Activists at Occupy Wall Street have issued a call to thousands of protesters across the US to reoccupy outdoor public spaces to mark the movement's three-month anniversary.
The Occupy movement has stalled in recent weeks after a wave of evictions swept away a raft of encampments, including the largest in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New York. On Wednesday, it suffered a fresh blow as police in riot gear cleared Occupy San Francisco camp on the orders of the mayor, who had been sympathetic to protesters, while Occupy Boston lost legal protection against eviction.
This is of concern as there's no such thing as an insurgency on the defensive. Various municipal governments have collaborated to remove the occupations. If the theory of struggle for autonomous space free from capitalism is followed through to its logical endpoint we should see the emergence of a military wing of the movement, an autonomous red army... good luck with that. It could also be observed that the ruling class (especially in a vast country like the United States) does not worry unduly about occupied space. In America vast urban tracts are written off, bypassed by capital, used as silos to store (from their point of view) human waste. Interrupted capital accumuation on the other hand is another thing. The Occupy movement is strongest when linked to organised labour. The ruling class does not like having downtown areas in major towns and cities occupied, but it's merely a matter of isolating the occupation and biding time to hit back.
One last thought, though we should be prepared for this, we should also take some time out to be amazed at the bone-headedness of our ruling class. Voting isn't good enough, lobbying isn't good enough either, demonstrations don't cut it, occupations are merely a health-hazard. These people have no answer for the pain and suffering they are causing. They are creating a world without escape. They are begging to be overthrown.