Building a democratic Occupy

IN RESPONSE to "Building a stronger Occupy movement": Terrific article, thank you for saying what I believe needed saying.

This is not about exiling the Black Bloc anarchists, nor giving the police a free ticket to act as they will. Instead, the issues being raised are important, and in order to keep the movement democratic, they must be decided upon democratically. And of course, these decisions must also allow for the flexibility of local groups to make on the ground decisions as needed. Hard-and-fast rules concerning this become philosophical abstractions, rather than truth grounded in action.

I recently wrote to a local Occupy organizer who has been feeling let down lately due to the lack of local participation. In that message, I encouraged them to remember that, as Marx points out, a political revolution without a social one preceding it will inevitably fall short.

That social revolution must clearly include public actions, but it also means living out those revolutionary standards in everyday life--at work, home, school, wherever the individual finds themselves located socially and geographically. And a slack in public attendance can be used to solidify your core, and discuss and implement means of local action in the personal lives of so many in need.

Again, thank you for the fine article.
Carl Badgley, Berea, Ky.