The People's History & the Cold War

[Michael Bailey]

 Mark Kohut wrote:
>
>
> YES!......
>
> Occupy like Bartleby.....

gee, I hope Occupy does a little better than poor Bartleby

when you consider all the memes and Names that are going into it...
I mean, like, Adbusters, right, not a newborn thingie, I've seen it on
counters and racks...
and the blokes from there begat an idea
and lo they found an audience
and with some trepidation the intrepid sat in conclave and made some innovations
claimed public space, met with disputes, fielded interviews
took action, in some cases, against evictors
drew homeless and other undesirables and accommodated them as much as possible
faced police

also you had that Egyptian spring thing, right?  which in principle
the US cheered.
and local action and teach-ins and outreach from and to labor
-- interesting little port shutdown a few days ago and interesting background
http://www.alternet.org/economy/153393/how_goldman_sachs_and_other_companies_exploit_port_truck_drivers_--_occupy_protesters_plan_to_shut_down_west_coast_ports_in_protest

the details are Zinnish - but the story is they used to have good
jobs, then the financiers took over and made them contractors and now
their work SUUUUUUCCCKCKKKs

and there is no single person who can be conveniently martyred and
there is even some crossover with the tea party, and the issues aren't
going away (I am here to tell you -- I keep trying to sleep through
them...)  and the mic check thing and the meetups and the revival of
interest in activism and even in "real" politics

can't be a completely bad thing, can it...
can't expire like Bartleby?  or be shot like Billy Budd (or did they hang him?)

at the very least there will be trials and suits that go on with a
life of their own


so Melville wrote an epic poem that nobody has read...
maybe there's some ideas in there waiting to be occupied too?