The Occupy movement is busy. Far from being dormant for the winter, occupiers are finding themselves with all sorts of new actions, challenges and plans. Though most of the 24-hour encampments have ended, the movement is beginning to focus much more on actions directed toward concrete demands. Last night I attended Occupy Wall Street’s Spokes Council—now finally active after weeks of turmoil—and caught the above video of documentarian Michael Moore’s unplanned speech. In it, he reminded the 100 or so people present that the fight ahead is a long one, and that they’re only just getting started. Here’s a glimpse at how the fight will be unfolding in the coming months:
The defining challenge that the movement in the US will face in 2012 will almost certainly be the presidential election. With billions of dollars being poured into directing the whole country’s attention at the candidates nonstop, the Occupy movement has to find a way to make the issues that matter to it take precedence over the personalities and advertisements of presidential hopefuls. Occupiers in Iowa, who called on people to vote “uncommitted” in the caucuses, appear to have had little impact at the polls. (Occupy the New Hampshire Primary is now gearing up with somewhat different tactics.) It is already taken as a given in the movement that there will be massive protests at both Republican and Democratic conventions. But if these are to be constructive, rather than simply chaotic, the movement will need to be able to offer people something more hopeful, more compelling and more tangible than any presidential candidate can promise to deliver.
This is a tall order, but if people can remember that political power begins in themselves, perhaps it’s not as tall as it sounds.
Michael Moore has a much money as a 1%, what’s he doing there?
Not all 1%-ers are evil greedy money-grabbers.
The problem is not the person it’s the system.
I think it’s a mistake to take the 99% rhetoric to mean that this is a war between the have-nots and the haves, pure and simple. (Many within the movement consider “99%” to be problematic for many reasons.) Moore’s longtime work on corporate excess makes him widely respected in the movement. Perhaps more so was the fact that he was among the first celebrities to appear in Liberty Plaza, before it was trendy to do so, and while the movement’s survival seemed extremely precarious. I was there when he made his first appearance, and, believe me, it was very much appreciated.
Michael Moore is a national treasure.
agreed!
Moore supported the enactment of the corporate welfare to the private health insurance racket known as Obamacare, or the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” in 2010, campaigned for Obama in 2008 & will do so again in 2012. He sometimes makes correct statements but his actions expose him for the corporate shill that he is.
Moore was like a lot of us, we supported the public option. The AHCA does some good things, it is an improvement on the bad old system and can evolve over time. Vermont is able to start a state wide single payer system because of ‘Obamacare’.
January 20, 2012 on the “Occupy the Courts” Day of Action, Occupy Gainesville joins together with Move to Amend in hosting Dr. Cornel West as our Guest for the day. We will host a luncheon, a rally, and a protest march to the Federal Courthouse beginning at 12pm. We welcome all to attend and be part of this important day of action.
My concern, and it’s a huge one is: the air. I’ve been learning about chemtrails. If they’re poisoning us from the sky, the air we breathe, the rest of this seems secondary. I think we have to Occupy Air, Water, and Soil. If we’re being poisoned from these places, we become weaker. We need to somehow stop the poisoning on these levels so that we can fight for the rest of what is obvious and needs to be made right.
How would one go about organizing Occupy the Air actions? An interesting question.
I find extreme pleasure finding a comment addressing environmental issues and their effects on ourselves, as well the rest of the planet. Concepts from occupy against corporate power are easily transferrable to an occupy for environmental policy. One, we all know corporations are one of the main contributors to the degredation of the environment and the public’s health. So by fighting corporations’ influence in policy making, there is an effective fight against their immunity to being held responsible for the atrocities they have committed to our Earth. Two, there is an endless amount of concepts, regarding united public movements, we can learn from past and future occupies. So, just as the first occupies organized throughout the middle east, sparked the diverse array of occupies in the States.
overall message: these occupy movements are for issues not being addressed by our government, so we are all fighting for our rights as the 99%s, or the portion of the 99%s that wants to hange this world for the
Rocky Anderson of the newly formed Justice Party is running on a progressive platform that seeks to free our political system of the corrupting influence of concentrated wealth and corporate interests.
I hope this comment isn’t deleted. I think it’s important that people know there is another option (that isn’t Ron Paul). Find out more here https://www.voterocky.org/node/253.
Stratfor email leak indicates NDAA was pased because of OWS. Any thoughts?
http://www.chronicle.su/news/stratfor-documents-reveal-occupy-wall-street-reason-for-ndaa/
Thanks for the tip. I’m intrigued by the document you cite, but I have some questions about it. For one, the Stratfor hack seems to have happened in the last days of last year. Could it be that Anons would still have access to Stratfor email accounts several days later? And why is the posting dated before the date of the email itself? And why, if the email is dated January 5, after the NDAA was passed, does it recommend its passage? (Stratfor, for instance, insists that there was only one security breach, on December 24.)
Furthermore, a note from an “informant” (and what informant has “informant” in her email address?) to the CEO of a corporation does not indicate anything about the motivation among members of Congress who allowed this act to go forward. It would only be corroborating evidence if there were strong evidence that Friedman was in fact instrumental in orchestrating the vote, and that this informant somehow informed his decision to be so.
At this point, therefore, I’d be extremely cautious about this document, erring on the side of considering it a possible hoax.
Thanks for this update and the great links. I’ve been concerned about the direction of the movement. I know things are happening, but from the outside it seemed like no one knew what to do outside protesting, and it has to be about so much more than that.
I’m particularly intrigued by Occupy DC and its initiatives. Just looking at their website they really seem to have their act together and are particularly focused. The other Occupy groups would do well take notice. An Occupy Media project is very exciting, and a co-operative sub economy? Wow. That is exactly the kind of action I’ve been hoping to see. We have to move beyond our indignation, as well as stop pretending the established institutions will take any interest in our “demands.” The whole point of this movement is every day people awakening to their own power, which means taking care of our own demands.
http://www.primitivetimes.com/2012/occupying-a-new-mindset-in-2012/
just FYI…
Occupy San Fernando Valley has met with one of our Congressman re: NDAA and brought many things to his attention. Now he is on board the due process guarantee act bill with Garamendi. But that Bill falls short of resolving the issue.
Also we need more Congressmen and women to back this bill so please visit your local representatives. The Bill is flawed but its a step in the right direction. The due process guaruntee act was introduced by Senator Fienstein