Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Monday, December 12, 2011

Occupy Vancouver Protesters Reunite

Occupy Vancouver protesters met in the city's Downtown Eastside on Saturday to talk about the future of the movement.

The protest camp disbanded last month, five weeks after the movement began, after failing to establish a new encampment following two evictions.

As about 100 demonstrators reunited on Saturday, the discussion included whether they should bring back the encampment.

"I hope to see and take the temperature of the crowd and find out what people are thinking about that," said Hugh Stinson, who has been involved in the Occupy movement since the beginning.

"There are different strains of thought on that. We have had some offers of land, we have had some land that we have just considered taking. There are questions around what is the best strategy? What are the best tactics? Is an encampment necessary?"


Temporary occupations


But Stinson said the protest is not over.

"I think one thing you will see for sure is at least temporary occupations [are] popping up," he said.

"We have plans for where we want to go � doing more 'Occupies,' flash mob-by stuff, and perhaps longer-term encampments. Since we lost our encampment, we have found it difficult to maintain our voice in the public eye."

Protester Stephen Collis said the meeting was an important opportunity for the collective to regroup and refocus.

"It's this bumping into each other that we don't often see because we are on different committees that is so valuable," he said.

On Monday, Occupy Vancouver is planning to create a blockade outside Port Metro Vancouver.

The B.C. Federation of Labour has spoken out against the move, prompting protest organizers to re-evaluate the scale of the protest.

Origin
Source: Huff 

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