The Mirage of Victory

The mysterious "Insider" has published the most damning exposé so far of complicity between the big green NGO's and the Democratic party in today's CounterPunch.

Captain Ozone - full video

We don't know if he (or she) dashes into phone booths to switch from superhero garb into a bespoke tailored suit, but one thing is certain - with "Manufactured Dissent", Insider has dissected the Tar Sands Action "victory" in a very uncomfortable way.  You should definitely go to that source and read every bit of this indictment, which ends:

"Activist John Stauber, author of the aforementioned “Toxic Sludge is Good for You,” weighed in on the manner, telling The Insider,

'Martin Luther King must be turning in his grave.  The much-hyped victory for civil disobedience at the White House claimed by 350.org last November is a mirage. Rather than civil disobedience, it looks now like civil obedience, pursuing the goal that President Obama smell like an Earth Day rose for his heroic stand against the XL Pipeline. The commentators in the mainstream corporate media never bought the progressive liberal hype flooding the blogosphere and media from Democracy Now! to The Nation. The crusty corporate media observers knew at the time that Obama was simply signaling that in 2013 he would be approving XL. Connecting the dots, as 350.org likes to say, it’s clear that the XL victory was a setup of epic proportions.'

Stauber continued,

'The truth is that real non-violent civil disobedience is a powerful strategy and tactic in the hands of a genuine, transparent movement of grassroots organizers. But both 350.org and its cousin The 99 Spring are driven by invisible funders with their own financial and political agenda who supply the money to do the organizing.'

The jig’s up, says Stauber, but that doesn’t mean all hope is lost.

'I would love to see the real people who have bought the hype and taken these civil disobedience trainings, and who have gone through the arrests, rise up and seize control of their own movement.'

Genuine movements come from the grassroots, not the invisible patronage of millionaires and billionaires. As the old adage goes, 'You live and you learn.'”

Fortunately there is a place where real people - even people who haven't acquired the taste for pepper spray - can rise up and seize control of our own movement - and it starts with the Occupy Wall Street General Strike on May 1.  Watch Lee Camp's Call to Action and then if you like, you can join his site and be a MOC like me!