The reflections below are a small snapshot of what I have been feeling and thinking over these past six weeks. They were all written in the heat of the moment, without sleep and full of pa.s.sion. I have only now begun to slow down a little and reflect more deeply with others on what has been launched, what we are creating, and what it could mean for social and political transformation.
Not that we did not intend it-we did of course-but a movement has begun that is vaster and deeper than most of us antic.i.p.ated in such a short time. I do not pretend to understand yet why all of this exploded now, and even more, why people around the United States and the world have chosen to come together in directly democratic and horizontal forms. I am thrilled-inspired-but still sometimes taken by surprise.
September 21, 2011.
Another amazing day in Liberty Plaza.
Today is day five of the occupation. Many people did not think it would last this long (myself included). Well, I should restate that-many people, often with lots of political experience in New York, thought it would not last. New people, people whose imaginations are totally free, people who are angry and simultaneously dreaming of a new world and who cannot imagine restrictions to that new world, believed that absolutely we would occupy the plaza, and they continue to not only believe it, but feel it will get bigger and broader. What is this based on? I am not sure. But so far, they are right.
Today, day five, the group in the plaza, which really is a core group of a few hundred and many, many hundred more who flow in and out, is much more diverse than the first few days. There are people from more diverse backgrounds racially, more diverse age groups, including not just a few children here with their parents, and a number of working people from the area. In particular, some of the security guards from the 9/11 memorial, a block away, have been coming by for lunch and chatting with people, as have some construction workers. One of the 9/11 security guards I met is from Spain and he hopes the group continues and expands, as is happening in Spain.
As far as what a day looks like, there are workshops, information sharing, trainings, midday and evening general a.s.semblies, and at least two marches. Today the marches were rallies for Troy Davis. After a spirited march this evening, the group came back into the plaza for the general a.s.sembly and then got word that there was a stay of execution for Troy Davis. People were exuberant. There was another march, and when the general a.s.sembly finally began, it began with a song. A young woman from Boston, who has been camping in the plaza since Sat.u.r.day, taught many other young people the words-stanza by stanza-to "We Shall Overcome." There were many white beards also in the crowd who were singing in loud pa.s.sionate voices. Reflecting again the crowd getting more-not less-diverse. When it came to "We Shall All Be Free," I got teary. It was the song, it was the stay of execution, and it was the community being built.
More soon. With inspiration and freedom, Marina.
We were heartbroken and enraged to hear later that night that the state had lifted the stay of execution, killing yet another black man.
Between this first e-mail dispatch that I wrote and the second, the level of organization in the plaza became much more sophisticated, with the few working groups that existed at the time of the occupation multiplying into dozens, from medical, legal, and food, to sanitation, safer s.p.a.ces, and an elaborate library, to education, press, mediation, and conflict resolution. (NYCGA.net has the most updated list of working groups-over thirty-five at the time of writing this.) The group has also diversified on many levels, as the below dispatch begins to reflect.
September 30, 2011.
As some of you know, when I am so moved, moved beyond words, I begin things with "imagine..."
So, imagine a few thousand people...no...more than a few...six thousand or seven thousand people. So many people that a large plaza near Wall Street cannot fit them, so they have to overflow onto the corners and sidewalks of the entire perimeter, and corners and sidewalks across the street on every side. Imagine that all of these people are there because they are fed up and angry with something related to the economic crisis and Wall Street.
Why are they there now? Why on this Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.? Maybe some are there because they heard on the Occupy Wall Street Web site that Radiohead was doing a concert. Maybe. Or maybe they came because they are members of the Transportation Workers Union, a union of thirty-eight thousand that voted unanimously the night before to support the occupation of Wall Street. Maybe. Or maybe they were from the Professional Staff Congress, the union of teachers, adjuncts, and graduate students from the City University system who also voted the night before to support the occupation. Maybe. Or, maybe it was people from the Malcolm X Gra.s.sroots Movement, who were part of organizing the later demonstration against police brutality-a demonstration that left from the plaza five thousand strong. Maybe. Or maybe they heard from a friend, neighbor, or the media that something has been happening near Wall Street. And maybe, it was all of these people. And more. Imagine your neighbor was there. She might have been.
Tonight was the largest and by far most diverse crowd the plaza has ever seen. There were pregnant women, babies, and children, along with grannies and white beards, and everyone in the middle. There were at least four wheelchairs, and all sorts of differently abled people. There were people from all over the world and a variety of races and backgrounds. No question the unions and students were there.
Can you now imagine this group having a democratic discussion? Imagine the people"s mic, where people speak in short phrases and the group repeats them so all can hear. In the first week, up until tonight, the people"s mic worked for a few hundred people-not ideally, but one can hear. With thousands, the people"s mic has to be repeated not one time, not two times, but three. Each wave of sound representing another ma.s.s of people hearing the voice of the person speaking. Each wave of sound representing people actively listening by repeating. The facilitators (a team at this point) help remind the person speaking, by gently touching their arm, that they have to wait for each wave to finish before the next phrase is spoken.
