Saturday, November 5, 2011

Contextualizing Certain Actions that Took Place during the General Strike



Last Wednesday, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in the streets of Oakland, shut down the center of the city, and paralyzed the Port of Oakland. With so many people, affinity groups, and organizations involved, things are bound to happen that not everybody agrees with. In the aftermath of the day of action, many folks have stepped up on Facebook, Twitter, and even the Occupy Oakland website to criticize and condemn a couple of these actions: the property destruction at banks and a Whole Foods that took place during an anticapitalist march in the afternoon; and the occupation of the former Traveler's Aid Society, which occurred late Wednesday night and was violently repressed by hundreds of riot police with tear gas, flashbang grenades, rubber bullets, and arrests (including a number of journalists and legal observers). What we want to do here is to provide a few important pieces of background as a way of helping to contextualize Wednesday's actions.

To begin with, one of the very first decisions the GA made was to approve a statement on diversity of tactics. As of October 30, it was collected with a series of other decisions (including a statement to the media which we mentioned and started to discuss here), formatted into a single document, and distributed at the GA as the "Occupy Oakland General Assembly Decisions and Practices":
Occupy Oakland encourages diversity of tactics for actions that occur outside the camp. For example, during marches:

• when confronted by police, some people may want to attempt to have calm conversations with them, urging them to be non-violent
• some people may want to sit down in front of lines of police
• some people may want to express their anger by yelling at the police
• some people may want to attempt to remove police barriers
• some people may want to disrupt traffic or banks
• some people may prefer to remain on the sidewalk

We should be tolerant of each other’s approaches and respect different forms of protest, while being aware of our privilege or lack of it, especially when engaging with the police.
The second decision we wanted to share has to do specifically with the building occupation. Many have criticized the occupation for being "secretive," for purposefully "provoking" the police, for circumventing the General Assembly and therefore constituting an "undemocratic" form. Most of these attacks strike us as simplistic and moralistic, although some have laid out much more thoughtful critiques that are worth seriously reflecting on (e.g. zunguzungu). In any case, what is missing in the majority of cases is any reference to the GA's declaration explicitly endorsing and offering material support for autonomous building occupations. It was approved by the GA with a vote of about 95 percent prior to the general strike:
Declaration of Solidarity with Neighborhood Reclamations

Occupy Oakland, in solidarity with the Occupy movement and with the local community, has established the principle of claiming for open use the open space that has been kept from us. We are committed to helping this practice continue and grow. Here in Oakland, thousands of buildings owned by city, banks, and corporations stand idle and abandoned. At the same time social services such as child and healthcare, education, libraries and community spaces are being defunded and eliminated.

Occupy Oakland supports the efforts of people in all Oakland neighborhoods to reclaim abandoned properties for use to meet their own immediate needs. Such spaces are already being occupied and squatted unofficially by the dispossessed, the marginalized, by many of the very people who have joined together here in Oscar Grant Plaza to make this a powerful and diverse movement.

We commit to providing political and material support to neighborhood reclamations, and supporting them in the face of eviction threats or police harassment. In solidarity with the global occupation movement, we encourage the transformation of abandoned spaces into resource centers toward meeting urgent community needs that the current economic system cannot and will not provide.
The occupation of the former Traveler's Aid Society building fits very well into these guidelines. A quick look at the half-sheet that was distributed in the moment, as well as the full statement that was posted later on, is all it takes to understand that the occupation was meant to "transform[] abandoned spaces into resource centers toward meeting urgent community needs."



