Occupy turns New Age activist cult

[adipocere]

/sigh

So apparently Occupy Wall Street has degenerated into a weird new age social media cult (Russel Brand, Messiah) where you can register your Nonviolent Demonstration™ with the FBI online.

Its like a public relations Mad-Lib of meaningless revolutionary words and phrases. (Like Obama's 2009 campaign.) It is pretty clear the purpose is to confuse and distract and control dissent, but here are some lowlights:

"The decentralized movement toward freedom is raging across the world. It cannot be stopped."
"This time the police state will not be able to crush us. We will not have stationary targets. We will be everywhere, fluid and evasive."
(don't forget to register! :rolleyes:)
"Let’s blaze a contagious nonviolent wave of action through mass consciousness, signaling the end of the old world, ushering in a new paradigm."
On another page:
"If we trademark the Movement, we can capitalize on it."
"There is nothing they [the 1%] would like more than to see us assemble all of our strength in one place and march down the road to their fortress. Then they could destroy us in one swoop."
"Instead of codifying our movements under one name, we must learn to recognize who and what we are. We are a movement of movements, a great multiplicity of motion..."

This video (with an exceptionally high production value) looks like a commercial for a doomsday/suicide cult. It is called "Into the Light" and it features uplifting music, flowers, an ordinary black guy hugging an evil looking white banker, people splashing in water, an aurora and attractive actors holding hands before committing suicide I guess.
loZbSfOuFMU


https://waveofaction.org

Thoughts?

[Sinister Intents]

My exact thoughts: Good fucking god.... Way for occupy to for and become the enemy. Fucking hippy losers

[adipocere]

Actually linked the wrong video, here is the creepy one:
gYaH0GGpirI

[Tenka]

I believe it to be a state conspiracy against vaguely rebellious hipsters.

[Sinister Intents]

I believe it to be a state conspiracy against vaguely rebellious hipsters.

They'll be using this to tame would be revolutionaries and make them unrevolutionary. Marketing will play a big roll in ensuring the youths don't take our route. Fucking assholes. I just want to kill the government, the state and patriarchy and capitalist class relations.

[adipocere]

Fucking assholes. I just want to kill the government, the state and patriarchy and capitalist class relations.

SI, you are just one passionate mofo. When you're not thanking every post on the forum, you're posting gutwrenching rebel howls of outrage at The Man and all his machinations. :lol:

[Sinister Intents]

SI, you are just one passionate mofo. When you're not thanking every post on the forum, you're posting gutwrenching rebel howls of outrage at The Man and all his machinations. :lol:

Thanks :laugh: In real life sometimes I'm literally screaming, as in black metal type screams of rage, and sometimes people hear them in my area, and that's probably why some people are afraid of me at college despite my small size and being scrawny. In all honesty I thought Occupy Wall Street was dead, wasn't it hijacked from the beginning? Then it degenerated further, and now it's a tool for the FBI to have a list of would-be leftists, so that they can be targeted with specific propaganda. The idiots who buy into this bullshit won't realize they're having the wool pulled over their eyes. So many in my area loved Occupy Wall Street and it's related things, but then the fad died down, and now people are going to be tools and literally join the fucking FBI in a sense. It also Makes me think of the Kony bullshit that went viral.

[adipocere]

See? You even thanked that post. You can't even control yourself can you?

Actually it is just like the Kony crap. The whole Russel Brand thing is kind of disappointing...I had thought his disjointed, meandering diatribes were rather endearing but I cannot imagine why a thinking person would want to attach their name and reputation to this goofy shit.

Anyway, we shouldn't be calling people names because they associate with this Anonymous/Occupy/(maybe)Wave of Action stuff; we should appreciate the sentiment make an effort to steer them away from manufactured yuppie activism.

[DasFapital]

The corporations be fucking up my aura

[tachosomoza]

I never detected any actual revolutionary strain in Occupy, in most areas it was mainly just a bunch of lifestylists, reformists and self centered, formerly petty bourgeois white people who were mad about slipping into the proletariat like Marx said they would. They didn't want to overthrow capitalism or make any fundamental changes, they wanted more money, some piss weak impotent reforms to make them feel like they did something worthwhile, and the restoration of their former status.

