OWS has succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations thus far, and we need to be clear and honest about what can be done better if we hope to build on this success and reign in the most greedy, powerful and ruthless 1% the world has ever known.The movement should celebrate how far we have come in such short time, but we cannot rest with these accomplishments.
The author takes a much needed critical look at the WSO, its current state of development and its difficulties to help the movement move ahead with advances and solutions. General assemblies have been very useful in bringing together and encouraging participation by all. But, as he points out, they can be unwieldy and can, thus, prove too draining of energy needed to otherwise promote effective development of the movement. This is all a part of the growing pains of organizing.
I think that organizing efforts must now focus on breaking the large assembles down into small groups of people who will provide the nucleus of the movement upon which all else is constructed. Using the human body as metaphor, I can see parallel forms consisting of cells of 8-12 people, the cells forming molecules, and the latter supporting organs that are assigned to areas of responsibility. Later, a central nervous system can be constructed to coordinate all efforts.
All levels of organization, in contrast to the reigning hierarchical arrangements of oppressive organizations of the ruling class, must function at the direction of the levels below them. Such a structure provides participation, efficiency, and effectiveness that will inspire further participation and commitment to the movement. I really don't see any alternative, except more of the same political activity that has gotten us into the hellhole we are now in.
This effort to construct such a bottom-up organizational structure will require the discarding of thought habits that have infected our minds about how social organizations are constructed. More people are becoming aware that hierarchy is dysfunctional for all except those at the top of the power pyramid--a ruling class. Still, although less than 2% of human existence, we have been conditioned by the experience of the last 10,000 years to think of organizing according to this model. (Read this about someone who is dealing with his own conditioning.) These thought patterns must be deconstructed in order to create a new system that will serve everyone in society. Such a system would be truly a revolutionary one that can overturn the current social-political arrangements.
Continuing with my body metaphor, the current Squares Occupations must begin the process of constructing such a system. They can be regarded as the ova where the activists are the fertilizing sperm that can create the system embryos which can be incubated in the Squares Occupations until fully formed.