It also might be related to the call-and-response of Black churches, which has also been manifested in art and, occasionally, at rallies. But never as totally as this.
RED DAVE
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'People's Mic' Before Occupy Wall St?
Though I find the name more than a little corny, the phenomenon of the human microphone in the context of direct democracy and (modified) consensus decision making absolutely fascinates me. From what I've read reports on protests, the standard journalistic wisdom is that it started with OWS over the past few weeks. This seems possible, but I distrust the curiosity and knowledge of most people who cover this sort of thing in the mainstream press. The friend of a friend suggested that something similar has been used at labor rallies in Brazil. If you know of any previous manifestations of it or, better still, have any well-founded insight into how it came to be adopted by OWS, I would very much like to know.
It also might be related to the call-and-response of Black churches, which has also been manifested in art and, occasionally, at rallies. But never as totally as this.
RED DAVE
I gotta say that I think the People's Mic is really frustrating. It sounds like you're having a cult meeting. I've heard it's a thing from the old days before electronic amplification was available. Which is fine, but it's like yo my union has a megaphone which we will loan you, dude.
There's some serious ritualistic stuff happening with this movement. I had someone tell me "we do it like that because that's how they do it in New York." Uh, okay?
It's illegal to use a megaphone without a permit in NYC. The law was challenged all the way up to the supreme court by a socialist named Geoffrey Blank.
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"Getting a job, finding a mate, having a place to live, finding a creative outlet. Life is a war of attrition. You have to stay active on all fronts. It's one thing after another. I've tried to control a chaotic universe. And it's a losing battle. But I can't let go. I've tried, but I can't." - Harvey Pekar
I just got home from the Occupy Tampa protest down here in Florida. There was easily a thousand people protesting. We had the People's Mic, but we didn't do it because OWS is doing it. We did it because the city of Tampa wouldn't allow us microphones. If we were to agree to pay the fine for the microphones, we would have to pay a couple of hundred dollars a day to get a permit. It's more of a practical thing, really. When you have hundreds of people gathered about, the People's Mic idea is pretty useful.
Someone recently told me that something similar had to be employed during the Bolshevik revolution. Not sure though
What's a peoples mic?
I've been wondering about this as well. Anyone care to explain?
"Socialist ideas become significant only to the extent that they become rooted in the working class."
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. . .Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
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International Socialist Review
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If someone is announcing something, they will say 4-6 words at a time. The people immediately surrounding them will then loudly repeat what was said. Then, the next mass of people out will repeat what they heard from the previous group. This permeates out depending on how large the group is. Sometimes it is repeated as many as four or five times. Once the message has reached everyone, the next few words are said by the original speaker. It's a slow way of addressing a crowd, but it's our way of circumventing NYC's laws regarding megaphones.
You seem neat, but...
They divide us by our color, they divide us by our tongue,
They divide us men and women, they divide us old and young,
But they'll tremble at our voices when they hear these verses sung,
For the Union makes us strong!
Really?
If you could find out any more I'd be really grateful.
I know of the people's mic being used in a different way during old socialist meetings in France - Jaures' speeches would be so packed that there would be criers picked from the assembly repeating the speech at a set interval.
in SF we don't have such a ban on amplification, but people insist on using the people's mic which is very slow and unnecessary, I don't like it.
I brought a megaphone to the GA just so I wouldn't have to use the people mic.
The people's mic (okay and overcrowding) is why we're officially expanding to form more popular assemblies in NYC rather tha spending 20 minutes repeating one sentence.
It introduces an interesting and often frustrating dynamic. Here in Denver, the General Assemblies of the local occupation typical consist of 40-60 people. I don't know if anyone's looked into relevant ordinances for amplification equipment, but even that would be superfluous. You can hear each other, but they still do the repeating thing. It's clearly become an instrinsic component to the model the occupy groups are trying to replicate. As far as the Jaures speeches go, when I read that I immediately remembered that I'd heard the same thing about Eugene Debs' speeches in the early 20th Century. Now if I could just remember the context...
From my understanding, the people's mic came out of WTO protests in the 1990's and was used as a means to disseminate relevant security/safety info.
In Oakland they were told not to have amplified sound, and they ignored it for the GA and kept music playing into the night.
