Occupy Wall Street: NYC on the move! Motions of change!

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Last night, something was different.   From the moment I arrived at Zucotti Park at around 4:15, I could feel that the spiritual energy of the site had shifted gears.  It was my third time at OWS. My first being exactly one week earlier on the 28^th of Sept, followed by Saturday 1^st  at around midnight with Tao and Matthew.   Tao and I famously ate the ‘kitchen’ food and checked people out, while Matthew comically became a celebrated personality in the square, serving food to the famished occupiers, many of whom had been arrested at the Brooklyn Bridge protest.

Since then, the  movement had clearly evolved, it had graduated from something obscure and dismissed by mainstream media,  to something remarkably inclusive and diverse.  The faces that I had seen a week earlier were still there, but had been met by a plethora of new people.

While I’ve been sympathetic to the mobilization from the beginning, I left last week with an overwhelming conviction that if OWS was to survive, it would have to appeal and seduce a larger cross-section of society, quickly.

Et Voila!  It’s hard for me to draw a chronology of how this happened, but in the past 5 days there has been  key developments in media.  Some videos went viral, showing incidents of police brutality, which incited sympathy and solidarity from many sectors.  I think the march on Saturday that unfolded into one of the largest mass arrests in U.S. history, also gave the movement an injection of visibility.  At one point, there were 20,000 people viewing the dramatic livestream.

Suddenly that night, all the network news programs that I grab from my shitty T.V. were covering OWS.    Fox local News 5, was covertly disparaging the protests,  repeatedly stating that people were protesting ‘alleged disparities in the current system’.  Then I remember Local News1 which  interviewed organizers  and hosted a panel on Sunday,  with  sympathizers and critics alike.  I think this kind of coverage was  healthy, as it stemed from a local, mainstream source and presented  the issue as less of a phenomenon, and more of a platform for discussion.   It made it o.k. to agree with some things, and disagree with others, without stigmatizing the occupiers and the  nature of the ‘action’ itself.

Anyway, print media soon followed with a frenzy of coverage, from the NYTimes’ contradictory statements on police tactics (as well as reporting that one of their freelance journalists had been arrested), to the usual NY Post front page antics  ‘Protesters Take Brooklyn Bridge: Shit Hits The Span’.

Fast-forward back to last night; the momentum was evident… the march had started and hundreds of people including myself, were waiting for the protesters to make their way back to ‘camp’ at Zucotti Park.   While I was there, I noticed that the infrastructure itself had  beefed up considerably.  The ‘people’s mic’- where a facilitator yelled something and the whole crowd repeated in sections, creating a domino effect of communication  throughout the large square- was effective and creative.  They also established a water provision system, and have a constant stream of food and ‘conmort’ donations.

All of this created a frenzied vibe that culminated with the arrival of the marchers. Tens of thousands of them took to the streets from City Hall, Foley Square and back down Broadway, to Zucotti Park.  I was in the middle of the square, just meters away from the speakers (mostly union leaders and organizers) so it was difficult to gage the scale of the protest.   Every so often however, the echoes from the thousands of people walking, shouting, singing and repeating the ‘peoples-mic’ quotes, would catch me off-guard and disorient me.  None of us had any idea how big this was, but by the looks of the people in the crowd, no one had expected it to grow so quickly.   Something happened last night, that changed the rhythm of things.

Here are some things I’d like to highlight concisely about last night event, and OWS more generally:

1)   Last night (Oct 5th) was indeed a turning point, with the Teacher’s Union, Transport Worker’s Union and a few student unions joining the march.  It brought a different air to the movement.   It grounded it: it matured.
2)   So many people of color! So many young people of color! So many young women of color!   The diversity really struck me.  Zucotti Sq was more diverse than Williamsburg, more diverse than the Upper Eastside or the West Village- it looked more like a subway ride.  It really was the City congregating; the City in movement.
3)   The vocabulary used by the organizers was different from that of its growing demographic.  I think they smartly acknowledged these differences in their speech.   A lot of people have never heard, much less used works like anti-oppression, gender and post-colonial in modern contexts.   I commend the organizers for not losing their ‘radical’ language and using it to build bridges, rather than alienate.  This is not an easy task and will require more energy and more political tact in the future.
4)   It was fascinating to see people take roles of leadership throughout the event.  I observed them in action; those who had the  ability to direct energy and edify collective spirits.  These massive gatherings of strangers are rare opportunities for people to tap into skills they have and find themselves.
5)   OWS organizers were regularly informing protesters of their rights, of the legal repercussions and were vocally dissuading confrontation with authorities.  All these  points are part of the ‘drill’ they repeat  every so often with the ‘people’s-mic’.
6)   In terms of demands, I have to note that there are no shortage of them!  The rationale is that if it were  a group  with demands from  its inception, it would become a political party and become exclusionary in its scope.  It took me a quick sec to get over this, but I now understand the approach.  It is the PROCESS of democracy and consensus that is being revindicated.    The heart of this action is the General Assembly, a place for everyone involved, to express their concerns with the status quo.  As more people join OWS, the more space the process itself will have to occupy. 

On a personal note, I’m excited to be here to bare witness to this event.  I would love to be more involved, but I recognize that I am a guest in this country and that, that limits my entitlement over the many demands being made and the risks I’m willing to take.  I will however, continue hanging out and helping  at Zucotti Park, in the capacity that I can.