OWS: To Brass Tacks.
When I wrote “For Those Who Occupy,” I had a hunch a pivot was coming — and that a second iteration of OWS would inevitably occur as a result, and it was this conversation that took place on PBS News Hour that sealed that hunch.
The two people featured here are Sam Adams and Jim Oliver, the Mayor of Portland and the Occupy Portland city liason, and this is the key part of the conversation —
SAM ADAMS, mayor of Portland, Ore.: Well, our concerns have not been with the Occupy Portland organizers or faciliti — facilitators, I should say.
It has been to the other folks that have also gathered at the encampment, and our concern is with a growing 20 percent increase in crime around occupations. It’s the concern about two nearly fatal drug overdoses in the camp. It’s concern with someone who lit a — ignited a Molotov cocktail in a building nearby that you mentioned in the lead-in and used the camp as sort of camouflage for his activities.
Those are our concerns, that, you know, the camp is out of balance and is unsafe.
JEFFREY BROWN: Well, Jim Oliver, what’s the response? What is the plan? Are you planning to abide by this deadline?
JIM OLIVER, Occupy Portland: The mainstream media has been talking a lot about these everyday actions and petty crimes committed by economic refugees in an effort to detract from the message of the Occupy movement.
…
Each of these individual incidents has nothing to do with Occupy Portland or with the Occupy movement as a whole. Again, the mainstream media has been very clear about their intention to distract from our message by focusing on the actions of individuals.
That’s a disappointing response. In giving voice to legitimate, reasonable concerns expressed in a balanced, reasonable way, the response is: “Conspiracy!”
Which is a shame. Hours after “For Those Who Occupy” went up on the website, news broke of a man committing suicide at Occupy Burlington, a man dying at Occupy Salt Lake City, and a man being shot dead near Occupy Oakland, a place where the latter had been camping, contradicting initial claims made by the campers, who also attempted to obscure the identity of the individual in both ring-fencing the body and in providing a false name.
The first iteration of OWS cannot necessarily exist on an “All or Nothing” approach, especially in the face of the dead. There has to be a degree of deftness involved. That — up until today — the only back-and-forth talk that I know of came from letting NYC clean Zuccoti Park in thirds seems somewhat amazing.
And these are some of the shoots and buds I’m seeing that might suggest something slightly different might be afoot — such as —
“Occupy Santa Clarita will take a stand against neglected infrastructure within the city,” says a statement received by The Santa Clarita Valley Signal. “The group has discovered that Santa Clarita is home to 18 defective bridges in need of repair or attention.”
— or —
But now, in what appears to be a first, Occupy Atlanta has camped out at a home in an attempt to prevent a foreclosure on the property and to raise awareness about the country’s gloomy housing sector.
— or —
Occupy Providence protesters intend to temporarily move their tents so the city can prepare the sprinkler system in Burnside Park for winter, but they say they will set up camp again.
— or —
On RFK.
There certainly is one reason why the photos Paul Fusco took from the funeral train of RFK move so: the camera becomes Hermione from The Winter’s Tale, and we are looking out at Leontes after Leontes, hearing the lines of dialogue flash through our head: “Shall I draw the curtain?”
“Do not draw the curtain.”
In the recent history of inside-looking-out photography, these images — and this ‘Do not draw the curtain’ sentiment — seem surprisingly generous. In Meeting People is Easy, the shot of the crowd singing “Creep” is fish-eyed and carries a bit of disappointment; when we look at the shots of all the kids swarming Dylan in his London-styled taxi cab, it’s a bit of a carnival; and, no, it’s nowhere near the ballpark of Las Meninas.
But still — “shall I draw the curtain?”
“Do not draw the curtain.”
For Those Who Occupy.
I’ve been watching OWS since Day 1. I’ve followed it as it’s unfolded all around the world. This also means that — in-between being impressed at the scale and tenacity of the thing — I’ve seen a steady stream of kids getting pepper sprayed and — in the latest video to make the rounds — beaten.
I don’t want to see that anymore. I’m a tough guy, but — if I had a choice — I’d rather not see a group of people who refuse to publicly define themselves continue to get hurt or arrested for something as intellectually reasonable as pointing out the unfairness of income inequality and — as Matt Taibbi put it — the way in which some people cheat.
Since I can’t do a mic. check at every Occupy camp, here are three things I want to say to those in Occupy camps across the planet:
1. Be Safe. There was a rape at Occupy Glasgow and a rape at Zuccotti Park. That shouldn’t happen outside an Occupy camp and it shouldn’t happen inside one. There is — as the editor of Mother Jones tweeted as she visited the camp — a tent set up at Zuccotti designed to be a ‘safe space’ for women 24/7, and though I don’t know how it works, I hope it does work.
I mentioned this as a one of many possible concerns the administration at Harvard might have in shutting down the yard to ID only to someone online — don’t forget: someone died at Occupy Vancouver and someone did OD at Occupy Boston (thankfully, non-fatally) — and got accosted — complete with a condescending “Wow” — for trying to “mansplain” it.
As someone who self-identifies as — amongst many other things — a feminist — let me just say it again: be safe, okay? (I think that’s a fairly gender neutral statement, no?)
2. Be Smart. Kids recently set up an Occupy Harvard, my adopted — and — for a time — very real home. And though the ‘living document’ on the official tumblr makes sense, watching some of the tweets unfold was exacerbating. As an example of one, @MWeisner22 wrote: “There is a wall here bigger than this harvard yard fence. It’s a wall of privilege, classism, and ignorance.”
Right — because how dare FDR launch the New Deal and try and lift millions out of poverty. How dare Louis Brandeis file a “Brandeis Brief” to fight against the idea that women required special laws of their own. How dare Teddy Roosevelt meet with Booker T. Washington or fight for Jane Addams. How dare James Agee write Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. How dare Samantha Power write A Problem from Hell. How dare the Boston Public Library be designed the way it is. How dare RFK care about the plight of South Africans. How dare 1L students dedicate their time to free clinics. How dare Russ Feinfold vote against the Patriot Act. How dare Elizabeth Warren write The Two-Income Trap. How dare 1,043 of 1,664 freshmen require financial aid. I mean — don’t they know there’s ignorance and privilege afoot?
And so on. You get the idea.
While I was tracking this, Greg Mitchell wrote, “Significant debate right now at Occupy Oakland GA over accepting violence as part of the movement.”
That measure was voted down, but it was startling (someone asking about kidnapping and torturing the families of corporate executives? Really?), emphasizes this point — Be smart. — and brings me to my next point:
3. Get Wonky. Chilean students came up with an entire education program of their own and had a national vote on it. The vote didn’t count, but they were able to pull it off with startling numbers. That’s an example of a specific policy proposal that attacks a key element of Chilean income inequality in a successful way: if this many people can vote, the message implies, what if the government backed it? Why isn’t the government backing it?
We recently had ‘Bank Transfer Day,’ whereby people were encouraged to move their money to a Credit Union, and — based on accounts from The Credit Union Times — a good amount of people did. OWS amplified that message, and that was a good thing. It would be nice to see more of this.
OWS now has a ‘spokes committee.’ It’d be nice to hear more from it, as it might not be the most productive thing in the world to see something entropy out of control.
