tidal#1 print

7/28/2019 Tidal#1 Print

1/24

tidaloccupy theory, occupy strategy

Decemer 2011

Issue 1


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IndexCommuniqu 1

Step 1: Occup Universities. Step 2: Transform Them byConor Toms Reed

An Occupiers Note bySuzahn E.

General Strike byGaatri Chakravort Spivak

On Power byAnteant

On Celerities byND

On Outdoor Space by Thomas Hintzeand Laura Gottesdiener

Collective Statement from the Mens Holding Cell, 1st Precinct

3 poems byJed brandt

For and Against Precarit byJudith butler

The power of the People to Stand and e Counted byMichael Premo

Power in the Movement byAlex C.

Matrix as the Core Element byRira

Possiilit, Universalit & Radicalit: A Universal Chorus of Emancipation byIsham Christie

99%, a poem byNajaa Roal

The Ninet and Nine, a poem byRose Elizaeth Smith


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We were born into a world of ghosts and illusionsthat have haunted our minds our entire lives. These shadesseem more alive to us than reality, and perhaps by somedefinition are more actual, hyper-real. We grew up in this

world of screens and hyperbole and surreal imagery, andthink nothing of a long-dead actor appearing on a wall inour homes to urge us to buy or live a certain way. Some gen-erations ago, we might have all been burned, perhaps rightly,as witches. After all, who knows where these images reallycome from?

We have no clear idea how life should really feel. Themind adapts itself quickly to commonplaces and absurditiesalike, so that a child raised in a phantasmal funhouse willassume it is normal, especially if she cant find the door.We sense something is wrong only through the odd clue.The power cuts off from an unusually violent storm; when

we look away, confused, from our dark screens to an actualperson, were told something about the climate deteriorat-ing. We notice a vague spiritual nausea, hard to discuss in aworld where most serious, hard-working people have littletime to believe in the existence of the soul. The ghosts thatcome to us offer no vocabulary to describe the emptinessthey helped create within us.

We have come to Wall Street as refugees from this na-tive dreamland, seeking asylum in the actual. That is whatwe seek to occupy. We seek to rediscover and reclaim theworld. Many believe we have come to Wall Street to transactsome kind of business with its denizens, to strike a deal. But

we have not come to negotiate. We have come to confrontthe darkness at its source, here, where the Big Apple sucksin more of the sap from the national tree than it needs ordeserves, as if spliced from some Edenic forbearer. Serpent-size worms feast within, engorged on swollen fruit. Here, theworld is chewed and digested into bits as tiny and fluid as theelectrons that traders use to bring nations and homeownersto their knees.

At Wall Street we see that the basic quantum of experi-ence has become the transaction; that lifes central purposeis to convert all of existence into tradable currency. Thesignificance of the phantoms from our childhood becomes

clearer. We understand them as souls detached from theirformer selves and meanings, and reduced to messengers.They were sent to us by people intent on grounding life intoa hoard-able quintessence, who have urged us merely to buy

and do our part in the constant monetization of life.Television, one of the chief culprits of our spiritual vacu-um, has revealed that the central action of our time involvesrending together experiential units: families, atoms, mean-ing, psyches. Advertising campaigns have become the centralart of our generation. The artistic imagination, previouslyoccupied with translating heaven and listening quietly forthe intangible within and around us, has traded these idyllsfor steady employment producing fetishistic car commer-cials. It all seems to be of a part: the images crowding in onus as cheap and lifeless as the products they represent, builtin factories owned by hollow men trying to fill their empti-

ness with mansions and treasures that they drained from us.In so doing they make the rest of the world as dark and deadas they are. And unsurprisingly, as the world has become toopolluted with junk to live, our imaginations colonized by ba-nalities and our souls sucked dry, we have become infatuatedwith vampires.Wall Street tells us, it has always told us, thatthere is a plan and that it is our duty to follow that plan. Wehave come here to doubt and to dispute that plan. When wepeek at the blueprints made for the project, we see drawnthere a fantastic land of gaudy castles surrounded by a pro-tective fence of broken glass, and outside this territory a vastdenuded plane scribbled with the words Rabble, Suckers,

Consumers, Them.What do we want from Wall Street? Nothing, because ithas nothing to offer us. We wouldnt be here if Wall Streetfed off itself; we are here because it is feeding off everyone.It is sustaining the phantoms and ghosts we have alwaysknown and whose significance we now understand. We havecome here to vanish those ghosts; to assert our real selvesand lives; to build genuine relationships with each other andthe world; and to remind ourselves that another path is pos-sible. If the phantoms of Wall Street are confused by ourpresence in their dream, so much the better. It is time thatthe unreal be exposed for what it is.

We have come to Wall Street as refugees from this native dreamland,

seeking aslum in the actual. That is what we seek to occup.

We seek to rediscover and reclaim the world.

Communiqu 1

3


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Weve reached a month and a half into Occupy WallStreeta movement catalyzing millions into decisive ac-tion around the world. For many of us, occupy has be-

come a verb to be sung. This rowdy crowd word, at oncedescriptive and prescriptive, aims to body-flip the logic ofimperialism on its head. A radical peoples occupation ofpublic space doesnt erect checkpoints; it tears them down.Instead of usurping others resources, we heartily poolour own for free distribution. The call to occupy now re-verberates from Oakland ports to NYC Department ofEducation hearings, from garish Sothebys art auctions torush-hour subway ciphers. The wealthy are now houndedat public appearances, while banks begin to dance the fran-tic backpedal. The results are in, folks: A poor peoplesmovement is once again changing the course of history.

So how can we apply such electric tenacity to occupy ourschools? Initially, education activists did well to look beyondthe immediate horizon of campus grounds and help trans-form public squares--the movements major first act. Therecent Peoples University and #occupyCUNY teach-insat Washington Square Park demonstrated, along with each

OWS assembly and Open Forum, how to re-shape public plac-es as free venues for collective education, places where eachof us can actively make meaning in a range of critical discus-

sions. With the goal of shaking prevailing school prioritiesinside out, these wide-open counter-classrooms have beenessential. But for our second act (and just in time for winter!),we need to boomerang the occupy movement back to whereour power was latent all along: our college environments.Teachers and students reoccupying our schools means jet-tisoning many failed tenets of higher educations current op-eration. Competitive individualized learning, rigid demarca-tion of disciplines, shallow celebration of difference, gradingsystems that all-too-viciously distort self-worththese arethe pedagogical tools of the 1%. Instead, lets host at eachcampus OWS-style General Assemblies that welcome the

surrounding community and put educationally marginalizedvoices at the top of the speaking list and the top of resultingactivities. Lets collaborate via write-ins to produce PeoplesDissertations about the Occupy movements significance,with public writing times, committees of peers and involve-ment across disciplines. After each dissertation is created,we can hand out P(eople)h(ave)D(dreams) certificates enmasse, thus rupturing the emblems of intellectual prestige.The point is to occupy our schools with clear political purpose.Its not enough for a tiny band of adventurous students andteachers to take a school building and hoist a flag. We need togather vast networks of resonant support if school occupa-

tions and strikes are to succeed. We need to line up a panoplyof actions for the exact moment when business as usual is dis-rupted. We can see how in Chile, Puerto Rico, California andaround Europe, educational activitiesproliferated, rather thanhalted, when people effectively shut down campuses. Laborhistorian Paul Johnston also suggests that we start seeingthe strike not as an off buttonput down your tools, walkout, stand in front of the worksite, keep people from crossingthe linesand instead see it as an on button, in order togalvanize a huge influx of participants into concrete action.To dig deeper: What does it mean for us to occupy the-ory? Although some cozily ensconced radical scholars

