Anti facists have been passing this article around that details elements of OWS and the mechanisms of "infiltration" from fringe right groups. Except that it's less infiltration after the fact and more they had their people in the planning groups from day one. It's not as blatent a scam as the truth movement, but the elements are there: let's build an ostensible progressive grassroots movement, the liberals will come, and we'll promote our sleazy agenda under the cover they give.
Not everyone was fooled,
as one anarchist expounds, but enough people got caught up to make one cynical about the next allegedly leftist revolutionary movement.
One note of caution: the website Political Research, was a haunt of Chip Berlet, who was almost certainly in on the
Kennebunkport Hoax. Mr. Berlet was oddly defensive when asked any questions about how he even knew about the hoax, and one owner of the SLC blog with a record of dishonest conduct was rather quick to push Tarpley's frame, that people were getting money from Berlet and the Ford Foundation. It seems Berlet's association with Political Research Associates has ended, so that's something.
Excerpts relevant to the "truth movement" fraud are quotes below. Read the entire article at the following link:
http://www.politicalresearch.org/2014/02/23/the-right-hand-of-occupy-wall-street-from-libertarians-to-nazis-the-fact-and-fiction-of-right-wing-involvement/#
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The Right Hand of Occupy Wall Street: From Libertarians to Nazis, the Fact and Fiction of Right-Wing Involvement
Spencer Sunshine, Ph.D. (associate fellow) is a researcher and
activist. His research interests include U.S. white nationalism,
post-war fascism (particularly Third Position and European New Right
politics), left/right crossover movements, and left-wing antisemitism.
As an activist he has worked on issues regarding anti-fascism, police
misconduct, prisoner rights, global trade agreements, environmental
issues, and bisexual and queer politics. Follow him on Twitter at
@transform6789.
The most successful mobilization on the Left in recent years—the
Occupy movement—had ambiguously defined enemies and used an organizing
model that was easily replicated. These strategies were key elements of
its success, but they also enabled a significant level of participation
by the Right. Though it is tempting to gloss over or deny that reality,
the Left would benefit from beginning to grapple with it.
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has often been
portrayed as the Tea Party’s ideological mirror image: a left-wing
response to the global economic crises that began in August 2007.
Initiated with a tent city in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park in mid-September
2011, spinoff “Occupations” soon spread across the United States and
then to cities across the globe. These protests, which targeted the
federal government’s cozy relationship with the banking interests that
caused the economic collapse, channeled the mounting anger of those most
devastated by the economic meltdown, especially debt-ridden students,
the unemployed, and people who lost homes in the subprime mortgage
crisis.
But this mainstream-media view tends to gloss over the involvement of
right-wing and conspiracist groups in Occupy. In the perception of many
participants, the Right’s presence was largely limited to a lone
homeless man who paraded antisemitic signs around Zuccotti, which became
the basis of a right-wing “smear” campaign. More recently, venture
capitalists like Tom Perkins have slandered Occupy, absurdly comparing
its attack on wealth inequality to the Nazi persecution of Jews.
1 Because
of this, many progressives plug their ears when they hear about
right-wing groups and Occupy. (In this essay, OWS refers to the New York
City occupation, while Occupy refers to the movement in general.)
Certainly, Occupy was always a largely left-leaning event.
But
right-wing participation has been the norm rather than the exception
within recent left-wing U.S. movements—including the antiglobalization,
antiwar, environmental, and animal rights movements—and Occupy was no
exception.2 Right-wing
groups inserted their narrative about the Federal Reserve into the
movement’s visible politics; used Occupy’s open-ended structure to
disseminate conspiracy theories (antisemitic and otherwise) and White
nationalism; promoted unfettered capitalism; and gained experience,
skills, and political confidence as organizers in a mass movement that,
on the whole, allowed their participation.
Ideally, none of these things should have happened. Advocates for
social justice need to assess the motivations, extent, and substance of
right-wing participation in Occupy—just as has been done with past
movements. Despite the painful feelings it might evoke, it is time for
this process to start.
The problem of finance capital and ambiguous enemies
The original call for OWS from
Adbusters magazine said the
demonstrators themselves would decide on the “one demand” of the
occupation, but this never materialized. Instead, the eminently populist
slogan “We are the 99%” became their rallying cry. The one
percent—often assumed to be those whose household incomes were over
$500,000—was obviously associated with “Wall Street,” the focus of the
demonstration.
