Forum Post: Winter strategy - obstacles are opportunities

The onset of winter and the related problems calls for a strategy that accomplishes a continuing presence. It will become very difficult, if not impossible to keep a camping presence in many Occupy sites.

The need to short circuit the whole health and safety argument in the various municipalities is another obstacle. So is the need to create a media spectacle that does not beget violence.

I think all three obstacles could be handled by adopting a strategy that is more like union picketing. The unions are probably willing and able to help implement such a system. I'm thinking the SEIU. They know all about the regs on picketing. They would be hard to prosecute because they know how to walk that line both literally and figuratively.

Imagine how it would look if the picketers came and went in shifts that were as regular(and interesting) as an Alabama drill team. Imagine that the protesters held cards that were pixel elements of a large banner, or words in a statement(changeable like those fridge magnets) .

If the protesters looked organized and efficient, if they literally showed up on time for work, their detractors could no longer call them lazy or flaky. It would make a powerful implied statement about unemployment. It would also scare the crap out of TPTB. Organized opposition is way scarier than amorphous.

The cops would have nothing to cite and the media would have plenty of optics. If the Occupy camp can make a human Mic, they can also make a human digital sign. It could all be done legally. That would be a real hack of the media.