My Report From Occupy Oakland

i went down and attended OO from about 9pm to 12:30 am last night

when i got down there the park was full of people and a meeting was in progress. i didn’t see any signs of anything that looked like a permanent encampment

there were about 500 people actively participating in the meeting. the traditions are of course by now firmly entrenched. even though they had a pa system, if you want to address the crowd you try and get their attention by shouting “Mike Check! Mike Check!” if the crowd starts to echo your words you are on

the meeting was mostly heartfelt speeches about economic and social justice, and then a move to get the crowd to vote on a general strike. the people in my immediate vicinity had their doubts about the effectiveness of this “general strike”, since the people promoting it talked about how the unemployed people there would “strike” (???), but they would understand if people with jobs didn’t participate and wouldn’t consider them to be scabs. my feeling is that nothing remotely resembling a strike will result from this vote and that it was mostly an ego trip on the part of the speakers and a civics lesson for the rest. the vote was structured as requiring 90% approval, based on a detailed counting of thumbs (up, sideways for ‘no vote’, down) of the crowd

then the meeting broke up, music was put on, and it turned into a giant party

then the marching started. a rolling amplifier was at the front playing dance music. the crowd marched and danced down broadway for ten or fifteen blocks. at that point the police showed up in force dressed in riot gear. the crowd tensed for a confrontation and cries of “Mike Check!” went up. the decision was to march to san francisco and join the others, although many of us began to wonder why anybody thought it would be practical to walk from downtown oakland to downtown sf

in any case, the crowd of 1 thousand or so marched around more or less aimlessly for a couple of hours “Whose Streets? OUR Streets!”, with small detachments of motorcycle cops watching warily from no closer than two blocks away. when the march headed down one street seeming to aim directly at the cops, the cops moved back. the crowd was cheerful and in a party mood and not too keen on the idea of carrying out the plan to walk across the bay bridge. the crowd seemed less inclined to make trouble or be violent than a frat party at the UC

finally we ended up circling back to the park where the call went up if anybody else wanted to make any speeches, and finally music was put back on and dancing and random partying became again the order of the evening

conclusion: anybody looking for serious social disruption or revolutionary activity from this crowd is way off the mark. i suspected that the folks promoting the general strike might have been members of one of these parasitic doctrinaire marxist groups, but if they were they were keeping it completely under wraps. there was no ‘revolutionary’ or marxist propoganda of any kind to be found anywhere

what is happening here IMHO is that crowds of kids in their 20s are getting together to make speeches to each other about social and economic justice, and to party. they are finding that there is a widespread nationwide bond of young folks of all races and types who feel the same about the lack of opportunity and unfairness in american society, and they are having a really fun time getting together, discussing it, and then dancing, marching, chanting anodyne and repetitive slogans about “We Are The 99%”, and generally partying and bonding. it was really fun

what can be accomplished by sit ins and marches? it has certainly attracted worldwide media attention and focused attention to some issues, and, the point has been made that young people all over the united states are not apathetic or right wing. the point has been made, it’s really fun, and eventually it will end in a large, peaceful march