(at dusk, after the police-mini-riots on Saturday) a sign is propped up at the edge of Liberty Plaza; it faced a lineup of hundreds of uniformed police which for hours threatened the eviction of #OccupyWallStreet from the park
For anyone who can make the trip, I can't recommend strongly enough a real, physical visit to the Liberty Plaza encampment of #OccupyWallStreet [OWS]. And if you get there you should definitely stay for a while.
For anyone interested in the issues and arguments identified with the movement, of course the site should be a draw anyway, but for anyone still hopeful of and interested in the possibility of an acceptable future for the U.S., anyone curious about or starved for the opportunity of experiencing a pure democratic process, and anyone who wants to watch the birth of a movement and a new politics, it's a must. It's also completely engaging and quite beautiful. The people are mostly young and some are very young (who else has the energy, the stamina, the relative invulnerability, or the idealism?), but in the park you will find little kids and folks of all ages (early this week I watched two octogenarians make their way from one long side to the other, and the man was using a walker).
For some reference, see below the three posts published since September 18.
And now a thought about what may be happening inside Liberty Plaza, in the outreach, in the marches and zaps that are likely to continue for some time, and in the minds and hearts of those who are listening to the message which this encampment embodies.
I can't help musing on both the New Deal and real revolutions these days, including the French 1789 model. I didn't come up with this either-or proposition, but it's worth repeating: The 99 percent should make the 1 percent understand that from this moment we could go with either the French model or the American; that it's really up to them.
On that note, I occasionally find myself puzzled by and a bit frustrated with the surprising mildness of the message often being expressed by people associated with #OccupyWallStreet; then I only have to remind myself that that approach is less likely to turn people off to what they (OWS) are saying and doing; that they operate totally by consensus; and that, whether its current political expression is genuinely mild or not, the movement will undoubtedly take on a life of its own, not unlike the French or every other revolution: After all, in 1789 the demand was only that the king rule better.
WHAT!! isn't Mr. Obama a very large part of the empire and definitely a part of the problem?
James the reporting from Occupy Wall Street is great! Today we heard Occupy Hartford and a host of other cities is coming up. What will this spark ignite?
What do you mean by zaps? I've been reading on them as a political action, but I'm curios on the context and I'm trying to translate this in Spanish just to get it out there. Whilst giving giving you credit of course.
Rene asks what I mean by a "zap" in the second section of this post. I could begin by linking to the Time Obituary of Arthur Evans, who is generally credited with the invention of this activist political device.
This Wikipedia entry should be pretty helpful.
My personal favorite zap, I have to admit, was one I helped plan and execute as part of an affinity group of ACT UP in 1991. We managed to evade studio security and interrupt Dan Rather's CBS Evening News on the first day Iraq lodged Scud missiles onto Israel during the Persian Gulf War. I have to add that it took a lot of planning, rehearsals, costuming, and attitude.