[URPE] Come off the cross, we can use the wood: the Occupy movement needs some basic economic education

[Christopher Rude]

Hello fellow URPE members,

The Occupy movement is a democratic truth-event, a call for radical 
equality. The movement has allowed those who previously had no voice in 
formal political discourse to be heard on their own terms by breaking 
with and dissolving the coerced orthodoxy that there are no alternatives 
to capitalist democracy.  By exposing and questioning the stupefying 
inequity of existing social relationships, it has placed the possibility 
of a radical transformation of capitalism on the agendas of the Left, 
for progressives, radicals and revolutionaries of many tendencies.

That being said, the movement is in trouble.  Various groups are vying 
for control, trying to influence it in many, often reactionary, ways.  
One of its major problems, a problem that makes this possible, is a lack 
of a basic understanding of economics on the part of many of its most 
active participants.  People know that something is very wrong with our 
economy but they do not know what it is.  In their confusion, they turn 
to the wildest ideas.

I can be concrete.  I went to a meeting of the New York City General 
Assembly's Alternative
Banking group for the first time yesterday and participated in 
discussion about the Fed.  I found two sorts of people there.  One group 
was naive and lacked an understanding of the most basic matters: they 
did not know what fractional banking was but opposed it.  The other 
group, the one that was supplying the leadership for the whole working 
group, were financial sector operatives, who did not want to use their 
own names.  The latter included the principal of a major Wall Street 
consulting firm.

What is my suggestion to URPE members?  Join in the Occupation.  Become 
an an active member of any economics-related working group.  There are 
many.  You will find it a painful but a rewarding experience.  Be 
patient and be prepared to struggle.  Educate!

Gramsci said somewhere that intellectual battles need to be fought 
differently than military battles: in the latter, one should attach the 
enemy at his weakest point, but in an intellectual battle one needs to 
attack his strongest point.  Now more than ever, this is what we need to do.


Thank you,

Chris Rude
URPE Steering Committee

PS For those who are curious, the phrase "Come off the cross, we can use 
the wood" is a quote from a Tom Waits song.  Here are two Youtube links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJBqRzjCBSE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GugzLSbOQE&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL0283877D2FC4D375
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