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I read that article by Hedges last week and similarly I found it
disappointing, sort of like<br>
some of the crap I get from the California-based TeaParty, Inc. and
similar ilk supporting the status quo<br>
while pretending some how to be in favour of change, probably all
members of that group<br>
Amerikans Steadfastly Supporting Hubris, Order, Law Enforcement, and
Subservience.<br>
<br>
I see the masses in Greece rising up and taking action with staves and
stones and <br>
I see the sheep in the USA not doing much of anything other than
whining.<br>
<br>
Sort of disappointin', ain't it?<br>
<br>
It's actually a good thing that I wasn't there when that <br>
steam-extruded piece-of-cat-shit pepper-sprayed those kids.<br>
It would not have turned out well for me I am sure.<br>
<br>
*<br>
<br>
Compelling Coercion<br>
<br>
"Mister...city...slicker, tell me now... <br>
have you Ever kissed an ol' blue-lipped mule<br>
right square on-the-mouth?"<br>
(as he cocks double-barrelled shotgun)<br>
<br>
"No, I haven't. But I have always wanted to." <br>
<br>
- Jerry Clower<br>
<br>
On 2/13/2012 10:40 AM, David Johnson wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:58050BB150534EBF8133303B35C46C01@owneryr3fp4mcb"
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Original Message -----
<div
style="background: rgb(228, 228, 228) none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"><b>From:</b>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" title="dlj725@hughes.net"
href="mailto:dlj725@hughes.net">David Johnson</a> </div>
<div><b>To:</b> <a moz-do-not-send="true" title="dlj725@hughes.net"
href="mailto:dlj725@hughes.net">david johnson</a> </div>
<div><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, February 12, 2012 8:36 PM</div>
<div><b>Subject:</b> critique of Hedge's article against Black Bloc</div>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">
<h3 class="post-title entry-title">"The Cancer in Occupy": Chris
Hedges misdiagnoses the illness </h3>
<div class="post-header">
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<td style="text-align: center;" class="tr-caption">The real
brutality at work in Davis CA</td>
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by Margaret Collins <br>
member CWI USA<br>
<br>
Chris Hedges has in the past, liked to invoke the recent uprisings in
Spain and Greece. Greece in particular <i>"gets it"</i> <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_greeks_get_it_20100524/">he
wrote back in May 2010</a>.<i>“Here’s to the Greeks. They know what to
do when corporations pillage and loot their country... Call a general
strike. Riot. Shut down the city centers. Toss the bastards out. The
Greeks, unlike most of us, get it....Think of the Greek riots as a
struggle for liberation.” </i><br>
<br>
In Hedges' recent article, however, "<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_cancer_of_occupy_20120206/"><i>The
Cancer in Occupy</i></a>", he summons up moral outrage against what he
calls the <i>"cancer"</i> in the Occupy movement, namely the Black
Bloc anarchist rioters in Oakland on January 28. In a hysterical rant,
Hedges conflates the ideas of two anarchist ideologues, John Zerzan and
someone called <i>“Venomous Butterfly”</i>, with the actions of a
handful of young people in Oakland and their sympathizers across the
Occupy movement. The reader is not supposed to look carefully and see
if this guilt by association is justified, but simply recoil in horror.
We are told that these <i>"beasts"</i> hate the <i>"organized left"</i>,
defend the manifesto of the<i> "Unibomber" </i>Theodore Kaczynski, are
<i>"infected"</i> with <i>"hypermasculinity"</i> and criticize the
Zapatista movement and Noam Chomsky. Not Chomsky! Hey, they must be
evil.<br>
<br>
I guess the best thing about the <i>"Greek riots"</i> for Hedges were
that they were... in Greece. Think about it. What was the difference
between the social unrest that Hedges likes (Greece) and the social
unrest he doesn't like (Oakland)? The first difference that comes to
mind is the scale of the Greek uprisings. They had a mass character
which pulled the majority of the poor and the working class behind it.
Oakland, alternatively, had 1,000 at most, a few hundred at least when
the events that Hedges recounts took place. In this case size matters.
And if that is Hedges' problem with the Oakland events, then I agree. <br>
<br>
But that isn't what Hedges says in <i>"The Cancer in Occupy"</i>. When
referencing the burning of a flag and the window breaking of a
relatively small group of people, Hedges says <i>"There is a word for
this—“criminal.”</i>, unconsciously echoing the rhetoric of the Tory
ministers after the youth riots and looting that swept through Britain
in the summer of 2011. <br>
<br>
Perhaps because the anarchist element and their sympathizers are
overwhelmingly white and many come from the middle class, it makes the
police brutality in Oakland appear less serious, less worthy of
criticism. After all, would Hedges be as cavalier when talking about
the police brutality of the state which is brought down on the heads of
youth and people of color every day in this country? After all, Oakland
is the home of the police force that murdered Oscar Grant. As a card
carrying radical christian and guru of the soft left, of course Hedges
would not. So why all the misplaced moral outrage? Hedges is in danger,
as his <i>"hero"</i> Malcolm X said, of <i>"...mak(ing) the victim
look like the criminal, and the criminal look like the victim."</i><br>
<br>
The real question, and the only question is <i>"... Are the given
means really capable of leading to the goal?"</i> Leon Trotsky <i>"Their
Morals and Ours" 1938 "..."Permissible and obligatory are those and
only those means, we answer, which unite the revolutionary proletariat,
fill their hearts with irreconcilable hostility to oppression, teach
them contempt for official morality and its democratic echoers, imbue
them with consciousness of their own historic mission, raise their
courage and spirit of self-sacrifice in the struggle. Precisely from
this it flows that not all means are permissible."</i> Ibid<br>
<br>
Let's take the actions of the anarchist influenced youth in Oakland and
look at them through Trotsky's lens. Not moral condemnation but a
discussion of tactics are in order. Wouldn't a direct appeal to the
working class in Oakland, by fighting home foreclosures, evictions and
high unemployment be a better tactic to grow the movement and hurt the
ruling class? There are many in the Occupy movement that would agree
and are making a turn to these very issues. <br>
<br>
So who are the real culprits that Hedges never names? Hedges says<i>
"...Black Bloc anarchists spend most of their fury not on the
architects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or
globalism, but on those, such as the Zapatistas, who respond to the
problem. It is a grotesque inversion of value systems."</i> Well how
about this for a grotesque inversion? Hedges expects young people who
have never seen the trade union leadership in this country wage a a
serious offensive battle to <i>"spend most of their fury on the
architects of NAFTA"</i> when the AFL- CIO are unable to do it
themselves. The same AFL- CIO which is unable to mount a consistent
ideological and industrial offensive to big business or build a party
of the working class and has poured 41 billion dollars into both big
business parties since 1990. <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://%28factcheck.org%29/">(Factcheck.org)</a> <br>
<br>
In recent days, especially connected to the Occupy ILWU events in
Longview, we have seen quite a bit of hand wringing and tsk tsking of
the soft pseudo left about the tactics of Occupy. If their criticism is
really meant to strengthen the movement and not to provide a left cover
to the real <i>"criminals"</i> ie: the labor bureaucrats and the
parties of big business they support, then the bloodletting against
Occupy must stop. Or be seen for what it really is. A distraction from
the real <i>"cancer"</i> that lurks in the body of US society. A
capitalist system that will multiply, devour, and destroy every healthy
cell in our bodies. </div>
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