Photo: Occupy Wall Street Facebook page
As corporatist control over the levers of power--including our political system--consolidates, the level of injustice and oppression increases accordingly. It seems like every day we hear about one dastardly act after another, whether we're talking about
gas pipeline explosions destroying entire neighborhood blocks killing or injuring dozens of people as a direct result of
corruption and malfeasance, chemical companies
poisoning the potable water of 300,000 people mainly due to lax regulation and cronyism,
murderer cops killing people with total impunity, large companies
violating workers' rights, the Wall Street criminal racketeering cartel
plundering trillions of dollars and plunging millions of people into economic
catastrophe and despair, and a thousand other maladies associated the corporate takeover of our institutions.
And then, of course, there is the push for corporate globalization through very harmful so-called free trade agreements, illegal and unconstitutional mass surveillance on behalf of corporate cartels, and the militarization of our local police forces.
This situation, of course, is what you'd expect once democracy has been subverted by endemic influence-peddling corruption. What we are witnessing are the results of a very systematic, well-planned and disciplined neoliberal agenda focused on the dismantling of democracy one brick at a time, in favor of private profiteering.
“The globalization of the exchange of services, capital and patents has led over the past ten years to establish a world dictatorship of finance capital. The small transcontinental oligarchies that hold the financial capital dominate the planet… The lords of financial capital wield over billions of human beings a power of life and death. Through their investment strategies, their stock market speculations, their alliances, they decide day to day who has the right to live on this planet and who is doomed to die.”
-- Archbishop of Tegucigalpa Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga (confidant of Pope Francis)
[The emphasis is mine]
Hence the underfunding of the proper operation of government, including regulatory oversight, privatization of government functions, including prisons, public education, and the continuing pillaging by Wall Street, including the ongoing
looting of pension funds.
One excellent summary about the current state of affairs can be found at ALEC Exposed:
Through ALEC, Global Corporations Are Scheming to Rewrite YOUR Rights and Boost THEIR Revenue
Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights. These so-called "model bills" reach into almost every area of American life and often directly benefit huge corporations.
[The emphasis is mine]
The bottom line is that when it comes to the tiny ruling elite that somehow has been able to utterly control, manipulate, and exploit the great majority of the population (and natural resources) driven by an unquenchable greed, they seem to be acting in a very organized, disciplined, focused, and strategic manner in order to move their agenda forward. And that's the reason their actions "reach into almost every area of American life."
This is something I've been thinking about for many years now... What I've observed is that the tiny ruling elite seems to be acting in concert motivated by a confluence of interests, but when it comes to social justice activists, the movement seems to be highly segmented, fragmented, and diffused, and hence largely ineffective.
And so as the effects of the marriage between corporation and government (fascism) become more apparent, it seems like we on the Left react to one event or injustice (or news cycle) after the other; or we focus on narrow issues that may have immediate impact on our lives or our neighborhoods. And I think that modus operindi by the Left plays right into the hands of the ruling class, which has mastered the art and science of co-option, of divide-and-conquer.
I see this approach as when people try to treat the symptoms of a disease, while failing to address the underlying causes.
And so activists and non-profits across the country tackle all kinds of issues, including the nationwide voter suppression push by ALEC-like groups, stand-your-ground (or license to kill black people at will), reproductive/right-to-choose rights, workers' rights, including abysmally low minimum wage, net neutrality, NSA spying, environmental issues (TAR oil and the like), and social safety net issues such as unemployment benefits and the expansion of medicaid.
And again, in the Orwellian age of total-information-awareness surveillance, this (highly diffused) approach plays right into the hands of the corporate state. You see, most of the small non-profit groups tackling narrow issues are underfunded and thus marginalized, by and large. And the ones that get to a certain level of efficiency and effectiveness are then targeted for co-option and manipulation by the corporate state using a very effective divide-and-conquer strategy, as I discussed in "An Open Letter to The Occupy Wall Street Movement: You Were Right All Along."
There is a vast total-information-awareness surveillance network made up of global corporations and subservient (captured) governments engaging in the systematic infiltration and suppression of social justice activist groups. Their main method of control is the implementation of divide-and-conquer strategies. When it comes to activists, their approach is to apply these strategies to what they have defined as four distinct groups: Radicals, who see the system as corrupt are marginalized and discredited with character assassination techniques. Realists, who can be convinced that real change is not possible. Idealists, who can be convinced (through propaganda) that they have the facts wrong. And Opportunists, who are in it for themselves and therefore can be easily co-opted.
A perfect example of the actual implementation of that approach can be found in a
leaked Stratfor PowerPoint presentation about how to apply the divide-and-conquer strategy against environmental activists focused on the "Oil Sands Market," part of the WikiLeaks "
Global Intelligence Files," made available by the patriotic and heroic efforts of hactivist and political prisoner
Jeremy Hammond.
In "The Third Way And The Center For American Progress: Astroturfing From The Left Field" I argue that the same co-option strategies are being used on well-known "Liberal" groups like The Center For American Progress...
