Copies of comments from Corrente

Corrente has been down for a week and I wanted to link these three Corrente comments, so I'm reposting copies here.
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Corrente comment #1 posted by bungalowkitchens. Retrieved from Google cache.

I am in Oakland

By bungalowkitchens on Sat, 11/05/2011 - 12:49am

although I was not there in person (too many RL demands- and that's making me cranky because I would really like to be down there). I'm getting drowned in emails from the neighborhood listserv (I live a couple miles east of downtown), which could pretty much be summed up in this sentiment from one of them: "Anarchists can go to hell!" So at least among people in my neighborhood, the take is that these people are hurting the cause. I suspect the people vandalizing stuff are the same people who turned the Oscar Grant demonstrations into riots, and regardless of whether they are young testosterone-addled idiots, agent provocateurs, or cops in disguise- or all of the above (since it's not hard to get a testosterone-addled idiot to trash something, and the police save money on undercover cops that way. And yes, I watched the video, and a few of them were women. Women can be idiots too.)-they are definitely a fringe element and I think most people are disgusted with their tactics. I was pleased to see a couple of them being wrestled to the ground by other protestors, and protesters trying to keep them away from the buildings, and yelling things like "You're better than this!". But this sort of thing is going to be an ongoing problem for all of the Occupations.

I was so thrilled to see so many people marching peacefully and shutting down the port (see my earlier comment about ants). Oakland so rarely gets any positive press, and even though we have a lot of bravado about it, being dissed all the time gets old. Not to mention we know how much money it's costing us every time there's another "police riot" or whatever you want to call it. One of the downtown businesses damaged by the idiots was Oaklandish- a gallery that sells Oakland-centric merchandise. I believe they are a collective. After the general strike on Wednesday, many Oaklanders are making a very specific effort to patronize the local downtown businesses that have been impacted by the occupation. It's the least we can do.

Unfortunately, I see the tone of both the local and national media starting to turn against us, and all because of the violent actions of some.

Conformists die, but heretics live on forever.
Elbert Hubbard
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Corrente comment #2, posted by myself on 11/07/2011, retrieved from Google cache.

Violent flanks reduce participation/support

The term "radical" in the graph above actually means "violent", as in using violent tactics (i.e. the term should not be misinterpreted as meaning politically radical).

This is a graph from an analysis looking at participation in popular movements where only nonviolent tactics were used versus predominantly nonviolent campaigns that contained a flank using violence. The number of people that ended up participating in purely nonviolent campaigns is far higher. Analyses also suggest that there's a trend toward reduced success in campaigns that develop a violent flank (though the difference is not statistically significant, probably because the relatively low number of campaigns included in the analysis provided insufficient statistical power). Campaigns that remain entirely nonviolent in the face of violence from authorites (as opposed to those that develop a violent flank in response to violence from authorities) also appear to generate more democratic outcomes.

My primary point here is that empirically, deployment of black bloc tactics will reduce mass participation in and support for Occupy. And that's essentially consistent with a comment here at Corrente from Oaklander bungalowkitchens on Saturday [see above]: "I'm getting drowned in emails from the neighborhood listserv (I live a couple miles east of downtown), which could pretty much be summed up in this sentiment from one of them: 'Anarchists can go to hell!' So at least among people in my neighborhood, the take is that these people are hurting the cause....they are definitely a fringe element and I think most people are disgusted with their tactics."

[I'd prefer not to get mired here in tired semantic debates about the correct meaning of the term "violence". My point is merely that perception of certain BB tactics as violent (in contrast to nonviolent tactics or even Tute Blanche type tactics) would reduce public participation - and high levels of participation are essential for success of tactics such as port closures and strikes.]
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Corrente comment #3, posted by myself on11/14/11. Couldn't find a cached copy, so comment has been reconstructed here:


Since Nov 3, I'd seen various OO folks arguing that Black Bloc tactics had not cost OO support. That they were strong, and still had the full backing of the community.

E.g.
GonzOakland tweet from a few days ago:
#occupyoakland GA Speaker: "We are really strong, we can do whatever we want." ... Wrong.

From DailyKos comments

Mindtrain:
And I would add further, union support for OO Has been endangered by how the black bloc issue has been dealt with. I really don't think you are in reality about how much popular support OO has lost over the past few days alone.

mic check oakland:
What do you base your assertion on?