An interesting question has been raised about the meaning of "neighborhood" or "autonomous" building occupations and likewise what "community" is being referred to in the context of "community needs." Who is this collective "we"? Who falls outside of that category? For an action to be "autonomous" or be associated with a "neighborhood" does that mean it can't be an official part of the GA or of the so-called Occupy movement? That seems absurd, especially given how the movement is framed as one of the "99 percent." Furthermore, even in the overall context of the general strike, much of what took place was organized autonomously. As Jaime Omar Yassin put it, "Even the migration to the port, some two miles away, was a puzzle of pieces of self-directed groups." The march from UC Berkeley to Oscar Grant Plaza, the critical mass out to the port, the anticapitalist march, the flying pickets that shut down various banks, the feminist bloc in the march -- were each and every one of these actions voted on individually by the full general assembly? No. And for good reason. First, there's an issue of effectiveness. From early on the GA has been based on autonomously organized actions. Here's another chunk from the GA's decisions and practices:
3. Encourage autonomous actions.
In order to keep the GA from being bogged down, and in order to allow for diversity of tactics, actions other than major events (like the General Strike) should be announced as actions rather than brought forward as proposals to be voted on.
Second, there's an issue of safety. Zunguzungu writes, "We do things in the open, or I’m not part of that 'we.'" That certainly makes sense for a lot of actions. For example, the general strike would have been impossible to organize in a closed forum. In large part, that's because of the nature of the action itself -- you can't shut down the Port of Oakland with an affinity group of, say, ten people. On the other hand, a small affinity group can do other things that can be very useful and effective. If those things are illegal and require the element of surprise, it becomes very dangerous and counterproductive for people to propose them in a large, open general assembly. There are often undercover cops in the camp and the media often reports on and records the GAs. The idea that every single action has to be planned "in the open" effectively means taking a large set of actions off the table.

Hopefully these statements will help contextualize what went down on the day of the general strike. We aren't trying to present these as absolute answers and agree on the need for some serious discussions of tactics and strategies (though we also think these specific discussions should happen in the context of the GA and not on social media). Overall, it's important to remember that what we organized -- over the course of a single week! -- was amazing, an incredibly powerful show of force, and we shouldn't lose sight of that in the face of internal divisions.

Finally, as a postscript, here are a few more links that we've found helpful for thinking about questions of "violence," property destruction, tactics, and strategies. These interventions are valuable and to some extent model the kind of conversations we need to be having (and are in fact starting to have -- last night's GA was in this respect very useful).

14 comments:

  1. I agree that both in terms of practical use and philosophical discursive value, the Traveller's building was a good idea. I wholeheartedly supported occupying the building. But at the same time, the proximity to the camp put people at risk who knew nothing of the occupation until the last minute. That's just not right.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That may very well be true, and I think it would be a useful point to discuss in the context of tactics/strategies. The point of this post, however, is less to judge the effectiveness of the tactics of property destruction and building occupation than to counter the baseless assertion (which is circulating around all over the place these days) that these tactics are somehow not "representative" of Occupy Oakland.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous,
    Is there a meaningful difference between actions taken by Occupy Oakland itself and actions taken by others with whom Occupy Oakland is in solidarity with? I think there is. And while the declaration of solidarity was aimed at the latter, on my reading, while the Travelers aid building action was more like the former. After all, when you've already moved Occupy Oakland's library into the building, it's pretty clear that this is an action being taken by the occupation itself, not being simply *supported* by the Occupation (which is what I had taken the declaration to be). The complaint, then, is that an action was taken on behalf of Occupy Oakland without the vast majority of participants having any idea it was happening, or any participation in the decision. This comment for example, speaks for the non-inclusive way the action came down:

    "A huge number of library books and zines were taken from the Oscar Grant Plaza Library, presumably for the occupation, and are now MIA. Can someone please report on this, and in the future, can we try to coordinate better amongst affinity groups? The group who set op the library wished there had been better lines of communication on this..."

    You can disagree with this argument, of course, but it's not "baseless." A small number of people made a decision whose repercussions affected others, as all decisions inevitably will. Living in a community means being respectful of the people whose proximity makes your decisions matter to them and theirs of yours. My biggest problem with all of this is that -- in the name of effectiveness -- something quite tangible was sacrificed: inclusive process. Sometimes that sacrifice might be necessary, maybe, but I made the argument that I did because I feel like an inclusive process is the only way to *be* effective. That the building occupation did not succeed, after all, is not completely irrelevant.

