Occupy Once Again

Since the last time Frank took you down to OWS, much has changed. The movement in New York has come under fire for becoming more of a squat than a sit-in protest.

As I approached the recess of Zuccotti Park, I saw protesters lining the sidewalk surrounding the small square, which they have called home for over a month now. With loud voices bellowing over one another in a jumbled but strangely harmonic manner, the OWS protester’s disdain and discontent could clearly be felt. As some protesters sold pins and novelties of revolution others held hand made signs and makeshift banners. It appeared that the energy and actuation of the movement had not died down, which to me was impressive.

Making my way through the wall of shouting protesters, I was finally able to get my eye on the park itself and I was taken aback by what I saw. The open protest space of Zuccoti Park had been turned in a tent city. All the free space that once was has now become tight pathways as tents constricted every inch of the park.

The areas where protesters once played music has now been cut in two, due to the over crowding of people. I began to notice people holding signs that asked for money, or one-way tickets out of NYC. One woman had her children in a playpen next to her as she begged for cash, making correlations between OWS and her plight. Not to say she was undeserving but her message had nothing to do with the stated agenda’s of the OWS movement. Several protesters were arguing back and forth with her and many of her kind, as it seems people have flocked to Zuccotti Park in an effort to take advantage of the free services being provided. This creates and air of illegitimacy around the park, and only fuels the negative outlooks placed on OWS by the media and big business.

Entering the buzzing shantytown, I found that there was still a sense of order as far as the free kitchen, medical stations, legal consultation and public library that had been established among other public services. But the crowd that was once filled with students, teachers, small business owners, and socio-politically conscious individuals from various walks of life, was now fused with homeless individuals and drug addicts.

I set out to find OWS protesters who still wanted to convey a message. I wanted to know if they still possessed the passion for a cause. I first ran into a young man, Nick Long, who has been protesting at Zuccotti Park since September. When asked what the OWS movement means to him, Nick responded, “It's kinda like the spark for the movement of the world…yah know…a good little spark that we need to wake up the rest of the world to realize that all governments, not just ours are all corrupt and need to be put in check by the people.” Dave McMillan, a retired Unitarian Minister, says to him it means, "The restoration of democracy and the non-violent over-throw of a corporate state.”

I believed that many of the protesters would welcome a bump in economic status, but I was met with differing reactions. I asked some protestors, if given the immediate opportunity to join the 1%, would you take it?

“If I were really, really rich I would very quickly become really, really poor, that’s not based on indiscriminate spending it's an issue of…I dunno, I care too much about people. It would be hard for me not to buy a house for people I know had nowhere to live, it would be hard for me not to pay off student loans for my friends” said Kyle.

Dave McMillan said "no thank you" before I could finish asking, but Claire Kaplan gave a more refreshing answer--not one typical of Guevera-esque mindset: “ If you mean suddenly becoming fabulously wealthy I wouldn’t turn that down because actually you can use wealth. Not everybody who is wealthy is actively oppressive, in fact… I think people use this sort of us versus them, lets create an antagonistic language, when we do that we have to be really careful about who exactly we are implicating as our enemy. But no, being rich does not make you a bad person.”

I asked what improvements that they would make to the OWS movement.

Claire Kaplan, who has been protesting for a friend burdened by high interest student loans, said, “People’s communication skills…the thing is when you protest, and decide to sit here until someone listens to you, you’re a very sure person, you're very sure of your beliefs and that can translate into some difficulty when multiple people are sure of the conflicting things.”

She restates a point, one, that many critics of OWS have raised before; that there is no one voice for the movement.

Nick Long says security is one thing he would improve: “We can't really like kick people out…we have had problems with certain people like this guy they finally arrested today for showing his thing to little kids…you know and its problems like that, there are people here who are trying to make us look bad.”

So how do you feel about the squatters in the park? “I think they are pieces of shit, personally, they beg for money to do drugs and it makes us look bad.”

Nick Long isn’t the only protester that feels a disdain for Zuccotti Park’s newest members. “Well this is New York City, there are a lot of weirdos floating in and out sometimes. If we were able to come to terms with what kind of strict social contract that would be set, even if it was just as far as drug or alcohol abuse, respecting this as a sober zone, respecting this as a movement and not just a squat” said Kyle from Brooklyn who has been out on the park for a little more than 60 days.

Despite dwindling public support and constant threats from the mayor’s office, until yesterday OWS maintained a strong core of supporters. Even with some setbacks there were OWS protesters who still see a clear reason to “Occupy”. “You want to be on the right side of history, because this a revolutionary moment not only in American history but in world history. There has never been a transnational uprising of this dimension in world history, it's an opportunity to be alive instead of politically dead as so many of us have been” said Dave McMillan. Kyle from Brooklyn agrees: “The freedom to practice public assembly” is a good enough reason for people to come down to OWS, “even if they don’t stay at the park.”

Early on Tuesday morning, November 15, the NYPD began to forcefully clear protesters from Zuccotti Park. Protesters shouting “No retreat, no surrender” linked arms around and refused to leave their “homes” as police began tearing down tents. Mayor Bloomberg (who is in fact part of the 1%) says the displacement is a temporary measure and that the protesters may be able to return to the park in the future.

“A judge ruled Tuesday that Occupy Wall Street protesters can return to Zuccotti Park -- but without their tents and sleeping bags, a ban that seemingly throws the future of the two-month-old movement into question.” Via.

If this ruling does bring about the demise of the OWS movement, it will not soon be forgotten as an important historical event. OWS has reminded us that there is a socially conscious minority still present in this country and that the youth of this great nation have not lost their voices and courage to affect change as represented in the '50s, '60s and '70s.