Tag: ideas

Scan This

by Lester Macgurdy I hate committee meetings. I always have the same recurring fantasy when stuck in another of these seemingly endless rant fests: a kindly infiltrator sneaks up behind me and pumps a round of double-aught buck into the back of my melon. I picture my head exploding like a piñata filled with raspberry…

Is there Really Such a Thing as a Middle Class?

by Ahjamu Umi We constantly hear the term “middle class” thrown around by politicians and the corporate media as a term designed to define everyday people, but never do these folks make even a half-hearted attempt to define what that term means. I would argue that a major reason why the term is never defined…

Occupy Congress: Why Congress?

by Adam Rothstein Why Congress? Why would a movement that has found its strength in direct democracy sudden show up on Congress’ door step? Why would people, finding their voices in their own communities after never having heard it before through the national media and political structure, suddenly come to the United States’ capital city?…

The Changing Face of Homelessness

by Lana Buchanan It used to be that the homeless were the drunks and drug addicts that lived under the local bridge and people largely ignored them. In today’s world the faces of the homeless have changed, and it’s becoming increasingly hard to ignore. There are still many who choose to live on the streets,…

The Declaration of Occupy Portland

by Adam Rothstein I have seen a vision of the end of Occupy Portland. It looks like a meeting with no actionable agenda, no notes, and no plan for a follow-up meeting. It is organized–maybe–on Facebook alone. And it will have the phrases “ninety-nine percent”, “unity”, and “positive” repeated upwards of twenty times each. It…

Goals for Occupy Portland

by John Springer To successfully change America, the people must win control over our government. It is government where the changes must ultimately happen because government sets the rules that all the rest of us live by, whether we are stock brokers or stockroom clerks, bankers or barristas, corporations or small businesses or homeless. Corporations…

The Creeping Death of an Elitist Notion

by Lester Macgurdy You don’t need to be wealthy to be elitist. In fact, you don’t even need two nickels to rub together. The 99% are just as prone to elitism as the 1%. Despite the wide economic chasm separating us, we’re all still endowed with the same psychological building blocks. What does every bullied…

Elsewhere in Occupy for December 27th

Here’s what The Occupier thinks you should be reading: San Diego Reader | "Occupy San Diego Riders Raid Malls, Port" by Chad_Deal – Phase two of Occupy Movement is all about recapturing power from elite – Opinion – The Olympian – Olympia, Washington news, weather and sports – Press Action ::: Anarchist Nation –

How to Infiltrate and Destroy a Political Movement

by Lester MacGurdy When we think of infiltrating and destroying a movement, we assume that means attempting to bring about the immediate end of the movement. This is a naive perception of the actual mechanics of infiltrating and destroying a popular political movement of the people. Why would CIA, FBI, etc. want to destroy OWS?…

Forming a More Perfect Occupation

by Janice Leber An analogy came to life in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Along a flyway, I came upon a huge cloud of geese galumphing low in the sky in no discernible pattern – wheeling and circling and getting nowhere. The only thing they had in common was the fact that they were all roughly airborne.…