Step 1: Occup Universities

Step 2: Transform ThembyConor Toms Reed


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would bray otherwise, we must be clear that liberatory edu-cation is a means, not an end. Radical books that are dis-connected from social action are lone flags rippling atop

an otherwise unchallenged edifice. As Paulo Freire, NgugiWa Thiongo and others persist, we have been inculcatedin an imperialist banking model of education. The more wegain by climbing the education echelon, the more precari-ous becomes our resistance to it. However, the late peopleshistorian Howard Zinn understood the exigencies of radi-cal scholarship: While at Spelman College, after class heand his students marched together to desegregate lunchcounters. In such moments, the high walls of theory be-come miraculously porous; we test the learning processby leaping off the page and into lived social experience.The relationship between ideas and currency is another tar-

get for occupation. Pierre Bourdieu calls attention to theFrench word louer, which can mean both to praise andto rent. Im reminded of the time-worn practice of thefirst day of graduate seminars, in which each student goesaround to share her interests: Im interested in this field,I have an interest in that methodology, etc., etc. The wordinterest connotes somewhat of a detached, dispassionategaze, but also contains clear economic ramifications. We bor-row ideas throughout school, duly paying interest to thosewho own them, which thus accrues value for certain kindsof knowledge. With this inaugurating tradition of sharingones interests (like a banker-in-training, or otherwise like a

collector of possessions), we practice the cool ownership ofideas. To liberate our education must include, then, expro-priating our ideas from systemic hierarchical mis-evaluation.Moreover, we would do well to incorporate Occupy WallStreets methods of discussion in our classrooms and com-munities. How often do we carefully strive to create consentabout complex positions and concepts? Weve been taught totheorize like starving hyenastearing the throat out of eachothers ideas. Instead, an interrelated educational communitythat listens to one another, repeating word for word if need-ed, can inscribe the social work of scholarship with a sharedsense of critical construction. In doing so, we can attempt to

break out of the last few traumatic decades fixation on thedis-abyss: Our social movements trajectory now requiresre-empowerment, re-orientation, re-combobulation! We will

abundantly expand the global Occupy struggle if clear al-ternatives to this utter failure of a system are presented, de-bated, attempted, assessed, re-worked, and attempted again,with each stage in the process promoting wider varied waysfor people to join these spectacular efforts at social change.Ultimately, such an expansive project will entail changingour conceptions of school altogether. Fred Moten and Stefa-no Harney urgently address the present underside of educa-tion, arguing, The university contains incarceration as theproduct of its negligence. Paradoxically, then, our role intransforming schools will include striving to abolish theirfunction as the official sites of knowledge production, just

as we will in connection strive to abolish prison systems thatmaintain colonialism by other means. To liberate schools isto liberate a society in which education codifies and contrastspeoples needs and dreams to each others. To this effect, thepeoples class is now in session, with guaranteed free tuitionand open admissions. Were making up the syllabus as we go.

The point is to occup our schools with clear political purpose. Its not enough

for a tin and of adventurous students and teachers to take a school uilding

and hoist a flag. We need to gather vast networks of resonant support if school

occupations and strikes are to succeed.We can see how in Chile, Puerto Rico,

California and around Europe, educational activities proliferated, rather thanhalted, when people effectivel shut down campuses.


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7/24

An Occupiers NoteInterviews or articles about Occupy Wall Streeteventually lead to one question: What does a just worldlook like? We need only to look at Liberty Square, or at anypeoples occupation from around the world, for an answer.Although these sites are microcosms, they are neverthelessworlds where we aspire to achieve mutual aid and solidarity,autonomy and horizontality. The overarching belief seemsto be, however, that a just world is a world without conflict,

and that the occupations are too chaotic to embody the worldwe work towards. This stumbling block is a dehumanizingsentiment that stunts our ongoing critique of how we inter-act with one another and confront the baggage carried overfrom generations of oppression. We are not as concernedwith utopia as we are with justice, meaning that we as occupi-ers do not avoid confrontation. On the contrary, the greatestdistinction between our community and the society aroundus is that we approach conflict with revolutionary priorities.

A world is built and propelled by aspiration and prior-itythe universals that define who we are as a collectiveand what values shape our lives and communities. We at the

square have adopted priorities of community, empathy, rec-onciliation, and empowerment, intent on keeping the collec-tive ability in balance with individual need. This does notmean that the world we are creating is perfect, or that perfec-tion is something we aspire to. A world without centralizedrule does not mean a world without conflict; a world withouthierarchy does not mean a world without power. It means aworld where we all become powerful, as individuals and as acollective.

Occupiers are faced with the call to champion individualempowerment as necessary for collective functioning. Thereare no police. There is no state, no law, and no jail to turn to

within the occupy community. There is only individual re-sponsibility and accountability, with a counterweight of faithin the process of mutual aid. The empowering sense that weare all connected though commonality of work and all formsof survivalbe they physical, mental, or spiritualis em-bedded in our processes and our search for alternatives. Weboth illuminate and embody the obsolescence of the policeand the state when we harness our skills to solve communityissues and needs.

The state and the police have been presented to us as nec-essary, bolstered by the absurd idea that people themselvesare not equipped to solve their own problems.Through au-

thority we have been cast into perpetual dependence andinfantile immobilization. Eventually, we are forced to acceptviolent repression of mind and body for a false sense of or-der. We occupy because we refuse to conflate stability withsubjugation and oppression. A stable world is not necessarilya just world. The 1% warns against criticism and interfer-ence with a free market, promising that de-regulation willgive us a stable economy. Tyranny is stable. Dictators rise on

the promise of constancy and the security of permanence.At the square, everyone is empowered to become media-

tors, to ask about each others needs and boundaries, to com-municate honestly, and to learn to accept conflict as possiblepoints of community construction. Some may perceive thisas chaos. But they should look closer, for we are rebuildingourselves by building a community based on liberty. Reallibertywhich means trust in the individual in direct con-tact with the unknownis a liberty that gives us a chance todefine ourselves in conjunction with those around us ratherthan in opposition to others. As a great anarchist thinker,Voltairine de Cleyre, once wrote, Liberty and experiment

alone can determine the best forms of society.The chaos of experimentation breeds new possibilities.

Occupiers must allow themselves the possibility of posi-tive internal conflict in order for the experiment to grow. Todeny this struggle is to deny ourselves the ability to directlyconstruct a just world; it is to flatten our complex human-ity. The Occupy Movement is an experiment, but the worstpossible mistake would be to let that word detract from ourlegitimacy and validity as a revolutionary moment.

