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Archive: October, 2011
I’m taking off my reporting hat and stepping onto my opinion stump for a moment as, for whatever it’s worth, a lefty journalist who previously spent many years working as an activist and organizer.
In an incredibly disciplined and orderly display of mass democracy, Occupy Philly is just about evenly split on whether to accept Mayor Michael Nutter’s offer of a permit for the indefinite occupation of City Hall. The question has been tabled for the morning.
Why not take it?
Taking the permit will make the space safer for more people--like, say, families and undocumented immigrants. And importantly, no one will be signing away their right to do something else illegal somewhere else in the future.
So if at some point it makes sense to take a stand and get arrested to make some noise, why not do it at the doorstep of some corporate evildoer like (just for the sake of example) Wells Fargo, Bank of America, or Comcast? If there’s going to be a fight, don’t have it with the City unless you can articulate a good reason why Mayor Nutter, etc. is a priority target--and perhaps they are. He did veto labor legislation that would require employers to provide paid sick days to their workers. But the City has given Occupy Philly the opportunity to pick its fights: so pick them and don’t just fall into one.
Plus, it seems like the Mayor is going to hook it up for a viewing of the Phillies game tomorrow.
Good night, and follow City Paper for ongoing Occupy Philly coverage.
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Daniel Denvir discusses Occupy Philly on MSNBC today with Tamron Hall.
Send your personal testimonies and photos to daniel[DOT]denvir@citypaper[DOT]net and we will post them over the coming weeks--or months?
Follow @DanielDenvir and @Isaiah_Thompson on Twitter for continuing Occupy Philly coverage.
View gallery
First few photos by Brian Wilensky and Quinn Kostman, and then a whole lot from photographer Kaytee Riek
Occupy Philly’s first on-site general assembly at City Hall began today at noon.
Protesters stressed that City Hall is a public space, and asked everyone to respect the area — and the homeless people that call it home. They also discussed how and whether to obtain permits for marches and for an extended residence at City Hall. And many were planning for a long stay.
“I am spellbound by the potential in the community,” says Eric Hunter, 22. They’re even “willing to sleep outside. If the solution is to sleep outside forever even, that’ll be all right.”
There has been much scratching of the head and grumbling over the Occupy Wall Street and its several copycat manifestations around the country, including Occupy Philly, which gathering began at City Hall this morning.
"But what do they want?" cry the reporters and pundits. "But what is their message?" "But how is this helpful?" It's as if the media, and, to be fair, a good swath of the public, have let out a collective j'accuse to the tune of: "Justify yourselves!"
But Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Philly owe no such justification — and shouldn't apologize for not having sound-bite-ready answers.
The right to assemble peacefully is, of course, just that: a right, not a privilege. The mere act of making good on a constitutional guarantee doesn't require an explanation. To pose an extreme hypothetical: One day, I paint "Things Suck" on a sign and take it to City Hall for the world to see. Useful? Maybe not, but that's my business.
A day after hundreds of Philadelphians packed Arch Street United Methodist Church to plan the Occupy Philly rally that began this morning, mere fives of supporters straggled into the chapel at First Unitarian to hear independent Mayoral candidate Wali Rahman (a.k.a. Diop Olugbala) "debate" Republican nominee Karen Brown. Considering the political moment and the fact that Rahman's platform—redistributing wealth and "restoring the massive amount of resources being taken out of our community"—sounds a lot like the Occupy Philly slogans, he might have been expected to draw a somewhat larger crowd.
Two hours in at Occupy Philly, the protest against financial exploitation and economic inequality that was sparked by mass protests on Wall Street, a growing crowd of more than one thousand people had gathered in front of City Hall.
One man yelled, “Speculators are not job creators!” One woman held a sign reading, “Bail out students, not Wall Street.”
Norris Simon, a member of Steamfitters Local 638, traveled from New York for the first day of Occupy Philly. Yesterday, labor unions and other community groups came out in the first major show of institutional support for protesters on Wall Street.
