Foreclosures Another Opportunity for OWS to Confront The System

It’s been a steep learning curve for thousands of brand-new activists that have joined the  Occupy Wall Street movement. From the environment to militarism, there’s a sea of  misinformation and distractions standing between protestors and their enemies. While the empty rhetoric used to claim that Occupiers “don’t know what they stand for” falls flat to anyone actually paying attention, the ability to identify, isolate, and condemn the 1% for the theft and destruction they are responsible for has been one of the movement’s greatest difficulties.

Now “Occupy Foreclosures” has spread in popularity, with activists setting up eviction blockades and disrupting foreclosure auctions with increasing frequency. While it is a positive step, it contains the same pitfalls as confronting economic injustice. To be sure there is much good that can be done with helping individual foreclosure victims, but ultimately to stop the foreclosure epidemic Occupiers must face up to the same enemy they have so far failed to wholly accuse: Capitalism.

Everyone more or less knows that there is no one or small group to blame for the foreclosure crisis, just as there is no secret cabal that forces us into a never-ending series of wars. There were borrowers who took on loans they couldn’t afford, realtors who signed them up, underwriters who falsely signed off on the loans, and banks who gave the loans that they knew were unlikely to be repaid. Other bank officials securitized the loans, credit rating agencies assigned them false value, investment firms sold these bad securities to investors, and federal regulators failed to stop them. Once the crisis began, municipal, state, and federal government figures, with a few notable exceptions, failed to investigate, prosecute, or otherwise punish anyone who committed these acts. Many public officials passed new laws and regulations to protect these financial criminals and due to lobbying and insider trading even profited off of it themselves. At the same time these acts rendered their own constituents jobless, homeless, and suffering. Lawyers then set about systematically forging paperwork to help banks wrongfully foreclose on millions of people to enormous profit as corrupt and apathetic judges watched. While all of these individuals share blame, Occupiers must accept the bigger picture here.

The true blame for the foreclosure crisis lays at the Capitalist system itself; one that always has and always will exist solely off of the exploitation and destruction of anyone and anything it can affect and while remaining profitable.

The “golden age of free markets” becomes more desirable in these times of suffering but never less mythical; from slavery to the worker’s & civil rights movement to the ever-expanding 21st century empire, Capitalism in America has only ever benefited those lucky enough to be wearing the boot with which they help crush and exploit the rest of the populace.

The fact is we should no more be marking off the entire planet and reselling it back to individuals in the first place than commodifying these lands in order to pad the pockets of the ultra-rich. Federal powers have no more right to wield authority over individual’s lives than to collude in the theft of people’s livelihoods. Occupy Wall Street is evidence that most Americans have been fooled a few times too many by Capitalism’s promise of an “American Dream” for those who are willing to be exploited by it for just awhile longer. Stopping a foreclosure is occasionally quite simple.

Stopping the foreclosure crisis requires imagining a post-Capitalist world where the rich have no more power than the poor and corporations have none at all. One Struggle will continue to show solidarity with the new spirit of resistance in America, and only asks that they never stop short of anything less than a whole new society that calls theft theft and murder murder and holds all perpetrators accountable, no matter who they are or what they possess.

The 99%: Who are we really?

 

Capitalism is going through one of its worst crises ever. This is neither a cyclical crisis nor a temporary contraction; it is a deeply rooted crisis based on the voracity of capital and the capitalist class that manages and controls capital. So far, most of the solutions offered have been short lived and it seems that capital is digging itself deeper into its own hole.

 

This crisis is not only national, but international as well. Just last week Barak Obama had to fly to Europe to participate in an emergency meeting of the G20 to once again come up with a solution. We can be sure no solution will come out of these emergency meetings benefiting the popular masses, nationally and internationally, which are really affected by these crises, but we can guarantee that any solution agreed to by the G20 is to preserve capital and global capitalism.