[Os Cangaceiros]

OWS was very flawed from inception until it's death (which I place around late December in 2011...it has still lingered but for all practical purposes that's when the hullabaloo around it died down & the authorities successfully quenched it). That's what the left is forced to deal with, though, is flawed social movements. Every mass movement is flawed because it's nature as a "mass movement" means it's constituted of a ton of people who may or may not share the views that leftists have. OWS was not nearly as impressive as other movements abroad, but those movements also had & continue to have the same symptom of OWS: namely a diffuse array of groups and individuals who may share a common broad goal of ousting a politician or leveling economic disparity or whatever, but may not have much in common at all besides that.

OWS was far more interesting than any other domestic news story in the states during that time, though, except for perhaps the occupation of the Wisconsin state capital earlier that year during the public sector workers battle. All leftists can do is try and interpret some lasting lessons from what happened and move on, I think. It was never "our movement" but it was a valuable way to get our message out and try to influence the course of events, at least for a time. OWS really made no one happy on the far left, though...the insurrectionists wanted a recreation of the Greece 2008/London 2011 riots, which just wasn't gonna happen, and the politico types like Worker's World Party wanted OWS to form a central committee and mail an indignant letter to Obama or something

[BIXX]

Fuck I hate occupy.

Smash oppression. You can't do that without violence.

[Goblin]

I didn't even know Occupy was still a thing. But yeah, sad to see that it's turned into a hippie cult.

[Os Cangaceiros]

^attempting to smash oppression with violence when you have neither the resources or popular support to do so isn't smart, though, it's suicidal.

That doesn't mean that I support non-violence as a principal, because I don't. Violence is really a sideshow when it comes to meaningful social change, though, IMO

[BIXX]

^attempting to smash oppression with violence when you have neither the resources or popular support to do so isn't smart, though, it's suicidal.

That doesn't mean that I support non-violence as a principal, because I don't. Violence is really a sideshow when it comes to meaningful social change, though, IMO


Oh, I know, it's just that the whole nonviolent thing tends to be a pile of liberal shit, and violence will be required to smash oppression.

That and I do follow the idea of propaganda by the deed (which can be violent or non-violent),

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Occupy WS was "flawed" but ...

(1) these flaws are not "moral failings" as the OP implies but structural realities caused by the nature of Western society and the forms resistance has traditionally taken. People still look to the late 60s and early 70s for their standard of how to enact social change. I think we need to help people move on from those paradigms as opposed to just moaning and complaining when we see people talk about this new age nonsense.

(2) the movement is so decentralized that i don't think it's at all fair to judge it based on some lame youtube vids. You're going to get hippie spiritualists every now and again, but there are also folks like those in Seattle or Oakland who have used the infrastructure created by Occupy WS to push for things like minimum wage increases (not particularly revolutionary but they show a sense of class consciousness)

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

Occupy is hardly what it used to be and never was a monolithic group though this New Age hippie crap was always part of it to a certain degree, I fail to see how this is something new though.

[Das war einmal]

Occupy and in lesser extend, the Euromaidan demonstrators, imo prove the necessity of a well organized revolutionary mass party/organization, otherwise it will dissolve into something this vague or worse will be lead by fascists in the case of Ukraine.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

We cannot seriously be having another soul searching moment about ows. I thought these folks had moved on to credit card scams.

[adipocere]

Occupy WS was "flawed" but ...

(1) these flaws are not "moral failings" as the OP implies but structural realities caused by the nature of Western society and the forms resistance has traditionally taken. People still look to the late 60s and early 70s for their standard of how to enact social change. I think we need to help people move on from those paradigms as opposed to just moaning and complaining when we see people talk about this new age nonsense.

(2) the movement is so decentralized that i don't think it's at all fair to judge it based on some lame youtube vids. You're going to get hippie spiritualists every now and again, but there are also folks like those in Seattle or Oakland who have used the infrastructure created by Occupy WS to push for things like minimum wage increases (not particularly revolutionary but they show a sense of class consciousness)

1. Actually I wasn't trying to imply any moral failing or even flaws because I never assumed that there was anything moral behind it.
I was actually implying that the entire campaign is a cynical stunt that was manufactured by a couple of interns at some neocon Washington think tank, really.
The Wave of Action is actively co-opting the originally-compromised and aimless Occupy movement and attempting to use it's "brand" to corral would-be activists into a surveillance pen and then channel their activism into dead ends of disorganization and defeat. (Which come to think of it sounds like a description of Occupy .) :unsure: O well, shit's depressing anyway.