Creating new autonomous community zones is necessaryfor the survival of the movement. We must project our visionof a just world onto the blank paving stones of public parks

and into the silent hallways of abandoned schools. Now it istime to shift our communitiesto turn our collective imagi-nary into a collective reality. We must occupy, regardless ofthe mass of unknowns and fears that might be tied into theact of liberation.

Our collective liberation rejects the authority stolen fromthe people. We reject your oppressive stability in favor of ourchaotic liberty fueled by self-empowerment and self-determi-nation. We will be solving our own problems while you, whohave solved none of them, become obsolete. Now it is abouthuman creativity and the power of action.

All power to the imagination. Occupy Everywhere.

Creating new autonomous communit zones is necessar for the survival of the movement.

We must project our vision of a just world onto the lank paving stones of pulic parks

and into the silent hallwas of aandoned schools. Now it is time to shift our communities

to turn our collective imaginar into a collective realit.

bySuzahn E.


8/24

by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Today the global workorce stands

deeply divided as globalization operates

through a system o fnance trading

in uneven currenciesthat has little todo with that workorce. This division is

why it is once again time to reclaim the

General Strike.


9/24

When the entire workforce of a city lays downits tools and refuses to resume work until certain demandsare met, it is called a General Strike. The idea first came fromthe nineteenth-century anarchists, who did not constitute aworkforce but were people of anti-statist convictions. RosaLuxemburg, the Polish revolutionary thinker (18711919)murdered by German reactionary troops, rewrote the con-cept of the General Strike and claimed it for the workforce(proletariat) after witnessing the great General Strikes in theRussian Empire that began in 1896 and ended in the tremen-

dous General Strike of 1905. Georges Sorel (1847-1922), aFrench thinker who moved from the political Left to the po-litical Right, also conceived of the General Strike as a way toenergize the workforce.

The African-American historian and sociologist W.E.B.Du Bois (1868-1963) described the exodus of the slaves im-mediately after Emancipation as a General Strike, becauseslavery had not allowed the Black Proletariat (plantationworkforce for the cotton industry) to form itself as a regularworkforce. In the same era, Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948),the Indian national liberationist, rewrote the General Strikeonce again and claimed it for the colonized, regardless of

class, thus shifting it from a working-class movement to amixture of civil disobedience and boycott politics. He calledit Non-Cooperation. development of thinking

Today the global workforce stands deeply divided as glo-balization operates through a system of finance trading inuneven currenciestthat has little to do with that workforce.This division , which is why it is once again time to reclaimthe General Strike. It is already being reclaimed by thosedisenfranchised by a system whose benefits flow constantlyupward: toward bailouts for banks and away from healthcare,education and all the places that need them most. Labor nowhas a chance to join hands in this redefinition of the General

Strike as a collectivity of disenfranchised citizens: the 99%.Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) defined those who had no

access to the welfare structure of the state, and those whoplayed no role in the state, as the subaltern: the poorest ofthe poor. Today this story too is being re-written. What weare witnessing is the subalternization of the middle classthe largest sector of the 99%. The General Strike, as DuBois and Gandhi once envisioned it, is becoming a powerfulsymbol that exceeds the neatly matched worker/master fightof old. And to this point, there are several features of a Gen-eral Strike to keep in mind.

(1) A General Strike is undertaken by those who sufferactual day-to-day injustice, not by morally outraged ideo-logues.

(2) A General Strike is by definition non-violent, thoughthe repressive apparatus of the state has used great violenceagainst the strikers.

(3) A General Strike generally consists of demands fo-cused on reforming or re-writing laws, ie. the length of theworking day for Russian workers, the Fourteenth and Fif-teenth Amendments (in substance if not in discourse) for

the former slaves, a decolonized legal structure in the era ofGandhi, etc.

If one recognizes the connection between the GeneralStrike and the Law, one realizes this is not legalreformismbut a call for social and economicjustice. Banning bank bail-outs, instituting legal oversight of fiscal policy, taxing therich, de-corporatizatizing education, lifting fossil fuel andagriculture subsidies, and on and on. The intense commit-ment to legal change and its implementation is a bid for jus-tice. And remember: unlike a political party, the movers of aGeneral Strike need not co-operate until they see things ac-

tually change. Already the pressure is working: witness the5% victory over debit card charges last month.

General Strikes are always in a sense against Wall Street,more broadly described as capitalism. But, because revolu-tions have also been against bad regimes represented bysingle dictators or kings, our idea of revolution is confusedwith armed struggle, violence, and regime change. In Rus-sia, the Czars. In China, a decadent feudalism and Euro-co-lonialism. In Latin America, the latifundia system in France,the Bourbon monarchy. In America, the Hanover monarchyand later the slaveholding system. today in the Arab world,Zayn al-Abidin Ben Ali in Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt,

Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.By contrast, in the Occupy movement, the spirit of the

General Strike has come into its own and joined forces withthe American tradition of civil disobedience: citizens againstan unregulated capitalist state, not against an individual anda regime. Therefore, in the short-term, we mus: change thelaws that currently make the state accountable to businessand banks, not to people. And in the Long-term, establishand nurture an education that keeps the will to justice alive.


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on Power

An institution gains power when people surrender their indi-vidual agency to the institution. The more people that do this,the more powerful the institution. Power can be thought ofas a gathered pool of peoples individual agencies. Our move-ment is about trying to make people take their agency backand fully engage with themselves and reality. Surrenderingagency is the opposite of that. In this movement, institu-tions should not have power. They should be for facilitatingthe coordination of individuals. The General Assembly (GA)can be seen as functioning this way. It facilitates coordina-tion and action. People follow consensus decisions of the GA

because they agree with them. However, we should resist theidea that people must follow the GAs decision, or that youneed the GAs permission to do anything. The General As-sembly is not a parliament. It doesnt pass laws. People mustretain their individual agency, meaning they can chose notto follow the GAs decisions. We have focused a lot of en-ergy on not having entitled leaders, which makes sense be-cause leaders also exercise power that has been surrenderedto them. It doesnt make sense to substitute another powerbody in place of leaders. We will end up with the same prob-lem. Individuals are always free to act without GA blessing.This is a fundamental human right. Anteant

on outdoor SPace

After the raid on Liberty Plaza, the absence that opened upin the center of our movement was greater than the size ofthe physical space in that tiny, concrete park. For us, spaceis not a mere necessitya place to lay our head, to eat ourmeals, to congregate and assembleit is also a symbol anda direct action. Literally, vacant lots are voids that we fillwith physical representations of our concerns, hopes, fears,and dreams. We invite others to join us and create an infra-structure that liberates minds. We must reassert our rightsto occupy public spaces. Privatization has created a dichoto-

my of those with and those without, those with being land-ownersa fraction of the population. We must partner withcommunities, artists, educators, not just taking for ourselves,but opening locked gates for all to occupy.

