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Spending 200,000 euro in one year
should be the LIMIT!

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  29. We are the 99% and thus there is a 1% that is different

We are the 99%, thus there is a 1% that is different.
Where are the actions against the 1%? 

The marvellous slogan “We are the 99%” unites all 99%-ers and provides them with a clear target. When the power of the 1% is not broken, the world never will change. But alas, the brilliant slogan seems to disappear as Occupy is indecisive.
Occupy should move again. 

“Occupy the financial centres” inspired many people to become active. All over the world about 3000 places were occupied. It moved, the 99% were alerted. What happened next was disappointing. Activity was restricted to occupied squares and occupiers became sitting ducks. They were under heavy influence of leftist activists who adhered to the old action protest methods as demonstrations and strikes. A new kind of offensive activities did not emerge.  

 “We are the 99%” is an inspiring slogan but the deeper meaning is not considered. When we are the 99% there is logically a 1% that is different. This 1%, the powerful greedy grabbers, should become the target of all activities. They are destroying our world.
Actions must never hurt the 99%. We need other activities than demonstrations and strikes that often affect only the life of the 99%. In the past is it proven that this kind of leftist actions has not been very successful. The 1% - better said their puppets in the governments - started to use the police against the Occupiers. First against a demonstration on Brooklyn Bridge, the hard way against the occupation in Oakland, then many more occupied squares were cleared.
The strategic rule that you have to plot your own course and must not be guided by the words and the deeds of the 1% was neglected. The discussion in Occupy changed direction. Not how to pressure the 1% stood central but what to do against the police who are also 99%. Occupy lost its initiative.

Another negative development was the advancement of partial solutions as the demand for more jobs. By trying to convince elected officials to improve society a little Occupy is drawn into the political quagmire. Obama also proposed to have more jobs. Partial solutions can never succeed when the not-elected 1% maintains its power. The discussion about partial solutions moves Occupy away from its basic attention point, the 1% that remains out of range. Occupy does not need a political program, it needs an action program about how to take power away from the 1%. "Any action should disturb the 1%, not affect the 99% and it should always be possible for 99% to carry them out.”  

The important slogan “We are the 99% and thus the 1% has to be pressured” opens an unbridgeable gap between Occupy and political organisations that are embedded in the system that is dominated by the 1%. The slogan is however not yet supported by appropriate actions. The movement concentrates itself on the building-up, the maintenance and the defence of occupied places and is not very active in the outside world. After the clearing of some occupied squares Occupy seems not to know how to proceed. The problem how to pressure the 1% is hardly discussed in the occupations or on the Facebook-sites. Sometimes Occupy attacks the 1% with words but has not yet initiated concrete direct actions against the 1%. The marvellous leading slogan “We are the 99% and thus there is a 1% that is different” starts to disappear by lack of activities. Occupy lost some of its advantages and starts to lose its vigour. Without movement there is no change.
Occupy has to move again!

Joost van Steenis (downwithelite@gmail.com)

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