2. There is no movement, just corporate/state astroturfing and internet activist round up.

[Prometeo liberado]

Did y'all expect anything else to come out of the post Occupy situation? A rudderless ship with the a crew fighting to see who could outdo each other for a vapid leadership. A leadership born to squabble with the tendencies first, leadership second.
And the workers/students, like so many "shore women" after the leave of a battleship, torn, battered and abused only to come up for air and find the help so often spoke of was never there.
You'll take your life boats where you can find them I guess. Why not, we can wait another 50 or so years.:mad:

[tallguy]

^attempting to smash oppression with violence when you have neither the resources or popular support to do so isn't smart, though, it's suicidal.

That doesn't mean that I support non-violence as a principal, because I don't. Violence is really a sideshow when it comes to meaningful social change, though, IMOI'm sorry to disagree. Violence is the only way things really change. Violence or, at least, the very real threat of it. Those at the very top of the capitalist system are essentially psychopaths and will not respond to reason of any kind. The only thing they will ever respond to is a wall against their backs.

[khad]

Ahahahahaha. Anyone remember my exchanges on this forum with Occupy's shadow council lackey accusing me of being a stalinist social democrat and demanding names of my co-conspirators? It would be comedy if it weren't so tragic.

http://www.revleft.com/vb/attempted-coup-occupywallst-t163299/index.html

This is what you get for rejecting any kind of goals that pander to the working class on an even superficial level. Congratulations, you worthless fucks. You've created a movement that refuses to be a movement.

[Light of Lenin]

Here is a video of an OTPOR/CANVAS/CIA agent addressing OWS near the beginning:

YUOmwRfPrL4

Here is an email leak of OWS exposing a lot of their connections:

owsmail.dc406 dot com

The OWS Twitter account also celebrated the murder of Gaddafi, though this seems to have been scrubbed from the Internet.

[khad]

Hey guys, OWS ahem WOA has made a new video. Check it out!

ib-Qiyklq-Q

[Prometeo liberado]

Ahahahahaha. Anyone remember my exchanges on this forum with Occupy's shadow council lackey accusing me of being a stalinist social democrat and demanding names of my co-conspirators? It would be comedy if it weren't so tragic.

http://www.revleft.com/vb/attempted-coup-occupywallst-t163299/index.html

This is what you get for rejecting any kind of goals that pander to the working class on an even superficial level. Congratulations, you worthless fucks. You've created a movement that refuses to be a movement.

If you read the other parts of that thread and look back on it now it seems silly how excited and naive everyone was. As if something huge was about to happen.
Sometimes im so embarrassed to utter the word "Occupy".

[Lily Briscoe]

I'm sorry to disagree. Violence is the only way things really change. Violence or, at least, the very real threat of it. Those at the very top of the capitalist system are essentially psychopaths and will not respond to reason of any kind. The only thing they will ever respond to is a wall against their backs.

It's meaningless to talk about 'violence' as a complete abstraction like this. If the whole Occupy phenomenon had been exactly as it was in terms of its size and class composition but had simply been 'more violent', what do you imagine would have been different or 'improved' about it(this question is for 'Echoshock' as well)?

At any rate, it's always weird to hear people talking about 'Occupy' like it hasn't been dead for several years...

[tallguy]

It's meaningless to talk about 'violence' as a complete abstraction like this. If the whole Occupy phenomenon had been exactly as it was in terms of its size and class composition but had simply been 'more violent', what do you imagine would have been different or 'improved' about it(this question is for 'Echoshock' as well)?

At any rate, it's always weird to hear people talking about 'Occupy' like it hasn't been dead for several years...That's an Aunt-Sally. Don't imply arguments of me I have not made. I did not say that if the Occupy movement had been more violent it would have been more successful. I said that any real change that has occurred has virtually always necessarily involved violence. That does not negate the requirement for intelligent strategy.

Both are necessary. Neither are effective by themselves.

[A Psychological Symphony]

I understand and completely agree with most of what all of you are saying about occupy HOWEVER, I happen to like hippies...

[JudasMaiden]

I think most of OWS' protesters are apolitical and even if they aren't, they are misinformed in politics and don't want to use any sort of violence, for example on how the 1960s involved riots(like the Watts Riots for example) because they're afraid they are going to lose their football, American Idol, Nike clothing, or video games.

[Prairie Fire]

Called it.

http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2269900&postcount=13

http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2316960&postcount=35


Jeez, where were all of these critics when "Occupy' was actually in progress? The cold-shoulder that I received on Revleft in 2011, "Occupy" was such a sacred cow here.

