Glenn Greenwald - Here’s what attempted co-option of OWS looks like

[slipslidingaway]

http://www.salon.com/2011/11/19/heres_what_attempted_co_option_of_ows_looks_like/singleton/

"The 2012 election is almost a full year away and nobody knows who is running against President Obama, but that didn’t stop Mary Kay Henry, the D.C.-based National President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), from announcing last week that her organization endorses President Obama for re-election. That’s not surprising — while many unions have exhibited political independence, SEIU officials have long been among Obama’s closest and most loyal allies in Washington — but what was notable here was how brazenly Henry exploited the language of the Occupy movement to justify her endorsement of the Democratic Party leader: “We need a leader willing to fight for the needs of the 99 percent . . . .Our economy and democracy have been taken over by the wealthiest one percent.”

But now SEIU’s effort to convert and degrade the Occupy movement into what SEIU’s national leadership is — a loyal arm of the DNC and the Obama White House — has become even more overt, as Greg Sargent reports today:

One of the enduring questions about Occupy Wall Street has been this: Can the energy unleashed by the movement be leveraged behind a concrete political agenda and push for change that will constitute a meaningful challenge to the inequality and excessive Wall Street influence highlighted by the protests?

A coalition of labor and progressive groups is about to unveil its answer to that question. Get ready for “Occupy Congress.”

The coalition — which includes unions like SEIU and CWA and groups like the Center for Community Change — is currently working on a plan to bus thousands of protesters from across the country to Washington, where they will congregate around the Capitol from December 5-9, SEIU president Mary Kay Henry tells me in an interview. . . ."

[Luminous Animal]

1. Creak...

[EFerrari]

6. There is a hack on Twitter using the name OccupyCongress.

I watched it when it was new about two weeks into #OWS. First, there was just a suggestion about retaking Congress. Then there was bad mouthing Occupy Wall Street. Then there was an announcement that the user himself was going to run for Congress Then there was a return to supportive comments about #OWS. There might have been some attempt to fundraise in there somewhere. I think I stopped following it.

[slipslidingaway]

7. Thanks for adding that :) n/t

[justgamma]

2. Okay, then the Unions

should just shut up and keep away? Or do we take the anger and force the change we need? Have you heard about the demonstrations in WI? Maybe the unions should have just shut up and taken it? We have a chance of changing the Dems, but no effing way are any Pukes going to stand up for us.

[broiles]

3. the unions can be our friends

they having standing-up to the 1% all alone for years. I'm glad they are with us.

[TheKentuckian]

4. They have changed for the worse for decades.

I see little (and ever shrinking) evidence that our party is in the least bit willing to turn away from global corporate rule or the military industrial complex or even neoliberalism at all.

In fact, they have only upped the ante and automatic support is very soft pressure to change course. So soft as to be non-existent.

[slipslidingaway]

8. Not necessarily ...

read further down in the Greenwald piece.

[Remember Me]

5. Hmm, no wonder she was so willing to get arrested the other day

I'm with Glenn -- I don't think it'll work. I HOPE and pray it won't work.

[slipslidingaway]

10. Hope it does not work as well...

there was an interview on the Ed Show the same night as her arrest.

Hope this link works.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45348373#45348373

[Nye Bevan]

9. A union is supporting the Democrat as the best candidate to oppose economic injustice?

Well that's just *horrible*. Shame on them.

[slipslidingaway]

13. As Greenwald's piece reminds us, Obama appointed many of the 1% ...

to important positions and listens to them for advice, see the full article.

[Zorra]

11. Nobody will co-opt OWS. Whoever tries will be taken to the woodshed in GA immediately.

Unions can be our ally, that's fine.

We need lots of allies.

[slipslidingaway]

12. Hope not ...

Video and full text.

SEIU Endorses Barack Obama

http://www.seiu.org/2011/11/endorsement-2012.php

"Today, with great pride and a sense of purpose, the 2.1 million members united in SEIU endorse President Barack Obama for re-election.

President Obama is the only candidate for president who shares our vision of America as a land of opportunity for everyone. We need a leader willing to fight for the needs of the 99 percent, and stand with hard working families to say that the world's wealthiest corporations must pay their fair share.

Just last month, congressional supporters of the one percent blocked President Obama's latest job proposals..."

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. I'd like you to consider this

SEIU President, Union Leaders Arrested in OWS Brooklyn Bridge Protest Demanding Job Creation
Share
743


Thursday’s protest marking the Occupy movement’s second month anniversary coincided with an event planned months earlier by unions and others. Marches were held on bridges across the country to draw attention to how federal funding to fix ailing infrastructure in the country could put unemployed people back to work. Protesters blocked bridges in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, St. Louis, Houston, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Hartford and Portland. Democracy Now! producer Renée Feltz reports that in New York City, labor leaders were arrested trying to block the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge, including SEIU president Mary Kay Henry. "We think there’s an economic emergency in this country that can be fixed, and millions of people can go back to work in good jobs," Henry says.

http://www.democracynow.org/seo/2011/11/18/seiu_president_union_leaders_arrested_in

Can you think of when was the last time a NATIONAL UNION PRESIDENT was arrested? You'd have to go back to the 1960s.

This is not black and white... actually there are many shades of gray.

The Union are part of this fight. They are allies. Trying to take it over... no, not really. But the unions can get bodies out there at marches and we can fight for a common objective and there are a few things that both OWS (in the declaration and common sense) and the unions want.

[slipslidingaway]

15. Saw that, thanks. nt