Here's my report back from yesterday. This will probably be long since I was out for something like 12 hours and got the best hearing for communist arguments in my life.
There was the late night/early morning eviction. Notice was given that it was about to go down. I headed out.
Got down to the park, but couldn't get too close as the police were keeping people away. Many (especially considering the time) gathered to witness and/or defend the encampment.
Some people left the encampment. A smaller group of people stayed inside. Around 70 u-locked themselves together. Everyone else was for the most part pushed pretty far back from the park. The press was included in this. There was a real attempt to keep everyone away and out of the line of sight of what went down.
The cops advanced. There were large numbers of arrests of the people inside the park. Some of us outside of the park were also arrested, mostly in various spats that broke out. A lot of people were pushed back, hard, by cops wielding batons.
The main argument heard both before and during the police raid was that people should avoid getting arrested and prepare for the day of action on Thursday; but a few insisted that maintaining the occupation of the part was the most important thing. (One woman kept screaming something like "this is our new home, we can't let them take it"). For a dedicated few, occupying the park is the victory (and that has been reflected on signs that read "We've already won," which thankfully are a lot fewer now).
Throughout the day, I argued that fetishizing the occupation of a park in general, and Zuccotti Park in particular, was the wrong position to take since it would no doubt be a huge drain on time, energy and resources. My argument was that people be able to occupy, but that we need to constantly weigh our options and decide whether continuing that or any other occupation was worth it. I argued that the main advance that has come out of this is that thousands of people across NYC, the US, even many parts of the world, are coming together on a regular basis to discuss the problems they face and how to deal with them. Total strangers from different neighborhoods, workplaces, etc., are discussing these things together and trying to work out real solutions. And that is major. I pointed to some examples of mass assemblies (e.g. Spain) where people got together regularly in huge meetings and discussed, debated, and decided on things, and then returned to their neighborhoods, workplaces, etc.
Early on, I didn't get much support for this. But as time went on that really changed. Even some of the people around me who had been arguing against started to change their minds.
A large group broke off and decided to march north to Foley Square. It should be noted that this corridor is one of the most heavily fortified in the city. There are tons of cops and assorted forces of the state here at all times, due to the location of things like the Federal Building and other government buildings.
As we marched, we encountered many more police who seemed to have been stationed in advance in anticipation of our route. The police broke up the march by blocking off the street every time a stop light turned red. As one participant who was further ahead later described to me: "We were marching, then some of us turned around and realized there was no one behind us anymore!"
This tactic worked pretty well. The crowd was broken up and begin to disperse. One member of the media that has been covering the occupation and seems quite sympathetic described it as "a very professional way of breaking up the group."
The group I was in petered out. At this point I went home to change clothes and try to figure out what was going on. Reports were very contradictory. Different people said "everyone is meeting at" Foley Square, Union Square or Juan Pablo Duarte Square (which nearly everyone involved just calls "6th and Canal").
I headed out to Foley Square. No one was there.
I then made my way to Duarte Square. There is a big space that a church apparently owns that is in some sort of limbo. It is fenced in on three sides by wire fence, and one side by an artsy wooden fence with holes that make it easy to climb. I didn't see many cops at all at first. There were a few hundred people in and around the square. Some people cut a hole in the wire fence and some other climbed the wood. An attempt at setting up a new occupation inside was made on a small scale. Occupy Banners and a tent were put up. Most people stood outside of the fenced in area or sat on top of the wooden fence.
I tried to argue that it was bad idea to essentially lock yourself into a cage with only one way out. I got no hearing. I moved around outside for a while, looking for anyone I recognized, trying to talk to some people. Nothing really came out of it. Then, I noticed a group of police marching in a pretty tight military formation from the back side of the park around to the front where the hole was cut (and where a large group was standing). Suddenly I realized that a huge number of cops has assembled on 6th Avenue. They were marching in detachments of around 20 each. They made 3 sides of a square around the group and turned to face each other. It became pretty clear that were planning to close in. But most people didn't notice this happening. I tried to spread the word. I told people to turn around and look at the formation and figure out what to do. One working class guy from Queens was with me, but no one else would listen to what we were saying. The two of us made our way outside of the wall of cops as it was starting to congeal. We went around the back side of the park, on the other side of the wire fence, where we joined a large number of bystanders apparently drawn in by the ruckus.
