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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=lduncan@igc.org href="mailto:lduncan@igc.org">Larry Duncan</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=lduncan@igc.org href="mailto:lduncan@igc.org">Larry
Duncan</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, January 11, 2012 3:36 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Occupy Wall Street joins Occupy The Dream: Is It
Cooptation, or Growing the Movement? -- by BAR executive director Glen Ford
(reprinted from Black Agenda Report)</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 27px Arial" size=6
face=Arial><B>Occupy Wall Street joins Occupy The Dream: Is It Cooptation, or
Growing the Movement?</B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial><B>By
BAR executive editor Glen Ford</B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>The
Democratic Party may have entered the Occupy Wall Street movement through the
"Black door," in the form of Occupy The Dream, the Black ministers' group led by
former NAACP chief and Million Man March national director Dr. Benjamin Chavis
and Baltimore mega-church pastor Rev. Jamal Bryant. Both are fervent supporters
of President Obama.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>Occupy
The Dream's National Steering Committee is made up entirely of clergy, as are
its Members at Large, but its secular inspiration comes from media mogul (and
credit card purveyor) Russell Simmons, who was a frequent visitor to Manhattan's
occupied Zuccotti Park. Simmons is co-chairman, with Dr. Chavis, of the Hip Hop
Summit Action Network, whose website is now mainly dedicated to the Occupy The
Dream project. It is through Simmons that the ministers hope to attract
entertainers and athletes to Occupy The Dream events.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>Occupy
Wall Street organizer David DeGraw tied the knot with the Dream team at a
Washington Press Club conference on December 14, invoking Dr. Martin Luther
King's Poor People's campaign and the need to "penetrate deeper into the African
American community." Dr. Chavis said, "If Dr. King were alive today, he would be
part of Occupy Wall Street," and Rev. Bryant, pastor of Baltimore's
10,000-member Empowerment Temple AME Church, pledged that Occupy The Dream will
work "in lock-step" with OWS. The OWS/OTD alliance would begin, they announced,
with a multi-city action at Federal Reserve Bank offices on MLK Day, January
16.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6
face=Arial><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>The
very next Sunday, Rev. Bryant was at his pulpit exhorting his congregation to
get out the vote for the president.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6
face=Arial><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>Dr.
Chavis is also an active Obama booster. In his November 30 syndicated column for
Black newspapers, titled "Brilliant First Lady Michelle Obama," Chavis
wrote:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>"As we
are about to enter into the heated national political debates and campaigns of
the 2012 national election year, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle
Obama will be under intense pressures to maneuver through what may be one of the
most difficult periods of time to maintain resilience and hope.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>"I am
encouraged and optimistic, however, that President Obama will be reelected if
millions of us do what we are supposed to do and that is go out and vote in
record numbers 12 months from now."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>Chavis
followed with an even more direct appeal:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>"All
of us should be responding by lending a helping hand, giving of our time, energy
and money, and to make our own contributions to push forward for more progress
to ensure the reelection of President Barack Obama. Let's determine the future
by how we act today."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>It
appears that Occupy Wall Street's new Black affiliate is also in "lock-step"
with the corporate Democrat in the White House, whose administration has
funneled trillions of dollars to Wall Street and greatly expanded U.S. theaters
of war.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>"The
very next Sunday, Rev. Bryant was at his pulpit exhorting his congregation to
get out the vote for the president."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>There
is, however, a certain historical logic at work, here. Dr. Martin King's Poor
People's Campaign, disrupted by his assassination, is seen by many as a prime
inspiration for OWS. But of course, King's persona and the whole saga of the
Sixties has been methodically co-opted over the intervening decades, most
directly by Black ministers claiming to be acting in furtherance of his "Dream"
while selling their congregants' votes to one or the other of the two Rich Men's
Parties. President Obama and his operatives have attempted to draw a straight
line between Dr. King's "Dream" and Obama's own political ascent ever since his
