SlingshotToTheJuggernaut: April 2012

Folks, it's time for our first Guest Blogger! My new friend Charles Young was a star of the panel at the Revolutionary Recovery meeting we held at Left Forum 2012 this year. He made these amazing connections between radical politics, anarchism and the robust vibrant democratic practices of recovery, AA and sobriety. One of my fave quotes? A rough paraphrase is: "People feel disempowered and turn to drink and drugs not just for psychological reasons. People feel disempowered because they lack power."

Now, he emails me this amazing piece about the Democrats trying to skim energy off Occupy. How gross! What hypocrisy. And what a fine piece of writing this is - upfront, honest reporting of some oily, disempowering practices.

Originally this was published at Charles' blog, Thiscantbehappening.net.

Yes, The 99% Spring Is A Fraud

Created 04/13/2012 - 11:44

Charles M. Young

With hindsight gained by googling “MoveOn” and “co-opt” after the fact, I can’t claim that nobody tried to warn me. Many websites with left and even liberal politics had said in so many words, “Be wary of this organization called The 99% Spring. It is a Trojan horse for the Democrats.” I just didn’t read that anywhere in a timely fashion. I’ve had a lot of stuff on my plate lately. That’s my excuse. And in my ignorance, I responded to some spam about “nonviolent direct action training” organized by MoveOn and got invited to this 99% Spring thing on April 10 at the Goddard Riverside Community Center in Manhattan. Somebody even called me all the way from San Francisco to make sure I was a sincere seeker on the left and would be attending, along with 120,000 others in training sessions around the country.

Which I did. The meeting was a few blocks from where I live. The spam said it was “inspired by Occupy Wall Street.” I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I was vaguely hoping that whatever The 99% Spring was, it would start a chapter of Occupy Wall Street on the Upper West Side, conveniently near my abode, and agitate for the Democrats and MoveOn to move left.

The first clue that my evening might go otherwise was the sign-up table, where there were a bunch of Obama buttons for sale and one sign-up sheet for the oddly named Community Free Democrats (are they free of community?), which is the local Democratic clubhouse. That killed the “inspired by Occupy Wall Street” vibe right there. No piles of literature from a zillion different groups, as there had been in Zuccotti Park. No animated arguments among Marxists, anarchists, progressives, punks, engaged Buddhists, anti-war libertarians and what have you. Just Obama buttons, which didn’t appear to be selling.

This is what co-optation looks like

Inside the hall, it looked like an alumni reunion for the 1966 Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade. Almost all the 150 or so people were 55-80 years old. The ones I talked to expressed curiosity about Occupy Wall Street and enthusiasm about “nonviolent direct action” but didn’t have the knees or the ears for full participation in OWS activities in the financial district.

A large man with long wavy hair combed back started the presentation with a stirring call for...the meeting to be off the record. He didn’t want any stories that would violate anyone’s privacy, and if there were any lurking journalists, they weren’t allowed to use any names and they must see him afterwards for further instruction on the ground rules. This struck an even more dysphoric note with the crowd than the Obama buttons.

WTF Thought #1: This was a public event ostensibly to convince members of the public to engage in behavior that challenged the legitimacy of government authority in public and might cause angry police to beat the public crap out of them. Why would anyone risk that without trying to get publicity for their cause? Nonviolent direct action that no one knows about is like jerking off. It might make you feel better, but you’re not changing the world.

WTF Thought #2: Transparency is the only protection that nonviolent people have against police spies and provocateurs and other infiltrators. Occupy Wall Street does a pretty good job with transparency. An organization claiming to be inspired by OWS but shunning transparency is deeply suspicious.

WTF Thought #3: Washington press corp rules for a meeting on nonviolent direct action?

WTF Thought #4: I actually wasn’t there with the idea of writing about it, but neither did I agree to anything, so there was no agreement.

WTF Thought #5: The name of the large man with the wavy hair was Marc Landis.

Landis is a District Leader for the Democrats, who were paying for use of the meeting room. He is running for City Council. According to his law firm’s website his areas of experience are: “Real Estate, Banking & Finance, Corporate & Business Law, Securities & Private Placement, Fund Formation & Investment Management Group...” His Facebook page, which is geared for his City Council campaign, makes it sound like his specialty is pro bono community work. I don’t know. He might be a nice guy, but it doesn’t take a lot of intuition to wonder if he’s really been finding a lot of inspiration in Occupy Wall Street. He’s a corporate lawyer. I can think of no reason for him to demand that the meeting be off the record other than he and his party don’t want to be publicly associated with anything radical, even it’s a pseudo-radical front group meant to steer people away from the truly radical Occupy Wall Street and into pointless activities that don’t embarrass Obama.

Next they showed a video that invited us “to tell our story” so that The 99% Spring could post us online along with hundreds of other people who had been foreclosed, bankrupted, lost their medical insurance or whatever. It appeared they all wanted to raise taxes, so that the rich would “pay their fair share.”

It was sanctimonious. It was supplicating before power. The audience looked like it wanted to puke.

Next some guy whose name I didn’t catch gave an astonishingly simple-minded lecture on the history of American radicalism since the populists. “This might be okay for Iowa, but not the Upper West Side,” said a woman near me.

That’s an insult to Iowa, but let me explain about the Upper West Side. It used to be a liberal-to-radical neighborhood that was ferocious in its support for civil rights and the anti-war movement. Its nickname was the Upper Left Side, and people here could read three biographies of Leon Trotsky before breakfast. Disastrously, it has become the most desirable living space in Manhattan, and Wall Street/corporate/real estate weenies have been taking over. But a significant radical remnant remains, thanks to rent control laws that Democrats seem to understand are necessary to preserve their voters.

