We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, February 12, 2012

What Prospects for OWS?

Click here to access article by Shamus Cooke from Global Research. 
Ultimately Occupy needs to organize for power; we need a greater power to displace the current power of the 1%. This doesn't mean that we must adopt the same forms of power utilized by the state, but that new ones must be created, while using EVERY opportunity within the existing structure to organize, educate, and mobilize working people.
I think that activists such as this author do not fully appreciate the huge challenge of Occupiers in the US to create a real alternative to past left theories of social change in order to achieve a real form of democracy: a decentralized bottom-up form of democracy, also known as "horizontal democracy". This will take time, but in my opinion, it must take this form in order to create sufficient social energy to take power away from the One Percent. If you think that we are not in a class war, you are very naive. 

Many middle class and/or older people simply do not understand the radical change in organization that this new form means. The process of developing this is only in its infancy. And, there are no guarantees that we of the 99 Percent will achieve this new type of democracy or achieve victory over the One Percent. However, there is no decent alternative ahead but to fight for our lives, for social justice, for a planet that can sustain our lives well into the future.

We cannot expect the same level of commitment to social struggle that exists in places like Greece (see the latest news) simply because the capitalist contradictions in such places are more advanced than they are here in the center of the Empire. It will develop here because the contradictions of capitalism in the US will be accelerating in the future causing all sorts of social pain--this will spur on development. It is fortunate that we have additional time to prepare.