Imagine the quiet of people listening, and the sound of the repet.i.tion of the words of the person speaking. Imagine the power of direct democracy moving through your body, along with thousands around you. I have chills writing this. I was moved beyond words this evening.
At this point, we-whoever we are-are too big for the plaza. We need to take over more parks, squares, and plazas and facilitate more horizontal discussions about what we want and desire. About the crisis and our alternatives. For me, our demand should be: Let us meet. Leave us alone so we can gather in our plazas, parks, and squares, in our union halls, schools, universities, churches, synagogues, and mosques, and leave us alone so we can find horizontal, democratic ways to discuss the crisis of our times and the many alternatives. Together.
With the chills of real democracy, Marina.
The piece below was written the day police had been authorized by Mayor Bloomberg to support Brookfield Properties, the semi-legal owners of the park, in a "temporary" eviction of the park so as to "clean" it.
October 14, 2011.
Tears again. The most beautiful sort of tears. Tears of inspiration-created by popular power.
The tears began at 6 a.m. at Liberty Plaza, or, better said, with the thousands in and around Liberty Plaza. The outpouring of solidarity quite literally filled the plaza to beyond overflowing. I am exhausted and overwhelmed with emotion.
I did not know that popular power could bring with it such an overwhelming sensation. It is a chill...a tremble that is both incredibly powerful-feeling one"s power with others-and also a little scary, feeling how much power we can actually have together, side by side.
As I slowly weaved my way through the ma.s.ses of people, many who began arriving at midnight, I walked with my tears and my chills. I was weaving through groups of very young people, easily in their teens and early twenties, many people with piercings, and others clearly going to work soon, some even in suit jackets. There were older people, grandparents, and so many of us in between. All differently dressed and of many different races and ethnicities. Some groups came together, but most it seemed came as individuals, or with a friend or two. There were many union members there, I could tell by their shirts and hats, though they did not seem to have been "mobilized" but rather were coming on their own, as many rank-and-file workers have been doing every day.
I saw lots of old friends and companeros...sort of like a reunion, only we were all there to use our bodies to prevent the eviction of our plaza. Our plaza. A place that has now been claimed by tens of thousands of New Yorkers and people from across the country. A plaza that is organized with direct democracy and a.s.sembly forms of decision making. A plaza that we have held and opened to people for three weeks today.
As I wandered on the outside of the plaza, the inside being impossible to enter, overflowing with people as it was, I would listen on and off to the general a.s.sembly. There were a few opportunities since the people"s mic was now on four and even five waves. The number of waves (times phrases are repeated) indicates just how large the group is. Most nights we have two waves, which is around five hundred people. Three waves is more like a thousand. And four waves, at least fifteen hundred.
This morning, the waves of people repeated the invitation from the Direct Action Working Group to join them in linking arms and keeping the plaza. The response was resounding applause. There was no discussion, debate, or hesitation. Not only did people agree with shouts, whistles, and their fingers twinkling in the air, but with their bodies. As 7 a.m. approached, the time the mayor and Brookfield Properties said they would come into the plaza with the police and move people out, the people did not move.
There, with at least five thousand others, we waited to see what would happen. We were ready for whatever that might mean. But what was clear was that our bodies were talking. People stayed in the plaza. People stayed around the plaza. Our plaza.
And then, with the people"s mic, five waves extending, just before 7 a.m., the announcement came. They backed down. We won! Popular power!
Marina Sitrin is the author of Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina and the forthcoming, Everyday Revolutions: Horizontalism and Autonomy in Argentina. This chapter first appeared on MarinaSitrin.com between September 17 and October 14, 2011.
CHAPTER 5.
CLAIMING s.p.a.cE FOR DIVERSITY AT OCCUPY WALL STREET.
HENA ASHRAF.
When I arrived at Occupy Wall Street on September 29, a doc.u.ment called "The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City" was being introduced at the general a.s.sembly. The facilitator announced that this doc.u.ment would be disseminated to the media, to the Internet, and to everyone who planned to occupy other cities. This doc.u.ment, in other words, was extremely important.
The general a.s.sembly read it together, line by line. For me, the experience was powerful and moving. Then I turned and joined my friends, Thanu and Sonny, who were with two people I hadn"t met before named Manissa and Natasha. They all had just returned from the first local meeting of South Asians for Justice.
Without meaning to do so, we had formed a South Asian bloc within the general a.s.sembly, which had grown a lot over the past few days and was noticeably more diverse. We began to discuss the doc.u.ment and our issues with it. We weren"t the only ones with concerns; numerous people spoke up and requested changes. The facilitators wanted to go back to the agenda items, but I felt that if people wanted to discuss this doc.u.ment now, then that was what we should do.
