Occupation Drift to Pop Front Class Collaboration Reformism

[William Prest]

No Clear Vanguard Leadership Results in Drift toward Unconscious Support of the State

 

If we are to take the slow build up to Occupy Vancouver as a sign of former events elsewhere, then we can say that there are misleaders in the mix that doom the movement to failure before it really it's born. There is now irrefutable evidence of the collaboration of the occupation leaderships in various cities in order to hold their peaceful demos to bring issue to the attention of the public. But how does one account for police assaults and the censorship of the media? The answer lies in the events that unfolded since 9-11 and also in Sept. - Oct. 2008. Out of 9-11 grew the various legislation such as the Patriot Act, homeland Securities Act, the end of Habeus Corpus, the Extradition Act and numerous Executive Orders that ended civil liberties and rights as we know them. Despite the forewarning of economic trouble years in advance, the hopeful winners in the casino economy wished to strike it big before the whole thing began to unravel in Sept. - Oct. 2008. Now we live in a furtive tyranny in the midst of a depression where the elite follow no law, are a law unto themselves and the law demands total compliance from everyone below that rank. The tyranny is covert, because various political entities want to convey the impression of the heyday of democracy, though we now live in a tyranny just this side of total martial law. No trick is too sinister to consider in maintaining the control of everyone under the iron rule of the oligarchs and their debt currency scam, which is world wide in scope. It is the one thing that is truly international in a world bristling with weapons of mass destruction and wars of all kinds; all for the profit of the oligarchs in their tyranny of total fear.

 

Since Sept. 17^Th, last, Occupy Wall Street has been building and spreading to many cities throughout the world. However, it was in the planning stages prior to that for several months at least and one of the chief instigators in its development was the hacktivist group called Anonymous. There others involved as well, such as the Tea Party right wing fundevangelist political group, Ron Paul and Obama supporters and others. But the occupation itself was not touched by any corporate media anywhere and the only news coming out was via independent media such as postings by individuals on Youtube, personal websites and the social media. Corporate media around the world chose the path of total censorship. More than two weeks passed before the Corporate media began to touch on the “hot subject” of the occupation of Wall St. There have been many good calls made judging by the placards and statements by Anonymous. But there has been an undercurrent of a rumour mill suggesting that occupation members have been organizing the whole thing with the permission and collaboration with the state on all levels. As we had no other resource that the confusing array and high volume of material on numerous websites and none in any other media until recently, there was no accurate way to gauge the real situation until recently. Local developments tell us that there is a close relationship between occupation organizers, the city, business improvement association and the police, which suggest that at least this whole business smacks of opportunist manipulation and that this extends to the breadth, dept and width of the entire occupation movement. In short, especially with the big unions like the Teamsters, the IWW and others jumping on board we see the whole thing developing into a popular front, whose objectives are not entirely clear owing to the plethora of platforms being presented. We read signs such as “Everyone is a leader” all the way to “Support Ron Paul in 2012”. As we stand now, the movement is still going on with support occupations in several hundred cities around the world. Iran's premier has even jumped opportunistically on board stating that this will bring down American Capitalism.

 

The occupation has no distinctive leadership outside of a large numbers of causes and groups that make it up. Several unions and political groups have banded together in what appears to be a spontaneous gathering protesting banker and government corruption. We know from history that unions such as the Teamsters are also rife with corruption and don't give a hoot about their own union membership as jobs are gutted in the millions for cheap labour off-shore. No where is this more apparent than in the GM unions handling of the dismantling of the GM plant in the US. What ensued as the means of production were being dismantled and shipped to China was the wimpiest performance by union brass pleading for a better severance package without so much as a picket line to enforce their pleas and to stop the movement of goods out of the plant to the waterfront. Other union brass performed little better as jobs evaporated in the tens of millions and huge swaths of the population ended up destitute on the streets of the US, Canada and the UK. To make matters worse by way of rubbing salt in the open wounds of the working people, was the bailout of the same corporations who grabbed the cash and dashed to China with hard capital assets in tow. Banks that had wildly speculated on real estate and over inflated mortgages were also bailed out while sheriffs escorted the former householders onto the streets. No one on the bottom was spared the misery while politicians publicly whined and wrung their hands in mock sympathy in near total futility. This then is the background to the formation and development of the occupation movement. The Tea Party, still in existence and a contender in the 2012 election, has failed to take the leadership of any revolutionary movement. What the occupation is hoping to do in part or whole, is to opportunistically gain and to organize the angry populace into venting their energy in a popular front action as a means to gain for themselves.