3 But
many people with that kind of income were not associated with Wall
Street at all. And, in any case, what exactly was Wall Street: the New
York Stock Exchange? Banks? Bankers? Global corporations? The Federal
Reserve? And who were the one percent: Crony capitalists specifically?
Capitalists generally? The rich? Political elites? The Bilderberg Group?
The Rothschild family? Jews? Or—as one popular conspiracy theorist had
it—our reptilian overlords?
---------------------------------------
But in addition to this general, populist appeal for uniting the people
against the elites, there was one specific piece of common ground.
While
few right-wing actors see capitalism as a system to be abolished, many
are harsh critics of finance capital, especially in its international
form. This critique unites antisemites, who believe that Jews run Wall
Street; libertarian “free marketers,” who see the Federal Reserve as
their enemy; and advocates of “producerist” narratives, who want
“productive national capital” (such as manufacturing and agriculture) to
be cleaved from “international finance capital” (the global banking
system and free-trade agreements).
----------------------------------------------
In Occupy the most common demand of the various right-wing and
conspiracy groups—especially those who openly called for Left-Right
unity—was for the abolition of the Federal Reserve. Whether this is an
issue actually shared by the Left, or just an attempt to get the Left to
support right-wing policies, is another question.
---------------------------------------------------------
The initial controversy over antisemitism
The Right’s participation was far from limited to a handful of
antisemites,
but it is nonetheless true that Occupy’s attacks on finance
capital attracted many of them, since such attacks were easily
integrated into their fantasies of Jews controlling the banking
industry. (Rather than explicitly naming Jews as the villain,
antisemites often instead demonize a subgroup that they identify as
Jewish, such as Zionists, international bankers, neoconservatives, “the
Frankfurt School”—or Wall Street.)
Adbusters, the magazine that initially sparked OWS, has an
especially troublesome past. Its editor and co-founder, Kalle Lasn,
published an article in 2004 criticizing neoconservatives by invoking
numerous antisemitic narratives. The article included a list of
prominent neoconservatives with marks next to the Jewish names.
Responding to widespread criticism, Lasn denied that he was antisemitic
but showed no understanding of why the narrative of the article was
offensive. More recently, the magazine has published articles by
antisemitic writer and musician Gilad Atzmon.
5 This certainly raises the question of whether
Adbusters’s choice of Wall Street as a target may have been shaped by narratives influenced by antisemitism.
Some mainstream right-wing media attempted to discredit OWS as being primarily antisemitic from the outset.
-----------------------------------
The result was that many Occupy protestors on the Left felt that they
were being unfairly “smeared” as antisemites by the mainstream Right in
an attempt to discredit the movement as a whole, and, furthermore, that
these claims were without merit.
9 This
fear of subversion created an atmosphere of denial and a general
consensus that there was no involvement in Occupy by those further to
the Right than Ron Paul.
Right-wing and conspiracist participation in Occupy was nonetheless
real, and it involved more than 20 groups, prominent figures, and media
outlets. These included Ron Paul supporters, Alex Jones, Oath Keepers,
David Icke, We Are Change, Tea Party members, National-Anarchists,
Attack the System, the Pacifica Forum, American Free Press, LaRouchites, Counter-Currents,
the American Freedom Party, American Front, David Duke, the American
Nazi Party, White Revolution, and others. (A detailed account of their
participation is available separately in my essay, “Twenty on the Right
in Occupy.”)
10 Their
involvement included attending planning meetings, taking part in the
encampments, making appeals directed to the Occupiers, and co-opting
online resources. They fell into four overlapping categories:
anti-Federal Reserve activists, conspiracy theorists, antisemites, and
White nationalists/neo Nazis.
------------------------------
The “End the Fed!” factor and the conspiracy theorists
As Occupy Wall Street burgeoned, Ron Paul was campaigning for the
2012 GOP presidential nomination. Although there was no obvious
mechanism organizing their participation, Paulists were at the OWS
planning meetings, and they remained a fixture in the movement and
appeared at almost all Occupations, though they were usually a small but
vocal minority.
--------------------------------
The ambiguity of Occupy attracted a substantial number of Paul’s
supporters, who in turn attracted a fair amount of media coverage for
themselves. They gained general traction within Occupy because of their
objection to the Federal Reserve’s bailout of the major banks after the
financial collapse, and sometimes focused on its role in the subprime
mortgage crisis. Counterintuitively for many, the lesson of the crisis
for Paulists was the need for less—not more—federal involvement in the
banking system.