Now that we are rebuilding, some say that it is in our bestinterest to occupy indoor spaces. The reasons for this arevarious. Occupying indoor spaces such as foreclosed housesand abandoned buildings politicizes individual struggles. Itanswers the question of how to survive through the win-ter and how to create a life outside of the spectacle of thisrevolutionary project. It allows the message of our move-ment to enter communities through individual voices. But

occupying indoor space is fundamentally about reclaiming

private space, a shift from our notions of what it is to bepublic, transparent, inclusive and collective. Outdoor spacessymbolically oppose Wall Street in a manner that directlythreatens its stability, and maintaining our presence in op-position is crucial to enfranchising more supporters mov-ing forward. Indoor spaces are an important compliment towhatever we do, but we must remember that outdoor publicspaces embody the heart of this movement. With each spacewe consider, we must ask whether it gives form to our collec-tive desires. This is our metric. We will not wait for channelsof bureaucracy to gift spaces to us. We will liberate them.

Thomas Hintze and Laura Gottesdiener

on celebritieS

The list of celebrities that want to throw benefits, concerts,events, etc., is endless. We should use celebrity status as aresource that gets coupled with a strategic objective. Weshould first ask whether they are arrestable for an action?We should ask celebrities to participate in direct actions,throw concerts in neighborhoods without permits, mobi-lize their followers for actions. We should ask them to tweetand facebook messages we draft for them. We do not wantour movement mainstreamed in order to make activism coolfor people to join. Our movement should radicalize people

to act in a civil anddisobedient manner. It shifts conscious-ness and empowers. When we do an event, we should createspace for marginalized voices to be heard. Bruce Springsteenis a privileged voice. He can make himself heard anytime.So maybe he speaks less. Maybe there are testimonials fromthe marginalized. Maybe the event has a radical educationalcomponent. In any event, the artists participating should besufficiently informed of what OWS is through discussion,questions and exchange. Thats one way to spread the move-ment, to those who craft the culture. Natasha Bhagat Singh

Notes


11/24

OCCUPy CAIRO

Vassals fear new words,When we tire of whisperingAnd say our own name.

QUESTIONS FOR

COMMUNISTS & LOVERSHow can you love that?Kids unborn? Worlds yet to be?Proletariat?

Sway opinion,Or change minds? Tilt at windmills?

So many questions.

OCCUPy OAKLAND

This state is not law.Dont forget that. And they ask,What are your demands?!

3 poems byJed brandt

collectiveStatement

from General Asseml

1st Precinct Mens Holding Cell

NyC Nov. 15, 2011


12/24

In this time, neo-liberal economics increasingly structurespublic institutions, including schools and universities, aswell as public services, in a time in which people are losing

their homes, their pensions, and their prospects for work inincreasing numbers, we are faced with the idea that somepopulations are considered disposable. There is short-termwork, or post-Fordist forms of flexible labor that rely on thesubstitutability and dispensability of working peoples, bol-stered by prevailing attitudes toward health insurance andsocial security that suggest that market rationality shoulddecide whose health and life should be protected, and whosehealth and life should not. And this was, for some of us,keenly exemplified at that meeting of the Tea Party in whichone member suggested that those who have serious illnessand cannot pay for health insurance would simply have to

die. A shout of joy rippled through the crowd, according topublished reports. It was, I conjecture, the kind of joyousshout that usually accompanies going to war or forms of na-tionalist fervor. But if this was for some a joyous occasion,it must be precisely because of a belief that those who donot make sufficient wages or who are not in secure enoughemployment do not deserve to be covered by health care, andthat none of the rest of us our responsible for those people.

Under what economic and political conditions do suchjoyous forms of cruelty emerge? The notion of respon-sibility invoked by that crowd must be contested without,as you will see, giving up on the idea of a political ethics.

For if each of us is responsible only for ourselves, and notfor others, and if that responsibility is first and foremost aresponsibility to become economically self-sufficient underconditions when self-sufficiency is structurally undermined,then we can see that this neo-liberal morality, as it were, demands

self-sufficiency as a moral ideal at the same time that it works to

destroy that very possibility at an economic level. Those who can-not afford to pay into health care constitute but one versionof population deemed disposable. Those who are conscriptedinto the army with a promise of skills training and work,sent into zones of conflict where there is no clear mandateand where their lives can be destroyed, and are sometimes

destroyed, are also disposable populations. They are lauded

as essential to the nation at the same time that their lives areconsidered dispensable. And all those who see the increasinggap between rich and poor, who understand themselves tohave lost several forms of security and promise, they alsounderstand themselves as abandoned by a government and apolitical economy that clearly augments wealth for the veryfew at the expense of the general population.

So this leads to the second point. When people amass onthe street, one implication seems clear: They are still hereand still there; they persist; they assemble, and so manifestthe understanding that their situation is shared, and evenwhen they are not speaking or do not present a set of ne-gotiable demands, the call for justice is being enacted. Thebodies assembled say we are not disposable, whether or notthey are using words at the moment. What they say, as itwere, is that we are still here, persisting, demanding greater

justice, a release from precarity, a possibility of a livable life.

To demand justice is, of course, a strong thing to do. Italso involves every activist in a philosophical question: Whatis justice, and what are the means through which the demandfor justice can be made? The reason it is said that sometimesthere are no demands when bodies assemble under therubric of Occupy Wall Street is that any list of demandswould not exhaust the ideal of justice that is being demanded.We can all imagine just solutions to health care, public educa-tion, housing, and the distribution and availability of foodinother words, we could itemize the injustices in the plural and

present those as a set of specific demands. But perhaps the de-mand for justice is present in each of those demands, but alsonecessarily exceeds them. We do not have to subscribe to Pla-tonic theory of Justice to see other ways in which this demandoperates. For when bodies gather as they do to express theirindignation and to enact their plural existence in public space,they are also making broader demands. They are demandingto be recognized and to be valued; they are exercising a rightto appear and to exercise freedom; they are calling for a livablelife. These values are presupposed by particular demands, butthey also demand a more fundamental restructuring of oursocio-economic and political order.

In some economic and political theory, we hear about pop-

For and Against

PRECARITy byJudith butler


13/24

ulations that are increasingly subject to what is called pre-caritization. This processusually induced and reproducedby governmental and economic institutions that acclimatizepopulations over time to insecurity and hopelessness (see Isa-bell Lorey)is built into the institutions of temporary labor,of decimated social services, and of the general attrition ofsocial democracy in favor of entrepreneurial modalities sup-ported by fierce ideologies of individual responsibility and theobligation to maximize ones own market value as the ultimateaim in life. In my view, this important process of precaritiza-

tion has to be supplemented by an understanding of precarityas a structure of affect, as Lauren Berlant has suggested, andas a heightened sense of expendability or disposability that isdifferentially distributed throughout society. In addition, I usea third term, precariousness, which characterizes every em-bodied and finite human being, and non-human beings as well.This is not simply an existential trutheach of us could besubject to deprivation, injury, debilitation or death by virtueof events or processes outside of our control. It is also, im-portantly, a feature of what we might call the social bond, thevarious relations that establish our interdependency. In otherwords, no one person suffers a lack of shelter without a social

failure to organize shelter in such a way that it is accessible

to each and every person. And no one person suffers unem-ployment without a system or a political economy that fails tosafeguard against that possibility.