    In any case, I'm glad ReclaimUC is bringing us back to the actual language of the resolutions -- though I don't read them quite the same way --
    but that's a different problem than the thing Omar is bringing up, which is that no action is ever truly "autonomous." I would have thought this was exactly the point of the entire movement, but in this case it's worth repeating: it is a problem when decisions are made on behalf of people who have no stake in those decisions. And instead of declaring that anyone who feels misrepresented in this way -- and read the indybay comment field for a sense of how many people that is -- is making baseless assertions, we all need to be better at listening to each other. For those of us who do not self-identify as anarchists, that means being respectful of the important presence, value, and stake that anarchists have in this movement. But the same is true the other way around.

    ReplyDelete
  4. for "it is a problem when decisions are made on behalf of people who have no stake in those decisions." I meant to say "it is a problem when decisions are made on behalf of people who have no SAY in those decisions.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Is there a meaningful difference between actions taken by Occupy Oakland itself and actions taken by others with whom Occupy Oakland is in solidarity with?

    This may be the key question facing the Occupy movement (whatever that is) today. What are the contours of this collective "we" that has constituted itself over the past month? Of course there are different ways to answer this question. But the (admittedly problematic) rhetoric of "the 99%" would seem to suggest that at the very least it is based on an expansive potential that is at once spatial and temporal (the ever-increasing growth of the "mass movement"). "Occupy Oakland supports the efforts of people in all Oakland neighborhoods to reclaim abandoned properties for use to meet their own immediate needs." As you note, I read this statement in pretty broad terms. But even if you read it as assuming a divide between Occupy Oakland proper and an external body of "neighborhood" occupiers, there is nevertheless an underlying premise that the divide is a temporary one, that the work of solidarity will inevitably overcome and even erase it (while in no way erasing the heterogeneity of the new collective body). Occupy Oakland thus reconstitutes itself in each act of solidarity. That is one way of reading the elusive promise of the 99%.

    The complaint, then, is that an action was taken on behalf of Occupy Oakland without the vast majority of participants having any idea it was happening, or any participation in the decision.

    In itself, that doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. Remember, to begin with, that the GA explicitly "encourages autonomous action." But you also have to acknowledge that the general strike cannot be read as one single thing but rather a multiplicity of self-organized actions. Did the vast majority of participants in Occupy Oakland plan the feminist bloc or even know that it was going to happen? Did they all come together to plan the anticapitalist march? Did everyone decide together to ride bikes to the port? Was there a general agreement as to how UC Berkeley students would participate? No. These actions were organized autonomously. Obviously nothing is completely autonomous, but in logistical terms there is something to be said for having a small group of people decide on and plan an action. Again, what is the nature of this collective "we" that has been constituted in and around Oscar Grant Plaza?

    Of course there are tactical and strategic questions that arise in such a context, and I agree that they have to be addressed. So, for example, if there really are materials missing from the library, that is a problem. But do we know how that decision was made? It seems like what is being suggested is that the people who planned the occupation went and stole the library materials. But what if it was some folks from the library committee who decided to bring them?

    ReplyDelete
  6. instead of declaring that anyone who feels misrepresented in this way . . . is making baseless assertions, we all need to be better at listening to each other

    Completely agree that there has to be some discussion of tactics and strategies, and it would be great if some real listening actually took place. In particular, people who are quick to condemn certain actions in simplistic terms of "violence" need to take a step back, stop judging, and listen. And the "anarchists" (whatever that means) should do that too. People shouldn't be shouted down at the GAs, for example, nor should people be physically threatened for being identified as "provocateurs" (both of these have happened).

    That said, I stand by what I wrote above -- it is baseless and revisionist for people to suggest that certain tactics that they dislike are somehow not part of Occupy Oakland. In addition to the statement on occupations, the GA's statement on diversity of tactics is quite clear and acknowledges that different people may wish to take different kinds of actions in different circumstances: "We should be tolerant of each other’s approaches and respect different forms of protest, while being aware of our privilege or lack of it, especially when engaging with the police."

