Repression and Responsibility in Oakland

Prayer Flags, Protesters and Police

I attended a workshop about legal issues that activists in the Occupy movement, specifically Occupy Oakland, are facing. It was eye-opening to say the least. I found out the DNA samples were taken from some of the 400 protesters arrested on January 28th, "Oakland Move-In Day."

The FBI and Homeland Security are directing a large part of the repression at this point. The specter of Grand Juries being impaneled looms as well.

The violations committed against those arrested are many and range from people being kept in handcuffs for many hours, imprisonment of 25 people in a cell designed for 2 where there was not room enough to sit. Denial of medications and refusal to allow use of bathrooms, denial of attorney visits were the norm. Many folks were detained all weekend on bogus charges that will never come to court except, hopefully, as a class-action suit. It is essential to remember that all these "police procedures" were used against people who had committed no crimes and were simply exercising their first amendment right to free speech.

One 27 year old man who threw light, wind-born seedpods in the direction of the police is being held on eight felony charges. His bail has been set at $400,000. The seedpods never reached the cops due to their lack of weight. His mother describes the action as equivalent of to trying to "throw popcorn."

At this workshop the importance of responsible Internet posting was also stressed. Some photos and videos have already been used to identify people for "questioning" even though they were not engaged in illegal activities, and to arrest those that were. The posting of photos and videos should be confined to exposing illegal police activity. Everything else can be kept as a historical record to be shared at a later date.

It is also imperative that all blogging and writing that is posted on the web not incriminate anyone or expose inside information that could jeopardize the safety of others.

I have been through many political battles but, in the one we are waging now, it is literally true that the whole world is watching. Those of us both chronicling and participating have an ethical responsibility to "do no harm" with the new tools that the technological revolution has afforded us.

Pre-Occupied in Oakland

Shields made out of trash cans
protect Occupy Oakland warriors

Occupy Oakland is back in the streets an up against what is arguably the most vicious police force in the USA.And O.P.D. is once again up to its old tricks.

Saturday's march was called "Move-in Day and the plan was a takeover of a deserted commercial space to convert it into a community center where all sorts of activities like workshops, films and meals could take place. Granted, it was a bit of an overreach but a center of this kind would be a wonderful opportunity for outreach to the various communities of Oakland.

The march atmosphere was more animated and festive than most political protests. Seasoned Occupiers held makeshift shields made of garbage cans with peace signs or anarchy symbols painted on them. The sight of them under a  mobile row of Tibetan prayer flags gave the whole event the air of a fiesta in Latin America.  

Many marchers, including myself and my partner, had no idea where the chosen building was located. It was kept secret to prevent the police from interfering with the plan. The problem was that many police actually knew more than the marchers did.

There were quite a few logistical errors associated  with the selection of the mammoth Henry J. Kaiser convention center building as a move-in target, the biggest one being the construction occurring on the roadway beside the building along with the cyclone fences in front of it. The two rows of cyclone fencing created a trap for those of us directly behind the police line and in front of the building. When the cops started throwing flash-bang grenades and announced that we had one minute to disperse, there was nowhere to go.

Some folks had pulled apart the fencing as far as it would allow, creating a triangular hole that one person at a time could squeeze through. The young people were very thoughtful and courteous and let their aged comrades (Deborah and I) through almost at once. Fortunately for all of us, the cops held off on resorting to stronger weapons on their captive audience and after some sound and fury everyone was allowed to move on.

Just around the corner a few minutes later, the larger confrontations began and some of the trash-can warriors not only held their ground, but actually began advancing on the police. That is when the smoke bombs and teargas canisters began exploding and all hell broke loose.

The mass arrests didn't occur until later in the evening and I can't report on them first hand because we departed in the afternoon. On Sunday at a gathering in Oscar Grant Plaza, I learned that nearly four hundred people were surrounded by police and arrested outside of the Oakland YMCA in direct violation of their first amendment rights although the YMCA did help quite a few folks escape through their back door. Police claim their intentions were illegal ones, i.e.: the intent to take over a building. So, I guess it's official: thought crime is now against the law.