And so, that's why I was pleasantly surprised the other day when I read an article in The San Francisco Chronicle about a Bay Area activist that focuses on restaurant workers' rights: "Saru Jayaraman: Activist at Vangaurd of Restaurant Workers’ Rights"
What struck me about her understanding of the challenges the restaurant workers' rights movement face is that she correctly (in my opinion) points out that because there are so many (50 or 60) different organizations addressing the same issue, their potential effectiveness is diffused:
Lots of people who “are not political at all have become excited (in general) because of food,” she said. “But the challenge is that it is so diffuse that there isn’t one institution or seven institutions that you could say lead the food movement. There’s 50 or 60 – and lots of institution-less people involved.”
But, “Wow, what a potential opportunity for the two of them to come together,” Jayaraman said. “And what a danger if they don’t. Because what people don’t realize is that we have the exact same enemies.”
The top mutual enemy, she says: a corporate-run food industry that doesn’t want a unionized workforce or anybody telling it to limit the amount of sugary drinks it can sell or how it should raise chickens or what pesticides it can spray on crops.
~snip~
“Every book you read by a food luminary – every one – talks about how the problem is corporate control over the food system,” Jayaraman said. “But the solutions are always, ‘Go to the farmers’ market.’ ‘Buy an heirloom tomato.’ ‘Buy organic.’ It’s always very individual and consumptive. It’s not about targeting these corporations and loosening their control over our democracy, which is at the root of everything.”
[The emphasis is mine]
Wow! I'm not a religious person, but I'd say "Amen" to that: The movement should be about "
targeting these corporations and loosening their control over our democracy, which is at the root of everything."
Now, some may ask, "What does it mean to 'target corporations' and 'loosening their control' over our democracy? How do we (the movement) do that?"
Obviously, in this day and age anybody who can answer those questions accurately would have found the way to liberate humanity from the scourge of the international neoliberal (and fascistic) corporate state. But I argue that we need to urgently work together to find the answers to those questions.
We could start by having a clear understanding about the objective of the social justice movement against the corporate state. Here's a good guideline from "Doing Democracy: The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements" by the late Bill Moyer:
To achieve the goal of winning over and involving the citizenry, social movements need to reframe by exposing and proving to the public that the powerholder's actual policies and programs violate the social myths. The best way to inspire the public to be actively involved in creating social change is to show continuously, over time, the gap between the powerholder's actual policies and programs and the culture's values and beliefs. Highlighting this gap is the most critical consciousness raising work and lies at the center of social movement strategy.
[The emphasis is mine]
And how much involvement we need from the citizenry in order for the movement to be successful? As I discussed in "
It Will Spread Like Wildfire: The Tipping Point is Near," according to university professor and researcher Erica Chenoweth, that number is 3.5 percent of the general population:
She finds (through her research) that when an average 3.5 percent of any given population engages in non-violent (civil) resistance on a sustained basis, "no single campaign failed." She also finds that "every single campaign that surpassed that 3.5 percent was a non-violent one." She goes on to say that "In fact, the non-violent campaigns were on average four times larger than the average violent campaign, and they were often much more inclusive and representative in terms of gender, age, race, political party, class, and the urban role distinction. Civil resistance allows people of all different levels of physical ability to participate. This could include the elderly, people with disabilities, women, children, and anyone else who wants to. If you think about it, everyone is born with a natural physical ability to resist non-violently..."
Following, I will share some ideas and suggestions about how we can tackle the most serious challenges the movement faces, from the supra-national corporate state. I offer these ideas and suggestions as a starting point of discussion, hoping to elicit the participation of people of good will interested in breaking free from corporate state domination and oppression.
100 WEEKS OF NONVIOLENT REVOLUTION
SUSTAINED: Why 100 weeks? I'm trying to make a point about the need for direct action against the corporate state on a sustained basis.
Indeed, Mark Lichbach, a professor of government and politics, has written in The Rebel’s Dilemma, that when more than 5 percent of the population engages in sustained, coordinated civil disobedience, few governments can remain in power whether they are a dictatorship or a democracy. The path to reaching this 5 percent begins when people who are already active in resistance build solidarity and draw more people to the movement. As more people see the movement growing and that there is a strategy to win, they will have the confidence to join it. Achieving the 5 percent tipping point with a diverse cross-section of society then becomes well within reach.
[The emphasis is mine]
On this aspect, what I suggest (for further consideration and discussion) is the coordination of protests and direct action one day a week for the next 100 weeks. To be more specific, I'm suggesting that starting on Monday, January 27th, activists across the country organize protest rallies, direct action, or related events. And that we do so for the next 100 Mondays ( or until we liberate the country from corporatist control).
NONVIOLENT AND INCLUSIVE: Here's the really fun part (IMHO)... As I pointed out above, regarding professor Erica Chenoweth's research, "the non-violent campaigns were on average four times larger than the average violent campaigns, and they were often much more inclusive and representative in terms of gender, age, race, political party, class, and the urban role distinction. Civil resistance allows people of all different levels of physical ability to participate. This could include the elderly, people with disabilities, women, children, and anyone else who wants to. If you think about it, everyone is born with a natural physical ability to resist non-violently..."
