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Will the Occupy movement be able to work with others? Will the Occupy movement be co-opted?
The Stranger is reporting in Occupy Seattle Disrupts Pro--Occupy Wall Street Forum, Drives Away Supporters.:
No sooner had six panelists finished opening remarks last Saturday evening than a woman scampered onstage and yelled, "Mic check!" It was an orchestrated effort by several dozen Occupy Seattle activists to use the "People's Mic" to interrupt a forum at Town Hall--a forum in favor of Occupy Wall Street, featuring three wonks and three activists from Occupy Seattle. Their stunt replaced what was supposed to be an informed discussion with an uninformative shoutathon about process that consumed most of the evening. They booed opinions they disagreed with and drove supporters out of the building.
Some Occuptiers refuse to work not only with progressive Democrats, fearing co-option, but also with Labor and groups like MoveOn. Authors like Christopher Hedges and Glenn Grenwald encourage this division on the Left by saying that Labor, advocacy groups like MoveOn, and the Democratic Party are hopelessly sold out.
Chris Hedges says in this interview:
I do not think there is any danger of this [Occupy] movement being seduced or co-opted by Moveon.org, which is a reprehensible organization, or the Democratic Party or anyone else, or the Teamsters.
I think Hedges is extreme.
Similarly, Glenn Greenwald says in Here's What Attempted Co-Option of OWS Looks Like:
SEIU's effort to convert and degrade the Occupy movement into what SEIU's national leadership is -- a loyal arm of the DNC and the Obama White House -- has become even more overt WH-aligned groups such as the Center for American Progress have made explicitly clear that they are going to try to convert OWS into a vote-producing arm for the Obama 2012 campaign.
I've heard that the Center for American Progress is centrist. Is what Greenwald says about SEIU true?
The Tea Party merged into the GOP and pushed it further to the right. The way things are headed now, there will be continued
antagonism between the Occupy Movement and the Democratic Party,
especially if it turns out that the Obama Administration is involved in
the recent dismantling of Occupy encampments around the country. It will be difficult for President Obama to paint himself as anything other than an ally of Wall Street. But MoveOn and Labor are natural allies of the Occupy Movement.
