Demand The Impossible | Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters - 0 views
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Some Occupiers feel strongly that the movement should demand absolutely nothing from the economic and political system it’s rising up against. After all, the argument goes, the strength of the Occupy Movement thus far has been its potent indictment of the ruling class, coupled with its refusal to make any discernable demands or empower any official spokespeople
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However, by taking direct aim at the relationship between capital and the state, Occupy has raised the issue of class struggle in the U.S.
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Having raised the level of political awareness, the movement must now fashion class consciousness into political action
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The legitimacy of the system failed, revealing its true nature. The democracy of the 1 percent is a sham; their police are but armed mercenaries.
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And to this end, we do need demands, not to explain ourselves to the 1 percent, but rather to anchor Occupy in the daily lives of the people whom we aspire to involve in our movement.
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The coordinated repression against encampments nationwide speaks to this–as well as the 1 percent’s penchant for answering a challenge with blunt force.
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demand of “Tax the rich” implicitly operates beyond the scope of this current capitalist economic system
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dialogue of wealth redistribution beyond the scope of the 1 percent’s project of capital accumulation.
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“Where’s our bailout?” directly calls into question the bank bailouts of 2008 and begs the question of why the 99 percent were expected to sacrifice under this tremendous recession, while those responsible for crashing the economy have raked in billions of taxpayer dollars.
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“Where is our bailout” is a fair statement in favor of both wealth redistribution and for a just and equal society
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Giving the proverbial bird to the existing power structure in the face of unbearable living conditions the world over isn’t enough at the end of an equally unbearable day.
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This presupposes a unity that the heterogeneous ideologies that flow under the surface of the movement have yet to achieve.
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It is necessary to articulate demands, and grievances that are bound under a unified set of independent political principles. We cannot ignore the 1 percent–who control the media, poison our skies and seas, and whisper consumer nothings in our ears. We must topple them
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What is needed is a more potent injection of politics, reclaimed history and the fortitude to continue to fight back