on the most critical issues that we’ve dis- have a large number of people who are new to delphia organizations including activist groups, cussed. Paradoxically, some people interpret activism and/or are young. unions, community organizations, churches, this openness as the General Assembly being and more. We should hold joint actions and taken over by a faction. I think this is because 8. The Lack of Personal Relationships support the actions and campaigns of other the General Assembly changes its mind in re- There is a lack of trust within Philly groups. We should have a values statement that sponse to new information. For instance, the that is most likely to occur between people who allies can endorse. This will make Occupy Philly General Assembly repeatedly voted against don’t know each other. This happens when out- less of an outlier on the political landscape. having a meeting with the City. Then it sider supporters observe the movement but do changed its mind and had a big meeting at the not get involved in working groups. It also hap- Conclusion Friends Center. After this meeting, the General pens when people within working groups don’t I think there are some clear solutions that Assembly voted against having any more meet- talk to people in other working groups, and do will help increase trust and debunk the ru- ings with the City. not talk to people who share different opinions. mors that is controlled The second example was how the Gen- An excellent example of this is Live Stream. The by any secret faction or small group. Most eral Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor Live Stream feed is often full of mean accusa- notably we need transparency, to develop our of staying at Dilworth Plaza (with rumors of tions. It is easier to make a hurtful statement message and own media, to encourage peo- “bussed in” radicals) on Friday (Nov 11), and in an email or when you are using a user name ple to participate directly in our actions and then reversed this decision by a similar margin (which often isn’t linked to your name) than to meetings, and to encourage Occupy Philly on Thursday (Nov 17) by deciding to move to do it face to face. participants to talk to people who they dis- Thomas Paine Plaza. Solutions: introduce yourself to people you don’t agree with. My hope is that Occupy Philadel- Some people might think that there know. Don’t tolerate personal attacks. phia will move past these internal conflicts were organized factions that dominated both and unify over the next weeks and months! meetings. But I saw a move in opinion. I saw 9. General Assemblies at Night By Aaron Kreider tons of radicals supporting the proposal to It is harder to build community and trust when [email protected] move on Thursday. This happened in response it is dark and you cannot recognize people. to a day of Action which included a march of Solution: hold meetings at the Friends Center. over 700-1000 people (possibly our largest ac- tion yet) that was organized by Fight for Philly, 10. Focusing too much on the General As- had a lot of community and union support, and sembly featured a strong public union presence. The If you spend all of your time at the General unions put out an official statement asking us Assembly and do not participate in any of the to move, showed the strongest level of solidari- direct actions, workshops, speakers, music, or ty we had seen, and then the General Assembly cultural events that are organized by Occupy decided to act in solidarity with the unions. Philly then you are missing out. Too much I think it makes sense that the General focus on the intra-organizational drama is not Assembly would change its mind about tactics, healthy. as people are more likely to have flexible opin- ions on tactics than they are on values. 11. Lack of Strong Relationships with Exist- The General Assembly is open-minded ing Philadelphia Organizations exactly because our participants are NOT be- Occupy Philly is working on building relation- ing super-ideological. This open-mindedness ships with many organizations including the proves that the power and coherence of factions Quakers (and the Friends Center), the unions within Occupy Philly is very limited. (SEIU, local AFL-CIO, and others), Jobs With I think the open mindedness of the Gen- Justice, Fight for Philly, and others. We should eral Assembly is increased by the fact that we build stronger relationships with existing Phila-

Antiphon: Notes on the People’s Microphone The people’s microphone is a means for texting, and twitter, protestors have found in the process. At times, the human mic amplifying speech in large crowds. The ingenious ways to disseminate vital infor- seems more intuitive, perhaps even more premise is simple: all those within ear- mation quickly through large groups with- effective, than technologically reproduced shot repeat loudly and in unison what out recourse to any prosthetic beyond the sound. At least there is no crackle, feed- the speaker on the floor has just said. In human voice and a few well-chosen hand back, or electric shock. State-of-the-art smaller groups, a single repetition can signals. technology can help move things along: suffice for all to hear. In assemblies of In less exigent circumstances, it’s a cum- computers, camera phones, and live- hundreds or thousands, several rounds bersome system, at times counter-pro- streamed video have been instrumental to may be necessary for the message to ductive: as Richard Kim notes, General the success of the . But reach those on the outskirts. It’s a surpris- Assembly meetings and group decision- arguments about efficiency aside, the per- ingly effective medium, one that works making processes conducted by these formative, ritual, and relational capacities best when the speaker delivers her mes- means can be “incredibly, agonizingly, of this vocal medium exceed its utility as a sage in short segments: no fillers, no astonishingly slow.” And yet despite the means of spreading information. contorted grammar, or you simply