Ravenschlief

As a profiting member of the established media, naturally Ken Schram says some truly misguided things about anarchists (and, consequently, the whole movement) in his critique of Occupy Olympia and Occupy Seattle.

Looking back to the beginning of the Wall Street Occupation, the two organizations at it’s roots were Adbusters and Anonymous. Adbusters is an anti-Capitalist magazine (with Anarchist leanings) run out of Vancouver, BC.  Anonymous is the Internet’s answer to the Black Bloc, disenfranchised youth upset with the path of our world and looking for a constructive outlet. These are the two black flags that the Occupy movement has been rallying around.

To look at the occupy protests through the lens of capitalism, all you will see is protestors and ‘bums,’ but one has to adjust their point of view to understand what is happening. At each occupy movement (that I know of) the protesters started building a new society in an attempted dual power action, accepting, feeding, or educating anyone who comes with hunger.

The tenets of Anarchist theory don’t allow for leadership or private property that conveys power upon it’s owner, believing that absolute power corrupts absolutely (whether it be political, financial, physical, etc.) and that greed for power is a product of wealth of power. It follows that the police (granted a fairly large portion of power by the powers that be) are considered inherently corrupt.

It’s no secret that police departments have become for-profit industries with their incessant petitioning for more funds to “keep our communities safe” and their unethical ticket quotas. It may be a bit of a shock, but their protest subversion techniques are effective and will often demonize anarchists.

There have been many instances of police infiltration of protests throughout the occupy movement, (they’re common among Anarchist protests) and they will often dress as anarchists, themselves. Whether to incite the protesters into a riot, (to legitimize their work) gather information, or defame the protesters with actions such as property damage.  Anarchists are easy to blame as they are considered bedlamites by society at large, even if that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Ken, if my words aren’t enough to convince you that the Anarchist roots of the Occupy movements aren’t crap, here is a great op-ed article from Al Jazeerah.

-Brian King