 

Capitalism is faced with a global resistance. In the US, it is faces unprecedented resistance. So far, the resistance is at an early stage of mobilization and not yet able to transform itself into a powerful movement. These mobilizations are still spontaneous and not yet able to articulate uncompromising, anti-capitalist demands and orientations. It is important to recognize that these mobilizations can easily be recuperated by sectors of the capitalist class to benefit their alternatives as solutions to the ongoing crisis.

 

Who are the 99%

 

The 99% are workers….

 

This crisis is affecting all the classes and social categories that are dominated and exploited by capitalism and capital. These classes and social categories are the 99%. Some elements of the crisis are generalized to us all. Some elements of the crisis are limited to particular sectors of the 99%. One thing is for sure, the commonality of these crises are the doing of capital. The only purpose of capital in any given situation, any given moment is accumulation and valorization. In other words, the only purpose of capital is for profit and for more profit. Even if the problems of the 99% are not the same, to address them we have to fight capitalism, the originator of the problem constantly creating cyclical crises and contractions.

 

Because of the nature of our problems, some of us think the big banks are the problem. Some think the Fed is the problem. Some students, a social category, are resisting the fact that their lives have been mortgaged and their future of debt is bleak. Some of us are recently unemployed; hope of finding employment is slim to none. Some of us work, with our low wages we are selling our labor power at a loss where even if we are working we can no longer afford the basic necessities of life for our families and us. It feels like we are unemployed, even if we are working.

 

With the austerity measures, real existing wages are comparable to wages of a decade ago and more concessions are asked of the 99%. At the same time, capital’s thirst for profit is forever becoming more and more repugnant. Gas prices are going up, school tuition is rising, food prices are skyrocketing, banks charging more fees on our own money, money they used initially to make a profit. They are constantly designing more ways to extract profits from us. Capitalism has totally undone some of the rights that working people have sacrificed their lives for, such as the 8-hour workday. A jobs bill is being promised to us, again with the nature of capital, our wages are not in question. Capital has found new ways to make profits, totally bypassing consumers. Even if consumers are used, it is mostly for the need to speculate. So, many of the 99% are no longer needed by sectors of capital as consumers, and are in a process of proletarianization: workers who have nothing to lose but their chains.

 

The 99% are workers: immigrant workers forced to leave their homelands because of capitalism, prison workers, industrial and service workers, all working people, and social categories such as students, intellectuals, unemployed, the objectively unemployed working people, the small business owners and all who are either dominated and/or exploited by capital. We are not yet a unified political block. Some of us see the need to reform capital to resolve some of our particular problems, while some of us understand the necessity to defeat capital and the capitalist class.

It is important that we all see that the core of our problems is not some defective parts of capitalism but capitalism itself as a system of organization of a society that is based on profit over the needs of the collective. We need to organize … so that resistance and mobilizations transform into a powerful popular movement … where all the classes that are dominated and exploited, especially the classes that are both dominated and exploited, play a decisive role in the fight against capitalism.

We need to develop a combative, autonomous movement, independent of all state political and ideological apparatus (such as the traditional two party electoral system), as well as non-state political apparatus at the service of capital and funded by capitalism: NGOs/CBOs, business union bureaucrats. We must pursue a struggle based strictly on our interests, not to benefit any one sector of the capitalists. Benefiting even one sector of the capitalism benefit the whole capitalist class in the long term. Capitalism can no longer be reformed. It’s time to kill it.

Let’s organize to transform this mobilization
into a powerful anti-capitalist/anti-imperialist movement!

Let’s unify our camp by identifying capitalism as the enemy!

The future is ours, le’ts work for it!

Seize the moment! Dare to win by building
our autonomous anti-capitalist/anti- imperialist movement!

 

The Limitations of Activism or Don’t Just Do Something

People are rising up across the world against the robbery and murder perpetrated on behalf of financial elites by governments under the euphemism austerity. While inspiring many new people to participatory democracy, these seemingly spontaneous uprisings are often anchored by rank-and-file labor and community groups that have been engaged in a long struggle for social and economic justice. Business labor and NGO groups that have long served the system are being pushed aside.

