Can we step back for a minute?
I am now totally confused. (Not a state with which I am unfamiliar.)
This site has been bombarded since the inception of OWS with the explanation that the "movement" is by design leaderless, collective and organic, with no "occupation" beholding to another. The governing mechanism for each site is the GA which operates independently on majority consensus. And, "of course" no elective political agenda.
And now there are a continuing series of diaries that imply that there is some "governing organization" across the sites that is somehow setting goals and policies.
Some examples:
From MOT's Diary: (Welcome to PHASE 2 of Occupy Wall Street, now here is a message)
It is time to move into phase 2 of #occupywallstreet. Whether that means supporting certain policy ideas, running our own candidates for office, putting pressure on politicians and corporations, whether this goes one way or another I can not say, but that change is coming whether the corrupt status quo wants it or not.
From Michael Moore's Diary: (Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here?)
This past weekend I participated in a four-hour meeting of Occupy Wall Street activists whose job it is to come up with the vision and goals of the movement. It was attended by 40+ people and the discussion was both inspiring and invigorating. Here is what we ended up proposing as the movement's "vision statement" to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street
Is there now some group of 40 people that includes MM taking leadership of the movement? May we ask who they are?
To which GA was this "proposed" and what was the result? Do all the other GA's get a say in this?
From Vyan's Diary (Occupy DailyKos: Solutions Working Group)
Some weeks ago Occupy Wall Street and it's other occupations adopted a "Declaration" of their issues and intent.
Which is it?
Is there a governing body? If not, how is this coordinated and how is consensus reached across the multitude of Occupations?
Who are they? Where do they meet? How does one contact them?
How did they assume/recieve this responsibility?
I'm all for OWS moving to the next phase of its development. I am concerned that we are loosing transparency as to how things are progressing.
Can anyone explain this?
2:32 PM PT: UPDATE:
For those that may be following this thread, what EdMass has learned so far...
1. One needs to go to each individual OWS site to gain understanding of their positions/policies/goals as approved through their individual GA's
2. Diaries which present "global" positions/policies/goals are for discussion purposes only and in actuality are at best, representative of the local GA'spositions to which the diarist is associated with/ following.
3. Any assumption of a coordinated OWS position/policy/goal in a diary often expressed in a prioritized list is based on the misunderstanding of the reader of the diary and not an assertion by the diarist that they are representing an OWS "Movement" position.