This means that in some of our most vulnerable experi-ences of social and economic deprivation what is revealed isnot only our precariousness as individual persons thoughtthat is surely revealed as wellbut also the failures and in-equalities of socio-economic and political institutions. Inour individual vulnerability to precarity, we find that weare social beings, implicated in a set of networks that either

sustain us or fail to do so, or do so only intermittently, pro-ducing a constant spectre of despair and destitution. Ourindividual wellbeing depends on whether the social and eco-nomic structures that support our mutual dependency canbe put into place. This happens only by breaking with theneo-liberal status quo, enacting the demands of the peoplethrough the gathering together of bodies in a relentlesslypublic, obdurate, persisting, activist struggle that seeks tobreak and remake our political world. As bodies, we sufferand we resist and together, in various locations, exemplifythat form of the sustaining social bond that neo-liberal eco-nomics has almost destroyed.

When odies gather as the do to express their indignation and to enact their plural

existence in pulic space, the are also making roader demands.

The are demanding to e recognized and to e valued; the are exercising a right

to appear and to exercise freedom; the are calling for a livale life.

These values are presupposed particular demands, ut the also demand

a more fundamental restructuring of our socio-economic and political order.


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We have been brought to this momentthrough centuries of struggle and resistance, fighting to cre-ate alternatives to the accumulation of power and wealth bya minority who horde the resources of our finite planet fortheir personal profit and pleasure. Our so-called modernsocieties are intentionally structured to maintain deep imbal-ances of power in terms of race, gender, class, sexuality, andour natural environment. Weve marched, voted, petitionedfor laws, maxed out our credit, and played the game. But itsnaive to think that a government and economic system builton the backs of genocide and slavery would ever hear ourcry. So we rose up, again and again and now we rise oncemore to continue the liberation of our minds and lives. Thiscurrent moment of resistance is growing into a global move-ment devoted to reclaiming and building free societies.

Occupy Wall Street has captured the global imagination. Itbegan with the literal occupation of the heart of global capi-tal, and, just as the arteries and veins of the system stretchto every part of our lives, so must our occupation. We needa Liberty Square in every neighborhood in America strate-gic occupations that fundamentally challenge existing powerstructures and create a forum for the community to address itsown concerns, free from the corruption of exclusionary eco-nomics and elite government systems.

I reject the notion that this is a leaderless movement, be-cause I know that the opposite is true. In the so-called West,

we are socialized to play our position, marginalized to lanesof professional specialization, as if we are only as good as

our job. But in this movement we are all leaders, no longerdefined merely by our education, profession, the things wecan buy, or our contribution to the economy. This idea is giv-en its greatest expression through the assembly process. Theprocess of friends, neighbors and members of our broadercommunity coming together in public space to engage inmeaningful dialogue about the issues that matter most to us:this is what democracy looks like.

I have voted in every national and local election since Iturned 18. I continue to vote out of a deep sense of devotionto the ideals of democracy. Several years ago I was privi-leged with the opportunity to collect and produce stories as

part of the largest oral history project of its kind dedicatedto recording the stories and experiences of African-Amer-icans for StoryCorps Griot, The Library of Congress, andthe Smithsonians National Museum of African-AmericanHistory and Culture. Our group traveled the country in thespirit of Zora Neale Hurston and the Lomax family, creatinga space for people to let their stories be heard for posterity.I heard devastating and awe-inspiring stories of struggle,survival and resistance, like listening to Ms. Theresa Bur-roughs in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, who remembered having toguess the number of black jelly beans in a jar in order tovote. Or Johnny L. Flowers who told his 13 year old grand-

The Power of the People

To Stand and be CountedbyMichael Premo


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son about what it was like to stand on the Edmond Pettus

Bridge in Selma on March 7, 1965, a day that became knownas Bloody Sunday for the vicious attack on nonviolent pro-testers marching for their human rights.

On that trip, I promised myself that I would continue tovote for all those who have fought and died for this funda-mental right. And yet I have no illusion that my vote reallycountsat least not as much as the wealthy individuals andcorporations that back their vote with money and the powerto influence legislation that places profit over people, corpo-rate personhood over human rights. It is the checkbook ofthe 1% that is heard, not the vote of the 99%. Id even go asfar as to say I feel my vote only counts for three-fifths of all

other corporate-persons.It is with this understanding that I believe that the power

of this growing movement is in the practice of people gath-ering together in peaceful public assemblies and agreeing onhow to address our grievances, not least of which throughacts of nonviolent civil disobedience targeted at strategicobjectives. Creative radical direct action is integral to thisphase of the movement.

Currently the movement is organized through Gen-eral Assemblies (GAs), which are public forums for peopleto come together to address concerns and make decisionsthrough collective agreement, also called consensus. Since

we are socialized to understand leadership and power cen-ters as the legitimate decisions makers, there is a misconcep-tion that this is some type of hierarchical governing body.On the contrary, this is simply a fluid process that attemptsto create a forum for the inclusion of anyone who chooses toparticipate. As is the case with any community, these forumshave developed their own culture in the form of hand ges-tures and other habits that emerge from group settings. Butthese are just subtleties of circumstance that can, and must,change and adapt to reflect the cultural expressions of thecommunity engaging the forum process. For thousands ofyears societies around the world have engaged in variations

of democratic decision making. The beauty of this move-ment is it is implicit that these distinct histories and culturalethos will evolve the General Assemblys method of consen-sus building. The GAs are ours to make our own as we see fit.

Because our minds are not yet free, this space is also notfree of the frictions and misunderstandings that result frominherent privileges associated with race, class, gender, able-ism, and sexuality. These are the growing pains of a newsociety. Of course these realities still exist, but now is a mo-ment to stretch our imaginations with an open mind and anopen heart, and dream new ways into the world throughpositive participation and active engagement.

Two months into the occupation General Assemblies

are spreading across the country. In New York City, GAshave sprung up or are on the verge of forming in the Bronx(Borough-wide), Washington Heights, Central Harlem, EastHarlem, Brooklyn (Borough-wide), Sunset Park and Bed-Stuy. And Im sure there are others.

The beauty of neighborhood GAs is that they provide aforum for a variety of local constituencies within a commu-nity to come together. And in light of so-called anti-ganglaws and State terrorism against black and brown communi-ties the act, alone, of peaceably assembling in mass numberscan be an act of defiance. But communities have been dividedas much through state terror as subtler forms of co-option.

One of many forms of division is often supported by theproliferation of the non-profit organizing model that hassegregated organizations and community groups into issuesilos, often excluding potential allies as similar groups beginto compete for funding, and similar members for resources.Now is the time for those silos to give way to renewed oppor-tunities for mutual collaboration. There are a lot of peopledoing a lot of good work but since we still seem to be facingthe same old problems, why not try something different?

One example of the spreading GAs is Occupy Sunset Park.The first meeting was a gathering of about 10 residents, activ-ists and parents from the immediate and surrounding commu-

nity captivated by the energy of the moment and interested intaking action to find creative solutions to stubborn problems.At the first planning meeting it was decided that the commu-nity would begin regular weekly General Assemblies to estab-lish continuity. Participants were encouraged to bring at leastone friend to each meeting. The following week, at the firstofficial Occupy Sunset Park General Assembly, participantsdiscussed facilitation processes, alternative banking options,local gentrification and housing issues, and they even madeplans towards their first direct action. The sheer simplicity,inclusiveness, and adaptability of this process is what makesits potential energy so powerful. In America we believe that

bigger is better, but all it takes is a small group of committedindividuals working together to begin to change the world.