    ReplyDelete
  7. @ZZ: There were all kinds of autonomous actions taken all day long on Nov. 2, from the very first marches of the morning. Flying pickets that went into workplaces and told the owners they were going to stay there unless they gave the workers a day off (these worked, by the way), blockades of banks, blockades at the port, the targeted property destruction undertaken during the anticapitalist march. The reason, I think, why people make an issue of the transparency around the occupation is because it failed. But that failure was not at all due to the lack of transparency (and resultant lack of support), in my view. There were close to 500 people on 16th St. The reason why the building was lost was not because it was done clandestinely or in such a way that masses of people couldn't participate (indeed, more people participated than normally attend a GA) but because the police chose to raid it in quite significant numbers, and once again use teargas, flashbangs and rubber bullets, a choice that shocked me, given the flogging they had received by the press the week before. . .In general, I think that people have a tendency to blame themselves or others for the failure of actions like this, when often there is little that could have been done to make them succeed. (They write counterfactuals in order to imagine themselves as more powerful, against a repressive state, than they actually are. *If only we had just . . . *

    ReplyDelete
  8. So much for a reading of the tactical situation, and on to the much more substantive political-philosophical point. Your position seems to be that every individual associated with OO ought to be able to discuss and decide upon associated actions through the GA. This is not an outrageous position, nor an uncommon one. But it is a position that *has never been taken by the GA itself*. It is, in fact, one interpretation of what the GA is for, how direct democracy works, and what sorts of decisions fall under its purview. There are many ways in which these structures might mediate the relationship between collective and individual, or collective and minority group. And since these aren't obvious, I think it's false to assume that one position or another has already been taken. Now, we can have an argument about what the default positions is, but it would still be an argument, not a given, and therefore, I think it's false to assume, for now, that autonomous groups are obligated to allow you the opportunity to consider action x or action y through the GA. Personally, I think the idea that the collective -- ie, the GA -- should mediate every action undertaken in the zone of OO to be an oppressive interpretation of the process, and it's one of the reasons why I oppose the notion of democracy, direct or otherwise, as a political system (as opposed to a method for coordination or resolving disputes). Indeed, I happen to believe (and I'm not alone in this) that there are other, superior relationships between individuals and groups that don't reify the collective as a thing standing over and against the individual. . . And by this I'm not imagining some vulgar individualism in which "everyone does what they wants."

    Does this mean one has no responsibility to consider the effects of one's actions? Of course not. Omar feels like the camp itself was put at risk. This is an understandable position. But it's also worth considering why those who opened the building perhaps thought there would be no risk to the camp -- Mayor Quan had all but admitted she wouldn't move against the camp. It's clear that a raid of the camp would be (and still is) a political decision, not one that could be made by the police on the spot. This turned out to be true, even if in the aftermath of the raid many were swept up in the north plaza trying to keep the police from advancing. (I think it's obvious, in retrospect, that they just wanted to clear the streets and make sure no one was capable of retaking the building). But why do we blame this on the occupiers and not the cops, cops who, even after international condemnation, used overwhelming and oppressive force once again? That they were able to justify their own actions by reversing cause and effect, and suggesting that they were responding to the rioting which their response in fact caused, doesn't mean we can't be smarter. . .

    ReplyDelete
  9. excuse me -- "everyone does what they want*

    ReplyDelete
  10. Violence discredits the Occupy movement and distracts from the victory of getting tens of thousands of people to the street. Vandalism and violence have become the message; this is about so much more.

    The police are bad enough unprovoked. Taunting them is childish.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yeah, except that the behavior of the police means that it's actually impossible to provoke them. The fact that they beat and tear gas people who are doing nothing whatsoever to actively resist them pretty much discredits your thoroughly offensive idea that those who do resist are somehow responsible for the horrible things they do. The police are a danger to all, peaceful or not. They don't need provocation. They provoke themselves. And people like you serve to divert blame away from them. . .

