1/08/2012
12/26/2011
Note (replying to a mailing list)
If the seriousness of the situation is not clear then a shift of one word can't change anything. What is important for a bunch of us is to understand that we don't want to replace the union leaders, or the expertize organizers, the "makers" of the student movement. What it is great and what we see every day in every corner of the world is that people are aware of the political and economic games played on their back. They recognize that the political situation-either called democracy, dictatorship, oligarchy etc- is all the way fabricated for the favor of capitalism's monstrosity and its expansion to every inch, every pore of our lives. Privatization expands to the calculation of our lives only perceived as numbers, the same with water, plants, seeds, animals and the DNA; if we are not able to talk about those issues in connection to the humiliation of the worker, the student and every profession then how we can expand our understanding of work without the power relations that entails? If we can't speak about the demolishing of money then how we are able to speak about life than survival? Words come only from the place of negotiation, manipulation when we call people "broader" audience, this is something that politicians always do, lawyers do, bureaucrats do, managers do, unions and organizers do; but our words must come from our mouths who we are amongst the people we are writing our texts- not for them but with them- and Seize the Empty Words and Speak about Life than Death.
12/10/2011
Mona Lisa Effect / Eleni Tzirtzilaki, Caper, 2014
Caper
[...]people
alone in the picture frames
as the girl
destroyed the room
there weren’t
those you’d met in the squares
as they
once travelled afar
it was
another course
she
announced to me her death
with no
preamble
only the last
words
the first
ones were scared
it was a
bright, luminous morning
don’t
forget it
tide
waves
her body
swathed in seaweed
and the
sound of the city
reached
down here
even if we
had no news from there
the woman
at the coffee shop said
they have forsaken
us
no ship
no bus
no
hospitals
just people
I was in
the shade
of the tree
a tamarix
one metre
from the sea
salty caper
grew near there
alone
on the rock
the dog
stared at
the sea
the bird
hovered threatening
above us
in the
distance
women gave
birth alone
and then
runs on the sand
the lizards
sun themselves
the sea
daffodils have just blossomed in the sand
seaweed the
sea disgorges tonight
all is
serene
the sky is
full of bright stars
a red moon
from afar
from the
archipelago?
It comes
alone I
lose myself in its body
the
demonstrators’ cries are heard this far
its body red
on the sand
a song
reaches me from the street
unemployed
mothers
children
alone in the streets
the
children leave
the closed
schools
as the sun
sinks in the sea for the night
mauve violet
green
love
travels to Antarctica
the waves
and the seabirds have returned
now that
the people have left to bring what?
in these
leaden years
the silver
sea you carry with you
in towns
and in Athenian neighbourhoods
warm and
soft it hugs you
and then I
saw him
sleeping in
an arcade off Eolou Street, Saturday night
cardboard
boxes
it was he,
you recognised him
fear came
to grip you
his lips
reminded you of the kiss
discernible
amidst the cardboard
down the
street young people on a night out in town
he turned
inside the boxes
pulling the
blanket closer to get warm
this
Saturday night
and the
lips were
we used to
laugh, remember?
and talk of
distant travels
the hotel
was not far from here
she felt
the cold on her back
and in her
heart tonight
Syngros
Hospital, silent doors
closed
doors
the end
lurks and awaits[...]
12/07/2011
Call for an open GA for ALL, Friday 11/11/2011, 7pm, Liberty Square
Call for an open GA for ALL, Friday 11/11/2011, 7pm, Liberty Square
The past weeks OWS has witnessed rapid bureaucratization and centralization of the GA. Specific working groups, most dramatically in the context of the Operations Spokes Council, have authorized themselves as the ritual keepers (via dogmatic facilitation/process/structure rules) of the movement. This has created confusion and ambiguity in the public discourse. It has prevented each individual from empowering himself/herself to create or act in the GA without being identified as a professional participant. We have seen money issues and organizational questions ruling most of the General Assemblies, while putting aside the reasons and frustrations that led to the occupation movement. This, inevitably, means schism between the ones who authorize and the ones who are here to participate.
We call for an open General Assembly for all.
