I wrote this over at my “main” blog. Feel free to check it out if you’re following this topic.

About a month ago, the folks over at Adbusters (a great alternative media source) released a call to arms of sorts, for American radicals and dissidents:

On September 17, we want to see 20,000 people flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices.

Drawing parallels to the Arab spring and Tahrir square, several Twitter accounts emerged which have served to “educate, organize, agitate,” including@OccupyWallSt, @radleft, and @USDayOfRage. They work to conjurer up images of a new American revolution, going beyond the disillusionment shared by most Americans and still yet something greater than a leftist response to the right’s  hysteria last year (see  the Glen Beck rally and other Tea Party outings).

Motivated by class-conscious resentment, they are spurred forward by popular support for Wikileaks and the vacuum of criticism for Anonymous. They echo the lingo of a movement which has been asleep for nearly forty years, with various self-drafted radical slogans; some tired (“We are witnessing the death of neoliberalism!“), some inane (“Ideology offers ppl the illusion of identity, dignity, & morality, while making it easier to part with them“). But their weakness is also their strength: the New Left of the past fell apart from in-fighting, nit-picking on it’s internal doctrine, and strict organizational structures. Horizontal coordination on the web and greater latitude for communication has created the illusion of strength in numbers. It’s difficult to say how many have committed  to the planned demonstration/occupation. There are still bigger problems on the horizon for these organizers. I believe they are setting themselves up for failure – whether this is the “perceived failure” of Bill Moyer’s Movement Action Plan which leads to majority support, or a catastrophic embarrassment which further illegitimizes  the American left, I don’t know. Here are the reasons why.

click thru for the rest.