2. The Peace House and Organizing National Resistance. Approximately a dozen occupiers will move into the Peace House to work on organizing NOW DC (the National Occupation of Washington, DC) that begins on March 30. They will organize to bring occupiers from throughout the country to the nation's capital to show the breadth and depth of the Occupy Movement. Peace House occupiers will work with occupations and others from across the country to build NOW DC. The creators of the Peace House , William Thomas and his wife Ellen Thomas, maintained and supported a 24 hour a day, 365 days a year, 30 year protest of nuclear war on the north side of the White House. The disarmament vigil, founded on June 3, 1981, is courageously maintained by Concepcion Picciotto who joined Thomas a month after it began. Picciotto will continue to use the Peace House when she takes breaks with Freedom Plaza occupiers filling in to continue the vigil. Volunteers at the Peace House will also work on local outreach and education in the greater DC community.
3. Mt. Rainer House and Organizing Occupy the Economy and Occupy Media. Another dozen occupiers will move into the Mt. Rainer House. This house will focus on building democratic economic structures as alternatives to the corporate-economy. This year is the United Nation's International Year of Co-operatives and we will focus on creating worker-owned co-operatives that grow a co-operative sub-economy. Business plans will be developed, start-up capital sought and initial projects will be run out of the Mt. Rainer House. We will open the development of democratized economic structures to our web community as well. Already being examined are a political messaging business involving bumper stickers, signs, buttons and tee shirts, a food service providing occu-pie food and a housing redevelopment business. These co-operatives will provide funding to the occupiers working on them and revenues for the Occupy Movement. In addition, the Mt. Rainer House will be developing an Occupy Television Show and other media projects for public access, cable and web-outlets.
Both houses will be run as collectives that we intend to develop into useful models for other Occupies around the country to emulate and improve. Occupy Washington, DC will be building on years of experience with collectives, co-operatives and intentional communities to create Occupy Homes like these that are productive and build the movement.
The fourth leg of our Occupy Washington, DC community is our web-based community . Some web-occupiers have joined the encampment at Freedom Plaza, others have supported it financially, others have organized to bring people to Washington, DC and still others have provided ideas for how we should shape our future. Providing ways for people to be involved who cannot occupy full-time is an essential component of Occupy Washington, DC.
With all of these new activities we are not leaving the old behind. We will continue to provide educational forums on a range of issues, invite noted speakers to Occupy Washington, DC, and we are working on curricula for outreach to youth. The non-violent civil resistance actions we have done against the 1% political and economic elites will continue and escalate. We will continue to organize protest actions in Congress and to expose the monied interests that dominate the government. We are working with Occupy EPA to organize actions that encourage whistleblowers. And, we are inspired by actions we are seeing across the country -- the Occupy Our Homes movement to defend people facing foreclosures; No doubt the year will be filled with creative approaches by occupiers across the country.
Of course 2012 is an election year. There is a lot the Occupy Movement can do related to the election. We have been inspired by the work of the Occupy the Caucuses movement in Iowa challenging both parties and all candidates. We are pleased to see this expanding to New Hampshire with Occupy New Hampshire . We hope to see this expand across the country. These efforts are not about supporting candidates, but challenging the corrupt money-dominated electoral system that produces candidates that represent the interests of the 1%. There have also been protests at fundraisers and we hope to see more of those as getting money out of politics is a top priority for creating the new participatory democracy the country needs.
President Obama has received more Wall Street funding than any candidate in history. Mitt Romney is the likely Republican nominee and he is also receiving widespread support from Wall Street . The corporate media will make sure that only these candidates get significant air time. The corporate-funded, two-party run National Commission on Presidential Debates will only allow corporate candidates to participate and exclude those that represent the people. The system will ensure that most Americans will see only two choices -- both approved by Wall Street. We do not see how voting for a Wall Street funded candidate will do anything but increase the power of money and decrease the people's power.
The truth is for the vast majority of Americans their presidential vote is pre-ordained. Due to the Electoral College in all but about a dozen states we can already definitively predict where your vote is going. This should be greatly freeing to most Americans -- we do not have to vote for either corporate candidate out of the manipulation created by fear of the greater evil. We are free to send a message to both corporate parties that we do not accept their money-dominated campaigns. In many states there will be other candidates on the ballot. The Green Party is likely to put forward a strong candidate in Jill Stein, MD. The new Justice Party, working to get on the ballot around the country, will put forward a strong candidate in the former mayor of Salt Lake City, Rocky Anderson.
The Occupy Movement should stay independent of any corporate-funded parties. In Let the Trumpet Sound, the Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King is quoted as saying: "I feel someone must remain in the position of non-alignment, so that he can look objectively at both parties and be the conscience of both--not the servant or master of either." An election year is an excellent opportunity to show the system is corrupt; the elections are money-elections and protest candidates from both corporate parties. The Occupy Movement should show its independence from the money-dominated elections we seek to end.
The main job of the Occupy Movement during this election year will be to change the conversation from a mostly irrelevant debate between two corporate approved candidates to one relevant to the American people. We need to show that the pre-scripted, focus-group, corporatized rhetoric of the presidential campaign is a false conversation -- and the people of the United States are having the real conversation about our future. In the end, whoever is elected will need constant pressure from the Occupy Movement to put the people's necessities first. So, our job is to build a strong independent movement in 2012 and beyond.
Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers are
organizers of Occupy Washington, DC at Freedom Plaza. They co-direct It's
Our Economy ,
a project seeking to democratize the economy.
Margaret, a pediatrician, is Congressional Fellow for Physicians
for a National Health Program ,
a single payer advocacy group. Kevin, an attorney, is co-chair of the
cross-partisan anti-war group, Come
Home America
and president of Common
Sense for Drug Policy .
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