Let me share this scenario... Last week I went to the San Francisco Financial District to scope out the best place for the direct action rallies, and I found what I think is the perfect place; the area by California and Davis streets. All the criminal TBTF banks are there, including Bank of America, Citibank, Chase, Wells Fargo.
The location is about a block from the Embarcadero BART station. There are also nearby parks, coffee houses, restroom facilities, and eateries.
Okay, so imagine this... Let's say that we all agree on meeting at that location starting on Monday, January 27th, and every Monday after that for the next 100 weeks. And let's say that we agree on holding protest rallies in front of Bank of America (and other banks in the area) at these intervals: 10:00 A.M., 12:00 Noon, 2:00 P.M., and 5:00 P.M.
Here's what I envision... Imagine all kinds of different groups meeting at nearby coffee houses or the beautiful parks within a few blocks. They could be people involved in political activities from the Democratic party (for example), or it could be local activists against gentrification and rising rents and evictions caused by the influx of high-tech workers, or it could be groups focused on restaurant workers' rights, or increasing the minimum wage, or homeless advocates, artists, musicians, small business people, activists focused on local sustainability issues (food, housing).
You see, the issue is not that those causes are not important; the issue is that we need to find (all of us) ways to unite in solidarity to gain the sufficient strength and organization we would need to take down the corporate state (in favor of democracy, the Constitution, and the rule of law)... Just to clarify, when I refer to "taking down the corporate state," I'm talking about ending an illegal and fraudulent situation wherein supranational corporatist cartels have taken over the levers of power, including our political institutions.
What I envision is that different affinity groups would continue doing their thing every day of the week, as we all do, and then we'll take one special day for all of us to come together, share notes, form coalitions, build unity and solidarity.
Of course, we could do this other days. For example, we could do the weekly rallies, and maybe once a month during a weekend.
People in other cities could come up with their own ideas. For example, an activist from Portland, Oregon, Catherine Valenzuela is collaborating with me on the 100 Week project. I'd love to connect with people in New York, Texas, Florida, Colorado, Washington, D.C., and other cities...
There is a group doing something similar, starting on April 4th: Wave of Action. I suggest that those interested in these ideas visit their website.
Now, keep something in mind... I haven't vetted Wave of Action, so I urge people to use their own judgement when evaluating different groups. So far, I like what I've seen, but make your own decision when it comes to signing up to website using your email address, and things like that.
NON-HIERARCHICAL: This is very important, especially in this Orwellian age of total-information-awareness surveillance. You see, you have to realize that there are perhaps tens of thousands (or who knows how many) treasonous paid hacks spying on the good people of this country, as I discussed in "Report: U.S. Gov. And Corporate Security Companies Collude to Bring Down Social Justice Groups," and "Stratfor Leaked Documents: Divide-And-Conquer Strategies Against Activists."
I argue that in this day and age, when it comes to organized groups, there is a good possibility that they have been infiltrated, manipulated, co-opted, or monitored by the treasonous thugs of the vast corporate spy networks.
They spy on people and organizations, build very detailed dossiers and psychological profiles and then focus on neutralizing those individuals and organizations they identify as effective.
To get an idea about how they do that, take a look at this leaked PowerPoint presentation, courtesy of WikiLeaks and the great work by hactivist and political prisoner Jeremy Hammond.
Now, how do we accomplish being able to coordinate at a very strategic level, while at the same time embracing the non-hierarchical organizational approach?
Here's my argument: Activists who are already members of organizations and comfortable with what they are already doing should continue to do so, of course. But I argue that once different groups come together in the public square and compare notes, that there will be a sort of cross-pollination effect, and that that will contribute to help bring about the movement unity and solidarity we need to garner in order to be able to take on the depredations of the corporate state.
And if we do this week after week for the foreseeable future, the movement will grow strong.
Why do we need to do all this? Well, we need to define all the reasons (together), but in the meantime, I think this message resonates:
Here I tried to provide as much background information as possible regarding what I believe is the true nature of the system. I also tried to provide a template (as it were) for the sort of mass social justice movement we would need to take on the depravities of the corporate state. Recently, in "
The Urgency of a Middle Class Revolt," I presented an argument as to why I believe it is urgent we (all people of good will) act now.
But of course, I'm just one person sharing ideas. I'm just hoping to encourage others to think about these things and come up with their own ideas, and share those ideas, as we all work together to face the gravest challenge of our time: The increasingly fascistic supra-national corporate state.
We live in the world that your propaganda made, but when you think you are strong, you are weak. Your lies tell us the truth we will use against you. Your secrecy shows us where we will strike. Your weapons reveal your fear for all to see. From Cairo to Quito a new order is forming. The power of people armed with the truth.
-- Julian Assange / Calle 13 multi-viral
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning.
They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must pay for all they get. If we ever get free from all the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal...
- Frederick Douglass
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