There is a tremendous amount of creativity and energy in these uprisings. They are wonderful expressions of changes that we desperately want and need in our world. They’ve brought people together in a way that has long been discouraged by the ruling class – the 1% – and their allies. So far most of them have resisted negotiating points, handles that could be manipulated by the system to bring the movement under control. There are attempts to placate, buy off, co-opt, and claim these movements by people who have long served the enemies of these movements. For the most part, the people aren’t buying. The one demand seems to be nothing less than: we want our world.

Those of us who care about changing the world need to be a part of this movement. These events are extraordinary and exciting. What they are not, altogether, is new. Popular uprisings have frightened governments and toppled rulers before; what they have yet to do is defeat the global system of capitalist powers who have ruled this world for centuries. This is the only thing that will bring enduring social, environmental, and economic justice to the world.

We need to be part of this battle, reminding people that nothing short of liberation will do. We need to remind them that to do this will take masses of people working together to overcome the entrenched powers. That it is neither accidental nor inevitable that some are rich while most of us, in one way or another, serve the rich. That there is a conscious effort on the part of those who have, to keep, and to have more. They do this through a system that requires them to reject any limit on exploitation of human labor and environmental resources. Never enough.

We need to convince people that we need a conscious effort of our own in order to wrest our world from the tiny minority who have convinced themselves for generations that they are entitled to own and to rule.

Rallies, demonstrations, creative expressions of outrage and discontent, are a welcome sign that people may be becoming ready to act in ways that will ultimately lead to the liberation of us all, but expressions are not enough. What is needed is nothing less than the willingness of masses of people to resist oppression and exploitation and take control of our own lives and our own world. We must plan together and act together to create a force powerful enough to overcome the forces of lies and wealth and arms. This is a great moment, but it’s what we do in this moment and the moments that follow that will decide.

Statement of Solidarity with SOTA

Beginning in mid September, a nascent Haitian garment workers’ union decided that in their continued efforts to defend and demand that their factories respect their basic democratic rights – they would go public. Within 2 weeks, spokespeople for Sendika Ouvriye Takstil ak Abiman (SOTA) were out of work. In some workplaces, organizers were specifically told they were being fired for their legally recognized right to organize. This not only is a blow against the people of Haiti’s rights to organize their workplaces and seek living wages, but makes a further mockery of Haiti’s rule of law, as SOTA is recognized by the Ministry of Social Affairs & Labor.

One Struggle South Florida declares its continued solidarity with Batay Ouvriye and the fired organizers of SOTA. Despite Haiti’s public perception as a place devastated by poverty, natural calamity, and lack of resources, one of the real foes of the Haitian people is the international occupation that obliterates the Haitian people’s right to self-determination, from political choice to making a living wage.

Without the barrel of the Imperialist’s gun and the structural adjustments of neo-liberal wage theft, the Haitian people have the ability to survive any catastrophe and come out stronger. It is well past time America eschews the profit and convenience it receives from dominated country labor such as this in favor of solidarity with Haitians’ masses struggle for popular democracy.

We call upon Gildan, Haitians factory owners and other multinational garment corporations that are supplied by exploited Haitian laborers to demand the recognition and re-instatement of SOTA’ representatives in their respective factories, and for the masses here, in the belly of the beast, to rally behind the international struggle against Imperialist wage slavery in Haiti and worldwide.

Viv lit travayè ak ouvriye an Ayiti
Yon Atak sou younn se yon atak sou nou tout

Solidarity With the Wave of Occupations

2011 has shown the world the powerful impact of people mobilizing to the streets. From Greece, to Egypt, to Chile, the wave of occupations is still waging a forceful battle against austerity measures, privatizations, crippled education systems, tyrannical regimes, and more. Its domino effect has finally reached the Unites States and it’s currently occupying Wall Street while its initiative spreads like wildfire to areas like Albuquerque, Denver, Asheville, Los Angeles, Kansas, Miami, Boston, and many more brewing.