Many others who wanted to abolish the Federal Reserve also became
involved in Occupy; most supported Paul’s candidacy. Alex Jones, one of
the most popular U.S. conspiracy theorists (although not a consistent
supporter of Occupy), attempted to crash the movement by calling for a
national event on Oct. 6, 2011, to “Occupy the Fed.” Jones said that,
contrary to media portrayals of Occupy as left-leaning, “The people on
the ground … understand the Federal Reserve is the central organization
empowering this world government system. This is a revolt against banker
occupation.”
12
At the same time, the Oath Keepers organization, in concert with
Jones and others, concocted a national push to insert “End the Fed!”
rhetoric into Occupy under a call to “Occupy the Occupation!” (Oath
Keepers, which holds armed marches, recruits current and former military
and law enforcement employees who swear to “uphold the Constitution,”
and is driven by conspiracies about the coming One World Government.) It
also helped establish an encampment in Occupy Los Angeles and attempted
to recruit there.13
Another Fed critic was David Icke, known for his metaconspiracy
theory that the global elite are descendants of reptilian aliens who
seek to enslave humanity—a story that weaves in classic antisemitic
narratives. His “Essential Knowledge For A Wall Street Protestor” video,
which promotes anti-Federal Reserve and related economic conspiracies,
has about 350,000 views. He also made an hour-long “ad-lib documentary”
in Zuccotti Park just after the encampment was evicted by authorities.14 Icke’s followers were active in both U.S. and U.K. Occupations.
Other conspiracists who worked in Occupy include We Are Change (WAC),
an international 9/11 “Truther” group. Luke Rudkowski, the group’s
founder, is a prolific video blogger and is well-known for his
paparazzi-style interviews. On site at OWS from the first day, he did
extensive video coverage at Zuccotti Park and is also featured in David
Icke’s videos.
Members of WAC New York City, a splinter faction, were also active in
OWS, including Danny Panzella, a Tea Party activist who ran for state
office in 2010. Even before OWS, Panzella organized demonstrations
against the downtown Manhattan Federal Reserve, and he worked hard to
refocus Occupy on an “End the Fed!” agenda. He appeared on the Fox News
show
Freedom Watch, in one of a number of the show’s broadcasts that encouraged libertarians to attend Occupy events.
15 Other
members of the group who worked with OWS included Craig FitzGerald, a
“National-Anarchist” who promotes Holocaust denial and endorses White
separatism.
------------------------------
Online, antisemites have continued to be connected to Occupy
projects. The most popular is an imposter Facebook page that mimics the
“real” main one—and posts blatantly antisemitic content. It has
attracted nearly 650,000 followers. (By contrast, the page affiliated
with the organization that arose from the Zuccotti encampment has fewer
than 500,000 followers.) It is unclear who the secretive administrators
of the imposter site are, or why it became so popular. Attempts to
remove it have so far been unsuccessful.
17
One of the Far Right’s most enthusiastic Occupy champions was the American Free Press,
an antisemitic weekly newspaper that is heir to Willis Carto’s media
empire. It promoted Occupy even before the initial action, and for
months it printed numerous articles supporting the movement, including
firsthand reporting from various Occupations.
18
Lyndon LaRouche’s Far Right sect was initially involved in OWS. It
has long pushed for restoring Glass-Steagall, a New Deal-era act that
limited the kinds of investments that banks could make, which was
repealed in the late 1990s. Many believe that it would have prevented
the housing crisis had it remained in effect. During Occupy, two bills
were in Congressional committee that would have restored its provisions,
and it was a priority for many Occupy protestors on the Left, as well.
LaRouche’s followers were active in the OWS planning meetings, where
Glass-Steagall’s restoration was one of six initial proposals for the
never-realized “one demand.”