Mindtrain:
It's not a fringe issue if we're losing support
And we are. It is also not just in my mind nor those at the camp who are concered or were concerned nor any number of people within the occupation. This is not a MSM concoction. This is something from within the Occupation itself. To paint it as other is wishful thinking, dishonesty, or deliberate deception.

As for "my criteria," I wasn't aware that I had any such thing, other than actually dealing with the issue (which OO has not done).

It's fine if you want to be in denial about the problem, but don't blame me when you ask if there is support for a large scale coordinated action spearheaded by OO (in part) and I gave you an honest answer.m

mic check oakland:
I guess the feeling around the camp was that black bloc was an issue, but not as much of an issue as police violently beating members of Occupy. Also, I haven't got any sense that we were hemorrhaging support since the people of Oakland appear to support our perspective and we continue to have the most diverse group in the nation. OO doesn't have professional spokepeople so if you are getting your information from cable/national news, chances are that you're just hearing the point of view of the city government and local chamber of congress. I believe that part of what catilinus was referring to.

Factually, it's hard to know what our actual support is from residents of Oakland without polling data. And without that we're all just left to speculate until the camp is removed again by the police. If it is and we draw popular support, we will persist in retaking the camp. If nobody shows up and the camp is crushed than we probably won't have the numbers for another port strike.

I suppose we'll all have to wait and see. Thanks for your input.

Retyef:
I can only tell you my perspective
I attended the meeting after Scott Olsen got put in hospital by the cops, where a general strike was called, and marched half way to Berkeley and back.

I went to the (much smaller) gathering that discussed the peace proposal and voted overwhelmingly against it

I don't intend to go back if my participation simply acts as cover for those who commit violence.


Well, how did this all work out for those supporting inclusion of Black Bloc tactics?

October 25 - Typical crowd estimates for protests after the first camp raid - 3000-5000 people
Full backing for OO from multiple unions
OO GA that called the general strike - 1607 votes caste
At least 1,000 protesters held a candlelight vigil for Scott Olsen at Frank Ogawa Plaza.
For the General Strike march to the port on Nov 2, there are various crowd estimates - 40,000 is a common (and reasonable) one, though potentially up to 100,000.

The eviction on the morning of October 25 was a surprise raid. The raid this morning was telegraphed far in advance. An e-mail was sent out to parents with children in a neighborhood school stating that the raid would happen Monday morning. A winter homeless shelter was opened today, a day early, to accomodate people displaced by the raid. By mid-Sunday the papers were announcing that a raid was expected Monday morning. And definitive confirmation of this (that the raid would happen about 4 AM)was provided by OPD by 10:00 PM.

OO started putting out repeated calls for reinforcements throughout the day (website, tweets, e-mail, etc.), for people to show up to resist the raid (e.g. tweet: ALL OUT TONIGHT TO DEFEND #occupyoakland. #ows #occupysf #occupycal. Raid is all but certain early hours of the AM. baycitizen.org/occupy-movemen…). Started an #iamoccupyoakland hashtag campaign to really support, etc. During the weekend there were also frantic attempts to obtain meaningful union support to prevent the raid.

insidebayarea
MT @susie_c: #occupyoakland Two ppl read long solidarity letter from Mexico. I kind of expected a bigger crowd tonight; maybe coming later

susie_c Susie Cagle
Ppl seem to have been counting on union picket line, which hasn't arrived. And still more alarmist official #OccupyOakland text msgs.

insidebayarea
RT @eloft: 4 or 5 #union members here after call out email to create picket around #oo camp in case of police raid. #ows

garonsen Gavin Aronsen
The camp's still really dead. Boots Riley is talking strategy with a small group of people on the plaza's SW side.

occupyoakland Occupy Oakland
Numbers low at occ oak and cops have just left the coloseum.

occupyoakland Occupy Oakland
Numbers low at occ oak and cops have just left the coloseum. Need support NOW.

insidebayarea
RT @EastBayExpress: ~200 people (and a big-ass drum) amassed at 14th and Broadway, waiting for the cops. "Whose streets? Our streets!" #oo
[The occupiers gathered at 14 and Broadway]

Oakland Tribune blog estimating 500 at 14th and Broadway here

susie_c Susie Cagle
#occupyoakland 150ish in the intersection at 14 and Broadway, drumming up a storm.

shoeshine Shoshana Walter
union organizers estimate about 300 ppl at 14th/bdway. #occupyoakland

insidebayarea insidebayarea
RT @ProducerBB: #occupyoakland about to go down. A lot more police than protesters this go around.

