Be Prepared for the Inevitable and Unpredictable Mass Movement

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/activism/mass-social-transformation-movement-inevitable-be-prepared



The surprise events in Turkey show how unpredictable mass movements are. Turkey, which is in a difficult geographic neighborhood, with economically distressed Greece and Cypress nearby and Syria and Iraq on its border, seemed to be fairly stable with five percent economic growth in recent years. But, obviously that was not the whole story.

In recent years there has been growing opposition to the commercialization of Turkey and the crackdown on freedom as well arrests of journalists. So, when Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced the development of a park, in a city of declining green spaces, into a shopping area, the people revolted. The government’s response has been brutal with 1,700 injured and 1,900 arrested, but it has led to larger revolts.

The unions joined and many civil-political groups have joined as well. A coalition of 180 groups now call themselves Taksim Solidarity and are starting to form demands. There are protests in 67 cities involving hundreds of thousands of people. A protester told Sky News: “This is no longer about these trees.”Turkish protesters sought international solidarity through a twitter campaign to overcome the lack of mass media coverage (TV continued to broadcast regular content such as the Turkish Beauty Pageant). There were at least 2 million tweets, sometimes at 3,000 every minute. Prime Minister Erdogan called tweeting “a menace” and people were arrested for tweeting. International solidarity followed with Occupy protesters in New York, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Austin and other cities around the world as well such as in London, Amsterdam, Germany, Egypt, Canada, Helsinki and Cyprus. On Reddit people posted helpful advice such as how to respond to tear gas.

The eruption in Turkey seemed spontaneous, as most uprisings do. But the reality is that in case after case momentum builds for a while, sometimes under the surface, until it reaches a tipping point and an event lights the spark that sets off mass protest. Nobody can predict what the event will be or when it will occur.

[Fumesucker]

1. Hence things like the NSA phone record fishing expedition

What, you thought that was about terrorism?

Bless your heart.

Not you, xchrom I know you know better, bless your heart in a different way.

[xchrom]

2. ...

[Kurovski]

4. Will the NSA have a hell of a time this Thanksgiving?

[leveymg]

8. Hence, Twitter and Facebook are useful data collection tools for NSA and the Turkish NSA-lite.

They are also familiar with social theories about tipping points.

[LuvNewcastle]

3. Better late than never.

[Kurovski]

5. K&R. (nt)

[KoKo]

6. "...a conflict between the people..planet and concentrated corporate power."

I found that a profound way of describing it in one sentence. One hopes that those in the "malaise" will begin to wake up as the austerity continues and the quality of our food deteriorates further and the Corporations and Wall Street are shown to be "at it once again," now that the MSM Memory of the Great Crash starts to fade.

from the article:

"These victories remind us once again of something that has been shown throughout history – people organized, acting strategically with uncompromising pressure can win against the power structure, today in the United States it is a conflict between the people and planet and concentrated corporate power."

[librechik]

7. yay, let's help the rebels in Syria!

oops, they're Al Qaeda.

We need to slow down and figure this out before we leap in. Unpredictable means consequences we don't like.