[Peace-discuss] Austin McCann's suggestions

[Susan Parenti]

>
> I'm going to try to be there, but if I'm not, here are three latkes  
> for you:
> Strike Debt: We should figure out a way to plug into this OWS  
> offshoot: host a debtor's forum, connect with GEO or other on-campus  
> folks to talk about student debt, &c. Having a conversation about  
> debt is essential and exciting and cuts right to the heart of  
> capitalism's bullshit morality. Debt might also be the main tactic  
> for keeping my generation from living the lives/creating the world  
> we want.
> There's an excellent book by James Herod called Getting Free (which  
> can be accessed for free here). It's an eminently practical how-to  
> manual for gutting capitalism and making the state wither & die. The  
> book focuses on the concept of democratic autonomous neighborhoods,  
> which he sees as the best battleground for transforming our society.  
> Starting to organize our own local associations/federations/ 
> assemblies/whatever to replace power structures whose domination we  
> do not consent to is both (1) brilliant protest, and (2) wisely  
> prefigurative. It attacks the enemy and proposes an alternative. So  
> we need to find a way to make the Occupy G.A. more than a forum for  
> critiques and invest it with a real consensus power. To do that,  
> we'll have to give it resources to make decisions over and keep our  
> heads above the fray of inter-group squabbles, but that seems a wise  
> course of action to me. Not Occupy CU, Autonomous CU.
> I think the most important thing to come out of Occupy is/was the  
> widespread politicization of the American public (or what Paulo  
> Freire calls "conscientization"). "Let nothing be called natural in  
> an age of bloody confusion." -Brecht. It's essential that we  
> continue to highlight the political character of our social world,  
> ideological hegemony, and our power to transform and design. We need  
> to continue insisting on reading the news in radical political  
> terms, not as natural historians, and refusing to abide by the  
> discourses, logic, and desires of our rulers.

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