Story by Anna Smith
Photos by Kyle McKee
Occupy Together
On September 17th Wall Street in New York City was flooded by hundreds of protesters, who then proceeded to camp out in Zuccotti Park. “We are the 99%,” was their chant, referring to the distribution of wealth in the United States. The wealthiest 1% owns approximately 40% of the nation’s wealth, leaving the rest to the 99%. The 1% is frequently portrayed as the CEO’s of banks and other corporations that received Obama’s bailouts in 2009. Fuelled by frustration and anger, the Occupy Wall Street movement grew quickly but was largely ignored by media until recently. Dangerously close to getting evicted by Mayor Bloomberg on October 13th, more than 3,000 people showed up at Zuccotti Park to show their support with the Occupy movement. Many dramatic scenes have unfolded during the hyper-documented Occupation, involving 700 arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge, peaceful protesters being pepper sprayed and much more, mostly between protesters and police. This last Monday marked the second month of the occupation in New York.
Occupy Together, the unofficial online site for the Occupiers, has created a place to create groups and link them to Facebook, thus speeding the mobilization process ten-fold. The Occupy movement has now spread to at least 945 cities in 82 different countries, all peaceful but that of Rome’s Occupation, which the anarchist group “Black Bloc” hijacked during the October 15th protest and injured 70 people. The Occupy tactic of camping in public space is much different from other protests in the sense that none of them have a leader, or necessarily a set list of desires.
Occupy Eugene
Slogans and signs litter the landscape at the Occupy Eugene encampment in the park block of Oak and 8th of downtown Eugene. Tents and tarps have been raised and jammed into every available ground space. The only place left untouched by the colorful polyester mounds is the hard, cold cement, though it’s been decorated with swirling sunbursts of chalk. It is dinnertime and people wait in line at the temporary kitchen as volunteers serve up salad, rice, bowtie pasta, roast potatoes, and what looks like falafel. A bowl of tired-looking fruit sits untouched. Other people are milling around, chatting and eating as if at a potluck while kids are having a hula-hoop contest. In the center of the encampment by the fountain stands the Pavilion, a makeshift stage with a vast tarp stretching over it. The General Assembly has met here at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. every day since October 15, the day of Occupy Together’s world protest and the beginning of Occupy Eugene.
At first, the speed and efficiency in which Occupy Eugene set up a semi-permanent, leader-less residency seems an astonishing feat. It is completely donation-based, and has port-a-potties, food, water, clothes, and other necessities available to residents, all for free. But the initial reason for this encampment seems to be easily lost in the General Assemblies. While these people are here for a cause, it’s easy for those not involved to not understand what that cause is. It began on Wall Street in protest of the corporate greed and destruction of America, and while Occupy Eugene stands in solidarity with them, their specific assertions are unclear, which can be devastating to a cause. Instead of being able to present a stable idea about what they want done in the long term, the lengthy discussions during the General Assemblies focus instead on camp-related issues. This is in part due the change in the demographic from Saturday’s successful, 2,000 strong march.
The park block that Occupy Eugene now inhabits was previously where many homeless and youth would reside. Since the point of the occupation is to accept all of the 99%, they have also been taken into the residency. This has created some disunity between members of the movement, and those who resided previously. One man at the camp explained that at the beginning of the occupation, there were six families with small children that were camping. He is now the only one left because of the late-night noise and the blatant drug and alcohol use of the previous inhabitants. Although the camp was supposed to be family friendly, he will be gone by the time this piece is published because of the unsuitable environment. He mentioned that this major flaw could have a significant impact on the support of the physical occupation.
Others, however, maintain that conflicting opinions are good, especially in this environment. “I have a slogan about that: ‘revolution is messy,’” said one woman who volunteers on the Sobriety Committee. “Everyone is trying to find their individual voice, and then we’re trying to find a voice as a group.”
Occupy Eugene, “in peaceful solidarity with Occupy Wall St.,” emulates many of the characteristics of the Wall Street demonstration. There is no leader; rather people form open committees for things such as sanitation, peacekeeping, engineering, communication, food, medical, and many more. Anybody can start a committee at any time; the only rule is complete transparency. Another parallel is the General Assembly, which meets twice a day at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. There must be a group consensus with any proposition, and everybody must be allowed to speak. People in the audience use hand signals to communicate to the facilitator agreement, disagreement, whether they have a question, proposal, etc. These are to insure that no one talks over a speaker and thus disrespects them.
The camp itself is also run by the whole group, and is completely volunteer-based. An info booth has fliers, answers questions, and accepts donations for the camp. A kitchen serves donated food for free, though they recently had problems with the city and now must follow health code requirements. If they don’t, the kitchen may be shut down. In the middle of the encampment under a small enclosure is the camp’s library. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, Chuck Palahniuk books, and Dr. Seuss books litter the stacks. Drums are nearly always beating, and cars honk their support as they drive by. A first aid tent covered in a blue tarp with a red cross holds equipment and is run by volunteers with experience. White Bird Clinic, a local non-profit human service agency in Eugene, has been donating supplies to the cause. TJ, one of the volunteers, is an older woman who chose to stay after the rally last Saturday. “I’m here about six hours a day,” she said. “Normally I’m a trauma ICU nurse.”
Dani Henrickson, 26, has been camping at the park blocks since Saturday. An alum of the University of Oregon who received a Bachelor’s in Political Science, Henrickson graduated and found nowhere to go. She now works with the University of Oregon recycling program and goes to Lane Community College for Journalism. “We’re at the forefront of the paradigm shift,” she said in reference to the creation of Occupy Eugene. Henrickson explained she was here because of many things such as the economy and job instability, all that seem to link back to the same “corporate system.”
Although the biggest criticism about Occupy movements anywhere is that they don’t know what they want, that seems also to be their biggest attribute. That reason draws hundreds of thousands of people, because individually they do know what they want. “Everything’s reached this precipice,” commented a current University of Oregon law student, “culminating to this moment. It’s a revolution but it’s also evolution.”
