October2011.org

by Adam Robbert

A tie-in to the increasing presence of the #OCCUPY Movements. October 2011 is a reference to the now 10-year war in Afghanistan. They have provided an excellent resource database HERE. While I think its important that the (multiple) active movements stay generalized at this point in their development, I also appreciate that this organization has generated a short list of goals:

  • Tax the rich and corporations
  • End the wars, bring the troops home, cut military spending
  • Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security and improved Medicare for all
  • End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests
  • Transition to a clean energy economy, reverse environmental degradation
  • Protect worker rights including collective bargaining, create jobs and raise wages
  • Get money out of politics

As with everything, goals and demands are always a situated matter – effecting people in complex and unpredictable ways. I would add to this list that, if we are to ever “transition to a clean energy economy” we need to be attentive economically, to the sectors of society that are most adversely effected by changes to the means of production and the market place.

Burdens and benefits are not evenly distributed, and there is often a gap – particularly in “green” discourses – between people who depend upon industrial jobs and those that do not. We clearly DO need to transition to a more ecologically efficient society, but we also need to recognize that the vast majority of people are simply trying to get by, feed their families, and make a living. My experience has been that, for the most part, people who want to “green” the economy make a living in occupations that do not involve intense manufacturing (e.g., myself). From a cosmopolitical perspective, we need to generate a democracy that invites everyone to the table – lefts, rights, atheists, religious communities, spiritualists, scientists, politicians, artists, engineers, philosophers – and thats just the humans that are involved!