Even as the last of the 1,252 people arrested in front of the White House in opposition to the tar sands pipeline were being handcuffed and processed, another group planning to make trouble in the capital decided to bide its time. Citizens for Legitimate Government, founded after the 2000 election to oppose the influence of corporations and militarism in politics, had been planning since the spring to conduct Seize DC, a “guerilla” campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience. It was aiming for September 10th, the day before the anniversary of 9/11. On August 30th, though, they announced that the action would be postponed until after the new year.
CLG had been counting on its 75,000-strong email newsletter list and a handful of organizers to produce a flood of eager guerillas. By late August, however, it was evident that those weren’t enough. “We sent out a notice asking people to get more involved, to help organize rides,” explains Michael Rectenwald, the group’s founder and “chief editorialist.” “We received a couple handfuls of responses, but nothing like what we needed to make this thing fly.” For now.
Two weeks before the postponement came out, I met with Rectenwald in Washington Square Park, near where he teaches 19th-century literary culture at New York University. He had on shorts and white iPod earbuds, and bore a passing resemblance to a younger Jack Nicholson. By then, he had come to see Seize DC as one in a series of actions being planned for the fall, an opening salvo that would escalate even more with the occupation slated to begin on October 6th in DC’s Freedom Plaza, also against corporatism and militarism. “We’re trying to build momentum,” he said then. “If this protest gets some visibility, maybe the next will be even bigger.”
Visibility, it seems, is what CLG does best. The group made a name for itself in the early months of the Bush administration by protesting at the president’s appearances around the country. This helped make Rectenwald a regular on cable TV talk shows over the past decade. But his group’s most ambitious stunt was another aborted one: an attempt to fly a plane over the 2001 Super Bowl in Tampa with a banner saying “Bush Stole the Election.” The plane was diverted away before it could accomplish its mission.
Visibility would be helpful for the American Autumn now in gestation. The October 6th movement has yet become a subject of widespread attention nationally, despite the several thousand people already committed to join, the almost $20,000 dollars raised, and the hostile shout-out from Glenn Beck (whose latest impassioned conversion is to nonviolence). That hasn’t stopped its planners from doing the extensive on-the-ground organizing that it takes to make something like this happen—the kind of things CLG hadn’t been able to marshal for Seize DC. (“We’re not really organizational people,” Rectenwald told me, actually. “We’re more like propagandists.”) The October2011.org website already features a ride board, a crop of musicians slated to perform, backup housing options, and a busy discussion forum in preparation for the nightly assemblies they plan to hold in the plaza. Offline, the planners are arranging for a stage, port-a-potties, and other such inglorious logistics of outdoor politics.
This October in DC will be even busier thanks to phase two of the Tar Sands Action, which, according to the latest missive from organizer Bill McKibben, will start up again on October 7th or 8th. McKibben has apparently told the October 6th team that his next move will be “synergistic” with their intentions. Citizens for Legitimate Government also continues to endorse the October 6th action.
The next theater of the American Autumn, however, will be the September 17th occupation of Wall Street that Adbusters called for earlier in the summer. The General Assembly meetings in New York’s Tompkins Square Park that are ostensibly charged with planning it have tended to be mired in more process than yield, as they try to reinvent the wheels of democracy. But that hasn’t stopped more than 6,000 people from signing on to the Facebook page, or the hacker group Anonymous from announcing its support, or the group US Day of Rage from posting its own “Official Occupation and Tactical Plan.” The Department of Homeland Security has even issued a warning about Anonymous, its designs for Wall Street, and the danger that it might “solicit ideologically dissatisfied, sympathetic employees” to the cause. According to notices on an informal email list, nine people were arrested on September 1st while occupying a New York City sidewalk as a test run.
It may take a week longer to get going, and then another three weeks before it reaches Washington, but the American Autumn is apparently still on.
NOPE!
Sorry..but this entire “Idea” is a fallacy. A Lie. A Form of DENIAL and Rationalizing and…”PRETENDING” to be “Legitimate Protest”.
Nope!
Again….sorry..”But No! It Is Not!”
For from Censorship now..overt and open yet “Pretending” to be “Dialogue” in the form of “Social Networks” that in fact have..REMOVED..ALL..”Voices” not “Signed Up” and allowing them..the Corporate Allies of the Federal Police and Surveillance State..to “participate” (News papers and online ‘Magazines’ of every description now..”Only Allowing” facebook members to..”Participate”..)
