All claims leveled by people who haven't made much of an effort to actually talk to the protesters, campers, and casual supporters of the movement, such as myself. At least, that's how I understood these claims that teeter between uninformed and offensive. On the other hand, I myself haven't spent much time in the camps at Occupy Portland; I went to the global day of protest and I've passed through the occupied park a handful of times, usually leaving after a half hour when nothing happened. So today, in order to stay honest with my beliefs, I went to Occupy Portland with the intention of talking to people from all sorts of different walks of life, and I tried to get a better understanding of how people deeply involved in the movement would answer the criticisms raised against them, especially in the wake of the increasing tension between protesters and the police. It turned out, surprise surprise, that the protesters were eager to share their thoughts and engage in meaningful discussion.
I will not be using anyone's name in this post.
First I talked to an Iranian immigrant who said the movement reminded him of the sixties. He didn't camp in the park, but he said he visited the occupation often and hoped that the movement continued. He had a camera around his neck and took pictures of the signs, like a good number of "Occupy Tourists" (like me!) walking through the park. He said that America is a different country because here the rich only get richer and the poor only get poorer, and that's why he supported the movement. He said it's a shame that nowadays people graduate college to find no jobs waiting for them.
Second I talked to a pair of Portland city workers from the Health and Human Services department. A white man and a black woman, they wore plain clothes and no badges identifying their job, which was to check the park for potential health hazards. When I asked if they'd found it healthy, they said, "It could be worse." Considering how many people have lived here for as long as they have, it could be much worse. I remembered all the people sneezing and coughing as I'd entered the camp - the cold of winter has arrived with November here in Portland. They said they talk to the protesters about cleaning up trash or washing dishes or taking days off from working in the kitchen when they're sick and so on. I asked if protesters would cooperate with the requests to which they responded that the city and the protesters have gotten along very well. They didn't spell out their opinions on the movement, but they seemed comfortable enough walking through the campsite, giving me the impression that they sympathized with the protesters as people even if their thoughts on the politics of it were more complicated.
Then I had a very brief conversation with a middle-aged man dressed in a business suit walking through the area. I asked him what he thought of it all, to which he said, "It's crazy," and walked off. He definitely gave the impression he didn't want to talk to me at all, and who could blame him? I was walking with my beat-up bike wearing pants with chain grease on them and a three-and-a-half-day-old beard. I'm sure I looked just like one of "them." It's too bad, even if it was expected. I can't say I learned much from him.
If I didn't take much away from my conversation with the business man, the next person I talked to did: a young white man who had been occupying Portland for well over a month, who would prove to be my longest conversation partner of the day. When I told him about my run-in with the business man he said his curtness was because he was afraid of the truth of Occupy's message. He said that we all learn as kids that greed and war is bad (his sign read "$5 trillion spent on war" with the "war" in blood red, as he made sure to point out) and people who are confronted with that guilty truth again as adults feel the need to get defensive. This got at the core of what Occupy Wall Street meant for this young man: this movement is delivering the truth. The goal of Occupy Wall Street is "outreach" - "education," in another word. When I asked him what he thought the movement aimed to do he answered it was to "educate everyone" about corporate greed. He deeply believes that if everyone in the bottom 99% economically in America was educated in this way then real change could occur, and Occupy Portland's role was to facilitate this educational outreach. How do we outreach? By protesting and letting the world know we're "pissed off." When I told him the suggestion I'd heard to vote for a proper candidate who supports the movement's views, he laughed. He said that people just go back and forth between Democrat and Republican because we're always fed up with whoever's in power. Many people in the Occupy movement, he says, don't vote at all because they see there's no point. Talking about third party candidates brought us to campaign finance laws and how they're structured to prevent anyone from attaining power without help from major corporations, so the Occupy movement will never have their desired candidate. I said that perhaps the movement is strong enough to produce its own candidates at the local level, which he felt was an optimistic view of what the movement could accomplish. We haven't reached enough people with the proper education to reach that stage yet.
When I asked him what he thought of the people who don't understand Occupy Wall Street's demands, he said, "That's bullshit! We have tons of demands!" Talking to him I could understand how a person could be confused. "Tons of demands" does not equal "ease of understanding said demands."