JoshuaHol Joshua Holland
Group huddled in prayer at interfaith tent. Maybe 3 dozen in intersection of bway and 14th #OO

One can also get some idea of the crowd sizes from various pics (1,2,3,4 - most of these are at 14 and Broadway, where protesters gathered; also, photo 49 in the series here is an aerial photo of 14 and Broadway). 
Also, here's video from Susie Cagle and video from OakFoSho. Since OakFoSho is walking around the area, I think it gives the best sense.

On Nov 2, success with the general strike (and port closure), and a sense that the movement was still building in Oakland (potentially even greater things to come shortly). Only 11 days later, OO evicted and able to only recruit a relatively smallish number of defenders.
From above - mic check oakland: "I suppose we'll all have to wait and see." [i.e. We'll need to wait for the next raid to determine whether support has been lost due to use of Black Bloc].
So the raid's now happened. Empirically, as an effective protest strategy, how's Black Bloc and unrestricted diversity of tactics working out?

Worth reading: "This is what the people of Oakland think of Black Block"

Poster promoting OWS

This is a poster I created to promote OWS.
I'm not an artist and design principles are not my strength - but I think it sort of works.
I've been putting it up around my hometown (Madison), and someone asked me to make it available online. So here it is.
This poster is meant to be printed on legal-size paper (I've used Kinko's for this). Download as a pdf and use all or part of it as you wish.
Fat Cats

MSM coverage of OWS Nov 17 Day of Action

The following is a long comment I was going to post at Corrente - but Corrente is down for now. And the comment appears to fit here (in response to this Cannonfire post). It was originally in response to a comment by Fran (at Corrente), who seemed distressed that the MSM coverage of the OWS "day of action" was trying hard to make OWS look violent and crazy.

[BTW I was watching Tim Poole livestream the Wall Street protest on the morning of Nov 17. While I was watching, I saw a group of kids coming through and the protesters parting (to form an open path) and calling out to make way for the kids to get through. The line of cops let them through but then appeared to cut off and block passage of one of the adults who appeared to be escorting them.]

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Fran is right. I find this interesting - and I find myself wondering exactly what's going on. Of course the 1% will go nuts. Of course there's the Producers->Editor->Reporter directives and pressure. Various filters (ala Manufacturing Consent). Etc. But it seems that EVERYONE in the MSM has begun singing from the same songbook. About a week ago Yves noted the shift in the NY Times coverage with OWS going from "heroes to goats". Only a few weeks ago, on the ABC News website, the main photo showed a (normal, slightly heroic looking) women protester captioned "I am an American".
Yes, at the very beginning OWS was subject to much MSM ridicule, and there has been plenty of negative coverage throughout, but for a time, quite a bit of the coverage was somewhat positive.

So there's been a radical negative shift in coverage, and it feels nigh universal.

For the print version of the NY Times, the only coverage of yesterdays protests (based on a brief skim) appears to consist of a photo on front page (showing an apparently violent scene, with no indication of the scope of the protest), and a minimalist story on page A22 (relatively short article with some text on A22 and remainder on A23).

For CBS Evening News
"Organizers promised tens of thousands of demonstrators disrupting business as usual here in New York. Frankly, we've seen a fraction of that number, closer to 1000....Now the main event is tonight, a rally scheduled for the Brooklyn Bridge, which of course would disrupt rush hour again. Organizers are talking about tens of thousands of protesters. However, so far Scott, the number of protesters in the hundreds."

New York Daily News took a similar tack.
When I looked the primary OWS story online today was "I WIN! Bloomberg declares victory vs.protesters. The thousands of protesters flooding lower Manhattan seemed to have worn out their welcome." Story starts with "They didn't occupy Wall Street for long, shut down the Brooklyn Bridge, or win many new fans....Their vow to get many more out in the streets fizzled, Mayor Bloomberg declared. 'Occupy Wall Street had predicted on their website that tens of thousands would be participating in today's protests, but there have been far fewer - and so far they have caused what can accurately be described as minimal disruptions to our city,' he crowed....'Today they proved that they're able to piss off the 99% by stopping them from getting home,' said City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens). 'In my opinion, this is their last gasp. With silly stunts like this, they've angered people they're supposed to represent.'"
Now of course this is the New York Daily News, so unsurprizing....but this type of narrative is everywhere.

