Comments - The Wisdom of Nonviolence - Occupy Cafe2024-03-29T09:03:13Zhttp://www.occupycafe.org/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=6451976%3ABlogPost%3A4544&xn_auth=noDamn comment word limits!
the…tag:www.occupycafe.org,2011-11-12:6451976:Comment:78122011-11-12T01:59:01.738ZRobert Riversonghttp://www.occupycafe.org/profile/RobertRiversong
<p>Damn comment word limits!</p>
<p>the article continues <a href="http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/11/10/an-open-letter-to-the-occupy-movement/">http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/11/10/an-open-letter-to-the-occupy-movement/</a></p>
<p>Damn comment word limits!</p>
<p>the article continues <a href="http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/11/10/an-open-letter-to-the-occupy-movement/">http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/11/10/an-open-letter-to-the-occupy-movement/</a></p> Tikkun Daily November 10, 201…tag:www.occupycafe.org,2011-11-12:6451976:Comment:73782011-11-12T01:51:35.054ZRobert Riversonghttp://www.occupycafe.org/profile/RobertRiversong
<div class="byline body_" id="byline"><em><a href="http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily" target="_blank" title="Tikkun Daily">Tikkun Daily</a> </em>November 10, 2011</div>
<div class="headline" id="headline"><h1>An Open Letter to the Occupy Movement<span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal;"> </span></h1>
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<div class="body_" id="the_body"><p>by Starhawk, Lisa Fithian, and Lauren Ross (from the Alliance of Community Trainers)…</p>
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<div id="byline" class="byline body_"><em><a target="_blank" href="http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily" title="Tikkun Daily">Tikkun Daily</a> </em>November 10, 2011</div>
<div id="headline" class="headline"><h1>An Open Letter to the Occupy Movement<span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal;"> </span></h1>
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<div id="the_body" class="body_"><p>by Starhawk, Lisa Fithian, and Lauren Ross (from the Alliance of Community Trainers)</p>
<div><div id="attachment_27343" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/wp-content/uploads/wall-street.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-27343" title="wall street" src="http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/wp-content/uploads/wall-street-300x199.jpg" width="300" height="199"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Long Island Rose / Creative Commons</p>
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<p>The Occupy movement has had enormous successes in the short time since September when activists took over a square near Wall Street. It has attracted hundreds of thousands of active participants, spawned occupations in cities and towns all over North America, changed the national dialogue and garnered enormous public support. It’s even, on occasion, gotten good press!</p>
<p>Now we are wrestling with the question that arises again and again in movements for social justice – how to struggle. Do we embrace nonviolence, or a ‘diversity of tactics?’ If we are a nonviolent movement, how do we define nonviolence? Is breaking a window violent?</p>
<p>We write as a trainers’ collective with decades of experience, from the anti-Vietnam protests of the sixties through the strictly nonviolent antinuclear blockades of the seventies, in feminist, environmental and anti-intervention movements and the global justice mobilizations of the late ’90s and early ’00s. We embrace many labels, including feminist, anti-racist, eco-feminist and anarchist. We have many times stood shoulder to shoulder with black blocs in the face of the riot cops, and we’ve been tear-gassed, stun-gunned, pepper sprayed, clubbed, and arrested.<span id="more-25626"> </span></p>
<p>While we’ve participated in many actions organized with a diversity of tactics, we do not believe that framework is workable for the Occupy Movement. Setting aside questions of morality or definitions of ‘violence’ and ‘nonviolence’ – for no two people define ‘violence’ in the same way – we ask the question:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>What framework can we organize in that will build on our strengths, allow us to grow, embrace a wide diversity of participants, and make a powerful impact on the world?</strong></p>
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<p>‘Diversity of tactics’ becomes an easy way to avoid wrestling with questions of strategy and accountability. It lets us off the hook from doing the hard work of debating our positions and coming to agreements about how we want to act together. It becomes a code for ‘anything goes,’ and makes it impossible for our movements to hold anyone accountable for their actions.</p>