We don’t ask permission from anyone to be imbued with that authority. We continue to learn from each other the possibilities of Direct Democracy.
Theses on Direct Democracy (open document):
Direct Democracy comes as a necessary imperative act that puts priority for a radical overthrow of the system of political representation, the State and the commercialization of everything. This social organism does not leave space for any kind of hierarchies, leaders, governors and political parties. It gives space to every individual to experience and practice politics and at the same time to be transformed within it. It is for all people, who experience the joy of personal initiative, of collective try, of solidarity, as well as, of love. All resources of our common life and the means to satisfy our common needs, cannot be but common, into the hands of society itself, which, with no need of any kind of mediation, decides an equal distribution of them, for all.
1. All space is open to everyone’s participation and it belongs to everybody.
2. The equal participation of everyone shapes the making of decisions, as well as the control of their application, both in the political and the economy field.
3. All necessary representations have strictly coordinating or executive nature and not mediating, representative or decisive character.
4. The existence of many local assemblies (in neighborhoods, municipalities, workplaces, schools of education, etc.) that communicate is the cornerstone of Direct Democracy. Participation in these assemblies is not occasional, but it is as responsible and regular as possible.
5. Communication between local assemblies creates a horizontal (non-hierarchical) network, which serves to coordinate the required theses and acts.
We want everything for everyone. We are history in motion.
Now is the time to overthrow all forms of authority.
The past weeks OWS has witnessed rapid bureaucratization and centralization of the GA. Specific working groups, most dramatically in the context of the Operations Spokes Council, have authorized themselves as the ritual keepers (via dogmatic facilitation/process/structure rules) of the movement. This has created confusion and ambiguity in the public discourse. It has prevented each individual from empowering himself/herself to create or act in the GA without being identified as a professional participant. We have seen money issues and organizational questions ruling most of the General Assemblies, while putting aside the reasons and frustrations that led to the occupation movement. This, inevitably, means schism between the ones who authorize and the ones who are here to participate.
We call for an open General Assembly for all.
We don’t ask permission from anyone to be imbued with that authority. We continue to learn from each other the possibilities of Direct Democracy.
Theses on Direct Democracy (open document):
Direct Democracy comes as a necessary imperative act that puts priority for a radical overthrow of the system of political representation, the State and the commercialization of everything. This social organism does not leave space for any kind of hierarchies, leaders, governors and political parties. It gives space to every individual to experience and practice politics and at the same time to be transformed within it. It is for all people, who experience the joy of personal initiative, of collective try, of solidarity, as well as, of love. All resources of our common life and the means to satisfy our common needs, cannot be but common, into the hands of society itself, which, with no need of any kind of mediation, decides an equal distribution of them, for all.
1. All space is open to everyone’s participation and it belongs to everybody.
2. The equal participation of everyone shapes the making of decisions, as well as the control of their application, both in the political and the economy field.
3. All necessary representations have strictly coordinating or executive nature and not mediating, representative or decisive character.
4. The existence of many local assemblies (in neighborhoods, municipalities, workplaces, schools of education, etc.) that communicate is the cornerstone of Direct Democracy. Participation in these assemblies is not occasional, but it is as responsible and regular as possible.
5. Communication between local assemblies creates a horizontal (non-hierarchical) network, which serves to coordinate the required theses and acts.
We want everything for everyone. We are history in motion.
Now is the time to overthrow all forms of authority.
Announcement Text on November 2nd, 2011 / Direct Democracy Working Group of OWS
Direct Democracy Working Group of OWS
Announcement Text on November 2nd, 2011
Direct democracy is used to describe the process and the unique character of our movement but we haven’t had any time to create substantive thoughts in that direction. The flux and the intensities of events have not allowed us a space, for thoughtful deliberative thinking on the importance of direct democracy.
There have been lots of actions but maybe we also need to think and shape future manifestations and activities of direct democracy.
Working groups in OWS are developing further the concepts of direct democracy without being able to expand our experience and knowledge of what that means, although practicing it.
