OscailtBuild on the Anarchist and Revolutionary Potentialities of the Occupy Wall Street Movement.FROM OCCUPATION TO EXPROPRIATION!2011-10-13T18:20:09+08:00Anarkismoanarkismoeditors@lists.riseup.nethttp://www.anarkismo.net/atomfullposts?story_id=20727http://www.anarkismo.net/graphics/feedlogo.gif"..all classes..."http://www.anarkismo.net/article/20727#comment137062011-10-13T18:20:09+08:00Red and Black Action"...4. We should defend the movement's aim to be as broad and as deep as possibl..."...4. We should defend the movement's aim to be as broad and as deep as possible, to reach out to individuals of all classes, while we concentrate on drawing in workers and poor people. ..."<br />
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So, should we "reach out" to capitalists and state managers ? believerhttp://www.anarkismo.net/article/20727#comment137172011-10-14T23:58:19+08:00igzi think we should be wary of 'propagandization'. there is enough fuel, enough fo...i think we should be wary of 'propagandization'. there is enough fuel, enough fodder of truth, of real problems, most of which people are aware of but may just need to be told or made aware that others share the same beliefs. there is no need to fabricate clever idea when we already have enough material to work with. jus' sayin.Issue of multi class participationhttp://www.anarkismo.net/article/20727#comment137182011-10-15T03:20:14+08:00C. AlexanderOn the issue of muti-classes participation in the Occupy Together movements, wha...On the issue of muti-classes participation in the Occupy Together movements, what we are looking at and speaking to is that there are different layers of peoples involved already and in some instance a high percentage of people (namely youth) who are coming from decidedly middle-class backgrounds. They have access, skill sets, and degrees of privilege that many more proletarianized peoples don't. The participation of these people, just like in the Arab and North African rebellions as well as the upsurges in Madison, Wisconsin, Britain, Spain and Greece, should be welcomed and encouraged. We should encourage these participants to share their knowledge and to act in full equality with other participants. Hierarchy and managerial behavior that often accompanies middle class conditioning has to be challenged and broken down. I think even with a casual reading of our statement most people would not conclude we are advocating the ruling classes or state managers to join in (unless in obvious and conscious acts of class suicide). the fact that we spent time discussing working class and unionized workers at length points to our class struggle orientation. So , i think the point raised is a tad disingenuous and read in bad faith.<br />
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In any case, what we argue is that these movements have to be broadened out and "democratized"along specific participatory, from below, and experimental lines. Simultaneously we, as class struggle and social revolutionary anarchist revolutionaries, have to develop a pole of praxis to raise as an alternate politic within these movements. So its two fold, push for broad debate and practice and also propose our own set of approaches for consideration and evaluation.Misreading?http://www.anarkismo.net/article/20727#comment137192011-10-15T04:44:02+08:00Red and Black ActionPerhaps it is a misreading, but if so, its not from "bad faith" but from the way...Perhaps it is a misreading, but if so, its not from "bad faith" but from the way you formulate the point ... You no doubt mean the middle class plus working class, but that is not "all classes"... Anyway, I don't want to harp on a single, and I do certainly feel the overall statement and orientation is very good and should get a decent hearing. <br />
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Salud!class is not identityhttp://www.anarkismo.net/article/20727#comment137202011-10-15T05:26:59+08:00José Antonio Gutiérrez D.Probably in response to the lack of class politics in most anarchist circles sin...Probably in response to the lack of class politics in most anarchist circles since the '40s from the '80s an ultra-dogmatic approach to class struggle was adopted according to which only "workers" can advocate revolution -which in my opinion confuses "identity politics" with "class politics", reducing class as a mere identity. But the relationship of the classes and revolutionary struggle is more subtle than that, so I want to endorse the observations of May 1st Alliance. While anarchism is a working class doctrine, that speaks mainly to the working class (because it is the working class the sole class which as-a-class have the ability to overthrow capitalism), it should not speak "exclusively" to the working class. There are dissatisfied elements in the middle class and even on the borugeoisie which should be attracted not by downplaying our class politics: We want to attract them actually to accept a working class and libertarian revolution! We should attract them by searching a language which resonates with them, by showing how our class politics are ultimately humanistic in the sense that will benefit the bulk of humanity. <br />
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Sure, the vast majority of the ruling classes will not be interested. But some dissatisfied, rebellious or sensitive elements could be of enormous importance if attracted because they have access to knowledge that most of us don't have. To put it simple: a working-class-only approach would have turned its back to Bakunin, Kropotkin and Malatesta, to name but a few.<br />
