The hand-signals thing is rather interesting, actually.  When I first observed it at a meeting several years ago I had no idea what was going on; I thought it was some kind of cult thing.  But it turns out that a (small) group can communicate their reactions to a speaker much more rapidly than if they all had to speak (or grunt, or sing, or whatever).  The visual bandwidth is much wider than the auditory one.  Apparently it also turned out to be very useful in the Occupation because of the ambient noise level.

I heard at one point that they were looking for an ASL ‘speaker’.  That would be the next logical step—learn ASL.

I have not paid much attention to the drumming.  In my wayward youth I used to hang out in Tompkins Square Park where Puerto Ricans and Dominicans set up conga lines and played, but they were doing far more sophisticated stuff.

Ana—nah, I ain’t seen it all….but I’ve been to a plenty of the earlier goat-ropes,
chased by the cops in a couple of cities, tear-gassed and even clubbed….and I
gotta wonder why the hand-signals when most everyone’s got cell-phones and
there’s plenty of lap-tops.seems that when you got the technology, you should
use it.
have you heard about the crap with the people banging on drums?

http://jdeanicite.typepad.com/i_cite/2011/10/end-of-occupywallstreet-conflict-
over-drummers.html

couple of people have been sending it to me, probably thinking it’s funny, me
being an actual drummer and all.

heterochromatic, October 24 at 12:27 pm:

‘I don’t go there myself for the same reason that I don’t go to Woodstock re-union concerts.’

Seen it all before, have you? 

I have to say I had never seen anyone try the hand-signals consensus thing in an open space before.  Or quite that combination of activist practices.  It’ll be interesting to see how it turns out.

I don’t go there myself for the same reason that I don’t go to Woodstock re-union
concerts.

heterochromatic—Why don’t you go there yourself?  I hope you’re not relying on the boss media.

Ana, the nephew lives with us and “works’ at Brecht Forum ...  I just finished
speaking with him…. The stink he described was from unwashed clothing….and
it’s now mostly gone as OWS has formed a sanitation committee which was been
taking clothes to get washed as well as cleaning the grounds…..

he reports that a general assembly at the Park couple days back resulted in an
appropriation to the sanitation committee of $3,000 for cleaning supplies and
laundry service to come from the donated cash on hand reserve of $300,000.

Everyone has nephews.

Ana—my nephew is there every day. He’s part of the demo and was part of the
clean-up. 

The word “stink” is his….if he doesn’t sleep in the park tonight, I’ll ask him for a
description of the aroma.

heterochromatic—I’ve been down to Liberty Plaza several times and didn’t notice any ‘stink’.  I am curious as to your perception of one.  Maybe you could be more specific?  Thus far the ‘stink’ and so forth seems to be in the minds of certain media folk who may have seen too many old exploitation movies about ‘hippies’.

oh… you’re so right!
that’s why they’re arresting college professors and putting into effect “stop and frisk” ordinances (which even one with only an eight-grade education should know violate fourth ammendment rights.)

got any good deals on bridges today?

skimohawk—-you’re wrong about the mayor of New York. Neither the mayor nor
anyone else is “scared” by OWS.  there’s no reason for fear. as long as OWS
remains non-violent and as long as OWS can keep Zuccotti Park from being totally
a pig-sty and makes cleaning up after themselves a regular activity rather than
something only undertaken under threat, then eventually the city authorities and
OWS will figure out how to stop the park from stinking quite as badly as it now
does (might be that winter weather will solve that) and by springtime Zuccotti Park
will be a stop for the tour busses.

the actions of mayors in New York, Denver, and here in Seattle clearly show, if nothing else:

the people in control are scared.

they’re scared to the point they refuse to even discuss what’s happening in their newspapers, or to talk about it on the radio (other than to ridicule and make jokes about the protestors), or to address the issues raised publicly.

if the “occupy” thing continues to gain momentum, they will become more scared and resort to even more desperate tactics.

remember Uncle Ho ground down the greatest military power in world history. we have far greater resources than those of which he was able to avail himself.

When, last November, a wave of Tea Party enthusiasm
coupled with political auction money via Citizens
United posited a number of dictator-governors in
various states, we saw the phenomenon of the scrub-
faced Scott Walker moving as if he were Emperor of
Wisconsin. It was alarming hubris.

Then there was talk of getting rid of elected
officials in parts of states where a “financial
manager” would be installed in their place. I had
this queasy sense that our democracy was toast. Then
there was an occupation. Then there was a
disenfranchised youth uprising in the Middle East.
This isn’t just populism: it’s a revolution.

Sirota sez—-“His Majesty King Michael Bloomberg issued a decree stating that as
a benevolent despot, he would “allow” his Manhattan subjects to occupy Wall
Street (as if the mayor has the power to grant—or withhold—democratic rights).”—

of course, there is truth in this thing that Sirota sayeth.

Mayor Bloomberg hath not the scope to allow the protesters to remain in Zuccotti
Park once the court order their removal.
When that comes to pass, the Mayor will be duty-bound to effectuate the court ‘s
order.

How come Mr. Sirota entirely fails to mention the words “nonviolent protests”?  Clearly, the use of nonviolence is a relatively new tactic—evem experimental on such a large and sustained scale.   
  We need to make this fact conscious because it is a new commitment on the world stage. war beinc now widely seen for what it is—the massive, organized murder of human beings, the lower classes of whom are always the victimized “collateral damage” whether within the ranks or beyond.
  These worldwide efforts moving toward nonviolent actions are surely significant enough, innovative enough, effective enough to deserve reccognition as such.

DavidByron apparently doesn’t understand that a parliament does not a democracy make.  Nor does he seem to understand that the primary autocracy the colonists were rebelling against was the Bank of England.  Substituting one mythology for another only reveals differences of ignorance, not lack thereof.

The inverse of democracy is the simple thing that rules America today, Empire, not vague academic terms that few of the 99% understand like; autocracy, plutocracy, oligarchy, etc. etc.

Get real, get serious, if we, the 99%, are to have any chance in starting this Second American Revolution “Against Empire”—- like the British Empire, the Nazi Empire, etc.  which all 99% understand and hate.

Best luck and love to Occupy,
Alan MacDonald

Liberty & democracy
over
violent
empire

we shld know by now that in lands whose governances are founded on
personal supremacism, telos never changes—only tactics change; i.e.,
the amount of crumbs, freedoms, work, ‘news’. ‘education’, healthcare,
schooling meted to u.

such things may yaw wildly or little, but the masters of any tactical
change are always the masters of people and warlords. tnx

Americans apparently don’t know that Britain was a democracy at that time, led by a prime minister.

“the United States is now emulating the very autocracy we originally waged our founding revolution against”

Actually that total ignorance is pretty much sums up much of the American civic mythology and fervour.

Well said David. I like your perspective on current OWS events. Keep your pen handy and shoot at will. We need your voice.

A lot of the struggle is about space allocation.  Power over territory, whether it’s big-ticket real estate or the cops kicking poor people out of a park, is an important and deep element of social control.