Forsaken By Adbusters (My response to that magazine's recent call for submissions.)

I have a long-standing love-hate relationship with Adbusters. Of course, while I've generally been a promoter and defender of that publication... the editorial staff has only deemed one simple letter worthy of publication out of of the many things I've submitted over the years. Now, I realize that my various submissions may have gotten lost in the shuffle, and I know that my work could sometimes use some refinement and editing. But aside from the instance surrounding that single letter... I've never merited a single word of encouragement from the editors. Hardly a pitiable sob story so far, I know, but please hear me out for just one more paragraph while I elaborate on the subtleties of this relationship as I see it.

Julian Assange's: World Tomorrow. (Episode 7: The Occupy Movement)

Crises Can Be Openings: Defeating our enduring fatalism.

This article was written by Sasha Lilley.  She’s the author of Capital and Its Discontents from which this piece was taken.   http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/99/crises-can-be-openings.html

The past several years have witnessed the spectacular unraveling of capitalism, or so it has appeared.

 

Venerated investment banks have vanished overnight, titans of industry have permanently shuttered their doors, and rich nations have lurched perilously close to default. The ideology of the free market, once seemingly unassailable, lies in tatters. While the death knell of capitalism may not yet be tolling, the crisis is undoubtedly of a different order of magnitude than anything seen in decades.

#OCCUPYWALLSTREET: Pacers, and leaders & spokesmen! Oh my!

As an early supporter of the #OCCUPYWALLSTREET protest movement, I wrote a request a few days ago to the protesters involved with that movement. While waiting to for a good time to make that request public, an online acquaintance put forward a statement (from a conservative perspective) which covered some of the same points I wanted to make... so I put it off a bit more. But now, I feel I need to put out the statement in a timely manner -- because my concerns expressed therein suddenly feel more justified. I will post that statement immediately before this one and point out, once again, that I was spreading information about this protest while few others were and have consistently done so from the beginning. And while I certainly claim no ownership of this movement (I can't and wouldn't), I humbly request that those involved with the movement read these messages from an early supporter.

Today, while looking at the Guardian's "live coverage" of the protest, I came across some statements and words which heretofore I had not regularly seen in association with this movement. The first was a statement by someone name Christopher Longenecker who was identified as the "head of march planning and tactics." This title in itself struck me as odd in the context of a heretofore leaderless movement but then the quote given from this person was even more shocking: "We don't do illegal actions."

For The #OCCUPYWALLSTREET Protest Movement, A Simple Request

First of all, I'd like to say that I've been supportive of this protest since Adbusters initially put forward the idea back in July. I was regularly using the hashtag when few others had, I created a daily aggregator of tweets for the NewsworthyNews Twitter feed, blogged about it, and have supported it in various forums from the get go. I also attended the local manifestation of a solidarity protest in my own city. And while there is certainly nothing at all wrong with being a "Johnny-come-lately" in regard to this protest, I'd just like to point out that I have supported the movement and watched it grow from the start. And, certainly, much more credit for organizing goes to again to Adbusters for initially inspiring the protest, to others who have helped organize (both online and off), and to those who have been in the streets of New York inspiring people around the world. All I'm trying to say is that I've been supportive and I have one simple request of those who are occupying Wall Street....

#OCCUPYWALLSTREET (A shift in revolutionary tactics.)

 

For more information see:
Adbusters: A Shift in Revolutionary Tactics
The #OCCUPYWALLSTREET Update
Search for the hashtag via Twitter.