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Also, the issue of the middle classes (professionals, liberal porfessions) can be dismissed only at our own peril, as shown by experiences such as the Allende government in Chile, where the inability to win over the middle classes was fatal (sure, the appraoch was win them by downplaying our socialism, but this only encouraged the right wing which became the pole of attraction for them). When there is a situation like these mass and community mobilisations, whether Occupy X or the Arab Spring, there is a situation that becomes magnetic to dissatisfied elements of all classes, we should pay particular attention to winning every possible sector over. So agitate your class politics, don't downplay them so you can become an attractive, a strong, assertive, even seductive pole within the movement; but find an inclusive language that resonates with them as well.<br />
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I understand this is a very broad and complex issue, so take this just as a humble contribution.First general position on the joint statementhttp://www.anarkismo.net/article/20727#comment137362011-10-25T12:44:08+08:00Jan MakandalOn the joint statement
The character of this OWS is simply a mobilization in a p...On the joint statement<br />
The character of this OWS is simply a mobilization in a process of becoming a movement but heavily dominated by populism. If in the 1900’s the struggle against opportunism was an indispensable element for the victory of a proletarian alternative, nowadays, in addition to opportunism, it is populism.<br />
What is in general populism?<br />
1. It is a theoretical, political and ideological approach where the notion of people is articulated outside the notion of classes. In this case, when we talk of people, we see the mass of working people in a way that no differences are made, even when one class or fraction is used as a leaning instrument among them, the petit bourgeoisie/middle class in most instances. [Some commonly populist concepts used: dispossessed, disenfranchised, oppressed, 99%, etc…]<br />
2. In the period of imperialism and capitalism, not only are people outside the notion of class, but as well in an amalgam in which no class differences are explained and the struggle for class interests is eclipsed. In reality and to be more precise, this approach is looking at the non-working-class dominated classes, which are more quantitative, poorer than the working class. This approach is not innocent. It takes roots in the class that practices populism. In an imperialist country, it could be any fraction or the bourgeoisie or sector or fraction of the petit bourgeoisie. This approach allows the recuperation of mass movements, in which sectors or fractions of the masses are used as crutches for a systematic advancement of the projects of the dominant classes or the petit bourgeoisie against the general interests of the popular masses, especially the working class. In general, this demarche contributes greatly to hide class struggle in the interest of the dominant classes.<br />
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We could recognize two types of populism historically, left populism and right populism and the capacity of left populism to quickly make a sharp turn to the right; Aristide in Haiti, Peron in Argentina, ANC/Mandela in South Africa, the Sandinista in Nicaragua, just to cite a few. It is important to indicate that the development of populism is connected as well with the ossification of proletarian theory, a low level of proletarian struggle and a dominance of dogmatism.<br />
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The US social formation is in a deep crisis. It is not a cyclical crisis but a core structural crisis and so far alternatives offered have been short lived and have proven that capital, and all the forms of capital accumulation and concentration, are becoming more problematic to manage by the capitalist class.<br />
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The basic nature of the life of capital is for its valorization and accumulation. We must point out that the structural crisis of capital for its accumulation and valorization is creating two effects 1] an increasing acuteness of inter capitalist struggle and the leaning of these fractions of the capitalist class on the masses, especially the petit bourgeoisie, to protect and benefit their forms of concentration of capital for its reproduction, valorization and accumulation. 2] Popular resistance, with all the contradictions, class interests, class objectives and class alternatives of all the classes comprising the popular movement and the need for the working class potentially as the grave digger of capital and the capitalist class to play its historical role.<br />
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With all it limitations, I still argue that the OWS mobilizations are a reflection of the crisis but as well the form it takes, a reflection of the limitation of authentic progressive and revolutionary forces, especially proletarian revolutionary forces. It is also a form of resistance. Progressive and revolutionary forces need to define a form of praxis correspondent to this moment in order to construct a genuine autonomous alternative to capital and the capitalist class. In another word, our forces need to really appropriate the contradictions in the process of development of popular resistance so we don’t deviate to adventurism, ultra-leftist and tailgating.