the SEIU's actions.

I am currently writing out a full report and commentary on what I witnessed. Stay tuned....