19 LaRouche’s organization even claimed credit for making its reinstatement “a leading demand of the movement.”
20 Staff at
Counter-Currents,
a leading U.S. publisher of intellectual fascism and White nationalism,
claimed to have attended the San Francisco and Oakland occupations, and
they described the events as a valuable experience
---------------------------------
The most prominent figure on the Far Right to endorse Occupy was
David Duke, a former Republican state representative from Louisiana and
an elder statesman of the U.S. White nationalist movement. In a video
from October 2011, “Occupy Zionist Wall Street,” Duke denounced the
“Zionist thieves at the Federal Reserve” and “the most powerful criminal
bank in the world, the Zionist Goldman Sachs, run by that vulture-nosed
bottom feeder, Lloyd Blankfein.” The video has received more than
100,000 views to date. Duke later wrote on the White supremacist web
forum
Stormfront that “OWS is an opportunity. … Grab this opportunity!”
22
White nationalists also participated in some of the movement’s less
high-profile iterations, such as Occupy Indianapolis (OI). Matt Parrott
of Hoosier Nation—the local branch of the White nationalist American
Third Position Party, now called the American Freedom Party—attended OI,
and made a video interviewing participants. He wrote: “Our experience
was peaceful and positive, affirming my suspicion that the majority of
the Occupy Indianapolis attendees were fed up with the same corporate
and federal abuses the majority of the Tea Party protesters are fed up
with.”
23 His colleague “Tristania” [Nazi lover and Libertarian operative Jaenelle Antas] posted a comment on Stormfront
saying that “it was a very good opportunity for outreach” and that
“it’s about cherry picking people from those audiences and recruiting
them to our side.”
24
[
That is a nutshell is what the "truth" movement con was for--recruiting people from the left to push a Nazi agenda]
---------------------------
Why did they participate?
It is a mistake to view these right-wing groups and people as
“infiltrating” Occupy, since in some cases they supported and helped
organize it even before it started. Others were simply participating in a
demonstration that loudly proclaimed that it was open to everyone and
refused to define even its most basic concepts or demands.
Yet some on the Right
did view their work as intentional
co-optation.
This is an intrinsic problem with the “franchise activism”
model, or the practice of setting up a name and format that anyone can
adopt and act under. While it allows for ease of replication and
flexibility in action—one of Occupy’s great strengths—it also allows a
variety of political visions to be pursued under its banner. For
example, almost no mechanisms are available to deem the “imposter”
Facebook page as illegitimate in relation to the “real” one.
-----------------------
The point it is not so much that the Left was significantly damaged by
the Right’s presence in Occupy—though its presence did open the movement
up to attacks in the mainstream media, which wasted the time and effort
of organizers while turning off potential supporters. T
he deeper
problem is that right-wing groups benefited from the Left’s willingness
to give them a stage to speak from and an audience to recruit from.
[
The problem with any "big tent" strategy in a nutshell]
----------------------------------------
As a result, the involvement of right-wing groups in Occupy raises
questions about the dilemma of creating a movement that is open to
“everyone” but must exclude certain elements if it is to avoid becoming a
forum for right-wing populist protest.
The basic format of the
demonstrations—a populist attack on finance capital with ambiguous
formulations—harmonized quite well with the political vocabulary and
framework of the Right and conspiracy theorists.
-----------------------------------------
Are there any practical steps, then, that activists on the Left can take to minimize participation by the Right?
The administrators at the OccupyWallSt.org forum, the main online
location of internal discussions, took one small step after they were
deluged by conspiracy theorists and Far Right propagandists. In October
2011, they banned anyone who posted about Icke, LaRouche, Duke, or
Jones.31
A more proactive first step would be to endorse an anti-oppression
platform at the very start, such as the one created at Occupy Boston.
Unlike the relatively vague statement from Zuccotti, Boston’s statement
explicitly named the types of oppression that it opposed, including
White supremacy, patriarchy, ageism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Arab
sentiment, Islamophobia, and anti-Jewish sentiment.32
A member of the Hoosier Anti-Racist Movement pointed out that if such
a platform had been in place in Occupy Indianapolis, when racist
sentiments were expressed towards people of color, there would have been
an existing agreement to point to—and a basis for asking the larger
group to intervene—rather than relying on nonexistent cooperation from
the majority of the largely White participants. The HARM member also
said that if racists had been confronted and expelled from the physical
occupation, they likely would not have posted a positive video of their
experience, felt welcome to continue to participate in the group’s
social media, or written about their warm reception.
33
Not taking a proactive stance against antisemitism at Zuccotti led to
significant bad press and much time and energy invested—often by Jewish
participants—in putting out fires.
-------------------
[
From the DUH files. Let's see if the next mass left movement learns from Occupy's mistakes.]