Thanu, Sonny, Manissa, Natasha, and I felt that some language needed to be changed, beginning with the line that read: "As one people, formerly divided by the color of our skin, gender, s.e.xual orientation, religion, or lack thereof, political party, and cultural background, we acknowledge the reality: that there is only one race, the human race, and our survival requires the cooperation of its members."
Our first concern was that the phrase "formerly divided by" was unrealistic and erased histories of oppression that marginalized communities have suffered. Our second was that the language about "the human race" felt out of touch.
We debated about whether to speak up. The facilitators requested that we e-mail any changes to them, or speak to them later. However, I felt our thoughts needed to be shared with the general a.s.sembly, not with just a few organizers over e-mail. Our impromptu bloc was urging me to speak up. So I did.
To take the floor, a person would shout, "Mic check!" and others would repeat this back until they had the attention of the whole general a.s.sembly. Then the speaker would speak their mind in phrases of a few words at a time, which were repeated by the entire crowd until the message was complete.
I started shouting, "Mic check!," got the crowd"s attention, and said I felt the phrase erased histories of oppression. Unfortunately, even though four or five presumably white people had spoken up before me to suggest changes, a facilitator who was a man of color told me that this was a time for questions, not changes to the doc.u.ment. Talk about feeling shut down.
The main facilitator, a white man, said that the doc.u.ment and the paragraph was meant to reflect the future that we wanted, and that the phrase "formerly divided by" should stay. I again shouted, "Mic check!" and our spontaneous Brown Power crew again repeated my words after me. I reiterated that the phrasing erased much history and was idealistic and unrealistic. At this point I looked around and realized everyone was staring at me. It hit me what we were doing, that we were demanding a change.
The protesters at Occupy Wall Street had been saying that they would reach out to people of color in order to have them engage and help create real change, because, let"s face it, the protests had been very white and people of color needed to be present and to speak up. I realized that we were helping to make that change happen.
The facilitators asked if our issue was an ethical concern and said that if it was, then it would have to be addressed. I said yes, thereby blocking the doc.u.ment from moving forward. Manissa thanked the crowd and facilitators for working with us, then explained that we wanted to replace the phrase "formerly divided by" with "despite" or "despite the divisions of."
The change was accepted by the general a.s.sembly. Our impromptu crew turned to each other to discuss what had happened, and people expressed their agreement with what we had done. However, we still felt that the paragraph as a whole needed to be changed. Sonny pointed out that the language still left invisible, or attempted to erase, the dynamics of power, something that was extremely inappropriate in a doc.u.ment claiming to address the so-called 99%.
After the general a.s.sembly was over, we approached the facilitators and explained our issues with the language. What came next was a long and difficult conversation. This was a very hard discussion to have. It hurt that we had to explain what is behind racism to a facilitator and to the people around him. It hurt that many tried to disrupt us. It hurt that it had to happen at all. At the same time, there were many people listening in and contributing constructively. We walked away realizing that we had spontaneously come together, demanded change, and created it in a movement we were in solidarity with. We also felt a need for constructive criticism.
Since that night, about a dozen of us, including myself, have become highly involved with Occupy Wall Street. We have joined working groups, conducted trainings, and facilitated meetings, all in order to make the s.p.a.ce more inclusive. We started a blog (infrontandcenter.wordpress.com) that has brought critical discussion about the Occupy movement from around the country, and we have been claiming and changing the s.p.a.ce at Occupy Wall Street itself.
Hena Ashraf is an independent filmmaker based in New York City. This chapter first appeared on HenaAshraf.com on September 30, 2011.
CHAPTER 6.
DECLARATION OF THE OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK CITY.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS, WHY PROTESTERS ARE OCCUPYING WALL STREET.
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of ma.s.s injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably a.s.sembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
* They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
* They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give executives exorbitant bonuses.
* They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one"s skin, s.e.x, gender ident.i.ty, and s.e.xual orientation.
* They have poisoned the food supply through negligence and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
* They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals and actively hide these practices.
* They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
* They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
* They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers" health care and pay.
* They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
* They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
* They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
* They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
* They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
* They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
* They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
* They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
* They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people"s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
* They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
* They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
* They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
* They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
* They have partic.i.p.ated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
* They continue to create weapons of ma.s.s destruction in order to receive government contracts.*
To the people of the world, We, the New York City General a.s.sembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to a.s.sert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably a.s.semble, occupy public s.p.a.ce, create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, doc.u.mentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!
*These grievances are not all-inclusive.
This doc.u.ment was accepted by the New York City General a.s.sembly on September 29, 2011, with minor updates made on October 1, 2011. It is the first official, collective statement of the protesters in Zuccotti Park.
CHAPTER 7.
NO LEADERS, NO VIOLENCE:.
WHAT DIVERSITY OF TACTICS MEANS FOR OCCUPY WALL STREET.
NATHAN SCHNEIDER.