What we create here in this square and in many other squares around the world is not just an ephemeral experiment. What we do today is the birth of direct political participation, passion for social engagement and happiness, passion for direct involvement to the commons. It is clear that political representatives are not anymore capable to create the political circumstances and to make decisions in our account. It is obvious that they make decisions for the benefit of the 1%.
All of us with our every day life interactions we demand direct democracy and we establish ourselves together as one person beside another person in political participation. This is a historical moment not only because it is beyond leaders and flags, but because we revolutionize our understandings of what politics is and what it can be.
Direct democracy takes democracy out of the corporate offices and the economic negotiations and political elites and brings it back to our lives and engagement. It is up to us then to direct it.
Direct democracy working group invites everyone to direct the participation process and allow its further continuation and growth. Through connection and communication with other international working groups (for example Syntagma square in Athens and Indignados in Spain) who are also discussing the concepts and understandings of direct democracy, we will expand our collective practices together.
Announcement Text on November 2nd, 2011
Direct democracy is used to describe the process and the unique character of our movement but we haven’t had any time to create substantive thoughts in that direction. The flux and the intensities of events have not allowed us a space, for thoughtful deliberative thinking on the importance of direct democracy.
There have been lots of actions but maybe we also need to think and shape future manifestations and activities of direct democracy.
Working groups in OWS are developing further the concepts of direct democracy without being able to expand our experience and knowledge of what that means, although practicing it.
What we create here in this square and in many other squares around the world is not just an ephemeral experiment. What we do today is the birth of direct political participation, passion for social engagement and happiness, passion for direct involvement to the commons. It is clear that political representatives are not anymore capable to create the political circumstances and to make decisions in our account. It is obvious that they make decisions for the benefit of the 1%.
All of us with our every day life interactions we demand direct democracy and we establish ourselves together as one person beside another person in political participation. This is a historical moment not only because it is beyond leaders and flags, but because we revolutionize our understandings of what politics is and what it can be.
Direct democracy takes democracy out of the corporate offices and the economic negotiations and political elites and brings it back to our lives and engagement. It is up to us then to direct it.
Direct democracy working group invites everyone to direct the participation process and allow its further continuation and growth. Through connection and communication with other international working groups (for example Syntagma square in Athens and Indignados in Spain) who are also discussing the concepts and understandings of direct democracy, we will expand our collective practices together.
11/17/2011
Mona Lisa Effect / Alaina Claire Feldman, MALINA IN HD, 2012 ongoing
MALINA IN HD
"Frankly, the works of Mao Zedong, Marx
and Engles are really dreadful, but every now and then I had to read them
because..."
"Did you read out of love? Or by
professional consciousness?"
"Professional consciousness? Definitely
not. Out of love, yes. I was in love. It may sound stupid but that was the
reason. Because it's true that it wasn't my favorite kind of
literature." Anne Wiazemsky, 1987
The corner of 77th and Madison in Manhattan is covered
in debris. Daily rhythm is disrupted with pulsing red lights and whines of fire
and police cars. They tape off the front entrance to Sant Cellini while
examining the scene of the explosion, which in a matter of seconds turned into
a scene of apocalyptic destruction. Across the street, pieces of the green and
white striped awning are washed with deep brown blood stains and the name of
the place is rubbed out with pieces of her body.
Malina was a woman who blew herself up. Circumscribed by what others did for her, she felt not quite in control
of her own existence. The mass of her body
that morning exploded without warning, touching just about everything and
everyone in sight. A gold diamond ring bounced from the ground, falling with a
clink, and then rolling along the stone plaza until it finally lodged itself
among the yellow and green daffodil bed. A cop spots the glimmer and pockets the ring
covertly like a squirrel with a nut mid-winter. As Malina exploded only a few
hours earlier all the distorted order and unity of her life melted away into
chaos and unrest coated with a thick smell of burning rubber. A crowd began to
gather.
"The raison d'état and moralism
are weapons to subjugate". The Pingrey and Chatwicks building
(commonly known for dispersing traveling salespeople with clomiphene citrate in
hand to gynocologists across the tri-state area, piling on gas millage and
stimulating ovulation in equal measure) is 33 blocks south and it is where Geoffry
Reade is Executive Vice President and quickly climbing to worldly success. He
is 61 years old with excellent posture. Thanks in part to his
systematic exploitation of Medicare and an epidemic of illegal marketing
activity he is also making an excessive profit that lends he and his wife a
comfortable lifestyle. They have one child.