Now, everyone is retroactively savvy about OWS? :grin:

Anyways, as far as "Occupy" is concerned, even most of the assessments that have emerged, some quite vitriolic, are inadequate. Most of the retrospective analysis that is out there revolves around how OWS was ruined by persynalities/ tendencies/tactics etc.

I think that any debriefing on "Occupy", however, misses the mark when you don't analyze where it originated from in the first place.

Of course, the demographics that were mobilized had been stewing for some time due to objective social-conditions, but the actual organizing was initiated by Adbusters, and therefore the Tides foundation, and therefore the prominent American bourgeoisie who fund Tides. In this way, OWS has it's mirror image in the Tea Parties, initiated by Con think-tanks like Freedomworks ( and the prominent bourgeoisie that prop them up).

This dimension of things is important to the over-all picture that emerges.

[RedPanda55]

That's alright. I always thought Occupy people (at least most of them) were just a bunch of hipsters looking to protest something that they prlly don't even really care about in the first place. In other words, I never took them seriously to begin with.

[Das war einmal]

If you read the other parts of that thread and look back on it now it seems silly how excited and naive everyone was. As if something huge was about to happen.
Sometimes im so embarrassed to utter the word "Occupy".

At around the same time, in the Netherlands, there were students occupying a university building and it was a big success, certainly if you know about the apathy of the general Dutch student. After a week of successfully occupying this large building, a meeting was held, where more then 200 students attended. Know how the organization behind it strangled this movement in its cradle? By using the f*cking consensus model (100%). IMHO it serves as an indication why anarchists never made serious headway or had any significant success. Edit: I meant the anarchists that I'm familiar with.

Don't get me started on the occupy movements in Holland.

[Futility Personified]

I remember going to branch meetings in... 2012 I think it was, saying there should've been more interaction between SPEW and Occupy types, that they were relevant and were a rising star worth attaching to and using to promulgate ideas. Whoops! Called that one a little bit wrong.

Now this is all down to my memory, which is liable to collapse in on itself, as ever I cede to posters who have actual experience or concrete citations, but as I remember, with regards to the violence debate;

Occupy itself was hamstrung completely with a segment of people who were even anti civil-disobedience. For all the hippy morons quoting Gandhi, there were people who felt that civil disobedience was counter-productive and alienated potential occupiers and that essentially resistance is sitting around, waiting to be arrested. In hindsight to me, that reeks of almost complete subversion by the state security forces.

If any lesson could be drawn from Occupy, to my mind it would be that spectacles have to be made, confrontations need to exist, to show there is some energy in the whole thing. Proper clashes with the police, real civil unrest, to show these grievances aren't games. Of course, without the right numbers, this really leads to being beaten up. I think someone posted an article from Libcom about the London protesters who were denied access to the financial district and were thus relegated to St Pauls, which signalled the death knell of the London occupancy straight away. As they didn't really occupy shit.
I do wonder what would've happened if they could've gotten a nice kushty building to take over and disrupt as opposed to a church.

[#FF0000]

Hey lets be fair and recognize that west coast occupations were pretty great, at least. For all the yuppie posturing in New York, folks in Oakland and the PNW were doing some interesting things

[Light of Lenin]

Hey lets be fair and recognize that west coast occupations were pretty great, at least. For all the yuppie posturing in New York, folks in Oakland and the PNW were doing some interesting things

The Newark Occupy was about a thousand times better politically as well.

[Ele'ill]

Of course, without the right numbers, this really leads to being beaten up.

I disagree with this.

[TheWannabeAnarchist]

What a bunch of hippies. This is what will happen to them if they try to resist like that:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JAq3vFBL5KM

[synthesis]

Called it.

http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2269900&postcount=13

http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2316960&postcount=35

Damn, that first post. "Called it" is an understatement.

[Comrade Jacob]

I had no idea it was still a thing. Bombing wall-street does more than sitting there on your i-pad. In all honesty.

[Prometeo liberado]

Hey lets be fair and recognize that west coast occupations were pretty great, at least. For all the yuppie posturing in New York, folks in Oakland and the PNW were doing some interesting things
Not LA. Those who brought the P.A. system tried to hijack the occupation while still later some negotiated for the surrender of occupy(did they also negotiate the 18 hours being handcuffed in a bus hearing people cry as they pissed themselves?). Or the others who busied themselves trying to re-rout their, apparently not so 99%, homeless brethren away from the encampment.
Not so good down here.

