A world without escape

Developments in the American Occupy movement:

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.

Not about left and right?

This is the statement-cum-list of demands from the London occupation:

1 The current system is unsustainable. It is undemocratic and unjust. We need alternatives; this is where we work towards them.

2 We are of all ethnicities, backgrounds, genders, generations, sexualities, dis/abilities and faiths. We stand together with occupations all over the world.

3 We refuse to pay for the banks' crisis.

4 We do not accept the cuts as either necessary or inevitable. We demand an end to global tax injustice and our democracy representing corporations instead of the people.

5 We want regulators to be genuinely independent of the industries they regulate.

6 We support the strike on 30 November and the student action on 9 November, and actions to defend our health services, welfare, education and employment, and to stop wars and arms dealing.

7 We want structural change towards authentic global equality. The world's resources must go towards caring for people and the planet, not the military, corporate profits or the rich.

8 We stand in solidarity with the global oppressed and we call for an end to the actions of our government and others in causing this oppression.

9 This is what democracy looks like. Come and join us!

Some vague, some very specific and challenging but, more importantly, if you go to the link and look at the swarm of right wing trolls hurling idiotic abuse at the occupation from the safety of the CiF comment section, the right think it's aimed at them because, well, it is.

More vicious, sectarian carping

In attempting to conquer space from capitalism we must give regard to the enemy defending it. The ruling class, in the form of the state has the benefit of prior organisation. An anti-capitalist movement must be equal to this organisation otherwise it will not be effective, unless of course you intend your movement to be merely platonic.

Which begs the question, has there been a serious attempt to put together serious political economy for autonomism, beyond constructing neologisms like precariat? Don't autonomists adopt neo-liberal paradigms (such as the end of the working class, horizontal organisation, power is everywhere and nowhere, grandnarratives are oppressive etc) and simply invert them?

There are two pitfalls to a purely moral opposition to capital. One is voluntarisn, the dangerous kind that can lead to totalitarianism (or would lead, if it were not completely Utopian at this point). The other is platonic, gesture politics, the kind where a demonstration stops to work out the fine details of democratic decision making while the police are swiftly kettling it.

In order to achieve any worthwhile goal you need a tested and trusted political tradition. You can't make one up as you go, least of all pretend you don't need one. Your demonstration has to be about left or right (approximate as those political coordinates may be) or it's about nothing.

It's a shame that some people don't see any viable political tradition that can express their political will, but it's pointless crying over such things. They can't be made to see it. But there are others, often first to the megaphone, who actively seek to keep things primitive and inchoate. As far as I can see we may lose the world, but at least those people get to keep their beautiful souls.

Occupy CoL - some observations

The picture sums the current situation up. To be blunt anyone who is not rooting for the St Paul's campers is an idiot or a scumbag. I went along to the inital demo to check it out. The following thoughts occur:

(1) A few thousand people put together in a few days by people working over the internet is not to be sniffed at. Of course larger, formal organisations can deliver greater numbers and have them better organised, which leads on to...
(2) There is not enough time to faff around with demonstrative democracy when there's a job to be done - if you're going to occupy the stock exchange work out how you're going to occupy it (preferably don't advertise it to the police first) occupy it and, once that's done, then you vote on stuff...
(3) If you were asked to rebuild the pyramids you wouldn't round up 10,000 slaves, you'd buy a load of JCBs. If there is no prohibition on amplifying your voice in the City of London there's no need for a human megaphone - it's just frivilous. If this was anything else but the beginning of something you'd be tempted to think the camp is just mass playacting.
(4) Da sound of da police: According to the Graun:

The Metropolitan police said some "containment" had been in place to prevent a breach of the peace

... An utterly baffling reversal of logic. The only purpose of kettling is to give the police total physical superiority in order to provoke and frustrate, thereby allowing them to pick off 'troublemakers'.

The cops made a serious bodge when they didn't close down the nearby shops and restaurants before putting their kettle in place. It meant they had to 'assess' (their exact word) who was legitimate and who wasn't.

PC Brains: Why're you here, sonny jim?

Person: Well it's just such a beautiful day...

Brains: Not good enough.

Regards whether this was collective imprisonment I also heard from two separate plods that it's not imprisonment because you're not being held under a roof; which is a novel definition, one that may have been comfort to Ivan Denisovich.

I felt lucky to get out when I did... Once they weeded out the tourists, I expected a police riot on Saturday. Give them time... or don't, actually, give the campers your support.