Representatives of Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter met with Occupy Philly organizers this afternoon, according to Managing Director Richard Negrin.
“First and foremost it’s about getting together and having some common goals and shared interests,” Negrin told City Paper. "The magnitude and all of that is obviously outside our control, and it's something that will be determined over the next days.”
The city will not block the protesters from occupying the land around City Hall, and Negrin says that organizers have agreed to secure permits for any marches so that blocked streets don’t disrupt ambulances and create a public safety issue. He says that the city will go out of its way to help secure permits on an expedited timetable.
“Our interest with those leaders is, how we can do this in a thoughtful, reasonable, and orderly way, that is both lawful and the least disruptive to everyday Philadelphians as possible? The group has committed to us to be as peaceful and orderly as possible. To be as vocal as possible is really their purpose, to fully exercise their First Amendment free speech rights, which we wholly support. Philadelphia is the cradle of liberty, and sometimes democracy is inconvenient.”
Negrin is confident that protesters and the city will be able to work together, and says that Mayor Nutter shares the protesters' goals of social and economic justice.
“This is a global, national problem about the shrinking middle class, and the few who hold the overwhelming amount of wealth. I think the mayor’s sympathetic to that. Those interests generally align. I think we’re looking for social and economic justice across the board. There’s no adversity or antagonism from us in terms of the righteousness of their cause.”
Police, says Negrin, are prepared to handle the protests professionally.
“We’re very fortunate to have a police commissioner who the Mayor says is one of the best in the country. He’s an expert at protests having come from D.C.,” where he was the long-time police chief.
But civil liberties advocates have long criticized Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey for his handling of two protests in the nation’s capital where hundreds of activists were preemptively arrested. D.C. settled the cases for $8.25 million and $13.7 million a piece.
“We think we can make it work,” says Negrin. “Folks just need to keep their word. We’ll keep ours.
**
Send your personal testimonies and photos to daniel[DOT]denvir@citypaper[DOT]net and we will post them over the coming weeks--or months?
Follow me on Twitter @DanielDenvir for continuing Occupy Philly coverage.
As I reported last night, more than 1,000 activists packed into the Arch Street United Methodist Church to decide where and when to Occupy Philly in solidarity with the booming Occupy Wall Street protests against corporate greed and financial exploitation.
Photos are by photographer Kaytee Riek, save for the last shot, which is by Marquise Lee.
Occupy Philly begins Thursday, October 6 at 9am. City Hall.
And a note from Kathryn Hinchey (k[DOT]hinchey@gmail[DOT]com), who is preparing to help protesting families and children:
Parents bringing their kids to the protest should be sure to check in with us to get wristbands to keep the kids safe in case of emergency or separation. We really want to stress the importance of parents knowing their protest rights and making sure their kids do too. We will be providing a safe space for parents and kids to play, relax, and talk about their role in the protest. We are also be planning a bunch of family friendly events for the weekend that we will tell parents about.
We need things like books, toys, blankets for kids to sit on. Blank stickers to write emergency contact info and stick on parents and kids. Any help getting the word out would be amazing!!!
Send your personal testimonies and photos to daniel[DOT]denvir@citypaper[DOT]net and we will post them over the coming weeks--or months?
Follow me on Twitter @DanielDenvir for Occupy Philly coverage.
You can also read my earlier interview with one of the organizers.
More than 1,000 activists packed into the Arch Street United Methodist Church to decide where and when to Occupy Philly, in solidarity with the booming Occupy Wall Street protests against corporate greed and financial exploitation in New York.
People split up into small groups to discuss where and when to occupy, and made a decision: Occupy Philly begins Thursday, October 6 at 9am. City Hall.
Send your personal testimonies and photos to daniel[DOT]denvir@citypaper.net and we will post them over the coming weeks--or months?
Follow me on Twitter @DanielDenvir for Occupy Philly coverage.
You can also read my earlier interview with one of the organizers.