[#FF0000]

Not LA. Those who brought the P.A. system tried to hijack the occupation while still later some negotiated for the surrender of occupy(did they also negotiate the 18 hours being handcuffed in a bus hearing people cry as they pissed themselves?). Or the others who busied themselves trying to re-rout their, apparently not so 99%, homeless brethren away from the encampment.
Not so good down here.


Yeah, LA was garbage. I remember a lot of occupiers complaining about the homeless issue. Meanwhile in Philly they just... got them hella food and some tents

[Imp]

I agree that the Occupy movement is tame, and that it has become a way for middle class white people to feel like we are making a difference with hashtags and bullshit. But Occupy has done a great deal to popularize politics, especially among young people, and has helped the masses identify who the enemy is. We are still far from where we need to e but you can't say Occupy hasn't helped.

[Tenka]

But Occupy has done a great deal to popularize politics, especially among young people, and has helped the masses identify who the enemy is.

Welcome to the forum.
Who's the enemy? Many seem cognisant that it is Capitalism and not just the nefarious "1%", but I think the popular rhetoric is still steeped in this kind of collaborationist mindset: "big business bad", "small business good", etcetera. Which is totally expected, all things considered.

I only appreciated when Occupy tried to set up its own improvised institutions to help the downtrodden. It has become apparent to me that Occupy was rather nuanced, with the "movement" in some areas doing more interesting things than in others.

[motion denied]

"The decentralized movement toward freedom is raging across the world. It cannot be stopped."
"This time the police state will not be able to crush us. We will not have stationary targets. We will be everywhere, fluid and evasive."
(don't forget to register! :rolleyes:)
"Let’s blaze a contagious nonviolent wave of action through mass consciousness, signaling the end of the old world, ushering in a new paradigm."

Sounds like something straight out of Guattari's written bullshit.

[JudasMaiden]

This stupid bullshit "revolutionary" group using only non-violence is why the government is now trying to trick supposed revolutionaries to join the "anti-establishment" group that will make them pro-establishment. We leftists need to organize a violent revolution in order for the state and capitalism to perish. You have nothing to lose if you realize, not even your "education"(it's indoctrination for the most part) or your job in a revolution. Neo-nazis have toke control of the Ukraine, so why don't we leftists overthrow capitalism and the state right now?! From a quote by Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto:


Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.


Come on everyone, awaken the masses around you and organize a fucking revolution already, instead of sitting on your asses and going to work/school!

[tachosomoza]

We leftists need to organize a violent revolution in order for the state and capitalism to perish. You have nothing to lose if you realize, not even your "education"(it's indoctrination for the most part) or your job in a revolution. Neo-nazis have toke control of the Ukraine, so why don't we leftists overthrow capitalism and the state right now?! From a quote by Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto:




Come on everyone, awaken the masses around you and organize a fucking revolution already, instead of sitting on your asses and going to work/school!

Yeah, let's tell everyone to stop working and attending school and go out and die or go to jail forever. Excellent.

People revolt when things impact them personally and when their standard of living goes to shit, not because somebody tells them to.

[synthesis]

This stupid bullshit "revolutionary" group using only non-violence is why the government is now trying to trick supposed revolutionaries to join the "anti-establishment" group that will make them pro-establishment. We leftists need to organize a violent revolution in order for the state and capitalism to perish. You have nothing to lose if you realize, not even your "education"(it's indoctrination for the most part) or your job in a revolution. Neo-nazis have toke control of the Ukraine, so why don't we leftists overthrow capitalism and the state right now?! From a quote by Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto:




Come on everyone, awaken the masses around you and organize a fucking revolution already, instead of sitting on your asses and going to work/school!

If you're that impatient, there are some hella sick communist street gangs out there.

[tachosomoza]

If you're that impatient, there are some hella sick communist street gangs out there.

Not in the US in 2014. You had groups like the Symbionese Liberation Army in the 60s and 70s, running around robbing banks/kidnapping Patty Hearst and shit, but that's pretty much gone now. All American gangs care about now is killing each other over colors and selling drugs.

[Os Cangaceiros]

If you're that impatient, there are some hella sick communist street gangs out there.

:lol::lol::lol:


Not in the US in 2014. You had groups like the Symbionese Liberation Army in the 60s and 70s, running around robbing banks/kidnapping Patty Hearst and shit, but that's pretty much gone now. All American gangs care about now is killing each other over colors and selling drugs.

