16 Beaver on Occupy Wall Street

Tuesday -- 10.04.11 Ð Liberty Plaza and its Conflicts
CONTENTS:
1. About this Tuesday
2. Some questions on the General Assembly
3. Questions on Conflict
4. Suggested Readings
5. Links
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1. About this Tuesday

What: Discussion
When: Tuesday -- 10.04.11 @ 7:00PM
Where: 16 Beaver Street, 4th Floor
Who: Free and open to all

A discussion on the "Occupy Wall Street" action, which has resulted in the occupation of nearby Zuccotti Park since Saturday September 17th, andcongoing.

We would like to ask those who receive our emails, attend events, or will attend this one, whether or not you've been to the park and assemblies, what you think is missing, what you would like to add to the process, how this could be done, and explore any critiques of tactics, attitudes, dispositions, and politics you've seen thus far.

The composition and dynamic of the park changes week to week, even day to day. From the 80 arrests on September 24th to the 700 arrests of October 1st, things are escalating at a rate in which neither the media nor manipulators nor bureaucrats can make any sense, create any narrative, or stabilize any position. A march has been called for Wednesday October 5th at 4:30 outside City Hall (260 Broadway) featuring organized labor, community organizations, and in connection with a call for a national student walkout.


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2. Some questions on the General Assembly

What is the General Assembly? What should a New York General Assembly look like? How can there be not one but many assemblies? How can outside assemblies, borough or neighborhood assemblies, relate to the occupation? What was the need for Adbusters’ call? What is the process of the General Assembly, its working and thematic groups? Is the General Assembly itself an action, by simply being in the square, and activating our relationships and ways of living together? What effect will the union has on the General Assembly and Occupation?


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3. Questions on Conflict

How does a General Assembly, its constituents parts, working and thematic groups, dialog with conflict? Conflict maybe described as an animus, or drive to utter and engender a hostility which results from the contradictions waged in everyday life. When prioritizing scheduling, messages, and social media, how do the groups relate to internal and external conflict? Is it amplified or dissipated? What and who gets excluded by the new vocabularies and modes of communication within the assembly? Does a simplistic affirmation of pacifism, for instance, overrule discussions on non-violence in a society grounded on violence? When we hear “respect the process”, what assumptions are made, and how does the process become a means of control or self censorship? How can our tactics subvert modes of representation that do not affirm uncompromising disobedience to authority in its open and subtle forms?


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4. Suggested Readings

--Principles of Solidarity (working draft):
http://nycga.cc/2011/09/24/principles-of-solidarity-working-draft/
--Declaration of the Occupation of New York City:
http://nycga.cc/2011/09/30/declaration-of-the-occupation-of-new-york-city/

--The Carcass in Our Heads: A Mic Check - More of the Same, September
2011:
http://confusingsigns.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/the-carcass-in-our-heads-a-mic-check/
--Preliminary Notes Towards an Account of the "Movement of Popular
Assemblies" - TPTG, July 2011:
http://www.tapaidiatisgalarias.org/?page_id=105
--Fire Extinguishers and Fire Starters: Anarchist Interventions in the
#Spanish Revolution - CWC, June 2011:
http://www.crimethinc.com/texts/recentfeatures/barc.php
--Early Spring for the Badger - Politics is Not a Banana, May 2011:
http://www.politicsisnotabanana.com/2011/05/new-pamphlet-about-struggle-in.html
--Against Pacifist Linearity - Tom Nomad, 2009:
http://zinelibrary.info/against-pacifist-linearity
--How Nonviolence Protects the State - Peter Gelderloos, 2005:
http://zinelibrary.info/how-nonviolence-protects-state-peter-gelderloos
--Neither Democrats, nor Dictators: Anarchists - Errico Malatesta, 1926:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/malatesta/1926/05/neither.htm


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5. Links

This follows a few recent discussions we’ve hosted in the last months:
--August 18th-20th: Beyond Good and Evil Commons: Debt, Economic Crisis
and the Production of Commons:
http://www.16beavergroup.org/silvia_george_david/
--July 31st: For General Assemblies in Every Part of the World:
http://www.16beavergroup.org/07.31.11.htm
--April 13th: From Wisconsin to New York: Crisis, Austerity and
Resistance: http://www.16beavergroup.org/monday/archives/003274.php

Global Revolution: http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution
NYC General Assembly: http://nycga.cc/
NYC People’s Law Collective: http://nycplc.wordpress.com/
Occupy Wall Street: https://occupywallst.org/
The Wall Street Occupennial: http://wallstreetoccupennial.tumblr.com/


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16 Beaver Group
16 Beaver Street, 4th fl.
New York, NY 10004