In a nation that seems gridlocked in
protests across this land that always seem to end with police victories:
San Francisco, in the early morning hours of today has given the country
a physical example of how to deal with these out-of-control freaks.
Politics has always been just VICTORY, hotly pursued by
DEFEAT.
Apparently far too many have forgotten that 'their victories
over us in the streets: Are not written in stone.' And San Francisco just
proved that fact by surrounding the police and driving THEM out!
For the last nine years people have been asking: "How
can we make a difference I'm just one person: What can I do?"
Here's your answer people; follow San Francisco's lead and take back whichever
city or town you live in by using this spontaneous spirit that arises whenever
people realize that they are actually threatened by those that we pay to
supposedly protect us. Because at the end of the day we outnumber the authoritioes
by at least a hundred to one.
- From one of the smallest of the "OCCUPATIONS"
a NEW spirit of Real RESISTANCE was born; the cops were surrounded and
DRIVEN OUT! Yesterday I wrote off this city as being hopelessly compromised
before they had even begun. (1)
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- But through the early morning hours of today I was PROVEN
WRONG by this SPIRIT of INDEPENDENCE & the will to actually physically
resist that which was finally shown here in San Francisco: This has NOT
been seen in any other demonstration in the nation UNTIL NOW! (2)
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- The common-problem through all these demonstrations has
always been how to deal with the extreme VIOLENCE of the thugs in uniform
that are armed and anxious to attack the public; while the unarmed public
tries to remain completely non-violent throughout the beatings, the tasers
and the pepper-spray. It is not enough to just "not-resist" because
what the thug-cops want is your total surrender. That has always been the
problem-everywhere. But as San Francisco so aptly demonstrated, early this
morning: There is an entirely other aspect to resistance that can be more
than just effective:
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- "Roughly around 10pm the police began to gather
a block away from the occupation. Word circulated quickly and as both the
occupiers and the police prepared roughly 150 people assembled at the occupation.
After a few hours of waiting, debate, and nervous conversations within
the occupation the police finally made their first move. Marching down
the street, adorned with helmets and batons, the police escorted a line
of Department of Public Works Vehicles. Standing between the occupiers
and the living spaces that had been created since the occupations' beginning,
Department of Public Works workers were then forced to begin eradicating
the space of any materials related to the occupation. The trucks were quickly
filled with the same rapidity as the mood in the air began to intensify.
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- Almost spontaneously a large wooden pallet that the vehicles
had not yet managed to collect was brought in front of one of the trucks.
Immediately others began to follow bringing bodies and all material left
behind in the encampment and surrounded the police and Department of Public
Works vehicles. People grabbed anything they could find garbage cans,
street signs, cones and even the police's own metal barricades to prevent
the trucks from leaving as well as corner the police. While the police
had tried to encircle and intimidate the occupation those there quickly
used the opportunity to encircle and intimidate the police. As the SFPD
closed in on the trucks standing off with what was now hundreds of people
on market street and beautifully constructed barricades, they began to
make way for the vehicles to leave. This created a series of small scuffles.
Eventually the vehicles left and the barricades stood proudly on market
street between the starry twilight of 230am and the confused fright of
the SFPD.
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- The night was an incredibly powerful reflection of not
only what is possible but the emergent potential of the Occupy movement.
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- After the police announced that the occupation was going
to be raided the occupiers began to decide what to do. The conversation
was disparate, timid and unstable. This was directly caused by a few dominant
voices controlling a decision making process in a situation that needed
immediate attention. As the police came in this timidity, instability and
disparity disappeared as all collectively participated in activity that
reflected the needs of the immediate situation. No longer was the conversation
dominated, but all voices flourished in the streets.
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- People also held together and refused to be the targets
of police violence. Instead people collectively resisted the attacks by
the police by directly interfering with their ability to function as police
by constructing barricades. Their antagonism towards the police was a direct
reflection of the immediate goal of responding to a police raid. This act
of self-defense was also an offensive direct action and strengthened both
the solidarity amongst the participants and the potential for antagonistic
expansion.
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- If these occupations are to both survive and continue
they must be protected from the police by any means necessary." (2)
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- And "This is how-it's done": Because the demonstrators
did not leave their 'survival-skills' at home: They brought themselves
to this demonstration, and all of their own instincts about what and how
they needed to do, to survive, whenever real threats are clear.
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- Non-Violence for the sake of itself frustrates this natural
response to blatant rage and violence generated by the authorities. Because
all these demonstrations end up as just POLICE-RIOTS, that illustrate how
this government actually feels about all of us!
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- What has been happening in virtually every demonstration
where non-violence has always been uppermost: Is that the crowds have forgotten
that nonviolence is about more than just not-being armed with weapons.
We are always armed with our minds and our own tactics for dealing with
every kind of threat: We need to remember than, whenever we attend a demonstration
of any kind.
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- It means that you must take every action possible to
turn the powers of your attackers against them. You don't need weapons
you have the numbers. And when you use common sense and some basic tactics,
those who came to corral and arrest people can themselves be rounded up,
frustrated and driven off!
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- Until now there was no real demonstration of this possibility
until San Francisco, with its smaller numbers of actual freedom-demonstrators,
gave the whole world this picture of real resistance and genuine determination.
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- THANK YOU SAN FRANCISCO for proving me wrong!
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- kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net
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- 1) Scratch San Francisco from 'OCCUPY'
- http://www.rense.com/general94/scrat.htm
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- 2) BAY of RAGE
- http://www.bayofrage.com/from-the-bay/night-of-the-barricades/?
- utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=night-of-the-
- barricades&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
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