“And then in the 50s, we had the civil right movement...” the guy droned.

“ Uh, I think we should conclude the lecture and break up into groups to discuss our nonviolent direct action training,” said Landis. “We seem to be losing people.” A lot of them, too.

So the hundred remaining Upper Left Siders split into four groups for discussion. My group happened to be led by Landis, who directed the 35 of us to sit in a circle and identify ourselves with an explanation of why we were there. I was about #15 in the circle and the people who preceded me all appeared to have no experience with Occupy Wall Street and wanted to get involved. When it was my turn I said that Zuccotti Park was the most entertaining place to be in Manhattan for a couple months last fall and I hoped it would revive. And I said that the other thing I liked was that it was to the left of the Democratic Party and was pushing it from outside. There had been some mention of “the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act during the 90s” and I pointed out that it was Bill Clinton, a Democrat, who deregulated Wall Street.

“Excuse me,” said Landis. “We have a limited amount of time and a lot to discuss. We need to let everyone speak.”

I’ve thought about that a lot. I don’t believe I spoke for more than a minute, but I habitually obey the rules in a group, so I shut up. In retrospect, I was censored. I should have demanded a discussion of the true purpose of The 99% Spring and why Obama’s Department of Homeland Security orchestrated the violent destruction of hundreds of nonviolent Occupy camps around the country last fall.

As it was, we finished going around the circle. Everyone was a teacher or writer or connected with the labor movement. Wisconsin came up a few times. Landis asked what kind of a world we wanted to see. Someone said, “Socialism” and Landis said the topic for discussion was now how to plan for a “hypothetical direct action.” Every time somebody brought up something that was actually happening, Landis insisted that our agenda was set and we were only discussing hypothetical situations. So we talked about hypothetically withdrawing money from a hypothetical evil bank, or hypothetically stopping the hypothetical fracking in the Catskills that is going to poison New York City’s hypothetical drinking water.

“What about May 1?” said a retired professor.

“What about it?” said Landis.

“I heard that Occupy Wall Street was calling for a general strike. They’re planning actions all around midtown and they’re saying that nobody should go to work that day.”

“I don’t know anything about that,” said Landis. “We’re talking about hypothetical situations here.”

And so it went from 6:30 to 9:30 last Tuesday night. Over half the crowd left early. Most of those who stayed appeared to be angry and mystified that they had received no training whatever in nonviolent direct action. I doubt that the Democrats or MoveOn succeeded in co-opting anyone, and I predict that they will be inventing more dreary front groups as the election year grinds onward. "Front groups, not issues!" should be Obama's rallying cry.

“I’m taking the subway to Wall Street,” said a guy in his 20s (probably the only guy in his 20s) as he walked out the door. “That’s where the action is. People are sleeping on the sidewalk there. Apparently the police can’t arrest you if you take up less than half the sidewalk. Go to Maydaynyc.org [1] if you want to find out about the general strike.”

Source URL: http://thiscantbehappening.net/node/1126

Links:
[1] http://www.maydaynyc.org

I have been working hard on efforts to get the Slingshot to the Juggernaut book release party and tour up off the ground today. If I haven't already emailed and facebooked you about this, please do check out the first Book Event - April 21, in Brooklyn. I will be speaking about "Zen, Discovery, and Revolution" in regard to the journeys and investigations done in the book.

Or, if you are out of NYC, I will come to you. I am doing an 80 city tour, in 90 days. More info on that here.

What I have not yet announced is that I am also producing my play, "White Horse/Bronze Star" based on the life and death of heroic whistle-blower, Dr. David M. Graham. The back story on Graham is that he met two of the 9/11 "terrorists" ten months before 9/11, he warned his local FBI in multiple meetings, and then was shocked to see familiar faces blamed for 9/11. He went to the 9/11 Commission, and the Joint Inquiry, but couldn't seem to ever get the time of day. What's worse the FBI threatened him, a couple times, and really went apeshit when Graham decided to write a book. Graham even secrety video-taped a conversation he had with the terrorist handler MJ Khan.

This David Graham was a real David, like in the Bible, he took on a huge Goliath of a CIA/US Military cover-up. He kept on asking the hard questions and wouldn't give up. He was poisoned mysteriously in 2006, and he died in 2007. I went to Shreveport, LA, in 2008 and started getting this story. I have been working on the play for the past couple years. With director Yana Lawndowne, we are going to produce the first staging May 7-11 at the Old St. Marks Lutheran Church, in Bushwick, Brooklyn. It's a huge space, a former church being converted to an arts space.

Graham won the Bronze Star when he volunteered to go to Vietnam. His alertness saved lives when he foiled an attack on a local US airbase. I finished this play on Easter, and the experience has once again resurrected his life into mine. The power of love is stronger than death. When you love the truth, you turn on the God part of your self.

Here's where YOU come in.

My director Yana Lawndowne and I are casting the play right now. If you would like to audition, send your info. A link to a video of you would be great. Headshots are nice. The script and the list of "dramatis personae" required is here. my email is sealove [AT] sanderhicks.com

Above, that's Graham wearing his Bronze Star. Below, a picture I should have put in my book, but overlooked it. It's a relevant picture, me standing outside the apartment where the same "terrorists" Graham met lived with an FBI informant, in San Diego, one month before they came to Louisiana, and upturned Graham's life.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Friday, April 13, 2012

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Book, Tour, & Casting the New Play!