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NOTES BY HUNTER BEAR: (As most know, I've been a working justice organizer for my entire adult life. I've practiced that very successfully. And while that may not always be recognized by "parlor organizers" and cloistered academics, it is something that's quite consistently well recognized by the grassroots people with whom I've directly worked . It's also been very well recognized by our adversaries. I think there are some obvious lessons aplenty in the Occupy experience.) I draw the impression, and admittedly my sources are limited, that the Occupy crusade isn't doing well at all. And I say this despite my gut sympathy for it -- and especially its youthful ethos. Its continuing lack of intra and inter organization is striking. One CNN feature some days ago saw a number of Occupy people in their new NYC office, a very large and modern setting in a high grade downtown building. Other shots show a few occupiers here and there with larger numbers of others attempting, usually fruitlessly, to resist eviction efforts. An especially poignant scene showed a bare handful of freezing people in Denver, huddled under tarps and tents in snow. Despite a number of vicissitudes, some Oakland zealots are quickly calling for a closure of all ports up and down the Pacific Coast in a few days -- in effect what they see as an industry wide general strike. A comparable general strike effort in Oakland a few weeks ago mounted brief impressive demonstrations but, with relatively minimal union backing, shut down little and failed as a general strike. This proposed new and far more ambitious effort seems doomed. Ralph Chaplin's classic and large [48 pp] pamphlet, The General Strike, and still available from the contemporary IWW, would be well worth a good read. I've heard some about local Occupy groups working on the mortgage foreclosure issue. That's good -- but it takes a lot of painstaking organization and work. A press release from somewhere indicated a local group planned to develop a credit union. That, too, takes a great deal of intricate -- and legal -- organization. Some supporters of Occupy feel it can use the winter season to organize and plan effectively. One hopes so but, given the ethos and drift of the last many weeks, it's hard to be optimistic at this point. When people drift away from a specific effort, it can be difficult to bring them back -- and rally others to that particular approach. You certainly don't need a "vanguard party" to be effective -- but you do need good, solid democratic organization. When Occupy began to mushroom, some of its people and a few media types attempted to draw analogies with the Civil Rights Movement. I questioned that sharply, and in detail. [The essence of that piece, in case anyone missed it, is at the bottom of this post.] One also heard some analogies with the historical IWW. That's extremely inaccurate. The old IWW, despite its "frontier syndicalist" [my term] ethos, was the progeny of the Western Federation of Miners, and actually was very well organized -- it absolutely had to be. As with the Civil Rights Movement, failure to do so meant defeat and other very dire consequences. Its Vision of Industrial Democracy may have been somewhat eclectic -- but it essentially stayed in place -- and, in its day to day struggles, its goals and objectives and strategies were well thought out and usually put forth very effectively. It exemplified democratic and principled American pragmatism of the militant and socially conscious genre. A '60s historian who once described the IWW as "a banzai charge" was writing nonsense. So far, the Occupy crusade has raised issues and public consciousness. Maybe "things will work out." If they don't, there'll most likely be something new a'rising -- something sooner than later and something much better put together. Solidarity, H. Here's the part of my earlier post re Civil Rights Movement: Occupy is NOT comparable to the old Civil Rights Movement. To be honest, I personally resent that analogy. The Civil Rights Movement occurred in a very obvious on-going historical context, almost always had at all levels effective democratic leadership, and had very clear and specific goals -- local and national and long range and short-range. Its commitment to tactical non-violence was almost pervasive. Virtually every level and facet of that Movement was very well organized -- even to the point that there was usually cognizance of potentially unexpected developments -- say, during demonstrations -- and thus almost always back-up alternatives "at ready." The stakes were always very high. That Adversary was powerful, cunning, absolutely ruthless, and downright deadly. [H] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial Introduction by me: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Our community organizing course: http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm Personal Background Narrative (with many links): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