To the Openly Corrupt “Ideals” of the Cubicle Left now..sadly..”Leading” the Right in LOSS of Intellectual Integrity..
Hey..I could go on and on but there’s the rub? WHY BOTHER? No One Cares.
Its all..FAKE.
Not Real.
FAKE!
Another in fact rare yet..PERFECT..Truth is the simple reality of the Financial Vacuum Ideology that seems to permeate the “Ideology” of the “Left” (as well as Tea Party Right Ironically).
To literally..DENY that it is YOU Who is the Financial Backer..the Co-Producer..the Enabler..of Literally..not Figuratively..but..LITERALLY..EVERYTHING from Torture to bailouts to every single Bullet..Roving Wiretap..Illegal Search..Watch List..Fusion Center..et al ad infinitum ad nauseam..YOU are paying for it…ALL.
And yet what is the “Message” we are seeing?
“We have gotta march and protest..whine..whimper..snivel..”
Instead of..”We Need To Engage In TAX STRIKE and Corporate Boycott of the Federal Government and their Corporate Allies and Masters..NOW!”
No! And therein lay the TRUTH of the matter:
You people are in fact..Cowards and Lazy IRRESPONSIBLE Self Deceiving Sufferers of a MASS DENIAL EPIDEMIC.
Irresponsible to the point of literally..DENYING your actual 100% Financial Complicity in ALL of it.
Pretending that the Government wil..”Listen” or even Care At All if as you do literally..”Everything But” IMPOSE ECONOMIC SANCTIONS on them and their Allies..oops..sorry..”Corporate Partners”.
They Do Not Care aboiut ANYTHING Other than..Money.
And your continued Payment? is Tantamount to..APPROVAL.
Failure to realize and act upon that FACT..is Failure to be..A REAL Protest Movement.
Not Until you Attack the Revenue Streams..will you be “Real”.
“Let Them March All They want, As Long As They Continue Paying Their Taxes.”–Alexander Haig
This “Movement” is Fake. It is the Result of the “Weak Tie Associations” created by “Facebook” and “Twitter” and as such is in fact..in reality..nothing more than a New Form OF Control.
You will have NO Impact on their Decision making. None!
Not until you attack the MONEY.
And in fact..I offer you a “Narrative” for a REAL Social Protest Movement:
“Put Your Money Where Your Mouths Are Or Shut Up!”
Or Perhaps just:
“Money Talks! Bullshit Walks!”
Now Remove this comment as I know you will..realistic voices are not welcome..once again..your “Movement” is no better than some Republican “Voter Fraud Legislation” aimed at in fact reducing the number of “Voices”. The Censorship you engage in..really tells the whole story.
Thank you for your strange but actually somewhat poetic comment. I’m not sure that you’re so far off from these protesters-to-be. Isn’t shutting down Wall Street a way of going after the money that runs the system? And, from sitting in on the planning meetings of these groups, I don’t think anyone is “Pretending that the Government wil..’Listen’ or even Care At All”—rather, both S17 and O6 seem determined to undermine the legitimacy of the ruling institutions and build new ones in their place.
Tax resistance and boycotts are a very good idea, though of course they require a lot of organizing, especially in a world where so much of people’s basic needs comes from the companies that would need to be targeted. Many also find blanket tax resistance inadequate because they do believe in paying taxes for the kinds of social services that support the needy in our society and provide for necessary infrastructure.
Since mass mobilizations like this are very risky, and are vulnerable to being shut down in any number of ways, though, you’re right that these movements would do well to prepare for more decentralized campaigns—like boycotts and tax resistance.
I have thought about how to “fix” the problems in this country and the rest of the world for 25 years or so and believe Education is a must. We are controlled by the money sys (or the lack of real money). I don’t care who you are if I control YOUR money, then I control you and yours. Once people understand (educated) just how bad we are getting bent over by The Federal Reserve, world Bank, IMF and ect. things would start to change.
Speaking of “tax” if we understood “the money sys (or the lack of real money)” then we would know that by “Law” not one red cent any one has payed to the IRS can stay in this Country and we would know why it has to be this way (before you get a loan the money did not exist, you created it by doing so, it is the job of the IRS to take it back out of the sys. to control inflation, along with you). So to stop paying the IRS would only make the so called money worth-less (pun intended).
My point is if you attended “the public fool sys” (no spelling mistake there) then the Government has dictated the who, what, when and why to you by way of the NTA and ect.. If you were home schooled the people who wrote the books you used (and probably your teacher(s)) were properly propagandized by the same fool sys. I would go so far as to say, because of no examples, “there is not a person alive today that truly knows what a “FREE-MAN” is or knows how one would live his life”!
