OccupyWallStreet

[Tom Beshear]

Thanks for your report.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 01, 2011 9:05 PM
Subject: Re: OccupyWallStreet


I just got back from spending the day at the Wall Street Occupation.

Some impressions:  young college kids may have been the largest group 
present, but there were plenty of other types represented - old, 
middle-aged, black, hispanic, asian, yuppie, homeless, working-class, etc. 
Most of those present seemed to be people who were just passing through, 
milling around by themselves (as I was) or with a friend or two.

I've been going to demonstrations and protests all my life, starting with 
Ban the Bomb protests when I was a toddler, on through all of the Vietnam 
War moratoria in the early '70s, the huge women's march in the summer of 
1970, student anti-apartheid protests, the Occupy Wall Street civil 
disobedience (circa '79), the big pro-choice rally in Washington in the 
'90s, the slew of anti-Gulf War, anti-Invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq, etc., 
and, most recently, the pro-Ground Zero area "mosque" demo.  What I can say 
about this one is that it was the most genuinely, earnestly decentralized, 
democratic event I've ever been to.  The Usual Suspect - Organized Left 
Groups were there, but their presence was subdued.

There was no speakers platform, and no loudspeakers.  When one of the 
nameless background organizers (and of course there were these people, there 
always are, but they never gave the impression of being a closed group, and 
we male and female and multi-racial) wanted to make an announcement, they'd 
yell "Mike check." and everyone around them would respond "mike check." 
Then sentence by sentence, the crowd would repeat the announcement so that 
it would travel through the crowd.  It didn't work as well as the organizers 
hoped, but it sure made a good impression.  People who really wanted to be 
in the swim of things stayed close to the portable-gas-engine-powered media 
area, where most of the announcements arose.

Further, where the Vietnam protesters of yore separated themselves by 
dressing as what outsiders could deride as "hippie freaks," these protesters 
were distinguished by the occasional button or slogan t-shirt, but otherwise 
blended in with the dress and demographics of passers by (of which there 
were a lot - this being a busy intersection in lower Manhattan, clogged with 
tourists, shoppers and working people.

At one point local congressperson Charles Rangel came to the edge of the 
crowd and yelled his support for the protest.  A number of people booed him 
as part of the problem, and one belligerent young man tried to approach him, 
screaming insults.  Some people tried to physically prevent the B.Y.M. from 
attacking Rangel, and for a moment there was a scuffle.  But everyone 
surrounding them started chanting "peaceful protest!" and the situation was 
diffused before it could get out of hand. Crowds are inherently dangerous, 
and there's always the danger of agitators, stampedes, psychos, etc.  But 
there's a critical mass of civil disobedience types in this crowd that makes 
it somewhat safer.

Although there wasn't any specific demonstration called for, while I was 
there, people started calling for a March, and soon about 1,000 of us, give 
or take were marching towards (purportedly) City Hall.  At that point some 
people made the ill-advised decision to march across the bridge.  I, and a 
lot of people, decided to hang back, because there didn't seem to be any 
point going all the way to Brooklyn.  The police started to disperse us and 
simultaneously they closed the bridge's roadway to cars.  Later they 
confronted the people on the bridge and arrested lots of them.  I returned 
to the original occupation site and was amazed to see that it was just as 
crowded as it had been before the march.  It started to rain and night fell, 
but, if anything the plaza was even more crowded by then.

Will this lead to the overthrow of capitalism or any activity in congress? 
Of course not.  There are some nay-sayers here who seem to think that 
invalidates this mini-movement.  Personally, I was incredibly heartened to 
be surrounded by so many people who were assembled to discuss ideas and 
fight for social change.  Sure, plenty of them were filled with 
contradictory and illogical ideas.  I saw a number of people with Ron Paul 
buttons, for example.  Bit so what?  Are the protesters less valid than, 
say, young people who go out clubbing or mall-hopping?  I like the 
protesters better than their apolitical youth-consumer counterparts.  Is 
there anyone here who really think protesters here, in Spain, anywhere, even 
if their protest eventually fizzle to nothingness, have made the world a 
worse place?

I'm proud of the earnest organizers and participants in this occupation. 
Eventually, they'll use their creaky, incompetent, consensual 
decision-making process to come up with a list of coherent demands. 
Eventually, the protest will fizzle out.  But not for a while, mostly 
because there's no one person and no group of people, with the authority to 
officially end it.  And when it does end, it will inspire others.  It will 
make an imperceptible but real contribution to the tipping point.  Maybe not 
this year or this century, but some day.

Laura


-----Original Message-----
>From: Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
>Sent: Oct 1, 2011 3:06 PM
>To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: OccupyWallStreet
>
>There is also this: http://act.credoaction.com/pages/ca_ag/?rc=fb_share4
>
>Wake up! Act up!
>
>On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 12:03 PM, Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com> 
>wrote:
>> First, I offer up a little Patti Smith for the masses:
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8C9U7pMvmc
>>
>> Then, I'll offer up that at least one of my young acquaintances is
>> involved with Occupy California, an offspring, I guess of the Wall
>> Street movement. Here's their facebook page:
>> https://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/OccupyCalifornia Maybe there are
>> other Occupy groups in your area. Don't just admire the splinter in
>> the thumb, rub salt in behind it.
>>
>> I have hope with these under 30s. There are a number of wide-awake
>> people among them. With the backing of a few of their elders, they are
>> becoming more outspoken and bolder as time goes on. I laud and support
>> them whole-heartedly, and I will soon be back in the world where I can
>> be a part of the action, so I can put my mug in the line, too. The
>> time for talk is nearly at an end. We have to act if we are going to
>> get our government involved in the change that must happen if we are
>> to regain (or establish) any dignity as a people. The Capitalist
>> Revolution of the 18th Century has run its course and its impetus must
>> be redirected. We can be a part of how that impetus gets directed. We
>> are not too old to act. So shut up, print your banners, and hit the
>> streets, and then speak up. Loudly.
>>
>> The protests of the 60s and 70s were organized to a point and then
>> more people joined. The same has been true through the Arab Spring. It
>> was a minority that showed up with full cognizance of the importance
>> of being there, but without that minority, the majority would never
>> have dared it.
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 11:03 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> Did BofA pick the wrong week to raise the price of crack? So to 
>>> speak....
>>>
>>> @RebelCapitalist RebelCapitalist
>>> As Movement Grows, Thousands In Boston Protest Against Bank Of America’s
>>> Greed http://j.mp/qvEPT8 #occupytogether
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "Less than any man have I excuse for prejudice; and I feel for all
>> creeds the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the
>> trust in reason is a precarious faith, and that we are all fragments
>> of darkness groping for the sun. I know no more about the ultimates
>> than the simplest urchin in the streets." -- Will Durant
>>
>
>
>
>-- 
>"Less than any man have I excuse for prejudice; and I feel for all
>creeds the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the
>trust in reason is a precarious faith, and that we are all fragments
>of darkness groping for the sun. I know no more about the ultimates
>than the simplest urchin in the streets." -- Will Durant