The mainstream media is making much ado over a flag-burning inside Oakland City Hall. It's helping Jean Quan  acquire much-needed political capital by championing her motherly protection of the city from wild and crazy radicals.

Supervisor Ignacio De La Fuente wins the award, hands down, for scariest politician. He has called the Occupy protests "domestic terrorism." Now you know how they're planning to use the National Defense Authorization Act. Indeterminate detention with no right to trial. I see a bleak image is appearing in my crystal ball...

Increased Repression Just Means We're Winning

Meditating in Oakland

The Occupy Oakland camp in Oscar Grant Plaza camp was dismantled by police at 1am Monday morning prompting the immediate resignation of two Jean Quan staffers who disagreed with the decision to dismantle and destroy. They are Dan Seigel, legal adviser and Deputy Mayor Sharon Cornu. Occupiers have fled to Snow Park and re-established a camp there.

Zuccotti Park, also known as Liberty Park, the Wall Street encampment, where the Occupy Movement was born, was attacked Tuesday morning, November15th in much the same way. Today, in the Bay Area Occupy focus is on a strike and teach-in at UC Berkeley. This evening a speech by Robert Reich, professor and people's economist extraordinaire, has been relocated from Wheeler Hall to Sproul Plaza. The topic is class warfare and it is part of the Mario Savio Memorial Lecture series of talks. Supposedly, the Occupy Cal camp will try to reinstate itself there.

The fact that repressive tactics are increasing nationwide signals that we are gaining ground. With or without tarps and tents, this movement has reached a point of no return.Chris Hedges' article, "This is What Revolution Looks Like," is a must read for everyone in this struggle.

One truly amazing part of this heavy-handed approach is not the fact that police defend the interests of the rich and powerful, it is the equanimity of protestors who are being treated to this violence. Bricks, bottles are not being thrown. I haven't even seen a lot of insults hurled. Many people are dragged off to arrest from yoga postures. I have seen people meditating on concrete in the midst of teargas and flashbang grenades. The non-violence is a stirring spectacle for those of us raised on street war.

When I heard Graham Nash and David Crosby singing in Zucotti Park (on video) singing"Teach Your Parents Well," I was genuinely moved. This is the beginning of a protracted struggle. We all are bracing for a sustained fight that must be run like a marathon, not a 50 yard dash. When Che Guevara said, "A true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love," he had it right. Some lessons are never too late for learning.

Police Brutality is Violence

Oakland Police Up to No Good

The Oakland Police Department continues their reign of terror upon demonstrators with the total of moderately to seriously injured folks now at three, two Iraq vets: Scott Olsen and Kayvan Sabehgi  and one videographer, Scott Campbell. The Berkeley Police have joined in the brutality by violently evicting a student group attempting to Occupy U.C. Berkeley. Their tents were trampled and they were forcibly removed from Sproul Plaza.

Meanwhile right-leaning propaganda rags like the San Francisco Chronicle are trying to paint actions like the General Strike Day with the broad brush of  "violence" because a small group of angry protesters broke some things sometime towards midnight on a day when 50,000 to 100,000 people closed big banks and the Port of Oakland without incident.

It is important to note a couple of things about this smear campaign. One, it is being used as an unsuccessful attempt to discredit the entire Occupy Movement. Two, people are justifiably angry at the economic crimes that have been perpetrated upon us. And three, vandalism and violence are not synonymous. While understanding that breaking windows or spray painting on them may not be the best way to win supporters and unite the movement, crimes against property are not equal to the harm the police are inflicting with clubs, teargas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.

The city of Oakland is preparing for another raid on the Occupy Oakland camp. I commend the occupiers for open discussion with various proponents of aggressive action in a serious attempt to resolve differences and stay united. All power to the people!

