We have always high-lighted
We have always high-lighted the positve part of the Occupy Movement, the leader-less democracy of it. But WSM has always qualified this by explaining that the Occupy Movement cannot reject formal decision making structures that permits majority concensus and that this would soon become an issue. Our voice was a whisper and for some of us even that cautionary criticism was over-stepping it, but Red Pepper describe the exact problem at Occupy Oakland that we warned well in advance about.http://www.redpepper.org.uk/occupy-oakland-whose-streets-our-streets/ “Without democratically elected leadership or collective accountability processes, small groups have taken the banner of Occupy Oakland in erratic directions. The most glaring example has been the weekly ‘Fuck the Police’ marches, which announce that ‘if you identify as peaceful and are likely to interfere with the actions of your fellow protesters in any way, you may not want to attend this march.’ The inevitable property destruction and police confrontation have not built power for Occupy Oakland. Indeed, these actions have only justified the state repression in the minds of many, alienating the working and middle-class masses that are the key to Occupy’s future.” Yes, i too dislike the use of the words leadership and middle-class but after all it is Red Pepper but i think the essence of the fundamental point is clear enough. What we should be doing is countering the false conclusion made from Occupy’s faults by the likes Red Pepper, such that:” Occupy Oakland and its sister groups must abandon their initial claims to be a movement without leaders and demands.” And to do so means presenting democratic proposals and alternatives which incorporate our own criticism and shared by many others but doesn’t endorse Red Pepper’s solution which is to jettison of the no leaders principle and adopt reformist platforms. Even though our influence is negligible, our ideas are vast and i think it is time not for ad hoc articles or leaflets but the publication of an in depth revolutionary socialist manifesto aimed specifially for an online internet distribution campaign to actually get a hearing and offer the Occupy movement arguments to use against the reformists and re-buff the vanguards. Is this an elitist thing to do? To have the audacity of a couple of hundred impossiblists to set ourselves up as advisers to hundreds of thousands of activists on what to do. I don’t believe it is arrogant. It is the educational propaganda role that we all fully subscribe to and the tactic of class conscious socialists that don’t lead but “pushes forward all others” as the Communist Manifesto declares. The WSM does have “the advantage of clearly understanding the line of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement” So why should we remain silent? We are already being proved right in our analysis.