Thursday, October 18, 2012
Upcoming Event: Jeff Freyman on The American Empire Today
Dr. Jeff Freyman will speak at the UK Student Center, Room 113, at 7pm on Wednesday, October 24. The topic is "The American Empire Today," and the event is co-sponsored by the UK SSU and CCDS and Friends. Talk will be followed by time for Q&A and information discussion. All are welcome.
Occupy is a seed: Dr. Betsy Taylor's talk from the Lexington Occupy Anniversary
Betsy Taylor gave an impassioned speech at the celebration of the anniversary of Occupy in Lexington a few weeks or so ago. I asked her if I could share her speech, and she agreed. Here, anyway, are some of her notes for the talk:
* * *
But, if one has turned from a flower to a seed – what should
one be doing to make sure one grows back and multiplies – what are the
POLITICAL tasks of the ripening seed?
The horror of the 20th century is that this
second level – the level of the Commonwealth – became dominated by two systems
that became more & more undemocratic:
In the last several decades these two anti-democratic forces
have merged into a corporate state. The large corporations have captured much of
the regulatory agencies – banking, environment, health. Especially since about the 1980s, corporate
investment capital has fallen into a self-destructive pattern of increasing
profits through mechanization, and outsourcing jobs through globalization –
creating fewer & fewer jobs. This
means that globally we have a jobs crisis that will just get worse &
worse. There are structural reasons why
the American Dream is dying – our corporate-dominated is now an inherently job-shedding
economy.
But, even more dangerously, corporate monopolies are
shifting from profit-making at the first level – the level where things are
actually made & sold. They are
increasingly trying to burrow into the Cooperative Commonwealth – to make
profits from privatizing health, military, education, even govt clerical work,
etc.
The good news is that this new corporate-dominated global
economy is incredibly fragile & ineffective. At some point, if the 1% stops creating jobs,
they will not be able to con the 99%.
It is Mother Nature who always bats last. And, climate change is already starting to
force limits. As droughts spread, we are
going to HAVE to change our agriculture and water systems.
All around the world, people are developing wonderful,
creative new ways to organize that second level – the level of the Cooperative
Commonwealth.
In southwest Va, there is a terrific organization
called Rail Solution doing grassroots
organizing for a new passenger / freight railroad from Harrisburg PA, looping
around central Appalachia – that could provide the infrastructure for a
non-corporate, small scale, sustainable farming & small manufacturing
regional economy. This is exactly the
democratic system for long term planning of the Commonwealth that Populists
were HOPING that we could start a century ago.
We should all study the public bank of North Dakota – which
provides a model for profit generating, democratically controlled financial
system.
In this seed-time of Occupy – if we all keep studying these
new experiments in reclaiming the COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH, I believe, that
when THE TIME IS RIGHT – we can emerge with effective & tested new ideas
for democratic reorganization of the commanding heights of our political
economy.
* * *
Some people have asked me recently “What happened to Occupy?”
Here's what I say: I
say – 12 months ago, 10 months ago, 8 months ago – Occupy was a flower, a
beautiful, astonishing flower that sprang up – when almost noone thought it
could grow – out of the hard, cold ground of these Hard Times we are in...
But now, now I say Occupy is a seed. And, I say to them – only fools underestimate
a seed. Many inside the Occupy movement are discouraged, some outside the
Occupy movement are mocking – they say 'has Occupy died?'.
Last year, I believe, the work of Occupy was to show itself,
to express very powerful truths about what democracy is, to witness to the
terrible destructiveness of our current system.
When I would arrive at this site last year, it was like walking into a
miracle – a beautiful garden that had sprung up out of nowhere.
But, there are stages in revolutions. And, living flowers must turn into
seeds to grow & thrive & spread (look out 1% this is our expansion
phase!).
Now I have a question for you – when a seed is under the
ground, can you see it?
But, I ask you, when a seed is under the ground, is it weak?
I heard something both true and beautiful last weekend, at a
reading at Joseph Beth by author Janisse Ray.
She said “there is no despair in a seed!” It's when a seed is invisible, that it
is doing it's most important, its most potent, its most precious, its most
unique work.
Now, I admit, this can be scary. The seed's journey underground is a dangerous
time. It can die. For those who are cultivating & loving a
seed, BUT ABOVE GROUND, it is easy to lose hope, to get cynical. All that suffering you did in the bitter cold
& downpours of rain, round the clock, in tents, for days & nights &
months – last year? What came of
it? Well, it does makes one worry
– because when a seed is underground there IS nothing to see!
What are the three big secrets to the successful seed?
1.
Water – nourishment. Feed yourself emotionally &
intellectually. Don't burn out. Start reading groups. Read history.
Read political economy. Spend
time with your family & friends.
2.
Soil – finding the right place to put
down roots.
3.
Timing – when come back out from
underground
To answer these last two challenges – I believe we face the
greatest dangers & confusions. We
know our economic & political systems are rotten almost to their core. But, how do we know when we're making basic, revolutionary
change to fix these systems, and when we are merely tinkering with reforms
that will consume our time. Mere
reform is the same as walking north on a south bound train.
In the seed-time of Occupy – I believe that we should be
obsessed with this question.
I'm wrestling hard with this question. What is keeping me sane is a crucial insight
into the American economy which comes from the great radical, democratic
Populist movements of the 1870s thro 1900s.
They distinguished between two levels of the US economy.
·
On one level was the level of direct producers
& reproducers – people who actually made things & cared for things
& people. Small farmers, homemakers,
neighborly social work & mutual care societies, artisans, skilled
crafts. This level was where Adam Smith
ideas of free markets & private ownership & voluntary do-gooderism
would mostly work just fine. It's an
economic & civic system that fits with deep cultural values in America, of
liberty AND neighborliness and care for others
·
the second level is what some used to call the
Cooperative Commonwealth – those are things like banks, roads, trains,
education, water, and, now energy and health and military. These are areas of work & caring – where
free markets do not work well. These are
things that provide infrastructure & support to the first level. They are natural commons (like air and water
– that shouldn't be privately owned because everyone depends on them) or public
goods & services (the COMMONWEALTH) to which there should be universal
access.
·
huge & ever more monopolistic corporations
dominate first energy (especially oil & coal) and transport (especially
railroads) sectors – bankrolling a very
sophisticated & bogus campaign to claim constitutional rights – so they
could dominate over small businesses
·
other public services & goods – like
environmental commons & health – became dominated by a top-down
bureaucratic govt regulatory apparatus.
The Far Right has been very successful in nurturing legitimate anger at
top-down govt bureaucracy – turning that old 19th democratic Populist
energy into reactionary Far Right so-called populism
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