One Struggle would like to sincerely express solidarity to those who are mobilizing against corporate greed and the injustices spread by the destructive system we live under.

It is inspiring to see our local communities finding a voice and taking the initiative to do something about the ghastly inequality gap between the wealthy and the dispossessed and the many other systematically oppressive issues that permeate our lives financially, socially and culturally. Encouraged by the birth of this powerful movement, we would like to offer our explicit support for Occupy Miami since it is part of our local struggle which we promise to help encourage and support in any way we are able to.

In Solidarity,

-One Struggle South Florida

Occupy Miami

———————

One Struggle is an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist organization. Our aim is to build unity among those who take a stand against the capitalist system we live under in order to work out ways in which we can struggle together to fight this system and replace it with a classless and sustainable society.

Toward an Anti-Capitalist/Anti-Imperialist Mass Movement: Organizing at the Intermediate Level

Issued by One Struggle, September 2011

Mass movements can not be conjured from thin air or willed into being, no matter how correct our ideas or determined our hearts. They arise in response to intolerable social problems, congeal through collective practice and theoretical work, and harden through continuous, escalating struggle.

In the U.S., as in many parts of the world, the 1960s saw the birth of a radical mass movement with revolutionary currents running through it. It didn’t burst onto the scene fully formed, but developed through twists and turns, suffering painful lessons, betrayals, mistakes and defeats on the way. It also celebrated victories which, like waves pushed by storm winds, grew ever larger and more powerful until the idea of revolution rose in the public consciousness as a tangible possibility.

As the movement found its footing, participants became skilled in tactics and honed their strategies. Small and vague collectives coalesced and matured into national, multi-level, unified fighting machines.

When the Vietnam War ended, the sense of personal urgency dissipated for many in the US. The declining waves of struggle ultimately beat themselves out on the barren shore of the 1980s bubble economy. The pretense of growth based on debt was enough to bribe much of the population into passivity. The loss of socialism in China and the collapse of the Soviet Union (which, their own natures aside, had acted as counterweights to U.S. hegemony) broke the spirits of most of the rest.

Today the global system faces a convergence of crises, but this time there is no economic growth (real or pretend) on the horizon. The system shows no viable possibilities for a future. Capitalism is played out.

Yet the ruling class hangs onto power, squeezing the last bits of profit out of us and the natural world, not hesitating to kill us in the process. If we’re to save ourselves and the planet, we must eliminate the capitalist/imperialist system once and for all.

Opposing the system can, and does, take many forms. Many types of organizations are arising and will arise, with different visions of the future and different strategies on getting there. Some will contribute positively to the overall project; others will commit errors of varying degrees of severity. Diversity in our approaches and ideas is our strength, and mutual respect and non-sectarianism will help us learn from one another, and advance hand-in-hand.

Together, each contributing in our own way, and in tandem with our independent work, we can build a movement strong enough to accomplish the one essential task we all share: to end capitalism/imperialism.

We need to build organizations to magnify our power

Organizations are structured relationships between people who understand that collective power can affect society on a level that atomized individuals can not. Organizations begin with two people and a plan, and go through a process of development as surely as we all go through the stages of infancy, youth and maturity. As the system cracks apart, it intensifies the suffering of all of us living inside the thrashings of its final stage. In response to this new level of urgency to find a way out and create alternatives, people are exploring many possible courses of action. Small, loosely defined collectives are springing up all over.

How will they coalesce into a combative mass movement capable of sweeping away the entire system of global capitalism?

We’re still at the initial stage of the current round of systemic crisis-and-response, attempting to come into being as a social force. Since a mass movement can not spring whole into existence, but will instead be forged through practice we have yet to perform, we should organize on a basis corresponding to our current situation and the measure of our forces. To lay the groundwork for a mass movement, we can start with a preliminary type of organization: the Intermediate Level. [1]

The intermediate level organization is a tool with which we can build a mass movement. It can create more favorable conditions for mass struggle, and be in place when mass struggle does erupt, to maximize its effectiveness and provide continuity through its inevitable ebbs and flows.

