Real Talk, Not Hearsay, on the 99% Spring

by JA Myerson, Truthout News Analysis 

Truthout.org
April 12, 2012

Copyright, Truthout.org. Reprinted with permission
http://truth-out.org/news/item/8489-real-talk-not-hearsay-on-the-99-percent-spring

The 99% Spring initiative has generated considerable hubbub
amongst occupiers, a group famously apprehensive about
liberal organizations, especially ones that have exhibited
close ties with the Democratic Party. Chief among suspicious
organizations is MoveOn, which, because of its massive
communication sphere, is thought of as the primary producer
of the 99% Spring, which aims to conduct direct action
training for 100,000 activists this month.

In fact, MoveOn is just one sponsoring group of many. It is
joined by labor unions and activist/advocacy groups focusing
on the environment, civil rights, immigrants' rights,
women's rights, peace, energy, poverty, students' rights,
and a host of other issues. Some of these organizations
(AFL-CIO, Greenpeace) have long histories of engagement with
"establishment" politics, while others (Code Pink, The
Ruckus Society) are prominent gadflies in the political
sphere. Van Jones, the face of coalition member Rebuild the
Dream, may be conflict averse, but 350.org remains
instrumental in organizing the civil disobedience
responsible for halting the construction of the climate-
killing Keystone XL pipeline.

The problem is that the misgiving is largely based on
hearsay. My good friends Allison Kilkenny at The Nation and
Natasha Lennard at Salon have recently published articles
compiling occupiers' reactions to the 99% Spring (Kilkenny
even solicited my reaction). One occupier compared the
initiative to "an 80-year old dude throwing on a toupee and
trying to be a pick-up artist." Another, Jeff Smith, who is,
full disclosure, a friend, warns that it risks
"misdirecting, co-opting and ultimately trivializing" Occupy
Wall Street. Mike King, writing for CounterPunch, worries
that it will "defang that movement."

This anxiety raises a number of obvious questions. In what
sense is this a co-optation? Which component is Occupy Wall
Street entitled to but the 99% Spring coalition not? That
percentage? The season? The idea of direct action training?

Reactions are important, but it's not as though we haven't
got access to an outline of what the 99% Spring actually
consists of. I spoke with Mark Provost, an activist with
Occupy New Hampshire, who made headlines this winter by
challenging Mitt Romney on corporate personhood. Provost was
one of eighty-five activists who made the trip to
Washington, DC, to receive 99% Spring facilitation training.
One week later, he attended a regional training session,
identical to the national one, in Boston.

Provost indicated that among the activities planned for the
seven-hour program are a teach-in on the economy; an excerpt
from the documentary "The Heist" ("about our regulatory
institutions and the political economy of neo-liberalism,"
as Provost described it); a session investigating race,
gender and other identity-based inequalities; a group share
of each person's "99% story" of economic hardship (à la the
famous tumblr); and role-playing hassle lines for personal
preparation for mass confrontation with coal companies,
banks, or other corporate forces. "It's true that it isn't
about civil disobedience. This is more vision, strategy,
tactics, goals and power," said Provost.

"The whole objective of 99% Spring is not training for
training's sake; it's supposed to segue right into actual
actions," Provost said, noting that the targets, actions and
scenarios are not suggested by MoveOn or any other
organization. "It's all participant-generated. The group
conceives of the whole thing, creates working groups, etc."
To that end, there is time for local action planning, best-
practice sharing and meeting the other participants.

The other participants are not the sort of milquetoast
lemmings that would justify occupiers' disquiet. "At one
point, they said, 'Stand up if you have two years or less
experience organizing or being an activists,'" said Provost.
"About five stood. A lot of people got up at ten, fifteen,
twenty-five, thirty and there was one last woman with
thirty-five years of experience doing this. They're not
spring chickens that can be led to slaughter by MoveOn or
anybody." What's more, they were radical, by and large.
"When they asked 'What do you want to see?' answers like
'health care,' 'good jobs' and 'no debt' came up," said
Provost. "But when someone mentioned 'an end to capitalism,'
everyone started hooting and hollering."

Union members from the Communications Workers of America
(CWA) and the United Auto Workers (UAW) were well
represented at the DC training, said Provost, as were
members of 350.org, the environmental advocacy organization.
What was absent, said Provost, was the Democratic Party. "It
wasn't partisan whatsoever," he said. "I don't vote for
Democrats; I've never voted for Democrats. That's the
biggest misconception. This was more tools and techniques.
It's scalable, but because it's scalable, it's also top-down
and I think that's where the occupiers of any political
persuasion are going to have the biggest point of
contention."

Not everyone is as pleased as Provost. Blogger "Nomad New
York" attended a 99% Spring event and was disappointed,
indicating that while "really amazing people showed up here
tonight," it was a "total fail" that attempted "to provide
an alternative" to Occupy Wall Street. A longer Blog post
details Nomad New York's full experience.

However, if this can "defang the movement," it will be an
indication that the movement lacked fangs to begin with. Is
that what occupiers are actually worried about?

This article may not be republished without permission from
Truthout.

==========

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate