REPORT: First General Assembly of New York Established; Preparations for Wall St Occupation Begin

Hello everyone - Here is MY report on the August 2nd, People's Assembly on Wall Street. I emphasize MY report because it consists of my perspective alone on the activities of the day and does not represent any official record of minutes of the general assembly.

FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NEW YORK ESTABLISHED; PREPARATIONS FOR WALL ST. OCCUPATION BEGIN

Under continuous pressure by police, the first General Assembly of New York (GA-NY) made some of the initial decisions to begin organizing for an occupation of Wall Street currently planned for September 17, 2011 and to extend indefinitely.

The "People's General Assembly on Wall Street" action on August 2nd ran from approximately 4:30 - 8:30 pm. The event began with a speakout via microphone and speaker just south of the Wall Street Bull on the cobblestone section of Bowling Green Park. After approximately a half-hour, earlier than expected, the structure shifted towards convening an actual general assembly. A protest march on Wall Street was voted down by the GA on August 2nd, the symbolic date for the deadline for Congress to pass the bill raising the federal debt ceiling (which, notably, makes across the board cuts to government spending without raising any tax revenue). Each segment ran at approximately the following times: speakout from 4:30-5:30, a general assembly (GA) 5:15 - 7:15, split into working committees 7:15-7:35, and a final wrap-up GA.

Aside from one particular point of confusion and concern [which I have noted in detail in 2nd-to-last paragraph at the end of this report], the events of the August 2nd assembly on Wall Street went mostly according to plan. The activity of the first GA-NY included:

- Approx. 7:15 pm: Voted to break up into smaller committees and reconvene shortly thereafter. Committees on Outreach; Food; Technology: Social Media; Students; thoughts on the structure of the

GA were established. General Assembly reconvened after [I was not present for it].

- Voted to have next GA-NY Meeting on Tuesday, August 9 at 7:30 at Irish Hunger Memorial, 1 World Financial Centre, NYC [NOTE: initial proposed location was DC 37 and changed after the GA reconvened post-committee meetings]

- Discussion of proposals and concerns for a planned occupation of Wall Street

ACTIONS taken by the committees include [I was not present for reports from the committees, but received this information second-hand]:

- Outreach: next meeting Thursday, August 4 at 6:30 pm at the Writer's Guild, 250 Hudson St, 7th floor open to all interested in organizing outreach to NYC community groups, as well as national and international organizations

- Food: plan to have food at next GA meeting on Tuesday

- Logistics: discussed tactics for interactions with police during an occupation

- Thoughts on the GA structure: Agreement/disagreement based on hand signals; Create a progressive stack; In particular, created structure for proposals including a moment for clarification and tempature check; next, ask for discussion/blocks; then, the vote. A block breaks down concensus and moves to 2/3rd vote.

CONCERNS expressed during the GA were, with particular action and agreements reached in parentheses:

- need to establish working committees; New Yorkers Against Budget Cuts (NYABC), a coalition of unions, student groups, community organizations and activists for NYC and who were responsible for the Bloombergville occupation in June 2011 have established some organization already and could be utilized to not overlap; however, the majority of the participants in the GA-NY are not part of NYABC and may not wish to meet under that name (realized that these options were not mutually exclusive)

- need to define the proper format of a GA (a committee was formed to discuss and consider the GA structure)

- The GA must be open to expressions of agreement or disagreement: despite the inner tensions that might come from that, we know there is much to unite us.

- Not wanting to be enveloped under another pre-existing group while not wanting to dismiss a lot of the work done by NYABC

- Despite legal concerns that police will not allow us to use parks in a group of 20 or more, there was significant emphasis placed on the importance of having GAs in public space

- Logistics about confronting police in an occupation of Wall Street; be sure to record any repressive activity that is going on; be careful discussing any plans for civil disobedience

- Need to reach out to unions, who are strong in NYC

- Concern about September 17, 2011, as the expected date of Wall Street occupation: established by Adbusters but without having contributed any material support to organization

- Need media and musicians; need to hear/collect the stories of people who have been affected by budget cuts, mortgage foreclosure, etc.

OTHER PROPOSALS made during the GA but which were not voted on include [I did not catch all the proposals which were made]:

- convene GAs in the boroughs/neighborhoods; have GAs at least weekly

- creating a special website for the GA-NY

- having a demonstration targeting the Federal Reserve bank,

- promotion of organizing work being done through Picture the Homeless,

- organize through New Yorkers Against Budget Cuts who have experience with one occupation (Bloombergville) and have already done a lot of groundwork in NYC, others?

- the committees should prepare the proposals which come before the GA

Finally, a brief attempt to objectively describe the confusion and concerns that arose in the first GA-NY, a few participants were adamantly opposed to the initial speakout sessions being voiced through the loudspeaker, proclaiming that it was "not a general assembly" and demanding that a more open GA be created. Though organizers quickly shifted to the general assembly structure for the meeting, maintaining use of the loudspeaker caused the opposed participants to organize their own assembly, causing a brief bifurcation in the group: one group utilizing the GA structure of an open floor but maintaining the loudspeaker to contend with the traffic noise, the other group seating themselves in a circle closer to Bowling Green park. The breakaway faction had objected to the format because it appeared to function more like a rally than a GA and expressed concerns about being forced to speak under a particular political party or viewpoint voiced this criticism; as they broke off to begin the GA, paricipants were stuck between the two groups. As the power began to die from the loudspeaker, the group voted by simple majority to move to the traditional GA and joined the circle, in which the GA was already under way.

[All apologies for lack of coverage on the people who spoke at the speakout and the beginning of the GA (before I started taking notes), and both during and after the committee meetings. If anyone has notes on these who spoke and what was discussed during portions that were missed here, please include your information in the comments below. Also, and this is important, if you did not have an opportunity to speak or have something you forgot or would now like to mention or felt dissuaded or otherwise discouraged from speaking, please add to the comments here. As an open and democratic community, we encourage everyone to engage in dialogue: no matter whether your comments are supportive, productive, or critical please make them amicable in all cases. Thank you, all!]

But what is untruth?

honest is a feature which is valuable

today, everyday, every other day

what makes me worry? time

obscuring its boundaries, making us naive

for the sole purpose of entertainment

but I am honesty and to shrug everything off

is boring, stupid, and yes, untrue.

faster/slower

(To all friends...wishing that they catch their beats, keep them steady...)

I sense that
all lives are passing through this land, some

faster/
slower

than I.

Music barely keeps up
with Time,
Sunlight will nearly skew
the Truth...and my heart can hardly catch the top of its own
down
beat.

So godspeed you! too into this good night,
and remember -- when the last road is finally drove -- that

nothing rattles in the soul
like death
and may-be be gracious to it, whenever
it arrives.

And whne I waleked into...

[as if under water]

And when I walked into the umbrella shop
a fish slapped me in the face!
The long fin scooped a scraped shell from the barrel and
Went wandering from aisle to aisle like a fisherman stranded in his boat
The skies heavy and dark above me admitted no light and I could only see from the faint flicker of fluorescent bulbs the crickets and flies all singing inside, all trapped in plastic bins
Encrusted with jewels then, I demanded a balloon to fend my head from the rain
Yet even the helium of the heavy laden umbrella could not keep me awake
And the rain poured down over my head in hot bedsheets of consciousness.
And the rain poured down over my head
and the rain poured over down my head

[and coming to the surface now]

and rain poured the head over my down
and the rained down over my pour head
and my head rained down over the pour
and the pour rained over my head down
and the down rained my over head pour
and the my down headed over rain pour
and my pour rained the head over down
and rained the pour my down head over
down the rain poured over my head and
my pour head rain the downed over and

[and really grasping for air]

the down headed over and my pour rain
rained over head the down pour and my
poor head, down the over rained! And
over head the poor rained down and my
dour head rained, pour and over my, the
head rain over and down and poured the
head over the rain, the sound and my pour
my poor head powered the down and over-
powered the poor down head over mine and
over thou, poor my head and down power
now, over and down, my head, poor thou,
now my head, over-downed, poured the rain
my sand, under power over thou, now pour
the sand, my rain, under power over thou,
under power over thou, my rain the sanded
now, the landed how, my head rain over,
I rained straight down, under power over power
The now powered power, thou sanded in the now
Soured down in the cellar, under over over thou
Under power over now, the rain headed showered down
The head, down the over, sour rain showered down
Over rain my head down under poured the and
And the poor, under cover over under and
Thou under now, powered over my head my
Thunder over now, my coward my sand
My power overpowered, the rain! my head
Rained, the power over and down, my head
The rain thundered, my head, over and down,
And over, and down, and my head poured now
Hour over hour, and hours over now, my head,
my head, Rain downed and over the now –

[gasping]

down, over, over down, under now, the rain
headed slow, the sound sudden over and heading down,
my head, though lower, the sound now down,
uncovered. my head, the loud hour over now;
now, my Rain, down I’m over thou over now
and, my Rain, I’d never undered thou, never now.