A Personal Take on a General Strike

Coming into Port:
Oakland Strike

The tents in Oscar Grant Plaza are back up and yesterday, at least during the daytime hours, the streets belonged to the people with hardly a cop in sight. I  had the opportunity to march with some peaceful and angry folks who made the big banks shudder and lock their doors and who brought all business at the 5th largest port in the USA, the Port of Oakland to a screeching halt.

The noon march was enthusiastic and militant. Outside of Chase Bank, protesters clogged the street as two people climbed poles and strung a huge banner that said, "Occupy the Banks." Back at the plaza a speakers were speaking from a stage, In the round arena area poets read, rappers rapped, activists acted, union members railed, it was a general free-for-all in the best, most sincere sense of the term. I saw amazing diversity in all the people passing by: old folks with walkers and canes, hip-hoppers from the hood, queers and feminists, teamsters, agricultural workers, teachers and other librarians. Most people were covered with signs or wearing T-shirts that served the same function. I was wearing a great one that I had purchased at the Dia de los Muertos celebration in Fruitvale a few days before. It reads: "We the People are 99%. People Before Profits."

I also noticed that many people, like myself, were there solo. My partner had joined me for the noon march, but ran out of steam early on. Alone, I automatically go into writers mode, which involves finding a central place to sit, taking out a pen and paper and doing some serious observation. The dude behind me had a guitar and was playing and singing, "The Gates of Eden," one of my favorites of the lesser known Bob Dylan songs. I'd grabbed a wonderful gala apple from the food table. Ahh, revolution was in the air and life was good!

For the march out to the port I was planning on the 5 pm shift. The group that left at 4 was huge, it looked like over 5,000 people. By the time 5pm rolled around workers were out of their jobs and our numbers were at least that big, possibly bigger. I waited in front of Walgreen's near the "Queer and Feminist Resistance," banner but none of my friends showed. Instead Vera, a thirty-something woman from Moscow began a conversation with me. She said that nothing comparable to this could happen in Russia where the government suppresses this kind of expression. In spite of all that, she would be returning to her home country next week, loaded with memories.

Her friends were also no shows. As we marched together toward the port, she asked me if I'd like some wine...turned out that the huge coffee cup with a cover and sip hole on top was full of red wine. "I drink about a bottle a day," she confessed. "I don't know if I have a problem or not."

"Blame it on the economy," I said. I have felt that the alcohol industry has been making a killing during the recession. She handed me the cup and we passed it back and forth like a joint as we marched through the West Oakland neighborhoods at sunset.

Vera is an artist who was passing out postcards of her work. The acrylic painting shows a woman in a skirt that looks like a lotus sending beams of light from the chakra points on her body. On the back of the card in stead of her name she had hand-written the figure 99% in red magic marker. "Don't you want to put your name on your art?" I'd asked her.

"No, I know that I painted it, and that's all that matters," she answered. Next to her painting is a quote, "We can do no great things, only small things with great love." --Mother Teresa

Best wishes, Vera, on your return to Russia, your art and your life!

Then They Fight You...

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Mahatma Gandhi

Here in Oakland the fighting stage is definitely underway. It began with the early morning police raid of the Occupy Oakland camp, with rampaging blue meanies demonstrating the use of excessive force by dismantling, steamrollering and making off with tents, food, equipment, personal effects and medical supplies leaving the occupiers homeless and Oscar Grant Plaza under military siege and in ruins.

At 4 pm Tuesday, around a thousand 99 per-centers who were enraged at the abridgment of free speech rights, gathered in front of the Oakland Main Library on 14th Street where the head librarian, Carmen Martinez, refused to close down for the protest as the police department requested. Librarians, like other public sector workers, remember all those threatened closings, reduction in hours and and cuts in pay, health benefits and pensions. Go librarians, my people of the book!

Now, Oscar Grant Plaza has been fenced off and drenched it with chemicals in order to "grow new grass." The police in their true colors have delivered excessive violence and brutality with their barrage of rubber bullets, flash bang grenades and massive clouds of tear gas. And the mainstream media is not far behind with a propaganda war of its own bringing the staples of fear and intimidation directed at the occupiers and all the 99 percent. Funny though, how the ridicule has diminished.