One of the hardest things to do is to “unlearn” what one has used and relied on all of there life to reason with. You get up in the morning your parents tells you “it” is true you go to school your teachers tell you “it” is true you talk with your friends they tell you “it” is true your boss tells you “it” is true you set down and get your daily fix of “seeing is believing” and it says the same thing to you but the fact is… IT AIN’T TRUE. How can any one make the right choice if what they are using to reason something out with is false? I call it “trying to schruck the “LAW-BOTOME”” that has been bestowed on all of us.
Then if you/me fail see “we are what we ate”. At any given time their are over 5,000 different chem. reactions taking place in our body’s and that the brain needs certain amino acids, different types of fats &C. to carry out this and come up with the right scenario for proper function and reason… In other words our so called “food”, is not up to snuff and letting us think properly.
I guess I have said all of that to say this. “If all of us had a clue of what is in reality, it would be over with by morning” and “the public fool sys is there to produce products to work for Corporations, not to know wtf is going on around them.
The book I keep talking about is “The Complex” by author and investigative reporter Nick Turse. Anyone interested in learning the real scope and influence of our mil/ind complex need look no further for a thorough review of our predicament. In 2008 almost 1/2 of our total exports were military related items,,,,,(our total exports were 1.41 trillion, and mil related items were 696 billion.) These mil related producers and suppliers employ workers in every state, and they are making substantial profits by making all the stuff needed to continue our occupations. To enable our soldiers to occupy Afghanistan our federal government pays huge amounts of money to truck in supplies, and in turn, these truckers pay enormous sums to buy protection, and this money goes to our enemies so they can buy more weapons to use against us. It is just one big foolish circle,, war for the sake of profits that are made for a few, at the expense of the brave and naive troops who are the macho actors on the ground. Add to this irrational mix the drones who are operated over Afghanistan from chairs in Nevada, that drop large very nasty bombs on unsuspecting and oftentimes, very innocent civilians,, and there you have it; unnecessary and illogical occupations for the sake of profits for a few, at the expense of our soldiers and taxpayers. This is the case, these are the facts, it just does not get any more simple than this. Now, add to this, the reality of more than 90% of the world’s heroin supply coming out of Afghanistan, add to this the fact that our troops are ordered not to interfere at all with some selected heroin manufacturers, add to this the fact that tankers full of the precursor chemicals needed for the production of heroin are still rolling quite freely into Afghanistan, and then you get a little more of a complete picture of the charade that is going on in Afghanistan. There are massive profits in making war, at the expense of the taxpayer, and there are massive profits from heroin, at the expense of all of us, and the profits go to the various “intelligence” communities who control the flow, and who launder the money. Do you think I am making all of this up ? Read Alfred McCoy’s “The Politics of Heroin” and welcome yourself into the 21st century of reality based awareness. I’ll be in D.C. on October 6th just to be a part of the people who know our federal government has been out of touch , and out of the control of the good and decent Americans who make up America “the Country”. Our federal government, which is our “nation state” has been under the tight control of our military/industrial complex for a long while now, and as absurd as it may sound to many of us, our foreign policies are driven by plans and policies designed to maximize profits for that “complex” , and not designed to promote intelligent and peaceful solutions to the injustices of this world. Our federal government promotes chaos and disorder to guarantee the demands for the “complex” which profits everyday from those illogical and unnecessary occupations. Just like the fact that in every county courthouse in America we know that a drunk driver who can afford the most expensive DUI attorney will never be convicted, and we turn away from that fact, even though we know it indicates how corrupt our local system is . In the same way, most of us turn away from the fact that our federal government is also so very corrupt and controlled by the highest corporate bidder. The illusions that these masters of manipulation like to generate is that it is the democrats against the republicans, the liberals against the conservatives, when in fact this is not the case at all. The real struggle as I see it now, is for the truth to be able to be revealed about all these shenanigans, and for the kind and decent people who make up America, the country,,, to regain control from the American central/federal government, that answers to no real Americans,,,; it is America the “nation state” that only replies and reports to her masters. Or perhaps I am just totally wrong, and the world just loves a crook and a liar,, and that is just the way it is, and I’d better just shut up and fall back in line and keep my mouth shut,, just like most of the folks who are trying to pass themselves off as real journalists in 2011 . Where’s my coffee and my cigarettes ? No wonder I still smoke.