[Street] The Meaning of Last Night and Next Steps

Brian K bdubkwob at gmail.com
Fri Dec 9 07:00:23 EST 2011


Brothers and sisters,

I just got home after spending over 2 hours cleaning and renovating the
occupation in Dewey Square AFTER all the events of the night, so sorry if
this email isn't totally clear....

*Last night was a major moment in the development of our movement. It is
ripe with tactical and strategic lessons, and we must understand and act on
them IMMEDIATELY. What follows is my assessment of what we got right, what
we got wrong, and what the next steps are.*

*What we got right: *
*
*
*Sensing a major threat to our movement, we mobilized the masses to defend
us! *We must have had a thousand people come and rally to support of our
movement. There were tons of people following the marching band, tons more
in a state of perma-rally by the north wall, tons more practicing civil
disobedience, and tons more just milling around, talking, sharing ideas,
and showing their solidarity in many ways.
We ended up taking the streets and shutting down Atlalntic ave. We had only
2 arrests (that I know of), and everything was peaceful, jubliant, and
energizing. People of all kinds, young, old, abled and disabled, people of
color, students, union and non-union workers, and all segments of the 99%
all came out for unity and solidarity with Occupy Boston. Mobilizing our
social base all-out like this was the right thing to do and that is (in
part) why it was so successful.


*What we got wrong: *
As painful as this truth may be, we have to face it squarely and
honestly: *we dismantled most
of our own occupation without a fight. *In this sense we really punched
ourselves in the face. Needlessly.

By 4 am, Dewey Square had only about 30% of the tents it did 24 hours
previously. There was trash and debris strewn on the sidewalks
and perimeter. And there were only about 30-40 people left from the 1,000+
who had been there at some point earlier. In other words, we weren't raided
by the police, but by 3:30 am, it looked like we had been.

This was demoralizing because it looked like a post-apocalyptic occupy that
I saw in Denver, after they had been raided twice. But we did it to
ourselves. The Mayor/City/BPD/RKG achieved much of their desired outcome
basically WITHOUT LIFTING A FINGER.

This was a strategic mistake. Period. Things like this sometimes are only
clear after the fact: the Mayor said "jump" and we jumped as high as we
could. This contrary to the very essence of the movement insofar we are
occupying to STAND UP and OPPOSE the dictates of the powerful, not tremble
in fear before them...

*Next steps:*
Luckily, there were about 5-10 of us who were able to salvage the situation
a bit. We moved a bunch of tents on "weird street" that had been left for
destruction by the (non-existent) police raid, and moved them into the main
square to fill in some of the gaping (and depressing) holes. Another 5-10
of us cleaned up the sidewalks, swept, and restored some semblance of order
to the outward appearance.

But there is more work to be done. This means *anyone who can needs to
return to the Square ASAP* to help re-organize the space, re-purpose the
tents, re-allocate the pallets and walkway planks. Not for permanent
occupation, but for the next 24 to 48 hours of the struggle. Yes, the cops
can come Friday night (tonight) or Saturday night or Sunday night. We
should be ready for them to come on any one of these nights, but we can sit
on our hands and wait; we have to keep struggling, keep assembling and keep
speaking out against injustice.

I'm not saying we need to bring back everything to the square. We can do
without the library books and other valuables in Dewey. But we need to
CONTINUE occupying until some decisive event that forces us into another
space. Otherwise they can effectively shut down our occupation with merely
the ever-present *threat* of shutting it down. Let us not allow ourselves
to be paralyzed with fear like that.


*Why we messed up: *
Part of the problem is that strategically, many of us were thinking in
"post-Dewey" mode, yet we were not (and are not) yet there. We are still in
Dewey Square. And we must defend it.

By dismantling our occupation, we essentially tried to shortcut the
difficult and painful midwife between where we are now and the birth of our
next phase: the police raid. This reminds me of a quote from Hagakure, the
book of the samurai from feudal-era Japan:

"There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a
sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. By
doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet.
When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though
you will still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to all
things."

Pick up on that. By trying to avoid the police raid, we ended up doing it
to ourselves. This had the desired outcome of our enemies (a massive
dismantling in Dewey), but we got nothing to show for it. Many of us may
feel "perplexed," but need not be if we "are resolved from the beginning"
to stand our ground.

Just like the first raid on us, and so many other raids happening around
the country, raids are not pleasant, but they are a necessary part of being
an occupation that does NOT jump when the powers that be tell us to.
Otherwise we might as go home now.

Remember: when people see the violence of the police officers arresting
veterans, manhandling priests, hog-tying peaceful 99%ers, this rightly
causes OUTRAGE. And it is that outrage that can help feed our movement for
the next phase. We must not evict ourselves; make them do it.

As of now, we have a damaged (but not un-salvagable) occupation. Please go
to Dewey Square ASAP and see why. Especially Logistics and Food. We need
your insight, experience, and steady hands the MOST during the day. Today.

As for everyone else, see you at tonight's GA...in Dewey Square.

Revolutionary love and solidarity,
and now sleep.

Brian

p.s. please forward this to any groups/lists/folks I left out.
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