John said:

Thanks, Katie.

Also, to correct something I said above, the N17 march was "in partnership with SEIU and the AFL-CIO."

Im for the OWS movement but whats up with the censorship on this site. Why do comments have to pend approval?

SEIU and the AFL-CIO will take over OWS before its all said and done. OWS is against Lobbing I belive. Yet Unions are one of the largest. If unions truely cared about there members they would'nt charge dues. But wait if they did'nt charge where would the money come from to pay off the democratic party. AKA Obama.  I have to ask why you would want to let them in.

Post edited 6:05 pm – November 20, 2011 by Winston Smith

"In light of the article, I'm interested in what people think of Occupy Houston officially supporting SEIU-sponsored events. (The march that OccHou joined on Nov. 17 was co-sponsored by SEIU and Good Jobs Great Houston.) [correction: the event was in partnership with SEIU and the AFL-CIO]"

We live our lives within conversations.

Given the shallowness of the conversation labor unions create and maintain, I have to say absolutely not.  They lend agreement to this failed system–this Master/Slave paradigm–in everything they do.  This state of things cannot be allowed to persist.

The call for "jobs" is the plea of slaves.  Those manufacturing jobs everyone is so nostalgic for, wrecked the environment, creating a false economy.  We let corporations/businesses externalize their costs and privatize their profits–which is psychopathic, anti-social, anti-life behavior.  'They' take advantage of the 'outta sight, outta mind', infantile perspective, from which we, as a species, continue to operate.

'Labor' lacks the insight, imagination and the courage to change the conversation.  There is no enlightened leadership in labor today and the hasn't been any for several generations now.  Labor, today, seeks to maintain the agenda of BIG Business–tacitly or otherwise.  They are a LARGE part of the problem because they continue to seek solutions within the paradigm that put us into this ditch.  I'm being nice.

Of course, they are welcome to join us–but on our terms, not theirs–they blew it generations ago.  Again, their perspectives are infantile; petulant; shallow; short-sighted; fear-based/driven; immature; not sober; lack moral or ethical bearing (therefore, bereft of courage); sociopathic; corrupt to their fascist core.  (Corrupt meaning spiritually; regarding personal integrity–not just money.)  Labor doesn't even pay good lip-service to working-class values–which is currently a plus.

We can and must do better.  We must tell the truth as we know it–as we find and name the actualities.  Labor, along with other entities like the Mayor, do not recognize the value of connecting these dots so we must somehow–creatively, non-violently–assist them.

We have reality working for us but are challenged by the conditions/culture we create with our 'atomized' lifestyles in this country–this insane drive towards autonomy when we couldn't be more obviously inter-dependent.  We've been robbed of perspective/empowerment by schools and the mainstream media by our inappropriate/mis-placed values.  We've lost all but the last vestiges of community.  The family is society in microcosm and it is mostly disintegrated.  Our institutions are collapsing around us.

The paradigm is clear:  It's a you and me world now–including all other flora and fauna within this biosphere.  It's really always been that way, but, given the collapse of everything around us, we can now recognize that we are in a process of re-birth (and at the level of species, no less).  Our choices are more narrow with fewer and fewer viable options.  We are sobering up from the blind drunkenness generated by the very flawed, anthropocentric (infantile) mind-set we were born into; that we inherited.  We, as a species, are reclaiming our birthright–agency in our lives…

Peace is not the opposite of conflict, but the result of cooperation.

We will live cooperatively or perish collectively.