[normal]

The hot bedsheets of my consciousness, awash in their power, I awoke sweating hot beads of water and found myself a shower. I wrote this poem under water now, under a showerhead of great strength, under duress of conscious stress, the balloon my head resembled in my hour of distress. Where’s my umbrella, I had once thought, though the fisherman had been wasted by my trout in his sinking boat, overboard every one went when she administered her florid fin to man’s head, we too are sinking inside, all trapped in plastic bins, the umbrellas carrying water, the bedsheets carrying limbs, The consciousness in my head aroused a sky of heavy, dark fish-men to take me strong-armed, defenseless, demanding shells of silken soil, eyes flickering in their lifeless eyes, and like shutting a silent door, I forced closed, my head down, to send it below the undersea, knowingly powerless to escape the rain that Fate commanded me. My fish, my fellow friends, I have stumbled upon a truth, that the humans who know and love have even fabricated the roof – I cannot believe my head anymore, I cannot believe my skin, it’s true this time, my fishes, they’ve taken our senses and they’ll steal our breath again! Keep your heads down, rest easy and light, dream beautiful dreams, fly beautiful flights, but seek ye not the heavens beyond or beyond the heavenly truth or beware not the others’ minds but your own, for when its left the others’ behind, you’ll find no comfort among your starry ideals and no shelter from what you find. Take my way, my friends, or take me away from my way, but I know myself better than you, and I know my way is your own, but I know should you take nothing of me a way but away, but away…look now, I’ll shed my dreary disguise, it’s enough to kill a man for wanting to philosophize…

[cheerfully now]

And
over the rain my poured head down and
down the over my pour and rained head
Downed the head my pour rain over and
Over the rain poured down my head and
My head the rain and pour downed over
The head rain my over poured down and
Over headed my rain and down pour the
Down the pour and over headed rain my
Head my pour headed rain down the and
Down the rain my head over poured and
Downed my head over rain the pour and
down head the rain over and poured my
dour head over rained my poor the and
and the my drained head down pour over
pour over the rain and…

thoughts on nostalgia

After the occurrence of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally, a friend of mine asked me a few passing questions on the subject of political nostalgia, both commenting on how vague it was and questioning whether it pined for a time that may never have existed in the first place. Below is my response:

--

recognizing the importance on the topic of nostalgia, I spent about 4 hours the other day just trying to put together some semblance of thoughts on the matter and I utterly failed. thus the wait. I came back to it now and for some reason could put together my mini-thesis on the subject, but I'm interested to hear if this is what you're already thinking on the matter, or if you disagree in any way.

Nostalgia as I understand it represents a kind of homesickness in terms of time, and it does not really serve as a respectable political feeling except among those people who share the feeling. For the people that don't feel it, it is only too easy that it should come off as foolish. Like any other emotional response, I think there is something reasonable about this reaction to the present political moment, but it is obviously a dangerous game to take seriously the nostalgia of the Tea-party when it is being led by a radical like Beck. The people may not really be as bad as that, but because there is no official party agenda, we don't know what policies or changes can actually be expected from this rag-tag bunch of political newbies.

But more to your interests, arguably, the homesickness suggests that something in reality has changed - if nothing more than that we feel more uncomfortable or unhappier now than in the past. The effects of the financial crisis is only the most obvious example that much has changed for America recently. But like you mentioned, there is also a sense in which nostalgia can occur without any basis in real change. One of the most common examples of it would be the idea that those long lost comfortable feelings never existed in the first place, or at least that they've been idealized to such an extent that we convince ourselves that we have really gone astray. It would not be the first time that people willingly deceive themselves for certain political ends. Furthermore, part of nostalgia may involve fomenting discontent, where there need not be any - you get people believing they are worse off now than the past.

That explanation of nostalgia does present a real danger for politics, but i worry that it makes the people who feel nostalgia out to be either really dumb or really sinister, like some great conspiracy against logic and reason which has aimed at construing history to their own ends. I've become more pessimistic about human nature, but still I'm more interested in exploring other possible explanations than the basest possible interpretations. One other interpretation might be that it is us that has changed, and not the situation itself - like when we attempt our return only to realize that it no longer feels like home.

Nostalgia is also so vague as to be really unproductive - in fact, it has a tendency to produce simplistic responses to complex questions. And maybe that simplicity makes it even more desirable in an age when American politics exists on a massive scale, must consider multiple international factors, and at a moment when the influence of America is waning and even we are feeling lost without the polarization of distinct national powers. We're not quite sure of the way forward, so there is a strong desire to go back; unfortunately, politics is more like a flowing river than a path that we get to wander at our own pace - and you can never step into the same river twice. The best example of this I can think of is the sense in which the continued growth of the American economy since WWII was supported by the expansion of business into the realm of financial speculation and supported by the expansion of credit markets to more and more consumers. The real problem with nostalgia in this instance comes from the idea that going back to a simpler time of "fiscal responsibility" is simply not possible without wrecking the foundation for economic growth. In this solution especially, the way back is not a viable way forward.