So we are officially in the fight portion of Gandhi's formula.Yesterday, a canister hit and injured an American veteran of the Iraq war, Scott Olsen of Daly City. He is now in Highland Hospital in critical but stable condition suffering swelling of the brain. Ironic, to survive combat only to come home to this.

This brutal response is echoing around the country in San Jose, Denver, Chicago and cities too numerous to mention, the class war is on. Now Occupy San Francisco is issuing ultimatums to the protesters in Justin Herman Plaza. SF Mayor, Ed Lee like Oakland Mayor Jean Quan before him has now issued an edict declaring food, rats and self-government are keeping these sacred "public" parks from being used by the people. Gosh, it's almost like this is a coordinated effort or something. So what are the protesters and the 99 percent, chopped liver? Who exactly are the people anyway?

We must find our footing under stress. With any new movement there will be growing pains. In an increasing repressive society we will make sacrifices and there will inevitably be casualties. We must run this like a marathon, not a fifty yard dash. As we used to say in the lesbian community of the old days, "we ain't got it easy but we got it."

A Peaceful Yet Militant Strategy

Occupy Oakland March, Saturday October 22, 2011

 Occupy Oakland held its first rally and march this past Saturday. The speakers ran the gamut from Union members (teachers and longshore workers) to anti-racism activists. The day was hot and beautiful the mood was both militant and festive, angry yet peaceful. The march was spirited and long, winding through downtown and under the freeway underpass where the acoustics for chanting and yelling were spectacular. The main chant was, "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!"

The mood of this emerging movement is inclusive and democratic with a definite pacifist bent. When the several hundred of us marched past Chase bank on Lakeshore Avenue the crowd crossed the lanes of oncoming traffic and poured into the bank's open door. The small space filled up with protesters wall to wall. Some protesters threw deposits slips up into the air and they rained down like confetti. Aside from that action and a table being accidentally overturned, the mood stayed controlled and overwhelmingly peaceful. This phenomenon is both amazing and unique to someone who protested in an earlier, more abrasively militant era. Clearly, this movement is unfolding in its own unique way.

In the seventies, we were furious. The Vietnam War had a mandatory draft and it was dragging on endlessly bringing with it death and destruction. Images of napalmed children filled the airwaves.We had witnessed the assassinations of our most beloved leaders, the ordeal of the freedom riders, the brutallity directed toward those who sat in at segregated lunch counters in the American South. We were more jaded than this new generation, even though we were young. So, it was a combination of factors. The end result being that we were mad as hell and we let our anger control us.

This group led by the Occupy Oakland folks have an air of both determination and  about them. It shows in their genuine effort to maintain cool heads and stay focused. Even in instances of extreme police provocation, they do not resort to what the angry demeanor that the media inaccurately labels "violence."

I know that this may not always be the case, but for now, it's a powerful position, a brand new face on an age-old tactic.When the Occupyers first began their protest I thought here we go reinventing the wheel. But that old wheel is flat-sided and hasn't served anyone for a long time. Perhaps this wheel can transport us to a different place...somewhere we've always wanted to go, but have never been.

Police are "Cleaning Up" at the Occupiers Expense

Police at Occupy San Francisco

Police departments throughout the US are getting a workout, enlarging their paychecks by putting in overtime and making their presence as the strong arm of the establishment felt. And this development is not due to a renewed war on crime, which has mysteriously fallen a bit in the ravages of this depression. No, the boys in blue are out in force, trying out new toys like pepper spray, zip-tie handcuffs and orange "kettling" nets as well as relying on reliable old traditions like beating and unwarranted mass arrests. All because the Occupy Together, Occupy Wall Street, movement that has taken a foothold in thousands of cities across the world.

After Wisconsin, I had hoped the blue meanies had changed their ways and would fight with other workers for their own interests like health benefits and pensions. But I was naive. The police are paid to defend the interests of the 1%, not the 99%. That is part of what keeps the engine of capitalism oiled and running. The Occupy Together crowd are now coming to this realization as well.