    And no, "violence" doesn't distract from any victory, Windy. In most places in the world, violence is a regular feature of social movements, which keep on growing despite it. Remember Egypt? The barricades, the molotovs, the dozens of charred police stations? Or did you just see the Disney version?

    If Americans insist on their movement being rigorously and entirely peaceful -- rather than peaceful some of the time -- then that itself is the limit to the movement, and a signal of its imminent demise, not those who fight back when attacked.

    ReplyDelete
  12. @Anonymous - While my instinct is to agree with the sentiment of vilifying the police without end, especially given their recent actions, it doesn't seem to match with reality. There are some decent cops. If you're staking out a position that assumes the police as guilty in every circumstance then not only will you be isolating yourself from a vast majority of people sympathetic to this movement, but you will have effectively removed any opportunity for redemption. How would the police (and I almost can't believe I'm considering this line of thought) even begin to make amends if you've framed their entire existence as indefensible?

    Also, it's striking to me that someone who has defended certain actions by referring to their permission in the GA's resolutions would then turn around and plainly state their distrust of "democracy, direct or otherwise, as a political system". How are we to take the opinion of someone who justifies actions based on a method of resolution creation that they themselves don't seem to put any stake in?

    Finally, the notion of "peaceful some of the time" seems inherently prone to subjective debate. How can we know what is the time for peace and when not? To my mind the only bulwark against continual reinterpretation is a set of principles that the movement can act in defense of. Without some relatively clear principle(s) being defended, then every individual will be able to align and justify their actions using the same vague language. For example, the idea of "acting in self-defense" is acceptable to most people because the idea of "self-preservation" is a clear principle (And even actions of self-defense are qualified using a standard of "reasonable force". This is why running over someone with your car after they only hit the hood is disgusting and inexcusable.) I see no reason why principles cannot be adopted that reflect the core values of the movement (whatever they might be). These principles can then be standards for the interpretation of any action. (Isn’t this what “solidarity” ultimately means, a unifying set of concepts that people sign on to?)

    ReplyDelete
  13. How would the police . . . even begin to make amends if you've framed their entire existence as indefensible?

    Quit. Join us on the other side of the barricades. Help us fight the pigs.

    ReplyDelete
  14. "Also, it's striking to me that someone who has defended certain actions by referring to their permission in the GA's resolutions would then turn around and plainly state their distrust of "democracy, direct or otherwise, as a political system". How are we to take the opinion of someone who justifies actions based on a method of resolution creation that they themselves don't seem to put any stake in?"

    Well, you didn't understand what I wrote. What I distrust is a sense of consensus procedure as a political system rather than a means of resolving disputes. There is a maximalist interpretation of the GA that sees it as a sovereign body to which all and everything must be submitted rather than a method for resolving disputes, with limited purview (or at least a specified purview). I happen to think that the latter interpretation makes the GA into, well, a state and a machine for unfreedom and I am resolutely antistatist. But I am quite happy to use these methods as a means for resolving disputes or coordinating with other individuals or factions when a formal method is useful. Just because I may turn to the services of a mediator in one instance doesn't mean I won't resort to other methods of resolving a situation or none at all in another situation. You suggest that this is inconsistent. So be it. Consistency is not a big priority for me, at least not one I'm willing to sacrifice other values for.

    Of course, there's nothing stopping the GA from adopting principles as you've indicated. It would be nice if everybody just understood a limited scope to GA powers as the default state but unfortunately they don't, so decisions like the ones referenced above like respect for autonomous action or diversity of tactics are ways for people like myself to establish the *limits* to the GA's power. In a consensus model, such limits are, in fact, unavoidable, because not everything can be consensed upon.

    None of this even touches on the much thornier problem which is that there is no method of enforcement -- no cops, no jails, no system of punishment (except expulsion, and even that only weakly held).

    ReplyDelete