The following is a first person account of the events at Occupy Oakland over the last few days. A few short words about the author, this piece, and why I am choosing to pass it on:
1. I am posting this here with the author’s permission.
2. This piece was e-mailed to me and many other people, unsolicited, by the author simply because he wanted to provide his perspective of what he is experiencing to his friends and family.
3. The author of this piece is my cousin Owen, and while he and I do use cousin as a term of endearment, I just want to make clear that his mom and my mom are sisters and he and I share a set of grandparents.
4. I love Owen very much and have had a special connection with him from the time that he was a toddler and I was in elementary school; a connection that has only deepened as we have both traveled abroad and studied international relations. Owen is one of the smartest people that I know, and that is not just familial pride speaking.
5. I am so proud, as a New Yorker participating in Occupy Wall Street, to stand in solidarity with the folks in Oakland who are participating in the Occupy movement in their city. I am specifically proud to stand in solidarity with Owen, whose participation in this movement and insights into politics are a credit to all of us. I am proud that on opposite sides of the country my cousin and I can both be working to help make our country and the world and more just place.
6. Part of what the Occupy movement is doing is calling out and naming the things that are not working in this country, and for that reason we all have to call out and name the events that have transpired in Oakland. First person accounts of those events may vary a bit, but it needs to be made clear that the police, and not the protestors, were the aggressors in this case. For that reason I felt the need to share Owen’s story with a wider audience.
10/25
Last night I went down to Ogawa Plaza. That afternoon the cops had kicked out the people who had occupied the park. The police had the whole area blocked off and were standing there shoulder to shoulder in full riot gear, tightly gripping their nightsticks. There weren’t that many people when I first got there around 6:30, but around 7:30 a whole swarm, taking up all of Broadway from sidewalk to sidewalk, came marching in from the north. We were all chanting slogans (“Whose streets? Our streets!”), and people had bullhorns and banners.
One of the cops got on the public address system and said we were an unlawful assembly, and that chemical agents would be used if we didn’t disperse. A few minutes later they started shooting tear gas canisters into the crowd. As far as I can tell no one provoked the cops physically (although people later threw eggs, rocks, and bottles).
I saw someone on the ground at one point, but I can’t be sure if it was the man who got hit in the head with a canister and fractured his skull. I tried to follow my co-worker and his girlfriend—her dyed pink hair helped—north up Broadway, but pretty soon my nose, mouth and eyes started burning. I couldn’t see anything and my eyes were tearing. It hurt, but not terribly, probably because it was so exhilarating that the adrenaline masked the effects of the tear gas.
We marched up Broadway to 19th St., then over to San Pablo Ave., then down to Broadway and 14th St. again (the intersection opposite Ogawa Plaza and City Hall). We were all chanting, “You are the 99%, too!” at the cops with the hopes that they would let us reoccupy the Plaza. After sometime, someone in the back threw a bottle at the cops, and they answered back with the gas. We did our loop again.
When we got back, they shot a man with some kind of rubber bullets because he tried to plant a big stick in a traffic cone near the police barricade. Again someone threw something, and again they shot the gas after telling us we were an illegal assembly.
This time I just went down into the lower level of the City Center Mall, although the tunnel to the 12 St. BART had been closed down hours before. I was choking on the gas, but less than before. The only way out was back through the gas, so we waited until it cleared and went back up.
This time I just sat down on a bench about five feet from the police barricade. I had been up since 4 am for work on a few hours sleep. When it became clear that nothing else was really going to happen that night, I walked home. The crowd had thinned some by then, although new people kept showing up by bike, foot, and car.
* * * * *
10/26
Today I went down there again to a totally different scene. The cops had cleared out and the Plaza had been reoccupied. A public address system had been set up, this time by a group of four or five organizers. They were taking questions on a proposal which I found out later was for a general strike and march on the Plaza November 2nd.