 

As stated, there are a bewildering array of statements, but if one stands back with a class conscious awareness of the whole thing, all the rumours start to fall into place, especially when a part of the whole is seen close up. There are several contenders that want to control the mass for their ends. If not all, almost all do not intend to do anything except extort the existing oligarchical order into meeting a few demands and give breaks to the erstwhile leaders of the occupation revolution who are collaborating with the state in an opportunistic manner. Almost all insist on a peaceful protest despite the warlike attitude of the police and armed state preparations going back several months. Despite this, the police have been rioting on the peaceful protesters, herding them, making mass arrests, releasing most and playing cat and mouse for the media where it is allowed to report. There is no workers' or peoples' vanguard or councils at this time beyond the nebulous concept of “We are all leaders”. You cannot have an effective leadership based on largely ignorant participants, all with different opinions. This requires political sophistication in order to form a vanguard or an effective council. Ignorance guarantees only one thing; repeating of history to the gain of the oligarchs and the loss of the people who are dumbed down in the ignorance of past history. The police in their part have been attempting to cajole the people into violent and rash acts so that they can slam down with the riot squad and an iron fist, making past police infractions seem mild. If places like Bolivia and Chile serve as an example, then we can see real repression open up on Wall St. Oligarchs recently gave the NYPD a $4 million grant showing substantial preparation. The ordinary person on the street doing all the heavy dirty work is going to get the heaviest brunt of the assault when it erupts.

 

What exists at this time is the organizing of a popular front that is channelling unconscious spontaneity. Though unconscious spontaneity is good to get the ball rolling, it is insufficient to transform society from capitalist greed to a real egalitarian society of economic democracy, where resources are used for the good of all instead of the greed of a few. What is needed is a conscious leadership linked with the spontaneous mass movement to guide the way through what is in reality a class war gone from cold to hot. It is hot, because the oligarchs know they are in the spotlight and have been caught in their lies, thieving and corruption. It is hot because the people know about the bailouts while they got the street.

 

Into this mix, we propose the essential organizing into workers' councils in order to plot an effective strategy. These councils must find withing their ranks, those who are knowledgeable and capable of leading the whole in a tactical and strategic manner. Independently those of us who are in the know must promote and rebuild the 4^th International, a class conscious and aware political arm of the worlds' working people, employed and recently downsized that will lead the worlds' people through the myriad of shoals deliberately set up to foil any revolutionary movement and to divert the people into useless and opportunistic pop front dithering. Those who are aware of what the real situation is about, need to form vanguard councils to rebuild the 4^th international to make the transitional demands that the oligarchs cannot meet. The 4^th International must be rebuilt so that an effective vanguard can be launched for the protesters to lead them to the next logical stage of dual power via total occupation of all resource, manufacturing, distribution and administrative facilities. The oligarchs have demonstrated that they are nervous and they have shown that they will not give up without a fight. Right now, the kid gloves are on, as they are so far dealing with a soft movement that is beginning to show signs of class consciousness. But when provocations continue and people awaken, this has the potential of becoming a hard movement, not of peaceful means only protesters, but a cadre of revolutionists working to topple the capitalist world order for one of an egalitarian and economic democracy where resources are managed for the good of all instead of against them.