It would be amazing to see General Assemblies spread toevery building, neighborhood, town and city evolving andadapting the collective agreement process as it grows. Lib-erty Square is just the beginning. The act of peacefully as-sembling to reclaim what has been taken, making decisionsabout our collective future through direct democracy andengaging in nonviolent direct actions of occupation and lib-eration must continue to spread until a new day dawns. Thisis a demonstration of the power of the people to stand andbe counted.


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Power is the ability to actualize; to bring poten-tial to fruition, to make things happen. But where does itcome from? What are the conditions that build power andhow do we trace its movement? Then, perhaps most impor-tantly: How do we multiply its sources to make power avail-able to more people?

These are fundamental questions that every occupiermust entertain, because their answers will prevent us from

replicating the asymmetries found in society. Injustice hap-pens when power is unevenly distributed, creating explicitor invisible hierarchies. Occupy Wall Street is not immuneto this injustice becausepower behaves just the samein families,schools, churches, governments, companies, working groups,affinity groups, and so forth. Therefore, how do we guardagainst bias and distortions in the revolution?

First, we must shed the invincibility complex. Nowe arenot immune to corruption. We must humbly acknowledge thatthere is always a risk of occupiers becoming exactly what theyare fighting against. This subtle deformation process happenswithout us realizing. Therefore, listening to dissent and how

people feel is ever more important. Paying attention to whichvoices carry more weight and questioning why and how isessential to the distribution of power. If group decisions arebeing determined by the same few voices, Houston!we havea (democratic) problem.

This awareness must be actualized not to policeeach other but to dynamically map how decisions aremade and to evaluate if they are indeed an amalgama-tion of all voices. The objective is to have not a singlecenter of gravity that people magnetize toward (leader/fol-lower pattern), but to have as many centers of gravity asthere are individuals. To give an example, we can see this

rhizomatic structure in contemporary music when compos-

ers subvert traditional Western tonalism and experimentwith rotational tonalism, pluritonalism or atonalism.

Second, a thought model may come in handy. We can viewthe goal of social justice as necessarily passing through aFeng Shui of Powerwith flows shaped by human action andintentionality. With this paradigm we can proactively pushthe movement to a place where all feel empowered and notleft out. Concretely, radicals must make use of tracingi.e. recognizing power and tracing it back to its origins

to build a cartography of power. With that knowledge wecan actively shape the conditions for it to flow harmoniouslythroughout all occupiers and society.

To begin this project, key steps are:

(1) Recognizing and identifying springs or sources ofpower - e.g., information, connections, access to resources,history, etc.

(2) Mapping how these power flows are distributed inspace, people and time.

(3) Acting upon the cartography to shape the flow ofpower in a way that benefits all.

Power in the MovementbyAlex C.


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the ProceSS

At first glance of an occupation, placards, tents, and work sta-tions clutter the view. Yet the true face of OWS in the General

Assembly. Through rules and a group of rotating facilitators,the General Assembly reclaiming one of the most deprivedelements of our societythe voice! Instead of money or ob-

jects, the voice is the ultimate form of exchange. It is thestarting point that connects us in almost endless web. Itsstrength is in its diversity.

The long legacy of adapted forms of direct democracy,especially in the Global South, has greatly influenced OWS.One important lesson from those movements has been thatno matter how radical or sincere allies, politicians, or intel-lectuals are, their contributions are only as relevant as theirdegrees of involvement as equal participants within the as-

sembly. We must prevent the threat of cooption by havingparticipants disclose affiliations with outside organizationsthat may in any way use the assembly to benefit an exclusiveagenda.

It is unreasonable to expect that outside experts can pro-vide quick-fixes to the challenges facing an assembly. Insuch instances, the burden is on us to educate ourselves, de-velop working group, and revise our practices. As we createan international network of assemblies that are horizontaland accountable, we must continue to ask ourselves: How dowe embolden new participants to step-up and take on initia-tives? How we can safeguard against internal conflict, coop-tion, and provocateurs?

the SPace

The resurgence of popular uprisings has again high-lighted the decisive confrontation between the elite, who hasbenefited from the historical shift towards ever-increasingwealth and power consolidation, and the urban lower class,which has been marginalized spatially, economically, politi-cally and culturally from a decades-long reign of structuralviolence. Neoliberal economic policies and traditional powerstructures have eroded basic human rights and left major ar-eas of todays cities in ruins and surveillance. Even formerly

radical spaces have been coopted, eliminated, or reinscribedwith oppressive hierarchical relations. Suburban sprawl andhome ownership have deceived us into debt and a twisted

sense of control, success, and identity. Under constant at-tack, we abandoned our historical obligation to the collectiveownership of the commons. While international uprisingssuch as Tahrir have been inspiring, Americans too have along legacy of domestic occupations. Hooverville, Resur-rection City, Rosa Parks, SNCC occupations of segregatedbusinesses, and the recent occupation of Madisons capitalbuilding by state workers all demonstrate our long struggleagainst injustice.

Today, Wall Street is the critical site of intervention be-cause we are now directly confronting the institutions of glob-al capital. London, Frankfurt, Shanghai, and other financial

capitols are havens of the worlds elite who ruthlessly con-solidate power with neoliberal-driven economic policies. AtLiberty Square, it is no surprise that what was initially des-ignated as a protest space has ended up housing so many ofneoliberalisms living victims. The occupation addresses peo-ples right to safe shelter, food, health, space, education, andsanitation. The homeless and mentally ill, two groups whohave suffered the worst forms of exclusion, are welcomedby working groups who are trained to address their griev-ances in a manner that is reciprocal and empowering. Ouroccupation is both a symbolic and functional space thatasthe slogan goesserve human needs, not corporate greed.

imaginingthemoment

This moment did not start with academics, activists, or po-litical leadersand it did not occur in their domain. Instead,a network of concerned individuals in a public park initiatedthis now-global dialogue. We rejected the initial discussions ofquick-fix legislation and third party candidates because suchdemands are the lingering remnants of a narratives that leftus powerless, voiceles, and depressed. In this empty fairytale,our experts identify the problem, provide us with false al-ternatives, and leave us more pacified than before. They tellus to elect politicians, save starving children with Starbucks,

Matrix as the Core Element byRira

OCCUPY WALL STREET has sparked a wave of assemblies and occupations at the doorsteps ofthe very financial and political elites that profited from the recent global economic crisis. This ar-ticle will briefly present several components that have emerged not in isolation, but as an intercon-nected matrix. The article will elaborate on how this matrix should evolve as the core element ofOWS. Such components are open-ended with the hopes of further scrutiny and radical departurestowards new perspectives.


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eat organic, boycott one multinational for another, buy anacre in the Amazon, whatever. Engaging in these legal al-ternatives makes us ever more powerless while strengthen-ing the legitimacy and power of capital.

