Reportback: The 99%Spring Training for Trainers and the
Plot to Coopt #Occupy

by Charles Lechner
March 25, 2012

http://tech.nycga.net/2012/03/25/reportback-the-99spring-training-for-trainers-and-the-plot-to-coopt-occupy/


This past weekend I attended the Training for Trainers
(T4T) of the 99% Spring. This is being organized by a very
large and powerful coalition in which MoveOn is one of the
larger partners, as is the AFL-CIO. The 99% Spring action
plan is fairly straightforward: train 100,000 people in
non-violent direct action (NVDA).

On the one hand, this is obviously a progressive agenda
that most occupiers would agree with. On the other,
occupiers have struggled with the fear of cooptation to an
exhausting degree. I've participated in online and in
person conversations about the 99%Spring, and the
critiques fall into three main arguments:

MoveOn and the DC based labor movement bureaucracy can't
be trusted as they are committed to working within the
system and for Democratic candidates.

The 99%Spring uses occupy inspired themes and memes ("the
99%") but without doing the hard work of actually working
with Occupy Wall Street.

The overall effort seems utterly disconnected from the
nationwide May First plans that many (most?) occupiers are
actively working towards, which are also referenced with
"spring" language.

This isn't it's own thing, but rather me making fun of how
the nervous nellies respond to larger forces in the
political world: "Halp! We're being coopted! The
Democratic Party is both capable and interested in
implementing a well thought out plan to make us serve
their interests!"

Speaking as an occupier most active in the Tech Ops
Working Group of the NYC General Assembly, my first
response to the 99%Spring was envy. Why aren't we
initiating, leading or participating in this kind of
serious coalition work? But that's unfair. We are working
on May First actions, which in New York include a march
carried out together with labor and the immigrants' rights
movements. What we aren't doing is training 100,000
activists and organizers in nonviolent direct action. So
why not welcome an effort that is doing that?

The T4T Training

I'm just back from two days of training for trainers, and
this is my verdict: the Training for Trainers was
fantastic. Hundreds of people in attended the same
training as me in New York, and thousands more took part
across the country.

The folks attending the training represented a cross
section of our country's progressive, 99% movement. I met
community organizers, peace activists, union members,
occupiers, and many more. The group was inter-
generational, racially diverse, gender balanced, and
included folks from all NYC boroughs, Long Island, CT, NJ,
and upstate. My impression is that most are experienced
organizers, but from many different traditions and
organizational homes.

The curriculum had three parts:

The first is your basic Marshall Ganz story of self/us.
This is training delivered for years now at countless
political and organizational homes, including my old
synagogue. For those who don't know, Ganz started his
career at the United Farm Workers, working with Cesar
Chavez.

The second is your basic nonviolent direct action
training, with roots in Gene Sharp, Training for Change,
and the Direct Action Group that emerged post-Seattle in
the anti-globalization movement. It wasn't out of step
with anything that say, Starhawk or Lisa Fithian or the
Ruckus society would have done.

The third part was the story of the 1% vs. the 99%. It's
basic training in understanding the economic crisis and
our collective crisis as a country. This is more or less
the kind of training being used by unions and community
organizing groups around the country for the last 2-3
years.

There was zero, none, nada discussion of the Obama
campaign, electoral politics, the Democratic Party, or
MoveOn. To sum up then, the critiques against the
99%Spring are false. Those who lobbed uninformed critiques
are now in a position of having to apologize and take back
their words or lose a certain amount of credibility. The
'proved' that MoveOn provided real support for an amazing,
collaborative effort resting on principles and teachings
widely used inside and outside the Occupy movement.

The Larger Context

Questions might still be asked about the ultimate purpose
of MoveOn, unions, and the long list of community
organizing groups that make up the 99%Spring effort. One
of the most important is: Where is this coming from? What
might it be going?

The information I have is based in part on conversations
with folks who know better than me. Sorry about no
sources, but here goes:

Liz Butler of the Movement Strategy Center is one of the
prime movers and shakers of this effort.

The overall strategy seems to be similar or based on what
Stephen Lerner (formerly of SEIU) was articulating in a
series of talks about "creating a crisis for the rich." In
a nutshell, it proposes mass direct action aimed broadly
at the 1% in order to force them to make concessions.
When we talk about 'demands' or 'goals' there are laundry
lists galore. Winning strikes, raising taxes, winning
elections, targeting specific corporations, etc. But
behind all those disparate goals lies a framework:
increasing the share of wealth that flows to the 99% and
reducing the portion controlled by the 1%. That's the
prize. And large parts of the power structure (i.e.,
Democrats and even some corporations) think it's a good
thing too.

Getting MoveOn to be part of this coalition isn't as
simple as it looks. MoveOn is large enough to do whatever
it wants without local partners, and for a long time
that's what it did. But the last few years have seen
greater efforts to partner, with Van Jones' Rebuild the
Dream as the shining example But the 99%Spring is an
example of a large powerful organization placing resources
in the service of a pretty radical agenda and allowing
others to take the lead.

Others that include Domestic Workers United, a labor
rights organization representing working class women of
color. One of their staff members, Harmony Goldberg, was a
lead trainer this weekend. If you think Goldberg is a
MoveOn/DemParty dupe, please shoot yourself right now.
Whew! You're still here! Thank god.

Where Does That Leave Us?

Based on my experiences this weekend, all I can say is -
sign up for the trainings to take place on April 9-16.
Help organize more trainings. Invite as many occupiers to
attend as possible. Consider the advantage of influencing
all those moderate, not radical enough people likely to
attend and how our superior political praxis will surely
attract them to let go of their electoral illusions.

And then, after considering such a vision, let it go,
because it's bullshit. The training is quite good. Go
because it's great to be on the same page for a moment
with eager, enthusiastic 99 percenters who want to make
this great land of ours a better one. Drop your defenses
(if you have any) and rest assured no one is talking about
elections. Let's focus on the original OWS vision: mass,
creative, effective direct action against the banks, Wall
Streeters and political forces that drove our economy off
a cliff and want to charge us for getting back on the
precipice again.

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