It seems clear that the police do plan to move in on the occupation and to ultimately evict those who now occupy Oscar Grant Plaza. This letter suggests a possible tactic to use in place of the climactic and dramatic scenario that is sure to arise.

Let us first identify what the occupation is. The occupation is a good tactic that has been used to take over space and make it common to all those who wish to participate in the appropriation of a certain geographic area. It has had it’s victories.

It is no small task to set a new precedent for our era of interaction with the state. The mere fact that such an amazingly diverse group of people can come together and share space with all of the joy, playfulness and even hostilities that Occupy Oakland has dealt with, is a victory in itself.

The occupation is also a spectacle. This is not the beginning of an insurrection, it is a laboratory where different forms of organizing, decision-making and interaction can be tried, tested and eventually used or not used. It is a rare moment when space is actually held and used to this end.

What Occupy Oakland is not is a home.

What makes the radical contingent of those who inhabit Occupy Oakland so threatening to the social machine is that they have pushed for a refusal of demands, a refusal to negotiate and ultimately a negation of the social relationship that allows the radical contingent to be perceived as being on the same plane as the state.

It is the imperceptible nature of the demandless occupation that makes it toxic towards the current social relationship.

In the refusal to negotiate must also be the refusal to interact in conflict based upon the state’s understanding of the form. This is not the time to stand ground, because what makes us so threatening is that it is not their ground that we want. We do not care about their park, about their city hall. The most incendiary move at this point would be to wait for the police to amass, and then to leave in style.

If you fight them militarily you will lose, there is no doubt about that.

It is not a military war we are involved after all, is it?

This is civil war.

What makes our amoral position so useful is that we value nothing. We do not have a front line to attack, because all that can be considered valuable, be it mystified property or luxury cars can be turned into our weapons, and then abandoned on a moment’s notice. Their Mercedes can quickly become our $80,000 barricade, and we do not blink an eye.

The occupation was not worthless, it was useful, it has been used.

Discard their real estate and find the appropriate moment to skilfully exit.

It is the only way in which this can be called a victory.

After all, all they’ll have is their rat infested park back.

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