Justin Harrison works at Verizon as a splicing technician, and is a unit secretary for Communications Workers of America (CWA), Local 1300. He is one of many Philadelphians working to organize Occupy Philly, which has a planning meeting scheduled for tonight at 6:30 at the Arch Street United Methodist Church
What is Occupy Philly?
I don’t think that I can speak for Occupy Philly. I’m not sure that anybody can.
My impression as someone who has tried to help organize it is that Occupy Philly is a burgeoning movement of people who are tired of Wall Street’s domination of our lives and telling us what to do. They’re concerned about jobs, they’re concerned about rich people not paying taxes, they’re concerned about the environment, they’re concerned about war. They see the occupation of Wall Street as a continuation of these issues.
In New York, they’re occupying Wall Street. In DC, they plan to occupy the the infamously lobbyist-ridden K Street. Will Occupy Philly be Philadelphian in some particular way?
The location hasn’t been picked yet. I think that Philly vs. New York, Philly is overwhelmingly a working class town. There’s been a strong consciousness to reach out into the communities. North, south, east, west, it’s the same stuff: jobs, housing, food and education. We don’t have Wall Street to occupy, but Philadelphia has a special flavor of its own.
Is Occupy Wall Street a progressive response to the right-wing Tea Party? Or is it something completely different?
I think that Occupy Wall Street is filling a vacuum that could have and should have been filled by the left. For example, the AFL-CIO. A lot of us feel that they dropped the ball in Wisconsin this spring [when there were weeks of mass protests against Governor Scott Walker’s attack on collective bargaining rights]. People came out in the streets and occupied the capitol, but AFL-CIO put it into the Democratic Party and elections.
I’ve been saying look, we need to pay attention to this. They’re doing stuff that we could have been doing and should have been doing. And we should help out, and we can learn from it.
On the right, the Tea Party’s an expression of the vacuum. And with Occupy Wall Street, most people would identify as leftists.
Many, including some on the left, have criticized Occupy Wall Street for not having a clear set of demands. If there isn't a program, how do you deal with all the Ron Paul types talking about the gold standard and abolishing the Federal Reserve? Libertarians are for letting corporations do whatever they want--so how do they fit into this?
I don’t think they’re overwhelming--but they’re there. If they’re gonna’ participate, they’re gonna’ participate.
As a socialist, I believe overall that it’s a weakness because a movement is stronger if it has demands that it can put forward. The New York group released a statement; and it’s a pretty strong critique. Some say it’s not anti-capitalist, but that’s how I read it. You have a whole new layer of new activists, and they’ll need time to sort things out. I don’t think there’s a problem with having time for discussion. No one group should be able to dictate how things should be.
You work at Verizon and just finished one of the largest strikes in recent history. Does Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Philly relate to what you were fighting for there?
Absolutely. The unions have a role in defending the interests of the working class, and not just their own members. Unions are strongest when they reach out and speak socially. That’s how we got education, the 8-hour day, and the weekend in this country. Unions in their best moments have always been concerned about clean water, education and public services.
The stronger the working class movement as a whole is, and the stronger the unions are, the better able we are to defend ourselves. It’s a continuation from Wisconsin this spring. The bosses and the ruling class are emboldened and on the offensive. They’re trying to take it out on the people who work for 8 dollars an hour at Wal-Mart, and they’re trying to take it out on our pensions. We’re seeing a unified attack by Wall Street against our people: against unions, against public services, against public education, against the fabric of working class life in the United States that comes out of the New Deal, through the middle class lifestyle of the 50s, 60s, and 70s.
Do you think that Occupy Wall Street, come 2012, will impact the presidential campaign?
Hard to say. It’s a year away. I think that the Democratic Part will probably try to ride the wave a little bit, maybe try to move in. I think that’s something we’ll try to guard against. But that’s still an open book. Right now there’s other stuff to deal with: the congressional super committee is meeting this fall and may push cuts to Medicare and Social Security. So that could be another fight.
Follow me on Twitter @DanielDenvir
They're still vague, creepy, righteous and opposed to forgiving and forgetting. This is Occupy Philadelphia-related.
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