SOYMB blog received criticism
SOYMB blog received criticism from a few members that it was too critical of the Occupy movement. Perhaps it can be conceded that the tone of some posts was too negative but others i maintain were written sympathetically. Alexander Cockburn of Counterpunch has a related article on Occupy. Our fundamental message appears to be echoed by Alexander Cockburn.http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/07/06/biggest-financial-scandal-in-britains-history-not-a-single-occupy-sign-what-happened/”It was very hard not to be swept away by the Occupy movement which established itself in New York’s Zuccotti Park last September and soon spread to Oakland, Chicago, London and Madrid. And indeed most people didn’t resist its allure.Leninists threw aside their Marxist primers on party organisation and drained the full anarchist cocktail…Cynicism about Occupy was not a popular commodity.But new movements always need a measure of cynicism dumped on them. Questions of organization were obliterated by the strength of the basic message – we are 99 per cent, they are one per cent. It was probably the most successful slogan since ‘peace, land, bread’.The Occupy Wall Street assembly in Zuccotti Park soon developed its own cultural mores, drumming included. Like many onlookers, I asked myself, Where the hell’s the plan? But I held my tongue. I had no particular better idea and for a CounterPuncher of mature years to start laying down the program seemed cocky. But, deep down, I felt that Occupy, with all its fancy talk, all its endless speechifying, was riding for a fall……and I definitely didn’t like the enormous arrogance which prompted the Occupiers to claim that they were indeed the most important radical surge in living memory. Where was the knowledge of, let along the respect for the past? when one raised this history with someone from Occupy, I encountered total indifference.There also seemed to be a serious level of political naivety about the shape of the society they were seeking to change. They definitely thought that it could be reshaped – the notion that the whole system was unfixable did not get much of a hearing….People have written complicated pieces trying to prove it’s not over, but if ever I saw a dead movement, it is surely Occupy…Everything leftists predicted came true, just as everything hard-eyed analysts predicted about the likely but unwelcome course of ecstatic populism in Tahrir Square also came true. ·I do think it’s incumbent on those veteran radicals who wrote hundreds of articles more or proclaiming a religious conversion to Occupyism, to give a proper account of themselves, otherwise it will happen all over again.”Has Cockburn been a bit too premature with his obituary? I am not yet decided that it is all over, and that it is game, set and match to the ruling class. Nor am I convinced that it was not of value. Nor do I accept the neo-conspiratorial interpretation repeated in the article – “Is it possible that the real purpose of Occupy Wall Street has little to do with either the 99 per cent or the one per cent, but rather everything to do with keeping the political left in America decentralised, widely dispersed, very busy, and completely impotent to deal with the collapse of the American empire…Occupiers are all occupied doing exactly what their handlers would have them be doing, namely, being fully occupied. In summary, Occupy Wall Street represents a huge distraction.” Or Cockburn’s ingenuous aside that “Was there perhaps a leader, a small leadership group, sequestered somewhere among the tents and clutter? It was impossible to say and at that point somewhat disloyal to pose the question.” Well, the WSM openly did pose the question and demanded a fully transparent structured democratic decision making structure for Occupy.What i do know is this, that SOYMB posts as were our magazine articles and discussion lists contributions were valid commentary and that the WSM should never hold its tongue. After all, much of what Cockburn said in his post-mortem shares much of our critique. Maybe we were not camped out in the tents, (too many of us suffer from the aches and pains of rheumatism!!) but we are fully legitimate participants in working class struggles and resistance, like it or not, and our voice should be heard and we should not be reluctant to make it loud and clear.