"coming home" speech at a Selma, Alabama, church in March of 2007, where the
candidate assumed the mantle of Joshua and asserted that Blacks had already come
"90 percent of the way" towards equality (with the transparent implication that
his entrance to the White House would complete the process.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6
face=Arial>Perhaps the most historically and politically corrupt poster of the
2008 campaign superimposed Obama's head on Malcolm X's body in the only known
picture of Dr. King and Malcolm, shaking hands. So, there is nothing novel about
labeling a 2012 Black church-based, pro-Obama electoral campaign as "Occupying
the Dream." Black ministers in campaign mode routinely depict Obama's political
troubles as indistinguishable from threats to "The Dream," whose embodiment is
ensconced in the White House. That's simply common currency among Black
preachers pushing for Obama.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6
face=Arial>"President Obama and his operatives have attempted to draw a straight
line between Dr. King's 'Dream' and Obama's own political ascent."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6
face=Arial>Russell Simmons brings bling to the mix. As the Occupy The Dream
website states: "Teaming up with entertainers such as Bon Jovi, Jay-Z, Bruce
Springsteen, and Kanye West, Dr. Bryant encourages citizens of every race, color
and creed to join Occupy the Dream." Simmons is a genius at transforming social
capital into the spendable kind - which is why he has been courting OWS so
diligently. He is now fully "inside" the movement, flanked and buttressed by
loyal Obama Black clergy.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>It is
highly unlikely - damn near inconceivable - that Occupy The Dream will do
anything that might embarrass this president. Its ministers can be expected to
electioneer for Obama at every opportunity. Their January 16 actions are
directed at the Federal Reserve, which is technically independent from the
executive branch of government - although, in practice, the Fed has been Obama's
principal mechanism for bailing out the banks. Will the ministers pretend, next
Monday, that the president is somehow removed from the Fed's massive transfers
of the people's credit and cash to Wall Street over the past three years? Is
Obama to be absolved by clergymen wearing "Occupy" buttons?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>Far
from tamping their Obama fervor, the OWS brand equips the "Dream" ministers (and
Simmons' entertainment assets) to accomplish a special mission: to insulate the
president from the Occupy movement and the national conversation on economic
equality - or, better yet, to make him appear to be part of the solution. If
they so choose.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6
face=Arial>"Simmons is a genius at transforming social capital into the
spendable kind - which is why he has been courting OWS so
diligently."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>OWS
has, to date, been effective in warding off cooptation by Democratic Party
fronts such as Rebuild The Dream and MoveOn.org. But, it seems their antennas
were not so finely attuned to the political structures of Black America: who the
players are, and how the game is run. The Obama campaign may have found its
niche on "the Black-hand side" of OWS.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>At
this late stage, there is no antidote to the potential cooptation, except to rev
up the movement's confrontation with the oligarchic powers-that-be - including
Wall Street's guy in the White House. Let's see what happens if OWS
demonstrators join with Occupy The Dream at Federal Reserve sites on January 16
carrying placards unequivocally implicating Obama in the Fed's bailouts of the
banksters, as Occupy demonstrators have done so often in the past. Will the
Dream's leadership be in "lock-step" with that? Maybe so - I've heard that
miracles sometimes do happen.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>In his
December 30 newspaper column, Dr. Chavis offered these thoughts:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>"2012
will be a test for the United States. There will be a political test in terms of
how millions of people will vote for the future. There will also be an economic
test between the 99% and the 1% on the issues of income inequality and economic
justice."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>We do,
indeed, face a test in 2012: Will the Democratic Party be enabled to swallow up
the Left - as it does every four years - including the fragile and tentative
structures of the Occupy Wall Street movement? And, will the Democrats enter
through the Black door?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 26px; FONT: 22px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6
face=Arial>----------</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 22px Arial" size=6 face=Arial>BAR
executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at <A
href="mailto:Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com">Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com</A>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>