As long as Nachie is still out there smoking blunts and smashing strip clubs, all is not lost

[Ele'ill]

Not in the US in 2014. You had groups like the Symbionese Liberation Army in the 60s and 70s, running around robbing banks/kidnapping Patty Hearst and shit, but that's pretty much gone now. All American gangs care about now is killing each other over colors and selling drugs.

black bloc

[avangard]

Fuck OWS! Assault on Wall Street would be more successful. Anyway, if a revolution is going to happen then we must raise the political consciousness of the masses. We must do this by radicalizing the homeless, the landless peasants, and of course the proletariat. Talking to the middle-class might be good too. Who knows? Some of them might listen. But the ELITES? Don't bother with them.

[Ele'ill]

by radicalizing the homeless

How

[BIXX]

I just went to an occupy office today (Portland) and they referred to themselves as a corporation and they have like a board of directors and shit. Dear god, what have we let live?

[Red Commissar]

A few weeks ago I remember reading about a young woman (http://iacknowledge.net/in-depth-ows-twitter-feed-hijacked-by-google-exec-who-claims-ifoundedoccupywallst/) who claimed she was among the 'original' founders of Occupy Wall Street proper. She ended up accessing the OWS twitter account and started going on a rant about how they needed to put it back on its original footing, but went into bizzaro territory trying to boost for Google and other supposedly good corporations by stressing OWS was "anti-Wall Street", not "anti-Corporation" while simultaneously blasting about some "Liberal Elite" conspiracy against it and how great OWS was because it was anarchist. It was all very contradictory, especially in light of her corporate position at Google, and a lot of users took offense to the idea that there could be a single group of founders or that someone could claim ownership for it to begin with.

I don't think it is fair to paint them all in one brush. There was a lot of variation city by city and even within the circles because there were a lot of differences and a mess of political opinions, from radicals to liberals to paulbots. I think right now a lot of the weirdos are coming back out of the woodwork to try and breathe life back into it in their own image now that those differences are gone (since people've gotten tired or moved on to other, more local concerns), but it's not going to go anywhere.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

the landless peasants

the landless peasants

the landless peasants


the landless peasants




good luck with that American peasantry. don't hold your breath

[MarxSchmarx]

Originally Posted by avangard http://www.revleft.com/vb/revleft/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.revleft.com/vb/showthread.php?p=2736037#post2736037)
the landless peasants the landless peasants

the landless peasants


the landless peasants




good luck with that American peasantry. don't hold your breath




Perhaps they meant migrant farm workers.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

Perhaps they meant migrant farm workers.

Valid point, in which case I agree we need to focus our work towards migrant farmers and rural proletarians, expetually with the possible intersection with environmentalism that has become possible with the incursion of fracking in these communities. My comment was merely to express dismay in the fact that some leftists use the term "peasant" outside of historical meaning so the can larp with their theoretical forefathers.

[AnaRchic]

Occupy is a mish-mash of all kinds of different tendencies, and the ascent of this childish new-age nonsense is really just a consequence of us being lazy.

Say what you want, but "Occupy" is a reflection of a growing class consciousness on a global scale. It is a completely spontaneous movement without any underlying method, principles, vision, or program. All that unites it, basically, is an opposition to the modern global oligarchy. A good start, I might add.

Occupy has a lot of potential, and think a lot of us miss that. We see all the nonsense that is mixed up in it and then end up rejecting it outright as 'not revolutionary enough' or whatever. We need to be right in the middle of this movement, everywhere it takes places, and work within all its manifestations with one overarching goal; to give it a specifically revolutionary and anti-capitalist orientation.

This task will become easier as the system continues to crumble and leaves working people destitute. Let's see how pacifistic and new-agey Occupy will be when workers in mass, even in the United States, can no longer afford gas, utilities, or food.

This pacifist mysticism can only exist in conditions of relative social stability, as soon as shit hits the fan in a major way it will take on a far more militant orientation. Right now we can at least clarify our positions and give the movement a revolutionary and anti-capitalist nudge in the right direction.

[MarxSchmarx]

Valid point, in which case I agree we need to focus our work towards migrant farmers and rural proletarians, expetually with the possible intersection with environmentalism that has become possible with the incursion of fracking in these communities. My comment was merely to express dismay in the fact that some leftists use the term "peasant" outside of historical meaning so the can larp with their theoretical forefathers.

Yeah I agree, the expression is too anachronistic especially in the US context.