won’t obvious drawbacks, people seem com- The human mic is less a tool than a mode be heard. pelled and mesmerized by this form of vo- of speech. As Hannah Chadeayne Appel The human mic is an ingenious solution calization. Some speakers opt to use the suggests, it is “a synecdoche for the larger to the problem of mass discourse in sites people’s mic even when a megaphone is issues at stake.” The human mic involves where amplified sound is banned, includ- ready to hand and sanctioned by permit: a special kind of speech-act, an actualiza- ing the original en- Francis Fox Piven, speaking at Occupy tion of principles in viva voce. Amplifica- campment at Liberty Plaza in New York. It Philadelphia on November 8, 2011, began tion, but also reverb, chorus, equalization, was used in the occupation of the Madi- her remarks through the human mic be- and distortion. It’s a kind of speech at son, Wisconsin capitol building in Febru- fore switching to an electrically powered once radically new and ancient, evoca- ary 2011, and was documented on video one. With the latter, she made several tive of the choruses of Greek drama, the in use over a decade ago in the WTO adjustments before discovering the right antiphonal cadences of Gregorian chant, protests of 1999 in Seattle. In an era that angle at which to hold the electric mic, and the liturgical call and response of prefigures the ubiquity of smart phones, and a few words were lost to the ether certain religious ceremonies, in the ety- mological sense of the word (liturgies = pluralistic about the human mic,” writes Each use of the people’s microphone car- “work of the people”). Kim, for “it exudes solidarity over ego.” It ries with it an implicit enactment of the also marks a shift away from the idea that very thing being demanded: This is what Amplification our speech belongs to us, as if it were a democracy looks like. Kim calls this a The human microphone goes up to commodity, and the idea that when oth- “prefigurative politics…living in the con- eleven. Or rather, it doesn’t go up — it ers reiterate it, it is somehow used up ditional tense.” Each fragment of speech goes across, horizontally, radiating in or stolen rather than bolstered and en- amplified by the people’s mic expresses a concentric circles, or fanning out in a hanced. The mode is not appropriation, desire for, and also models and genuinely wedge-shaped pattern. In this medium, but rather forwarding, reposting, making creates, a pluralistic process. speech skips away and comes back to mir- bigger and better. [Part one of two. Continued in Occupy rored but also transformed by the crowd. The human mic not only amplifies; it also Philly: Machete Issue Four. – ed.] Through collective speech, the people’s enacts. It is related to what J. L. Austin mic shifts away from unified, solitary per- calls a performative utterance: a state- -By Homay King sonhood. There is “something inherently ment that actualizes what it invokes. [email protected]

To the “They Have No Message and/or They Haven’t Accomplished Anything” Crowd of Naysayers: 1: The message is crystal clear and ously, no one was talking about how eager to arrest unarmed, nonviolent easy to comprehend - the distribu- this allows for the political process to American citizens seeking to "assemble tion of wealth in the United States be rigged by those at the top to insure and petition the government with has become extremely lopsided. This they continue to receive government their grievances" as stated in the first distribution has allowed the top 1% of favors in exchange for their massive amendment. Their willingness to vio- individuals and the largest corpora- campaign contributions to politicians. late their own codes of conduct as well tions to buy and sell almost all of our They give those donations not out of as the law of the the land has been ex- politicians. We think this has had dire the kindness of their corporate hearts posed and will not soon be forgotten. consequences for America. End of mes- but because they know they will be sage. able to call in those favors when they - Though they continue to claim we need to receive corporate welfare for have no message, politicians on both 2: The accomplishments so far: the businesses they have run into the sides of the aisle have already publicly ground through their poor practices, attempted to address the issues occu- - ABC news reports that 1 million peo- i.e. socialist bailouts for failed banks. piers have raised. Again, this is some- ple have closed their bank accounts No one was debating any of this in the thing absent from the national stage and switched to credit unions and local mainstream media two months ago. two or three months ago. banks since Occupy announced bank Now those issues have been forced transfer day! back into the national conversation. Because the corporate media con- glomerates and the obscenely wealthy - A Bank of America spokesman admit- - The increasingly militarized police board members who control it real- ted that they abandoned their $5 ATM forces around America have been ex- ize that the majority of Americans of fee plan due to complaints from their posed, including their expensive new both parties could easily get behind customers "and the atmosphere cre- control technology. They have no effec- the message that the political process ated by the ongoing protests." tive oversight and have been extremely is currently bought and sold by cam- paign contribu- - A leaderless tions, and that movement shut they have no down one of the decent argu- largest ports in ments against the US, prov- this message, ing the effec- they continue tiveness of the to attempt model. to follow the policy of "re- - In six weeks peat a lie long Occupy has enough and it called attention becomes the to the long- truth." There- ignored issues fore: "they have of economic no message - inequality and they have no the hoarding message - they of our nation’s have no mes- monetary and sage..." physical as- sets by a tiny -Matt minority of our citizens. Previ-