Recently a documentary came out about Occupy Oakland, whose second birthday is approaching. As somebody who was intimately involved in Occupy, especially in its early and most radical period, I took a bit of video and still photos, and I have finally put it together in this video. I look forward to comments.
Categories: John Reimann's personal blog, Oakland, videos/documentaries
I was at many of the early marches and 1/2 block away from Scott when he was shot. In the long run, being a little more democratic, which might mean right to you, my support of OO diminished. In terms of the unions, I was annoyed when they seemed to co-opt the movement (I am a union member.) It’s a large umbrella, and hard to fit everyone in. As the girl said, if we had stuck to one message, perhaps we would have been more effective. On the other hand, OWS was a place for many people, including the homeless, to have a voice, maybe for the first time in their lives. As I was watching the video, I thought, “these are great memories,” however, then I thought that the dream is still alive. I love how you framed it and I am proud to have many of my sentiments included. Thank you for this gorgeous statement, BL.
Thanks for your comments. As far as sticking to a message: It was consciously decided by some of the originators of Occupy Oakland that there would be no definite message, or as they put it, “the occupation is the demand.” In the beginning, this was actually positive as it gave space to lots of people with lots of different messages. But as it developed, in the absence of a clearly recognized leadership (another problem), this became a source of confusion at best.
As far as “the unions” – as I said in the video, the leadership along with some of their left hangers-on moved in in order to tame OO. They were afraid that their membership might start to catch OO’s radical disease. But they will catch that “disease” no matter what. The times require it.