The police then made another square formation outside of the middle formation. That one pushed all bystanders away from the park. It was pretty much a repeat of the Zuccotti Eviction. There were some announcements that the occupiers were waiting for permission from the church that supposedly owns the place. Then there was an announcement that the square was private property. Some people started to hop the fence or go back through the hole. Some others tried to build a makeshift barricade in front of the gate where the cops were amassed.
Finally, the helmet head cops busted in, easily jumping over the fairly weak barricade and chasing down everyone inside. We watched in horror as 300 lb (135 kg) armored cops beat and tackled 120 lb (54 kg) occupiers who were trying to flee. There were 5-7 cops on each individual. One occupier managed to grab a nightstick from one of the cops and held it down so he couldn't beat him with it, but it was to no avail. He got one of the worst beatings. 5 or 6 cops then drug him out of the park horizontally.
Throughout the attack, our largely-bystander group, which was itself facing a wall of cops keeping us away was booing, shouting, criticizing. One guy was shouting down the cops, calling them cowards, all inches away from their faces. But there was one older woman who literally justified everything the cops did. She would say things like, "well, they hit that kid in the back of the neck as he was running away because they just want to cuff him and get him out of there" and "well, they tackled and beat that kid because he took the nightstick away from the other cop."
Then she said, "well, they're dragging him out because he won't stand up." I had enough.
What started as me forcefully arguing against this boot-licking bullshit turned into something else. As I started to shout, louder and louder, the entire crowd was electrified. I began to address myself to the crowd generally. I started to shout something like "The police are nothing more than the defenders of capital. They defend the interests of capital, corporations and banks against the people who actually do all the work, who make all the money that they put in their fucking vaults." People loudly supported this. I got a lot of "right ons," "preach ons," "word." I continued on. I said something like "The police will never defend us, never join us, never be on our side. If you're raped or have your car stolen you're out of luck. But if you're a big bank or corporation, you have this massive armed apparatus at your disposal, to enforce your interests at the expense of everyone else." More cheers. I started to shout louder, in the middle of this crowd facing down a line of well armed cops. They became visibly uncomfortable.
This is the first time in my life that I've ever witnessed something like this. And it got better.
Some members of media (I can't recall who exactly but there was someone from a French radio station, another from an online radio station and one more) came over and asked to interview me. They asked me what my arguments were. I restated my position on the fetishization of occupying parks. That meetings were the main thing, and the need to move forward. I then made an argument for the need to connect to labor. I said something like, "Imagine most of the students and even a huge number of office workers came out and started supporting this. Great, right? Now imagine the transit workers that drive the buses and subways joined this. Imagine the truckers that bring everything in and out of the city joined us. That would shut down the entire city. Imagine a replay of the 2005 transit strike that brought the city to a screeching halt, then add in mass support and participation by large numbers of unemployed people, people in other industries, etc." The crowd almost all nodded in agreement. People said things like "Yea, that's right." "Wow, that would be great, we should do that."
The French interviewer, who was obviously more well versed with strikes and mass actions, asked if I was calling for a general strike. I said that in this economy with such large numbers of unemployed, poor and desperate people, strikes alone could be problematic for two reasons. (1) There are huge reserves of people that are so hard up they would probably be eager to serve as replacement workers, even if they agreed with us, because they need to eat, pay bills, etc.; and (2) some companies are now looking for a way out of the things they own, when they might have more invested that they can recover. I pointed to the recent example of the Stella D'Oro strike, and some other places were strikes lead to immediate factory shut downs. The owners were happy to have a way out. In the case of Stella D'Oro the land under the closed factory was sold -- at a HUGE profit -- for a new mini-mall type development. Sure beats making cookies and battling your employees! I said that workers can't win by effectively firing themselves.
So, I argued for mass strikes with workplace occupations. I argued for these occupations to link up with each other and the movement as a whole. I argued that workers occupying a factory or other workplace could actually utilize the army of unemployed and desperate people by inviting them to come to occupied workplaces and take part. To help out and share in the product. And I argued for the occupations to not limit themselves to basic demands, but be oriented toward working people taking control of the entire economy.
Astonishingly (at least in my experience) this was all met with widespread approval by the sizable crowd.