So how can our working groups and assemblies imaginethe moment the real alternative? To start with, a success-ful action is only as effective as the radical imagination thatprecedes it. We must constantly remember the revolutionsrequisite components and imagine how they interconnect as

a constantly evolving matrix. For example, is our group fol-lowing progressive stack, step-up/step-back, and encourag-ing everyone to have a voice? Is our occupied space (whethertemporary or indefinite) confronting and transforming pri-vate property into a nonhierarchical space that encouragessolidarity, learning, and mutual dependency?

When defining the groups agenda, we must constantlyscrutining the role power structures have in shaping existinginjustices and clarifying what choices exist (or should exist)to alleviate these injustices. The problem is then understoodby assessing the disparity between the needs of the com-munity and self-interests of state/capital in order to fulfill

those choices. For instance, if a citys housing board is col-laborating with private developers to gentrify subsidizedhousing, the demand should not be to increase compensa-tion to the evicted residents. Rather, we must explore howthe residents could form an assembly that will replace thehousing board and developers to address their own func-tional needs. Regarding health needs in the space, the firststep would be to provide charitable care. However, the realalternative is to organize HIV positive occupiers, addict, andthe homeless to form their own working groups. Then, as anautonomous and empowered voice, these groups could ap-proach the healthcare workers with their needs in a recip-

rocal manner, go to the GA to utilize resources that would

improve their living condition, and engage in actions thatwill reclaim power from existing institutions that profit fromtheir exclusion. No matter how perfect the assembly process,true social justice is restored through human practice andcollective ownership. This ensures that in such a space, eventhe most marginalized are given a basic means of production(i.e. their participation), which inevitably results in a more

just distribution of power.

The third step is imagining the moment or situation that

may or may not cross legal-hegemonic boundaries in order toliberate power. It is worth highlighting the value of the ex-ceptional event or shock against the continuity of life, socialconservatism, and all the instruments of structural violencethe system has at its disposal. This is the critical rupture,reformulation, and launching of alternative models that willtransform existing systems/technologies into other modesthat will redistribute power to the assembly in order to servehuman needs. Occupy the Department of Education has al-ready united teachers, student, and parents to challenge thecitys institutions with its own assembly that is formulatingmore effective educational alternatives.

Our historical significance is dependent upon how thismatrix transforms itself as the spheres of direct democracy,participatory economics, radical education and other sites ofinterference intersect as functional horizontal forms of hu-man relations. It must constantly evolve beyond the occu-pation to establish protest spaces within all of our existinginstitutions.

We must not become fixed to particular spaces or actions. In-stead, we must unleash a radical imagination that will liber-ate the collective consciousness of every sector of societyto challenge the ruling institution, and replace them withcivilized, horizontal, and humane alternatives.


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i. radicalit y

It began in mid-July. A call went out to Occupy Wall St from

a leftist magazine. A handful of NYC anti-austerity activists,who had just weeks before ended a two-week encampmentoutside City Hall, decided to announce a general assemblyat the Charging Bull near Wall Street. On August 2 about200 people came, broke out into working groups and startedto build for the occupation of Wall Street. Serious doubtsplagued my mind, as I am sure they did others, from thevery beginning. Will people show up? Will Sept. 17, the firstday of the occupation, be no more than a fight with cops?Will we be strong enough to actually take a space? Doesthis organizing model exclude the most marginalized andoppressed people in society?

Most of us who organized the lead-up to September 17also questioned the project seriously. I almost left the move-ment a couple of times. I sat through five-hour-long generalassemblies on multiple occasions. Most of us had no ideaif Occupy Wall Street would work or not, we simply actedin such a way as to realize the potentials for success andmitigate the possibilities for failure. Even now as I reflect,it could have failed on September 17 or 18, or fizzled out alittle later. But by chance, dedication, police brutality (oddlyenough), and a lot of daring, Occupy Wall Street turned intosomething so large that politicians from the Ayatollah to theGreek prime minster to President Obama are weighing in.

People met the initial uncertainty of the outcome notwith inaction but, instead, with persistence: a basic prem-ise for radical action. All radical action is by its essence an

opening of possibility. And it is this radical opening, giv-ing hope to a fundamental transformation of social orders,that liberals and conservatives fear most. Radical openings,or revolutionary situations, like the one we find ourselves innow, present a multiplicity of possibilities, some better andsome worse. Without faith in the inevitability of historicalprogress, which sustained the radicals of the past, we haveto reinvent radicalism without inevitability.

Radicals do not shirk when confronted with open possi-bility, but see it as an opportunity for dramatic social changenot allowed within existing institutions. We acknowledgethat social orders are subject to historical change, and that

all social orders eventually transform due to their owninternal contradictions. This acceptance helps dispel theanxiety of uncertainty that lies at the heart of a radicalismwithout faith in historical inevitability.

During the lead up to the occupation of Wall Street, thewords of Friedrich Nietzsche further served to dispel fearsabout acting within an open situation. Nietzsche writes,Cheerfulness,[] belief in the future, the joyful deedalldepend, [on knowing] the right time to forget as well asthe right time to remember, and instinctively see when it isnecessary to feel historically and when unhistorically [bothbeing] equally necessary to the health of an individual, a

community, and a system of culture.

Possiilit,Universalit,

& Radicalit

A Universal Chorus

for Emancipation

byIsham Christie


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The forgetful sense, the ability to act in spite of uncer-tainty of consequence, the courage to put aside reasons whysomething wont work: these all become necessary for authen-tic, radical action. And ultimately, our hope in the possible out-weighs the doubts.

ii. conditionSof PoSSibility

We inherited hope from the movements that have begun in2011. Occupy Wall Street could not have occurred withoutthe conditions for its possibility existing in the social condi-tions and social imagination of people elsewhere. A majortouchstone of inspiration was Tunisia and Tahrir Square.The revolts in Egypt and Tunisia stimulated the politicalimagination and renewed a sense of hope in mass collectiveaction. In a similar way, the uprising in Madison made collec-tive action possible for America. The other encampments and

occupations around the world gave us hope, examples, andat times an overlap of organizers. Now we see that OccupyWall Street was a spark that lit the Occupy movement, whichin turn re-inspire some of the movements that inspired usin the first place. Calls to Occupy have since sprouted uparound hundreds of cities and campuses, in all regions andstates. The rapid development of the movement shows theforce of an idea whose time has to come. But what madesuch a rapid development possible besides the other move-ments from which we drew inspiration?

One answer is that the long process of neo-liberalismreached a tipping point with the economic crisis of 2008.

What characterizes neo-liberalism cuts to social services, at-tacks on union power, privatization of public services, deregu-lation that allows the mass accumulation of capital in privatehands is being challenged by Occupy Wall Street and Oc-cupy Together. The Occupy movement (in addition to similarmovements in Europe, North Africa, etc.) is creating an actu-ally existing social movement that unifies the sense of outragepeople feel toward politicians and the economic elite. At itsheart, it is challenging economic and social oppression.

This movement was long awaited. Union density andpower has dropped significantly in recent years. Taxes oncorporations, banks and financial institutions have shrunk

dramatically. Accessibility to education has declined whilecosts and student debt have risen sharply. Unemployment,underemployment and employment in jobs that dont pay aliving wage have grown steadily. Mortgages and credit carddebt meanwhile chain us to ever growing burdens as foreclo-sures, unpayable rent and homelessness every day become areality to more people. From all this we find ourselves in aserious crisis of legitimacy for the current social order, andthis is the basis for the spread and support for the Occupymovement.

