Re: <nettime> Portland Occupation's tactical innovation

[gidget@riseup.net]

jh-

I was right with your criticism all the way to the kicker... don't you
think our power still lies at the point of production rather than
consumption?

I know it isn't anything new to look at this point of exploitation and the
relationships of how things (and our families) get re/produced, but I
still think that is where attention should be pointed.

The poor and working class, even the relatively well off working class
here in the pacific northwest of north america, can cause more pain to
global capital by withholding our labour (thru strikes) or by fucking with
their production (and even distribution) infrastructure than by adjusting
our consumption patterns.

This is as true for "alter[ing] the structural relations" as stopping
climate change.  I recently read that one cargo ship idling in the nearby
port for an hour puts out the equivalent CO2 emissions of 16,000 reg.
compact cars for a year.

Asking Occupiers to read some Marx along with the Sun Tzu probably won't
go over so well, but it doesn't change the facts of exploitation.  I agree
with your last line that so far, the Occupy strategy doesn't accomplish
real structural change.

solidarity
in struggle,
  -=pj=-

> IMHO long term strategic considerations have to include methods
> which change/evolve/alter the structural relations in the social
> system overall (addressing the perceived imbalance of wealth, etc)
> -- these issues will not be contested as tactical play on the
> streets which is largely a media circus (count the cameras versus
> 'occupiers'!).  They are generally contested only when large numbers
> of people change their patterns of (resource) consumption as it is
> this consumption which enrich the 1%.  Occupy, per se, will not
> accomplish this.  
 <...>


#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org