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Billy: Tool or Provocateur?
General Assemblies are famously plagued by losers. Let’s be honest - every great GA has, in equal amounts, been accompanied by a GA which descended into a shitfest because of someone with an obvious mental problem or personality disorder. From Juan (“You are all fucking idiots!) to Donald (“This is fascism! Facilitation is run by Fascists!” as he plows a small Latina girl over in his wheelchair) Occupy LA has been no different. Despite running an impressive GA - OLA is one of the few assemblies in Occupy which runs on a 100% pure-consensus model, with a beautifully orchestrated and clear website which effortlessly debunks the Liberal myth that anarchists hate organization - OLA GA has yet to come up with an effective way to deal with provocateurs. Had OLA been run by Communists or Panthers, doubtless Juan, Donald and their ilk would have been swiftly disposed of with a bullet in the head, or their penis rammed down their throat. Unfortunately, radical inclusion, coupled with bleeding-heart liberals, means little more than a kerfuffle of dis-ease every time idiots descend on the GA with the intent to garner an audience with a tantrum, a meltdown, and a stream of abuse.
But when does simply being an obnoxious moron become something more insidious? Paranoia abounds in the Occupy movement, from the Phantom Occupier Sue Basko’s (chemically-induced?) rants about Psy-Ops, to Occupy Oakland’s (now disbanded) Media Team’s dangerous episode of snitch-jacketing. What we’re about to say then, is that our most recent provocateur - Billy Yllanes - is probably just an obnoxious moron, like Donald, and like Juan. But unlike Donald and Juan, his attempts to incite OLA into foolish actions have larger consequences than simply disrupting a GA.
The first time we saw Billy Yllanes was when he came to GA to make a proposal to Re-Occupy South Central Farms. His reasons for doing so? He had the support of LAPD and Jan Perry. Yep - that’s right. Billy Yllanes stood in front of Occupy LA and told them he had the support of LAPD and Jan Perry. Not only that - Billy didn’t have the support of the South Central Farmers themselves. In fact, they couldn’t stand the guy, and sent along this letter to GA, which a member of the assembly read out to Billy:
Given the whole assembly tabled the proposal, you might have thought that would have been enough to stop Billy Yllanes, who videotaped everyone at that GA who hardblocked him. But no! The dude came back to GA with exactly the same proposal less than a week later, and defended his decision by saying the Farmer who wrote the above letter was biased and racist, and Billy knew what was best for the community - even if they did not.
Unsurprisingly, the proposal was tabled again and the assembly made its feelings about the return of this BS very clear.
Let’s look at the consequences of Re-Occupying South Central Farms. Given the once-public land is now privately owned, anyone setting foot on that plot will last maybe 15 minutes before LAPD swoop down and beat the crap out of them. Maybe a public display at 41st and Alameda would bring public awareness back to this once-widely known campaign - but only if supported by the Farmers and the local community. Fifty lone Occupiers with cardboard signs bringing police presence into a predominantly Latino low-income area who frequently suffer from racist policing and do not support the Occupiers, would do nothing but say: Hello. We’re Occupy White Privilege. We don’t give a fuck about you and your community. The fact you lost that battle against City Council to get back the land Jan Perry illegally sold to Ralph Horowitz, despite overwhelming local and celebrity support and awareness, is because you’re not Occupy. We’re going to take that land back for fifteen minutes, get everyone in jail on felony charges, bring massive police presence to the neighborhood, and look like White Savior Kony-ass dipshits who don’t have a clue about organizing in the local community. Oh wait! People think we’re that already!
I leave it to you, oh OLAASM fans. Billy Yllanes: total fucking idiot, or tool of Jan Perry? Does it fucking matter? No. The guy’s a tool of the Tim Trepanier Occupicnic calibre. That’s all we need to know. Next!
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White OLA Fucks Up Local Communities
Background: Reformist members of OLA have been holding a picnic, without GA approval, and with the overt opposition of Radical OLA, in Macarthur Park. After Revolutionary Autonomous Communities (RAC) politely told picnickers to be more cognizant and respectful of the local community, the picnickers were asked by Radical members of OLA to find an alternative location. They refused. On Sunday, February 26th, this happened:
It was a sure sign that ‘God’ loves RAC-LA and “don’t like ugly”.
RAC-LA which has for 4 years and 4 months operated a free Food Program by, with, and for the poor, homeless, migrant and unemployed residents of the MacArthur Park area found the police called upon us because we were blocking off a space so that trucks bringing food and carrying away compostables (the bins of which weigh can easily weigh above a hundred ponds.)
Lately the park has seen an opportunistic invasion on Sundays as some people who call themselves ‘The Occupicnic’ seeking shelter for their ‘picnic’ in a working-class area, i.e. where cops are less likely to bother them.
A woman named Debbie’ (SEE PHOTO ATTACHED) pulled up and demanded this spot because she had a handicap sticker. Being handicapped she had no more ‘right’ to the space than any other of the many cars that had passed by looking for a space Sunday—or the 10s of thousands that have passed by us since we’ve been here—saw what we were doing and got on. There was a handicap space right across Wilshire and two more around the corner on Wilshire. Pitiful piece of shit playing the victim so as to dictate her will.
This woman strikes me as a professional victim whose been playing ‘cards’ all her life. She had no greater ‘right’ to the space than the over 100 vehicles that had passed by today or the thousands since we’ve been there and respected what was being done. Or the at least 3 cop cars that had passed todau and the hundreds if not thousands of time they had passed us us ‘breaking the law’ for 4 and a third years.
4 and a half years the cops have passed us by and said nothing about our cones blocking off parking after some initial confrontations that ceased with our workers having acquired the support that the local residents give us. Now, she done put it in the cops faces that they ain’t ‘doing their jobs’ and we expect to be under pressure with this for a while now making it difficult to take food off the trucks and putting compost bins on the truck.
This is where the problems with these people has been all along: they assume that their ‘work’—if you can call it that—has to be more important than anything the locals (whose territory they are invading (not occupying)) could possibly be doing. Saw that about a month ago when one of them came and started to get some of our cardboard (that a member recycles) without asking. Another did the same prior to that with fruit. Its rankest privilege. Its the assumption that what they’re doing is certainly more important than anything that the mere working class might have organized itself to do. Its the assumption that these neophytes and wanna-bes are entitled because they think they are what they think they are. There is also member of OLA whom I have witnessed communicating with the police, inviting them to food. RAC-LA does not cooperate with the police. We survived their harassment of us at the beginnings and periodically since by the strength of our membership and those we give food to in staring down and, occasionally, standing them off. This situation presents complexities seemingly not understood by members of OLA.
When I went down and called them out one silly m’f’er said “I’ll tell ya what to do…Get your people to stand with you.” What the fuck did this young jerk know about anything? He hadn’t a clue to the years of hard work that RAC-LA had put in and faced down with the cops.
It ain’t just a sign off a lack of class consciousness its signs of plain old self-important rudeness.
Here’s where I blame that group as a whole in the park: They apparently gave no time to brief their members on the neighborhood. This itself might indicate that they themselves took no time to find out about it. And, in spite of this woman calling the same m’f’ers who beat up and kicked out Occupy LA, they took no action to kick her out which is the only way that they might have salvaged some of the motivations that caused the group to be formed in the first place. Salvaged some credibility.
If she’s is yapping to the cops about us over a goddamn parking space what else might she be yapping about. This fucking snitch ought not be welcome anywhere anybody is trying to do anything about the state of our class.
Below is a picture of the OLA snitch. Apparently the woman is called Debbie and has been attending OLA GA’s for only a few short weeks.