So the narrative in sites like CBS and NY Daily News is - it all fizzled - not much happened - they just annoyed people - move along.

With ABC News:
The main headline most of yesterday was "Occupy Wall Streets 'Day of Disruption': WN Live Updates"

Now, the quote directly implies that OWS called for "A day of disruption". OWS called for a "Day of Mass Action" or "A day of action". Nowhere have I been able to find OWS or OWS participants calling for "A day of disruption" (e.g. look at occupywallst.org). There's also the headline yesterday on ABC that referred to "Occupy Wall Street's 'Day of Destruction'".
[I wrote to ABC early yesterday, but of course this was not corrected.]
The 'Day of Disruption" language appears to have started with ABC, then propagated everywhere (shaping everyone's perception of what OWS was seeking to do yesterday).

ABC and FOX also propagated the false meme that OWS wanted to shut down the subways.

There's an Occupy Wall Street "must reads" tab at the top of the main ABC News page - this leads to:"Wall St. Commuter: 'We’re All 99%. This Is Ridiculous.'" Article starts with "As part of Occupy Wall Street’s plans for its largest protest ever, occupiers may garner more disdain from the 99 percent than the 1 percent by attempting to clog New York’s subway system."  There's also the link to the video:"NYC Commuters Find Protest 'Shameful'"

The point of going to the subways was outreach (as I noted in a comment above), not an attempt to block the subways. From occupywallst.org:
LUNCH: Occupy The Subways - 3:00 p.m. We will start by Occupying Our Blocks! Then throughout the five boroughs, we will gather at 16 central subway hubs and take our own stories to the trains, using the "People's Mic".

The ABC Nightly News coverage for Nov 17 (this would have been simultaneous with the CBS News report linked above). Excerpts:
"Tonght - boiling point"...."Our reporter askes those protesters - what do you really want"
"As we come on the air tonight, the Occupy Wall Street movement is reaching a flash point"..."This is what it looks like from the sky tonight. Masses of people taking to the streets here in NY City"...."Arrests, chaos, and clashes with police"..."bracing for chaos as the portesters swarm the Brooklyn Bridge"..."ABCs Dan Harris on the front line, asking demonstrators today'Just what do you want from all of this'".."good evening to you from the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, where protesters managed to shut down both lanes of trafic on this historic span"...."This massive protest march tonight"... "Now after two months of marches and chants there remains a simple question. What's the concrete goal of this movement..."

ABC Then shows the whackiest signs and most clueless protesters.
For example, one protester: "the concrete goal is to claim the concrete. This is our park..."
The signs shown include signs such as "eradicate males", etc.

[So unlike NY Daily News and CBS, ABC's narritive is - huge turnout - massive number of protesters - man, they're whacky - I can't understand what they're protesting about - they're weird - a freakshow of crazy clueless people swarming the bridge]

On ABC News online today, the primary Occupy related headline is:
"Occupy Overtime. Who really wins in protests?" Clicking the link leads to the story "Occupy Protests Across the Country Take Toll on City Budgets" [Talking about how the protests are costing cities money, with no consideration of the wasteful, overwhelming policing overkill.]

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It seems that almost all the media is singing from the same hymnbook.
It's literally like watching the propaganda parodies in the movie Robocop.

I've been around a while, and I'm used to this kind of thing....except....
the simultaneity of the shift across all the media... and the magnitude of the shift....and the journalistic errors (yes, the MSM is really sloppy, but the degree of false/erronious material here is striking).
So I'm wondering....exactly what is happening here?
One thing that strikes me - a couple weeks ago, Democrats were looking at using OWS to run for election. That Democratic endorsement might have given OWS legitimacy in the MSM, producing some favorable coverage. Now that Democrats have largely dumped it, the Democratic-affiliated segment of the press no longer has a reason to treat it at all properly/accurately.
Also, in general people (and especially the elite) will favor perceived "winners". Since most cities appear to have been successful in evicting the Occupation encampments, this may foster the perception in the MSM that Occupy is "weak" - and out come the knives.

Thoughts on what we're seeing here?

[Update: Potentially another part of the answer - corporate lobbying machine going into overdrive.]