<p>The Occupy movement includes people from a broad diversity of backgrounds, life experiences and political philosophies. Some of us want to reform the system and some of us want to tear it down and replace it with something better. Our one great point of agreement is our call for transparency and accountability. We stand against the corrupt institutions that broker power behind closed doors. We call to account the financial manipulators that have bilked billions out of the poor and the middle classes.</p>
<p>Just as we call for accountability and transparency, we ourselves must be accountable and transparent. Some tactics are incompatible with those goals, even if in other situations they might be useful, honorable or appropriate. We can’t be transparent behind masks. We can’t be accountable for actions we run away from. We can’t maintain the security culture necessary for planning and carrying out attacks on property and also maintain the openness that can continue to invit</p>
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</div> "When Creating a Culture of P…tag:www.occupycafe.org,2011-11-11:6451976:Comment:79262011-11-11T22:37:33.575ZDavid Eggletonhttp://www.occupycafe.org/profile/DavidEggleton
<div class="xg_user_generated"><p>"When <b>Creating a Culture of Peace</b> was a program of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the <a href="http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=sMCH9QyOEXyr%2FTmTDeNxdrbPw%2BmrLbfN" rel="nofollow"><b>Pact for Peaceful Witness</b></a> was created to encourage nonviolent action and witness, especially in the build-up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.</p>
<p>Creating a Culture of Peace, now an independent organization, has…</p>
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<div class="xg_user_generated"><p>"When <b>Creating a Culture of Peace</b> was a program of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=sMCH9QyOEXyr%2FTmTDeNxdrbPw%2BmrLbfN"><b>Pact for Peaceful Witness</b></a> was created to encourage nonviolent action and witness, especially in the build-up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.</p>
<p>Creating a Culture of Peace, now an independent organization, has <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=BxeTA%2FvRWF7%2BD5pyz4F7yLbPw%2BmrLbfN" class="ext">trainers across the country</a> -- please <a rel="nofollow" href="mailto:janet.chisholm@creatingacultureofpeace.org?subject=Nonviolence%20trainings%20(via%20FOR)">contact Janet Chisholm at CCP</a> if you're interested in scheduling nonviolence trainings in your Occupy encampment or your community!</p>
<p>In addition to the religious peace fellowships included in the document, many other <a rel="nofollow" href="http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=6xKd7jbpr364eHA95VV4O7bPw%2BmrLbfN">FOR affiliates</a> also offer nonviolence training. FOR ally <b>The Ruckus Society</b> offers <a rel="nofollow" href="http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ET2SwUm1ZU2ksPSn8p%2BeO7bPw%2BmrLbfN">trainings in nonviolent action</a>, and Ruckus has been deeply involved in many local Occupy encampments."</p>
<p>[from a message FoR sent me today]</p>
</div> Dave, I'm sure there's more o…tag:www.occupycafe.org,2011-11-03:6451976:Comment:50452011-11-03T05:18:06.707ZGary Horvitzhttp://www.occupycafe.org/profile/GaryHorvitz
<p>Dave, I'm sure there's more out there on the issue you mention. And there will be more as the movement matures--as I hope it will. in any case, I know there are plenty who think as you do.</p>
<p>Dave, I'm sure there's more out there on the issue you mention. And there will be more as the movement matures--as I hope it will. in any case, I know there are plenty who think as you do.</p> Thanks for posting this, Gary…tag:www.occupycafe.org,2011-11-02:6451976:Comment:46952011-11-02T11:12:35.374ZDavid Eggletonhttp://www.occupycafe.org/profile/DavidEggleton
<p>Thanks for posting this, Gary. I only regret that the author did not touch on the value of a parallel constructive program to channel energies, generate goodwill and more or less eliminate misperceptions.</p>
<p>There is work, both life-affirming and life-enhancing, to be done in every community, even if the big inhumane system is unwilling to pay people to do it.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting this, Gary. I only regret that the author did not touch on the value of a parallel constructive program to channel energies, generate goodwill and more or less eliminate misperceptions.</p>
<p>There is work, both life-affirming and life-enhancing, to be done in every community, even if the big inhumane system is unwilling to pay people to do it.</p>