We were asked to break into groups of 20 to discuss the proposal. Everyone in my group was generally for it, although some people who owned small businesses or had young kids said they might have to work a part day. A single mom was worried about loosing her job and not being able to feed her kids if she struck. A man draped in the American flag didn’t want to loose customers to Home Depot if he shut the doors of his hardware store. I asked the group how open we had to be about why we weren’t attending work that day (with co-workers and bosses) in order for the strike to be effective, and didn’t get a definite answer, although it did provoke more conversation. Then the group broke up and anyone with concerns got to voice them on the PA.
Most of the concerns were about student and labor involvement, people asking for more time, fears about losing corporate jobs or hurting local businesses. Some people wanted clarifications on the intent of the march on downtown businesses that refused to close their doors (banks and corporations had been mentioned in the original proposal). Some people wanted a statement about what we were for, not just what we were against.
Then we were asked to reform groups of 20 to vote on the proposal. The format for the vote was given as follows: 90% approval (with abstentions excluded from the total) was needed to approve the vote. Failing 90%, the proposal would be opened up for revisions and amendments. Votes would be given by a thumbs up for in favor, a sideways thumb for abstain/bow out, and a thumbs down for against. Votes would be tallied by one person in each group and brought to one of five organizers, one for each fifth of the crowd surrounding the amphitheater.
Since many of my last group had left or moved, I joined a much younger group. We voted 17-0-0 in favor of the strike very quickly with very little discussion. When all the votes were counted, more than 1,000 had voted in favor, 60-something abstained, and 40-something against. The proposal for a general strike was carried with 96.9% in favor.
Then people were asked to come up to the mike to speak for their group, and many of the same concerns were raised as in the first round.
The organizers told us about support from the NYC movement (who had apparently marched earlier that day chanting: “Oakland! Oakland! End Police Brutality!” An activist in Cairo had reached out to say they would march on Tarir Square chanting “Oakland-Cairo- We are one hand!” And someone born in Greece got up and spoke about unity with the protesters there. We were then told that the struggling SF movement was being dispersed by police, and would we go help there. Another assembly was called for the next day at 5pm to discuss the logistics of the strike.
Since BART stops running at midnight, I walked home, popping in for decaf and desert at Plum.
I had been texting with a co-worker, trying to get him to come to the Plaza, and told him about the result of the vote. Not sure how this will impact my choice about the 2nd, although I am leaning strongly toward striking, even if that means calling out from work for personal reasons to lessen my chance of being fired.
* * * * *
When I got home, I read before trying unsuccessfully to sleep. I kept thinking about the “speech” I would have made, even though at the time I felt no urge to go up and speak. I would have said something like this:
To anyone who doubts the power of this movement, let me ask one question: Where are the cops in riot gear tonight? They are at home in the suburbs, or back in their stations. Last night we were barricaded from this Plaza—tonight we have reoccupied it. Why? Because it belongs to us. Last night we didn’t have shields, nightsticks, gas or guns. But tonight we have the Plaza. To anyone who says we need more time, I say, see what even one night can do! I was part of that voting group right there! And we support the strike!
* * * * *
10/27
Reflecting on these events the next day, I’m struck by the power of young, determined people to win a small battle over police brutality. We beat the cops, and whoever gave them their marching orders, and rubbed democracy all up in their faces.
I also realize that the U.S. is not Egypt. The majority of people in this country are not young, but middle-aged and old. If this movement is to evolve from street protest to permanent change, older people can’t be ostracized. Parents, small business owners, and higher paid workers have much more to loose than the throngs of 20 and 30-somethings who got gassed on 10/25.
Because they have more to lose, they must be assured that this is a non-violent movement. I can attest to that. For every hooligan in a black mask who tried to light a trashcan on fire on the 25th, there were ten people there to stomp out the flames. For every idiot who threw a bottle or an egg at the cops, there were a thousand people to boo the thrower as we ran from the gas. For those who worry that an undefined movement is reckless and dangerous, join your local protest and help define it. For those who worry that we are too soon, think about what we have to lose if we wait: momentum, energy, excitement, media attention.
The time is now. Strike while the iron is hot. Please join in solidarity with the Occupy Oakland General Strike November 2nd anyway you are able!
