| This is the first of a series of reports from my friend Steve, who has been participating in Occupy Wall Street since October 5th.
Hi everyone,
I arrived at Occupy Wall Street Wednesday morning. It was pure luck that I got there the day of the big march.
The feeling in the park was really nice from the moment I arrived (especially since I had to walk around Wall Street itself for a while before finding it). A lot of people under odd conditions, and doing so quite well.
Zuccotti Park is just a few blocks up Broadway from Wall Street. It's one of the only, if not the only, parks in NYC that is privately owned. Because of the deal made with the city at the time of construction, the park is open 24 to the public 24 hours, while every other park in the city is closed at night. News report (NPR) says it was pure luck that the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) people picked it to occupy!
Before I got there, I'd read about a system where people can call from anywhere in the country and order a pizza to be sent to the folks in the park. This is a little misleading. In fact, there's a full-time kitchen crew that serves throughout the day. So it's even more organized than I'd imagined, with donations coming in and being used effectively. |
| One law restricting us, though, is we can have no "permanent structures," which apparently applies to tents of any sort. If it rains, campers have to shield themselves with tarps. I can't say how effective this would be and hope I don't have to find out, though I suppose it all depends on how well the ground was pitched for runoff. I saw someone sleeping in a tent without any poles! Just a limp tent lying on top of the person.
The other big restriction is that no amplification is allowed. When someone needs to address the crowd they yell, "Mike check!" at which point all who can hear him repeat, "MIKE CHECK" and again, "Mike check." "MIKE CHECK." "The clean-up crew needs" "THE CLEAN-UP CREW NEEDS" "five volunteers" "FIVE VOLUNTEERS" "To carry these bags" "TO CARRY THESE BAGS," etc.
At any time of day there are some people napping in their sleeping bags. I managed to catch a little nap to recover from the all-night bus ride, and played a few games of chess with one of the community sets, until it was time for the big march.
The big rally with the unions was permitted, in Foley Square, about ten blocks away. But the march to the rally was not, so we had to walk on the sidewalk. This made it slow, and made me worry there might be arrests, but there was no trouble at all. The march was incredibly spirited, and the people we passed-- workers and customers in stores, pedestrians, people on city buses or tour buses, almost all seemed to support us. Some waved or shouted in support, some smiled, some read our signs, nodded, etc.
The chant, "We, Are, The 99%" is a good one, and quite accurate. So, nearly all of the people we passed were also the 99%, and were also hurt by the policies we were protesting-- lack of regulation and accountability for the largest richest banks and corporations in the country, and massive giveaways of public funds to those same banks and corporations. I've been in plenty of marches, anti-"free trade," anti-war, but have never felt such kinship with average passers-by as I did at this one. There were always people in favor of the war, or who thought "free trade" was really free and good for the economy. But this issue is so obvious, the crime so blatant, that nearly everyone seems to understand it. And, likely, few if any of them were in on the take.
When we got to the Foley Square there were already many thousands of union people there. Again, this tremendous solidarity, and the feeling of something really new happening. A "musicians' union" band arrived and played in the middle of the square. I stood up on the steps. Suddenly, my sign, which said, "WHERE'S OUR $15 TRILLION?" began generating attention and photos.
When the bailout first happened, they said it was $700 billion, but really a total of $2 trillion. Some alternative sources at the time said it was really $8 trillion. Before I left for New York, I researched it, and found that a Bloomberg News reporter had written that it was really $14.8 trillion. Another reporter said it could end up being $23 trillion.
A trillion is a million million. Imagine a Brinks truck and filled with a million dollars in cash. Now, imagine a million such trucks. That's one trillion dollars. Think of that again, fifteen times. $15 trillion is $60,000. per American citizen. About $120,000 per American taxpayer. A few months back, they were talking about how most of the original bailout money was paid back, proving its success. Apparently this was just another in a series of media lies. One protester's sign said, "It's Not a Recession. It's a Robbery."
After the rally, we marched back to Zuccotti Park. As they like to do these days, the NYPD set up barricades so that we all had to squeeze through a narrow space to leave Foley Square, temporarily turning the atmosphere from festive to frustrated. But the march back was again inspired, with a victorious feeling we'd accomplished even more than we'd expected, and wondering just how far this might go.
An hour or two after we got back to the park, a guy announced to the crowd that some protesters had broken the barricades on Wall Street. "Go there. Occupy Wall Street!" Some people began immediately walking there. A little later, predictably, we heard sirens and saw police movement. Then another guy announced, "People have gotten arrested on Wall Street. We had a good rally and march today. We made our point. Don't go down there."
I'm inclined to agree with the second speaker. What could be gained by a civil disobedience at 9 pm? It's true that the pepper spraying of the three women helped put the movement on the map, and the fraudulent arrest of 700 people on the Brooklyn Bridge helped make it big news world-wide. But provoking arrests for their own sake seems simplistic to me. Nonetheless, like all these protest movements, it seems there will always be this "diversity of tactics."
I took today (Thursday) off. I hear Governor Cuomo has come out in favor of OWS. Obama seems to be hedging his bets on it. Some Massachusetts state senators and reps addressed the Occupy Boston crowd. They're occupying Philadelphia. There was a demo in Jersey City. The list goes on. What's next, no-one can say. I'm headed back in Friday. The weather should be good, so I might sleep there. Saturday might be quite interesting.
Okay, more in a day or two. You can forward this message if you want. |