That doesn't mean nostalgie is not sometimes a legitimate political emotion. Like anger or hope, it is subject to dangers of being turned to poorly conceived or meaningless ends. We just have to figure out how to turn it to the most effective ends.

There - take that! haha...i'll never get the thesis done at this rate...

jb

p.s. grooveshark exists in the US. yessss....

9/1/2010, 12:53 a.m.

I'm mad as hell, and I don't know what to do about it

"Network" is as compelling a piece of heavy-handed, melodramatic film as has ever been created. The last line of the film upon Howard Beale's death - "the first known instance of a man who was killed because he had lousy ratings" - is as clear a revelation as any that the film is largely a joke. It is satire, or it has to be, in order for us to stomach it. Yet I find myself more struck by the film's prescience every time I see it:

the logic of anxiety, as in I'm not saying anything for certain, but I'm not denying that there may be a connection

the great success of Howard Beale's model of the modern American patriot, televangelist, and media-man-gone-mad

the peddling of fear and panophobia in a hybridized media-politic

the tracing of money trails toward suspect foreign interests

the muddling of entertainment and news

the dissemination of and belief in lies based on the most paranoid, conspiratorial and tabloid-worthy title

the importance of vox populi which propagates injustice in the pursuit of populism

the gospel of unmitigated globalization as the model for world peace

the lament over the loss of the individual

the TV generation who is incapable of emotion or ethics

the disbelief in democracy and the incapacity to acknowledge it

the latest development in great and aimless rage of American politics

the suspicion of systemic corruption which touches every level of human life

the media who cuddled the masses in their nostalgic blanket

All these stand as general trends which can be extrapolated from the film's plotline, characters and context. But there is at least one moral that could be taken from this variety show of ideas: that the intersection of media and capitalism has an ideology which will destroy human life. The business of media is vying for this kind of ecstatic attention, much like any business, and it will drive not just the newspeople mad, but every last one of us.

Yet the scapegoat is too simple. And the film's propaganda itself is not entirely pure: it also suggests a number of troubling questions which counteract this agenda. Are things worse now than they've ever been? Are we all just watching the world through our tubes; do we want to just be left alone? Or are we so decadent as to believe only what gets our attention, namely our worst nightmares? When the people no longer believe that, it will quickly throw it under the bus just to keep us buying. For example, the story seems to reassure us of at least one character who is sane in this mad mad mad mad mad mad world, Max Schumacher, the ex-producer of this corrupted news program and once friend of Beale, who has left the arctic TV programming queen, Diana Christensen, to return to his wife because he believes in love and human dignity and all these romantic things...yet it all seems to substitute one more madness for the last. There is no easy return to romanticism. Nothing can save us from this satire.

So how was this film - an exaggeratedly acted soap-opera and cynical satire of contemporary life - handed 4 Oscars and a host of other awards and nominations? Does it deserve applause for prematurely pronouncing the flaws of our time, or for adding to the apocalyptic visions of our "most advanced" form of human life? As I said, upon seeing it again tonight, I found the film incredibly heavy-handed in its critique, but artful in a way that kept me watching in even its most ludicrous moments. At the very least, this should say a little something about defining the divide between good and bad art: maybe the line is as crooked as a criminal, or maybe it is not there at all.

8.25.2010, 1:39 am

"A world without suffering - how is it possible?"

We need to continue to find ways of recognizing the meaning of suffering in the world. These theodicies are the only things that can help us cope with the ever-present existence and constant eruption of suffering into our everyday, rational view of the world. This issue of "nihilism" seems to stem from a push to see a world that has no suffering - or the suggestion that we could in fact entirely eliminate suffering!

"A world without suffering - how is it possible?"

The obvious answer would be to amass such an amount of surplus value and material ends to the extent that one could never go hungry, receive illness, be harmed by anyone, or feel unhappiness or pain, etc., etc.. And initially this would seem to be a very great thing. But there is an even simpler way: rid yourself of all desires, values and meaning in this world and you will have all you ever want or need.

It is not insignificant that the achievement of the so-called "simpler" thing depends on one's ability to achieve the will of the monk. (And this would be the significant thing!) But when an entire culture of such ingenious "individuals" aims for the first and supposedly greater goal - as we do now - one must aim for the will of the ant.