The Cancer in Occupy - Chris Hedges' Columns. The Cancer in Occupy Posted on Feb 6, 2012 By Chris Hedges The Black Bloc anarchists, who have been active on the streets in Oakland and other cities, are the cancer of the Occupy movement.
The presence of Black Bloc anarchists—so named because they dress in black, obscure their faces, move as a unified mass, seek physical confrontations with police and destroy property—is a gift from heaven to the security and surveillance state. The Occupy encampments in various cities were shut down precisely because they were nonviolent. Black Bloc adherents detest those of us on the organized left and seek, quite consciously, to take away our tools of empowerment. Because Black Bloc anarchists do not believe in organization, indeed oppose all organized movements, they ensure their own powerlessness.
“Of course,” the article went on, “the social struggles of exploited and oppressed people cannot be expected to conform to some abstract anarchist ideal. There is a word for this—“criminal.” Concerning the Violent Peace-Police. I am writing this on the premise that you are a well-meaning person who wishes Occupy Wall Street to succeed.
I am also writing as someone who was deeply involved in the early stages of planning Occupy in New York. I am also an anarchist who has participated in many Black Blocs. While I have never personally engaged in acts of property destruction, I have on more than one occasion taken part in Blocs where property damage has occurred. (I have taken part in even more Blocs that did not engage in such tactics. It is a common fallacy that this is what Black Blocs are all about.
I was hardly the only Black Bloc veteran who took part in planning the initial strategy for Occupy Wall Street. This is why I feel compelled to respond to your statement “The Cancer in Occupy.” Let me just lay out a few initial facts: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. All this is secondary. I am appealing to you because I really do believe the kind of statement you made is profoundly dangerous. 1) they are not part of us 1. 2. 3.
The Battle of Oakland. The Psychopathology of a Liberal OWS! Baiter. [Since Chris Hedges, a columnist at the website truthdig published the provocatively titled, "The Cancer in Occupy" four days ago, there has been boocoo Internet debate and some vigorous responses, for example, this one at Counterpunch.
Occasional Fire on the Mountain essayist SKS, who wrote a widely read piece on this blog on the problems of infiltration and provocateurs in OWS! , posted this angry reply to Hedges on Facebook. FotM republishes it with his permission to help it get the wider circulation it deserves.] The Stockholm Syndrome of Occupy:Chronicle of a Death Foretoldby SKS I do not want to repeat what many have said, more eloquently or timely. Ever since the Oakland Commune came into national consciousness with their successful strike in November, liberals who initially became infatuated with Occupy Wall Street! Naomi Wolf launched perhaps the first notorious salvo of the liberal commentariat, when, going all in with her arrest cred, she called OWS!
So why Stockholm Syndrome? Occupy Unmasked - Official Movie Trailer - Citizens United Productions.