Three years of the Obama presidency has crystallized formany, including myself, the dead-end hope of voting to enact

social change. A historical hope in electoralism goes far back

to elements of powerful and inspiring political struggle,including working class political parties, the womens suf-frage movement and the Civil Rights movement. But despitesuch genuine hopes, and the victories gained along the way,electoralism is now in steep decline. Yet as socio-economicconditions continue to deteriorate and dissatisfaction in rep-resentatives grow, the response we are seeing is not cynicismor apathy. It is the beginning of an awakening toward radicalsocial change.

The Occupy movement embodies a rejection of cynicism,electoralism and neo-liberal austerity. It does so by acknowl-edging that a liberal response to appease unrestrained capi-talism andpeoples interest is impossible. Both profits andpeople cannot be pursued in tandem especially given the cri-sis of profitability underway in global capitalism. Electoralliberalism will persist, but a new and increasingly dominantform of political participation is emerginglocalized par-ticipatory democracy, horizontalism, and the encampment-form. These are not only alternatives in terms of socialstructure, but interesting enough they are the means bywhich social structures can be transformed. We are seeingthe fusion of means and ends to a large extent in the en-campment movements.

The activity of taking over public space, holding generalassemblies, setting up camp and building infrastructure forthe needs of the camp is becoming the new and prevalentform of organized opposition. The previously dominantforms of political oppositionthe party-form, the member-shipform, the union-form, cadre-form, voting-form, etc.still play a role in the encampment movement. But its thisnovel form of political and social organization, the encamp-ment, that has come to blossom.

iii. SPaceand univerSality in grouP-forma-

tion

The encampment-form of political activity highlights acentral characteristic in the formation of a groupspace.The distinction between a class-in-itself and class-for-itselfbears considering. A class- or group-for-itself consists of:

1) social agency - the possibility for a given group tochange society and history,

2) self-consciousness some degree of awareness of it-self as a movement for social change and mechanisms forcollective thought, and

3) the prerequisite class-in-itself characteristics com-mon interests, similar analysis of society, and proximity ei-ther physically or digitally.

The industrial working class had emancipatory potentialpartially because those workers had a site of struggle, thefactory. Workers=factories/workplaces, Students=Schools,


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etc. One important characteristic of emancipatory potential isthe existence of a dense site out from which struggle can arise.If people with similar interests or conceptions of society sharethe same space, they become a group-for-itself. The enclosureof the commons and public space, particularly in NYC for po-litical causes, minimizes the coming-together that is necessaryfor group-for-itself formation. Reclaiming the city, taking thesquare, or holding public space allows for the density to spill into.A space for struggle is thus a key determination in the formationof group-for-itself as opposed to a group-in-itself. What the Oc-cupy movement allows for is the opening up of social space inwhich a variety of different and hitherto largely isolated socialstruggles can converge.

The convergence of isolated social struggles signals the great-est hope for this movement and clarifies (if we needed furtherclarification) that the notion of universality in relation to socialstruggle and emancipation has changed as history and society de-veloped. The classic single emancipatory subject (the proletariat)has taken on another shape. It is no longer that a single social sub-

ject will emerge to emancipate itself and with it the general inter-ests of all those in society. Multiple social subjects which in-itself,or themselves, have emancipatory potential can unite in a universalmovement to abolish and/or challenge social oppression (implyingemancipation beyond economic determination). How will this oc-cur? How is this occurring at Occupy Wall Street?

As each social struggle amplifies the voice of the other, achorus takes shape. Housing rights groups, workers, students,unionists, Haitians, police brutality groups, American Indians,environmental groups, etc, etc.. all come and speak in the openspace, and as one speaks we all recite, and thus form a universalchorus for emancipation. The peoples mic can be openly heard;the very openness of the space allows for shades of universalityto emerge. Divisions of class, race, gender and sexual identity(while being respected as autonomous and self-defining move-ments) are brought into a broader and more universal movementfor emancipatory social change. No one single social subject willemancipate us all. We must join in the chorus together. It is ourtask to create a movement where the emancipation of each is acondition for the emancipation of all. Only then will emancipa-tion from all forms of social oppression be realized.

99%by Najaya Royal

Age 14 Brooklyn, NY

What if the sky was yellow and the sun was blue?

What if money did not affect if you

have a home the same time next year?

Impossible, right?

We are the 99% that are not rich

We are the 99% who do have to worry about bills getting

paid each month

But are the 99% with a voice that can be heard all

around the world

Even though we are frowned upon by the 1%Though we are the reason that the 1% are rich

I mean who else lunch money would they steal and be

able to get away with it

We are all against bullies

So its about time we stand up to the biggest bully

of them all

We were born free

So why cant we all live free?

Why cant we all be equal?

It is not a racial thing

It is more like a money thing

But when did green paper decide where and how should

we live

When did green paper become a barrier and seprate

mankind

This movement right here

Is going to change the world for the better

This movement will finally make us a whole


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editorial statement

We elieve we cant have radical action

without radical thought.

Tidal offers theory and strategy as a means of empowering occupiers,whether actual or potential, to envision actions that ultimately trans-

forms existing power structures.

In Tidal, theory means an assumption based on limited informationor knowledge. Strategy means the art of devising or employing plansor stratagems towards a goal. Action means this. This moment; Thisstruggle. many voices. history. and process. collectively, imagine.

We are an ongoing horizontal conversation among those who havespent most of their lives thinking about this moment, and the peoplein the Occupy Movement that are making decisions every day about itsfuture. Aware that ability is a privilege, Tidal endeavors to offer chal-lenging ideas in language thats accessible to the common person. We

hope these writings positively impact the Occupy Movement, propel itforward and clarify its goals.

[working]THESIS ON NON-VIOLENCE:

throw cops at the cops

E D I T O R SNatasha Bhagat SinghAmin HusainBabak KarimiLaura GottesdienerIsham Christie

P H O T O G R A P H y Alex Fradkin

I L L U S T R A T I O NAnthony!Suzahn E.Katie Falkenberg

P R O D U C T I O NJed Brandt

C O P y Michael Levitin

A P P R E C I A T I O N SJesal KapadiaFaridehGregg OsofskyJoshua NelsonThomas Hintze

Published by Occupied Media

OCCUPYTHEORY.ORG

The Ninetyand Nine

byRose Elizaeth Smith

There are ninety and nine that workand die,

In hunger and want and cold,That one may revel in luxury,And be lapped in the silken fold;And ninety and nine in the hovels bare,And one in a palace of riches rare.

From the sweat of their brow

the desert bloomsAnd the forest before them falls;Their labor has builded humble homes,And the cities with lofty halls;And the one owns the cities and houses

and lands,And the ninety and nine have emptyhands.

But the night so dreary and darkand long

At last shall the morning bring;

And over the land the victors songOf the ninety and nine shall ring,And echo afar, from zone to zone:Rejoice, for labor shall have its own.

From the Machinist Monthly Journal,November 1931


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