The intermediate level organization is neither a revolutionary organization nor a mass organization, but has characteristics distinct from both. As its name implies, it operates between the two, structurally and ideologically, and links them. Because it isn’t well-defined in popular consciousness, it is often confused with one or the other level.

These categories, defined by levels of consciousness and commitment, are not rigid, and a group can blend them or change from one to another according to circumstances. Their relationship is dialectical, each level acting upon and influencing the others. Their boundaries are permeable, with individuals able to move from one level to another, or to operate in more than one at a time. Some of their elements differ only in degree or emphasis. The levels are generally characterized as follows:

Revolutionary organization

*  A high level of theoretical, ideological and political unity

*  A common long-term goal, a comprehensive strategy, and a detailed plan to implement that strategy

*  Continuously developing methods of work, and systematic summation of that work

*  A process, honed through practice, of collectively shaping ideas, direction and policies

*  A membership of cadre who have dedicated their lives to the struggle

*  A structure that is configured to withstand repression

Mass organization

*  Unity based on common interests to achieve a specific goal (such as a union fighting for higher wages, or a coalition to stop a war)

*  Ideologically and politically broad, often vague or populist

*  A simple goal and/or strategy, usually limited to one issue, often short-term

*  Membership requirements are loose, and expectations are not strict

*  A basically open structure—anyone can join

Intermediate organization

*  A level of unity that defines and opposes the system as a whole, yet refrains from defining a specific strategy for eliminating it (thus is able to embrace members with various theories)

*  A goal of uniting all who can be united for a medium-range goal (the precise content of which is not fixed, but dependent upon historical circumstances and the changing level of class consciousness among the masses—for example, it could currently be to defeat global capitalism) without attempting to unify on long-term goals (such as the precise form of a future society)

*  Collectivity in developing common plans and tactics for achieving the medium-range goal

*  Non-sectarian and mutually supportive

*  Continuously improve methods and practice through collective summation

*  A membership with some level of accountability and commitment beyond “weekend warrior”

*  A semi-open or invitation-only (but not clandestine) structure

The revolutionary level is principle

 

The revolutionary level is indispensible and ultimately determinate—without its presence, the other two tend to lose themselves in the murky dead ends of spontaneity, such as reformism and economism. This does not mean that the intermediate level is a front group for revolutionaries—care must be taken to avoid inadvertently forming a top-down bureaucratic structure. Each level must function autonomously and to its own fullest potential.

The intermediate level addresses limitations of the other levels

The revolutionary organization and the mass organization each faces specific obstacles during periods of low struggle, such as that from which we are currently emerging.

*  Revolutionary organizations strain to connect with masses who are largely unreceptive. While the global system is still intact and appears strong, it’s difficult for people to imagine that the alternatives presented by revolutionaries are possible to implement. Revolutionary organizations, as they struggle to retain their declining membership and their political identity during unfavorable periods, can either become rigid and dogmatic (increasing their isolation), or they can water themselves down in an effort to be more appealing, and be absorbed into the dominant political structure.

*  Mass organizations are, under this system, usually dominated by institutionalized bureaucracies (i.e.: unions and NGOs) whose very functions are to divert the discontent of the masses into themselves and into compromise with capital. Many of them are funded by capitalist entities, turning political organizing into jobs involving social work or charity, and the organized into passive recipients of assistance. The non-funded ones tend to lack continuity: they are able to mobilize people for brief spurts but then lose support as issues fade. Mass organizations, by providing no analysis of the systemic nature of problems, are unable to break the system’s ideological hegemony. Currently they are hobbled by a lack of class consciousness and swamped by liberalism and reformism.

