OWS: crackdown imminent?
I can’t vouch for this, but it seems worth getting out there.
From: xxx
Date: Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 10:03 AM
Friends, allies, and troublemakers,
I heard through a back-channel (which I did not seek nor cultivate) from a very highly-placed person in the Mayor’s office that they are losing patience with the status quo VERY quickly. This person was rather blunt and without giving me any sort of firm timeline nonetheless made it clear that the city has a plan, the resources, and will likely mobilize very soon (tonight? early next week? I don’t exactly know) to either clear the occupation entirely, or remove 99% of the infrastructure currently in the park (all the tents, sleeping bags, etc.—the plan 3 weeks ago for Brookfield’s ‘cleaning’).
This communication from the Mayor’s office has gone to other power brokers I’m in touch with and is being echoed and affirmed by various local elected officials, as well as the Public Advocate’s office. Press are starting to hear ruminations too. It seems the letter from Assembly speaker Silver and colleagues may have brought the (political) situation to a tipping point.
At this point, the combination of various implicit and damn-near-explicit warnings has me so I wouldn’t be surprised if they came in 4am tomorrow morning. I believe we should be prepared for that.
I haven’t been well plugged into contingency planning for this nor has there been much discussion amongst this group with reports from DA affinity groups and whoever is lately working on tactical contingency planning for a raid. I would like to suggest that the discussion be brought to the fore rather urgently.
Parallel to this, I have been given the suggestion that the only way to delay the seemingly inevitable is visible, highly-touted progress on some of the basic things that have consumed too much of my and many others’ time, including:
Beyond that, we gotta just figure out how to pivot—and fast—to whatever’s next in the wake of a Liberty Square raid.
Onward.
xxx
LBO News from Doug Henwood 
http://political_progress_for_people.blogspot.com/2011/11/two-points.html
Thursday, November 03, 2011
Two Points
Please note that just because someone endorses the priciples of a movement, that does not mean they endorse any of their tactics. Obama has been accused of distancing himself from OWS, and the 99%, but I think that is only in terms of some of their behavior and some of their demands.
Who am I to suggest what might work for Occupy Wall Street, but it could be strategic to give them the park back and MoveOn (pardon the Irony)! While I have associated with MoveOn, DFA, and a # of other acronyms and parties(individual and organizational) I think that their message can evolve and be more dimensional.
Labels: I Heart OWS
The Sheldon Silver, Jerrold Nadler, et al letter referenced in the above email is here: http://empire.wnyc.org/2011/11/speaker-silver-sends-letter-to-bloomberg-re-occupy-wall-street/
Wow, even the Harvard kids are walking out on freshman econ (in solidarity with OWS) because it’s too rightwing… http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/11/2/mankiw-walkout-economics-10/ … “Harvard graduates have been complicit [and] have aided many of the worst injustices of recent years. Today we fight that history,” said Rachel J. Sandalow-Ash… “complicit”? “aided”? The words “ordered” and “carried out with impunity” are the first words in my mind.
this was a very good call