From:  "jemcgloin@verizon.net" <jemcgloin@verizon.net>
To:  september17 <september17@googlegroups.com>
Date:  Tue, 10 Apr 2012 12:28:50 -0400

Oh yeah apathy is definitely public enemy #1.  The American public
should have risen up in disgust four years ago or more.  Have to say I
am encouraged by the occupations in North Carolina where I am visiting
this week.  they are smart and active, and I went to a foreclosure
action yesterday that was well run and attended.
But it is not enough.  After Occupy's initial splash last year,
participation has not been growing.  Hopefully it was just the winter
and the heat will bring everyone out again, but I fear that we are not
doing a good enough job communicating with the American people.
First we need to communicate in a language that they understand.
Speaking to middle America in the same way that you would talk to your
activist friends is not effective.  Don't use movement, socialist,
anarchist, liberal... buzzwords that only some people know the
definition of (and others have been trained to fear by decades of
propaganda).
Translate words like horizontalism, commodification, socialism,
anarchy, anti-captitalist, revolution, into explanatory phrases that
people without education in revolutionary thought can understand and
see as moving their lives forward.  I am not talking about marketing,
but communicating with people without buzzwords.  It is bad wen
corporate stooges use buzzwords and it is bad when we do it too.
We need a clear explanation of the problems.  The Declaration of the
Occupation is good but not pushed enough.
And we need a clear explanation of what we are trying to do about it.
Again, saying "we are creating a horizontal, non-heiarchical space to
discuss the movement to build an inclusive  ..."  is not
communication.  Regular people don't hear words like that and think.
"This is the solution to all the world's problems.
We don't have to have demands, but we need to explain, in plain
English what we are doing and what we are trying to accomplish so
people can understand why they need to help.
Thank you, John