Malina suffered from anorexia
nervosa which was defined by a complex inability to maintain her own weight. Geoffry
had been discreetly asking around the gentlemen's club for a private operative
to look into her evanescence.
11/03/2011
1st NYC Anti-Authoritarian, Anarchists, Autonomists
1st NYC Anti-authoritarian, Anarchists, Autonomists
OPEN ASSEMBLY
Tuesday, November 8 at 8:00pm - November 9 at 4:00am
This is an open call for everyone that feels an affinity for this Assembly
* Oakland (report back?)
* Nov 10th West Goes Inside
* Nov 17th Call for General Strike
Points of conversation:
- Spreading different forms of occupations (how?)
- Mapping the city to our advantage
- Tactical coherence
- Towards the de-census of every GA
- Distribution of communication (twitter, facebook) and its conflicts
- Media and Livestream problematics
- Future events and calls
no journalists / no cops
OPEN ASSEMBLY
Tuesday, November 8 at 8:00pm - November 9 at 4:00am
This is an open call for everyone that feels an affinity for this Assembly
* Oakland (report back?)
* Nov 10th West Goes Inside
* Nov 17th Call for General Strike
Points of conversation:
- Spreading different forms of occupations (how?)
- Mapping the city to our advantage
- Tactical coherence
- Towards the de-census of every GA
- Distribution of communication (twitter, facebook) and its conflicts
- Media and Livestream problematics
- Future events and calls
no journalists / no cops
10/21/2011
10/06/2011
NYC GA / Wall street Occupation
NYC GENERAL ASSEMBLY, WALL STREET OCCUPATION
NYC General Assemblies are an open participatory and horizontally organized process through
which we are building the capacity to constitute ourselves in public as autonomous collective
forces within and against representative politics, cultural death and the crisis of our times. NYC General Assemblies are a gathering of individuals, coming from various political, economical, ideological, cultural backgrounds. With our voices and our presence we share our problems, fears, ideas, dreams. The General Assembly is not a group. General Assemblies break through the idea of the political group by bringing together a variety of ideological patterns, old political procedures and test them in public, expose them, act upon them and transform them.There is no leadership, no representation, and no authority. We become political beings through our participation to the commons.
The process of the GA is already a fundamental action. To be able to make decisions together for a resolution, participation to an action and to have a gathering and a political conversation in the most policed city in the world is itself a political statement. NYC General Assemblies are actions that open space rather than producing polarizations. They create environments for everyone to have a unique and important role.
The General Assemblies is everyone. It is you who sees the limits of the politics of alienation, the cruelty of the economic regimes, cultural hypnosis and the standardization of every form of life for the benefits of the 1%
Who Represents You Replaces You
We are the 99%
On Sept 17th we occupied Wall Street. We have come together and crafted these principles of
solidarity, which are points of unity that include but are not limited to:
* Fighting for social, political economical and cultural FREEDOM & EQUALITY;
* Engaging in direct democracy;
* Exercising personal and collective responsibility;
* Recognizing individuals’ inherent privilege and the influence it has on all interactions;
* Empowering one another against all forms of oppression;
* Redefining how labor is valued;
* The sanctity of individual privacy;
* The belief that education, health care, transportation, culture, technology, information,
housing, nutrition and natural resources cannot be subjects of exploitation; and
* Endeavoring to practice and support wide application of open source.
The Occupation in Wall Street doesn't claim any responsibility or control for the spontaneous
initiatives, practices and direct actions taken by the people in the streets of NY.
The Occupation in Wall Street is not a metaphor. It is the coupling of politics and life that wasn't
even imagined a few months ago.
NYC General Assemblies is not a central political formation. It moves the bodies. Sometimes
gatherings split to exist in smaller units in the spaces of the metropolis and sometimes they
gather together again when it is needed. Who is able to predict what those bodies want and need and when? There can't be any leader or leading idea to this movement but only forces, forces of sentiment.
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