An intermediate level organization addresses these obstacles from both directions, and prepares militants to potentially work in all levels. It has two basic functions:

*  to build a combative, continuously advancing mass movement that unites all who can be united to fight against the system

*  to locate and train radicals who might also organize at the revolutionary level [2]

Organizing explicitly at the intermediate level can prevent the problems that occur when a group calling itself either a revolutionary or a mass organization is, in reality, mushing the levels together. Though the intermediate level organization is not widely understood, it is widely practiced (usually unknowingly). If a group proclaims to be revolutionary but hasn’t yet achieved the degree of unity and commitment that revolutionary practice requires, then it is in fact an intermediary organization. If a group is attempting to build a mass organization but doesn’t yet have a mass base, then it is in fact an intermediate level organization.

Confusion about levels leads to problems. For example, if revolutionary-minded people are working in an intermediate level organization but treat it as revolutionary, they tend to push for a higher level of unity than is appropriate, and don’t fully value or take into account the ideological diversity that is present. There lies the danger of replacing genuine unity with pressure to conform. Revolutionaries can, if not careful, end up dominating an intermediate level group, preventing the less experienced people from developing their skills and knowledge, and blocking the free flow and exchange of new ideas.

Often those who do mass organizing are, in reality, also intermediate level organizers who are generating temporary mass mobilizations rather than the movements they are aiming for. With their higher levels of commitment and medium-range (as opposed to short-term) goals, intermediate level organizations can remain in existence through the ebb and flow of mass struggles. They can provide continuity during dry periods, and continuously work to bring people into motion. Their goal should be to constantly draw in new people to replace themselves as organizers at the mass level.

If intermediate level people work within mass organizations but treat them as intermediate, they also can make the mistake of pushing for a higher level of unity than is appropriate for that particular work. Instead they can (and should) work autonomously within mass struggles as an intermediate tendency, representing their own distinct political level within the mass movement. In this way they can avoid being swamped by the liberalism and reformism characteristic of today’s mass organizations.

Organizations advance in an ongoing process

As the system goes deeper into crisis, as its cracks widen and struggle erupts in society, people become increasingly radicalized. Mass organizations become more robust and more explicitly political—in effect, they become the intermediate level. As this occurs, the intermediate level gives way to them and dissolves into them. New intermediate levels then form at yet higher levels, in a continuous process that, like a conveyor belt, pulls people in the direction of revolutionary consciousness and organizational forms.

At the same time, revolutionary organizations also advance, working toward more refined bases of theoretical, ideological and political unity. As events escalate, and as organizations ever more effectively express and embody the demands of the increasingly class-conscious masses, these organizations can grow and coalesce into a powerful social force capable of leading fundamental social transformation.

Events are moving rapidly, and we need to be out there, everywhere, collectively sparking and fanning the mass struggles that are necessary to end the nightmare of global capitalism. We need as many people as possible to be prepared and able to quickly respond when mass struggle does erupt (which will likely be sudden and surprising). We need to forge strong, competent organizations and movements that can not be shaken, derailed or pacified. We can contribute to this process now by building organizations at the intermediate level.

Notes:

[1] The concept was implemented in 1979 by the Workers Committee of Rockland County (NY), as well as by a group of Haitian revolutionaries to build a mass movement based among workers and peasants during the fall of Duvalier. More recently, it has been articulated in a paper “The Intermediate Level Analysis,” by S. Nappalos for Miami Autonomy and Solidarity (posted on 11/24/11 at: http://miamiautonomyandsolidarity.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/the-intermediate-level-analysis/). The South Florida group One Struggle was initiated on the basis of the intermediate level concept in 2010.

[2] For our present purposes, this term is general and applies to any organization with a long-term goal of social transformation, whether this involves insurrection, overthrow, dismantling, seizing, smashing, or any other type of activity that results in a fundamental shift in power relations.

PANAMAX 2011: Defending America from…We’ll Get Back to You on That.

August 28th saw the conclusion of  “the largest multinational training exercise in the world,” with 17+ countries and over 3,000 troops participating in a training operation to prepare against a serious military threat against the Panama Canal.

Which begs the question….who the hell is threatening the Panama Canal?