At this point the square was cleared but the police line remained. A smaller group of people, who were mostly in their 20's or early 30's started to gather around. We started to talk about everything I was saying, at their prompting. People discussed their problems, which were almost uniformly: deep in debt, no money, no job. These were a mix of people who were involved in the occupation, supported the occupation, or simply saw the cop attack that day and came over to see what was happening. A lot of people wanted to exchange contact information, and asked me if I had written anything on these topics or could recommended further reading.
One guy who had joined me earlier recommended that I leave with a group so the cops wouldn't single me out. Sounded good to me. A small group of us then headed back to Zuccotti Park where we had heard (it turns out, falsely) that people were being let back in.
We made it to the park. Not much was happening. The police had the old double ring of barricades back up. The park was being held by police and "private security" (who turned out to be something like a group of doormen sent down unwittingly by their employer, they really had no idea what they were doing and most seemed to want to get the hell out of there).
At first the word was that everyone was held outside of both rings of barricades. But that soon ended. Someone was spotted on the other side, attempts were made at opening up the barricades -- which prompted a heavy police response, then people simply started jumping the fences. Soon the square was encircled again.
Our group waited on the sidewalk between the two barricades for hours. Not much happened. We waited for word of the court case. We talked about communist ideas a lot more. People came in and out of our group. The amount of people that were interested or outright agreed with everything I was saying would have shocked me had I not been caught up in the moment. We joined up with some people I recognized and had some great discussions on communist organization and more (which I would explain had I not already have gone on so long).
Although there were tons of cops there, 6 helicopters in the air above us at all times, etc., the balance of forces told a different story. People in the crowd would go right up to a huge line of cops and scream things at the top of their lungs that would normally get you several stitches and some prison time in New York. People called them cowards, pussies, assholes, pigs, scum, storm troopers, etc. When they told people to move, no one listened. Some people even challenged them to come over the barricade and move us. The cops simply walked away!
The highlight came when a subway construction worker, straight from work, covered in rock dust, walked through the crowd and stood face-to-face with 5 helmet heads, staring them down. They parted like the red sea and let him through. He shouted in their faces: "Yeah, that's right, show some respect to someone who actually contributes something to this city."
Also notable was the complete lack of any kind of organized leftist presence at all. In NYC, any protest of 10 or more people usually brings out every sect. Here we had pretty big numbers on a Tuesday and in 12 hours I only saw one old WWP diehard w/ a sign and this elderly Dengist with a PRC flag and copies of China Daily who occassionally shows up to this sort of thing.
At one point a small group of us went to the nearby Burger King to use the restroom and get some food. At this restaurant, which is in the same square as the occupation (you can eat your burger and look at Zuccotti Park out the window) the workers were complaining about management openly, and talking with each other about work problems and being workers under the thumb of a manager. But this wasn't linked with the occupation and vice versa. This is indicative of a big problem which must be overcome.
Eventually (around 6 pm if I remember correctly) a police captain got on a bullhorn and announced that people would be allowed back in the park without bags, tents, etc. They made one small opening, which they could control, and searched everyone who went in. By this time I had been out for hours and hours and decided to head home. Some more contacts were exchanged, promises to meet and discuss things, etc., then I left.
Back to reality: the striking thing is that as soon as I walked a block away from Zuccotti everything was going on just as it usually does. I didn't expect anything else, but it's such a difference that it's very much worth noting, as to not overstate this movement. Despite the attention the cop attack got, despite me being contacted by lots of people I know who before this never expressed any interest in occupy or politics of any kind, despite the arrival of people like the construction worker, some iron workers, etc., (though there was really not organized labor presence to speak of whatsoever outside of a small handful of nurses with some "influence Obama" signs), it has not really escaped its isolation.
Hopefully the day of action on Thursday will change that as there are some really big plans. I don't really know what will happen. There is a big lack of connection with "regular people." Even those who support it don't really know how to get involved or even why they should.
Calls like "we're all in the park getting arrested, come join us!" won't do it. Neither will, "come sleep in a tent." There needs to be concrete action with conceivable goals that are rooted in people's real lives and can actually be accomplished.
Militants involved in this should be pushing hard for exactly that sort of thing.
It's quite easy to become disheartened, and we do need to maintain a sense of reality, but it is when these openings present themselves that we can effectively utilize the understanding we have developed. Otherwise, what's the point of all the reading, studying, discussing, debating, etc.?