By Charles M. Young
With hindsight gained by googling "MoveOn" and "co-opt" after the fact, I can't claim that nobody tried to warn me. Many websites with left and even liberal politics had said in so many words, "Be wary of this organization called The 99% Spring. It is a Trojan horse for the Democrats." I just didn't read that anywhere in a timely fashion. I've had a lot of stuff on my plate lately. That's my excuse. And in my ignorance, I responded to some spam about "nonviolent direct action training" organized by MoveOn and got invited to this 99% Spring thing on April 10 at the Goddard Riverside Community Center in Manhattan. Somebody even called me all the way from San Francisco to make sure I was a sincere seeker on the left and would be attending, along with 120,000 others in training sessions around the country.
Which I did. The meeting was a few blocks from where I live. The spam said it was "inspired by Occupy Wall Street." I wasn't sure what that meant, but I was vaguely hoping that whatever The 99% Spring was, it would start a chapter of Occupy Wall Street on the Upper West Side, conveniently near my abode, and agitate for the Democrats and MoveOn to move left.
The first clue that my evening might go otherwise was the sign-up table, where there were a bunch of Obama buttons for sale and one sign-up sheet for the oddly named Community Free Democrats (are they free of community?), which is the local Democratic clubhouse. That killed the "inspired by Occupy Wall Street" vibe right there. No piles of literature from a zillion different groups, as there had been in Zuccotti Park. No animated arguments among Marxists, anarchists, progressives, punks, engaged Buddhists, anti-war libertarians and what have you. Just Obama buttons, which didn't appear to be selling.
Inside the hall, it looked like an alumni reunion for the 1966 Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade. Almost all the 150 or so people were 55-80 years old. The ones I talked to expressed curiosity about Occupy Wall Street and enthusiasm about "nonviolent direct action" but didn't have the knees or the ears for full participation in OWS activities in the financial district.
A large man with long wavy hair combed back started the presentation with a stirring call for...the meeting to be off the record. He didn't want any stories that would violate anyone's privacy, and if there were any lurking journalists, they weren't allowed to use any names and they must see him afterwards for further instruction on the ground rules. This struck an even more dysphoric note with the crowd than the Obama buttons.
WTF thought #1: This was a public event ostensibly to convince members of the public to engage in behavior that challenged the legitimacy of government authority in public and might cause angry police to beat the public crap out of them. Why would anyone risk that without trying to get publicity for their cause? Nonviolent direct action that no one knows about is like jerking off. It might make you feel better, but you're not changing the world.
WTF thought #2: Transparency is the only protection that nonviolent people have against police spies and provocateurs and other infiltrators. Occupy Wall Street does a pretty good job with transparency. An organization claiming to be inspired by OWS but shunning transparency is deeply suspicious.
WTF thought #3: Washington press corp rules for a meeting on nonviolent direct action?
WTF thought #4: I actually wasn't there with the idea of writing about it, but neither did I agree to anything, so there was no agreement.
WTF thought #5: The name of the large man with the wavy hair was Marc Landis. He is a District Leader for the Democrats, who were paying for use of the meeting room. He is running for City Council. According to his law firm's website his areas of experience are: "Real Estate, Banking & Finance, Corporate & Business Law, Securities & Private Placement, Fund Formation & Investment Management Group..." His Facebook page, which is geared for his City Council campaign, makes it sound like his specialty is pro bono community work. I don't know. He might be a nice guy, but it doesn't take a lot of intuition to wonder if he's really been finding a lot of inspiration in Occupy Wall Street. He's a corporate lawyer. I can think of no reason for him to demand that the meeting be off the record other than he and his party don't want to be publicly associated with anything radical, even it's a pseudo-radical front group meant to steer people away from the truly radical Occupy Wall Street and into pointless activities that don't embarrass Obama.
Next they showed a video that invited us "to tell our story" so that The 99% Spring could post us online along with hundreds of other people who had been foreclosed, bankrupted, lost their medical insurance or whatever. It appeared they all wanted to raise taxes, so that the rich would "pay their fair share."
It was sanctimonious. It was supplicating before power. The audience looked like it wanted to puke.
Next some guy whose name I didn't catch gave an astonishingly simple-minded lecture on the history of American radicalism since the populists. "This might be okay for Iowa, but not the Upper West Side," said a woman near me.
That's an insult to Iowa, but let me explain about the Upper West Side. It used to be a liberal-to-radical neighborhood that was ferocious in its support for civil rights and the anti-war movement. Its nickname was the Upper Left Side, and people here could read three biographies of Leon Trotsky before breakfast. Disastrously, it has become the most desirable living space in Manhattan, and Wall Street/corporate/real estate weenies have been taking over. But a significant radical remnant remains, thanks to rent control laws that Democrats seem to understand are necessary to preserve their voters.
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