OWS -- 8 Rules

By John Ballard

Here they are... the Eight Rules for a movement without rules, led ny No One and making decisions by Concensus.
Getting into a hivemind is not easy, but I'm trying.
Cynthia Boaz put these into writing.
Here's a link to the hashtag.

Dr. Cynthia Boaz is assistant professor of political science at Sonoma State University, where her areas of expertise include quality of democracy, nonviolent struggle, civil resistance, and political communication and media, and an affiliated scholar at the UNESCO Chair of Philosophy for Peace International Master in Peace, Conflict, and Development Studies at Universitat Jaume I in Castellon, Spain. She is also an analyst and consultant on nonviolent action. She is Vice President of the Metta Center for Nonviolence and on the board of Project Censored and the Media Freedom Foundation. Dr. Boaz is also a contributing writer and adviser to Truthout.org, a contributor to Waging Nonviolence, and former associate editor of Peace and Change Journal.

1. Nonviolent discipline, no matter what. Zero tolerance for any violence whatsoever, including verbal.
2. Unity of message & across orgs and people. There should be a consistent message & demands coming out & activists shld know it & share it.
3. There must be a long-term and coherent strategy, not just tactics and actions (no matter how clever) that are not connected in some way.
4. Security forces/police should be seen as potential recruits to movement, not as adversaries. Ultimately they are accountable to the ppl.
5. Keep larger audience (national and international) in mind when framing the message. The goal is to win ppl over, not to alienate.
6. Defensive strategies never win. Don’t respond to verbal attacks or hostile propaganda by using the language of the opponent. Reframe.
7. Claim victory whenever possible. It’s important for morale and enthusiasm. Keep anger/rage in check with humor and solidarity actions.
   [She was right on with her answer, but she used all 140 characters. We trimmed the principles down so people could RT them, and we thought number seven was a compound thought, so we split it into the last two of the eight rules.]
8. Keep anger in check /w solidarity actions & humor.
9. http://www.newshoggers.com/blog/2011/10/ows-8-rules-.html