Occupy San Francisco's tents, food and supplies were taken by the SFPD last Sunday after "curfew." This confiscation was the second one since the encampment began. The rationale for this dismantling and expropriating equipment is that the "parks must remain safe for everyone." Except, of course, the people exercising their freedom of speech by camping there.

In Oakland, mayor Jean Quan is taking a more tolerant approach for the time being. She, and the government forces behind her, are allowing Occupy Oakland to remain. It's numbers are growing however, and when the occupiers tried to expand onto the adjoining concrete plaza, they were rebuffed by police. It was more of the same story when they tried to take over Snow Park as a second site due to overcrowding.

Some journalists are already setting the stage for a showdown between cops and city government officials and the occupiers by circulating stories about the protest bringing rats and dirt to downtown Oakland. Rats have always resided in Oakland and, yes, they do come out at night to scavenge the debris left by humans. Like all wildlife, they share our space. No-one was worried about rats when homeless people slept among them quietly.

The important thing to remember is that it is only a matter of time until the powers that be will try to sweep our public spaces clean of occupiers. That is when we must all converge to defend the right to speak out against economic injustice in the name of the 99 percent.

Marching, Rallying and Striking in Oakland

The weather was beautiful today, Saturday October 15th, conclusively proving that god is squarely on the right side of this new movement. A few thousand people gathered at Laney college for a 1pm rally where two moveon.org facilitators introduced singers and speakers, one of whom was Oakland mayor Jean Quan. So for now, with the blessings of mayor and reluctant cooperation of the Oakland Police, the occupation and marching are sanctioned activities.

People were enthusiastic but subdued. I think this was partially due to the fact that the rally began on a low note. The first speaker started it off with an attempt to take a census of the crowd's mood. He asked questions like: "Who here is unemployed? Who is working less hours than they'd like? Who lost their homes to foreclosure? Whose mortgages are underwater? These just weren't the kind of questions that would make people cheer. Even I had trouble responding to this. He could have framed it more like this: Who here is angry? Who thinks the bankers threw us under the bus? Who wants the rich to pay their share? Something more outer directed and unifying.

The rally ran a bit too  long and the group was so antsy to march, the last couple of speakers were interrupted with the chant, "March!, March! and had to give in to their prepared material and lead the march out into the street.

The mood was oddly tranquil. In spite of a marching band that played "The Internationale" as we walked along, most people were fairly quiet. In Chinatown a chant of "We are the 99%," broke out and lasted a while but determined silence was more the order of the day.

The Occupy Oakland encampment in Frank Ogawa (Oscar Grant) Plaza is an amazing sight to behold. There are more than 100 tents spread over the entire park with wooden boards and pallets used as makeshift walkways. There is a large food preparation area where garden burgers, rice and beans and veggies were cooking and good smells wafting everywhere. The ambience was somewhere between a music festival and a refugee camp. The tent city included a library tent, a kids play tent, an arts and craft tent and some other impromptu structures for meetings and socializing. The stage arena area had a huge sign that said, "General Strike" and people were filling the concrete risers.

Although this arena area is used for the occupiers daily 7pm meetings, the rally was held from a truck in the adjoining mall-like space. There was no way that the more mainstream elements were about to allow a sign calling for a General Strike to be the backdrop of their rally.

I say their because the split was evident. There were the occupiers who are attempting to build an alternate society and then there was the cheering section for the Democratic Party that was
focused on making nicey, nicey with politicians attempting to get them to do right by the 99%, those of us reeling from the economic beating administered by the banksters and their friends

The idea of a General Strike is an interesting one. Although I think it's too soon to haul out big guns like that it should always be simmering on the back burner. A strike is the people's nuclear option. It is a bell that cannot be un-rung. This movement is a baby that has just been born. First, let's see whether or not she can thrive. Only time will tell what will happen next.