Looks like it might be a long night in the Bay Area. After a day-long, city-wide general strike in which waves of Occupy Oakland protesters shut down various banks in downtown Oakland, a crowd estimated at up to 20,000 has shut down the Port of Oakland, the country’s fifth-busiest port. There are now reports that OccupySF is simultaneously attempting to block the Bay Bridge connecting Oakland and San Francisco.
A live stream of the Occupy Oakland protest is here.
After last week’s tragic and incindiary events, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan wisely ordered police to essentially stand down, and so far there have been only isolated incidents of violence involving bank window-breaking by black bloc anarchists (and, in one case, vehicular assault by a frustrated motorist). Despite the impressive self-discipline of the protesters, the danger of police (or other) violence goes up quite a bit now that night has fallen.
Needless to say, this is a dramatic escalation in both numbers and tactics for the Occupy movement. Not that many other metropolitan areas can match the Bay Area for either the size or militancy of a protest like this, but some can. What’s been particularly interesting in the organizing of the general strike is the widespread support for the call by many mainstream local politicians, unions, and local businesses.
If Occupiers in Oakland (and other cities) can maintain their clear commitment to nonviolence, this will be attempted in other cities. But the public support for this movement is fragile enough that the wrong tactics can do a lot of harm. The night is still young tonight, and so is this movement. And how this escalation will impact the political sphere is still anyone’s guess. Six weeks ago, nobody would have predicted where we are tonight.
Somewhere, Scott Olsen is smiling.
As winter approaches the main focus of this movement will necessarily have to move away from the less temperate areas of the north. It looks like Oakland is going to be the place. Great. Really. I’ve always loved the mainland/eastern side of the SF area much more than I have the western side. Less upper middle class glitz, more working class soul.
But…lives will be lost before this thing gains real traction in Sleepleville, USA. The surprisingly weak countermeasures of hustlers like NYC’s Mike Bloomberg…the lame attempt to “fool” the Zuccotti Park people with a supposed clean-up, the whining tone of his statements about how they are ruining a newly fashionable (read newly gentrified) area with their disgusting realness…illustrate the fact that money’s Achilles heel is finally showing here in NYC as it gradually dawns on Mayor Mike the Frontman that he cannot buy or fool these people because he is a prime example of exactly what they are opposing in the first place. He has the option of simply waiting for inclement weather and then instituting countermeasures during the winter that will effectively discourage a rebirth of the movement in the spring, thus negating the need for violent action that would backfire into real public outrage. Oakland does not have that option, plus the movement there appears to be much more pan-classist and pan-racial than it is in NYC. Bloomberg’s police force…rotten and corrupt as much of it may be (Experts Say N.Y. Police Dept. Isn’t Policing Itself)…is very well controlled in terms of public violence against protesters of any stripe. Why? Because that kind of action is counterproductive. It just focuses attention of the protests, most of which have quite valid points to make. Run guns, plant drugs, fix tickets or shoot ghetto people and the the system does not really jump into action most of the time. But pepper spray some 20-ish white NYU student protesters!!!??? HOO boy!!! Your ass is in trouble!!!
However, in less well-controlled cities…like Oakland, the police force of which is literally used to getting away with murder…the ongoing confrontations between protesters and police will probably eventually create a Kent State-like moment, and if it does then this thing is going to break way bigger than it is today.
Way bigger.
Watch.
There is a “throw the bums out” mindset growing throughout all levels of American society except among the most wealthy. The Tea Party/Occupy Wherever movements are just the further right and left segments of this true mass movement.
Watch.
If blood starts to flow somewhere there will be real hell to pay.
Watch.
AG
Bloomberg strikes tougher tone on Occupy Wall Street
Almost Rumsfeldian in its opaqueness and impenetrability.
They must’ve studied with the same
aliensteachers.Riiiiight…
It’s the protesters who are “hurting small businesses and families,” not the financial institutions that they are opposing.
Riiiiiiight….
Weak.
Mayor Mike meets his Waterloo.
And they are us.
Bet on it.
AG
That protector’s sign is perfect, AG.
Ain’t it the truth!!!
AG
What everyone is reading with their Wheaties.
link
Well, Boo, is this true or just trumped up MSM B.S,? I don’t trust the MSM on this at all. We have our differences of opinion, but I regard you as an honest man.
I suspect that what you will be seeing as winter approaches is civil disobedience that seizes vacant buildings near areas where homeless have been sleeping on the streets and attempts to convert them to homeless shelters.
The obvious counterargument to assertions that this is theft is that the 1% who fraudulently took people’s homes have not been prosecuted. The MERS system and foreclosure mills that were accessories to that theft have not been shut down. And the judges who rubberstamped those thefts are still in office.
Which is the main reason that I disagree with AG that the focus is going to move away from NY to nicer climates.
The other trend I see emerging is growth of the movement in the red states in the Plains, Midwest, Upper South and South Central US. Occupy Tulsa has been evicted twice already. Occupy Nashville have successfully fought eviction through a federal injunction.
And you will see the growth of general assemblies in smaller towns and cities (Lubbock TX, San Marcos TX, Huntsville AL) that meet weekly and march on the local representations of the banks and protest local issues. And are not quick to occupy a space 24/7.
The media will continue to frame everything negatively, except for the “surprise, it’s here and they look normal” articles when a local Occupy movement gets going.
That’s to be expected. A cop who fires a flashbang at people trying to rescue a wounded protester is a “bad apple”. A dozen or so guys smashing windows or setting fires during a demonstration, regardless of any affiliation with the Occupy encampment, are symbols of the entire movement. That sort of press is to be expected. And the credibility of the press has dropped so much among average Americans that those reports are treated much more skeptically than they were prior to say 2000.