David Harvey- Rebels on the Street and The Right to the City.

I have recently been reading two different articles by author and distinguished professor of anthropology, David Harvey.

The first, ' the right to the city' was published in the New Left Review in September 2008. The article is written before the current occupy movement but its rhetoric is very apt for our project.  A couple of quotes from the text are as follows:

'The results [of neoliberalism upon urbanisation] are  indelibly etched on the spatial forms of our cities, which increasingly consist of fortified fragments, gated communities and privatised public spaced kept under constant surveillance."

"[Under these conditions] [e]ven the idea that the city might function as a collective body politic, a site within and from which progressive social movements might emanate, appears implausible. there are, however, urban social movements seeking to overcome isolation and reshape the city in a different image from that put forward by the developers, who are backed by finance, corporate capital sand an increasingly entrepreneurial minded local state apparatus."

http://newleftreview.org/?view=2740.

The second article is taken directly from david harvey's website. The article 'rebels on the street' discusses the current occupation of Wall Street. He begins with a thorough criticism of the Wall Street Party and its implications both nationally within the US and globally. He then begins to discuss the future of the movement. One particularly pertinent  point is quoted as follows. 

"All this has to be democratically assembled into a coherent opposition, which must also freely contemplate what an alternative city, an alternative political system and, ultimately, an alternative way of organizing production, distribution and consumption for the benefit of the people, might look like. Otherwise, a future for the young that points to spiraling private indebtedness and deepening public austerity, all for the benefit of the one percent, is no future at all."

http://davidharvey.org/2011/10/rebels-on-the-street-the-party-of-wall-street-meets-its-nemesis/

I think this backs up and can give some legitimacy to our master plan proposals

Matt