He had protested at Occupy Seattle, so I got an opportunity to hear how Occupy Portland is different from other movements. It seems that Portland's is much bigger as well as more representative of the community. This is partly because the community is deeply involved with Occupy Portland. While I was talking with the young man a restaurant down the street donated lunch; the young man got the last veggie sandwich and ate the pasta salad side off a pocket knife. In fact, later in the day a barbecue caterer donated ribs for lunch. The young man took justifiable pride in the donations that poured in. He said that people donate lunch every day - he works for Food Not Bombs and makes a lot of the food himself. He feels very at home in the community built by Occupy Portland. He said something very powerful about it, which I wish I knew word for word but instead have to paraphrase: it's very easy to be angry but do nothing, but at Occupy Portland it's easy to be angry and do something. Everyone takes care of each other there and together they facilitate an environment of civil action. Compared to isolated frustration, this community could turn anger into change and, ultimately, power. I asked if he thought people might leave when the weather gets too cold and rainy. He said no, but even if they were forced out by weather or law enforcement they'd be back again in the spring. I asked him what he thought about the snowstorm in New York and its effects on the protesters, but he hadn't heard of it. I thought it strange that someone so involved in the movement wouldn't be more aware of the father encampment in New York.
On the whole he reminded me of the typical left-wing activist I grew up with in Oakland and Berkeley, just as intolerant as the right-wingers we're taught to hate. The liberal bent really came out when talking about the police, which he believed to be oppressing the protesters whenever they get the chance and being unfair on the whole, even though everything I've read shows that the city and law enforcement are being more than reasonable to the protesters, even when the protesters have provoked them. When I pointed out that the police are only doing their jobs and they're taking pay cuts like the rest of the 99%, he couldn't agree more. He even estimated that there were "two or three or four" off-duty cops protesting with him. But he still feels the protesters should still resist, mostly because they're being forced into riot gear by the corporatist government trying to crack down on the protest, a stance both double-sided and stereotypical.
Then, after a couple of short conversations with other campers about switching to a local credit union, I came to the tent for 90.7 KBOO, a Portland-based radio station that broadcasts from Occupy Portland. The host had a black man in his 50's with him named King J or King Jay (the only name I'll use) who was an anti-violence advocate. He spoke about how long the wars have been going on and how the army needs to completely leave Iraq and Afghanistan at the very least - he was skeptical that Obama will stick to his word and withdraw completely from Iraq by January. He also spoke out against police brutality, especially in the Oakland cases, condemning the use of violence. But his most powerful message was about urging us to vote, which he said was the most important right we have:
If you're old enough to go to war you're old enough to vote. I know you can't wait to buy [alcohol]... but voting trumps it everything else... Especially for black people. Our people died so that we could vote. I know that if I didn't vote my great-grandfather would rise out the grave and beat me with an ugly stick. [slightly paraphrased]Yes, voting is a right that people throughout history, not just black but all sorts of people, have shed blood for. I wished the fatalistic young man could have heard King J. I didn't get to talk with him myself, but I did talk to his wife and a young ethnically ambiguous woman who was camping out. Both are very supportive of the movement as a way to advocate for peace.
Next I talked to a middle-aged couple who aren't camping out but come to the camp every day. The woman is an educator, and I didn't catch what the man's job is. While talking with them I met a tall black woman whose name I'm ashamed to have forgotten (Antoinette?) who works in Mayor Sam Adams's office, who comes to the camps every day to check for health hazards. "I'm a 99 percenter," she proudly proclaimed, "but I have to make sure everything's safe." I talked with the couple for a while about all sorts of things, ranging from the police brutality in Oakland to Latin American history to my being new to Portland. Only when I left did I realize I'd forgotten to ask the "journalistic" questions I'd set out to ask.
I then wandered to the veterans' tent, where I found the view that most conformed to my own. They were a jovial bunch who had seen most of the world when you combine their service; they weren't strung out on antidepressants as far as I could tell, but had instead turned their difficult experiences into passionate dissidence. One veteran put his demands succinctly: for the UN to make a resolution forcing all countries in the world to disarm. It would take that level of action, he said, to keep our kids from war. He knows it won't come true, but he's still asking for it. All five of them agree that the recent police brutality was horrible and that the protesters should avoid provoking the police - nonviolent protest is the only form of protest that should be practiced. They too dismissed the idea of simply voting in a candidate who agrees with the Occupy platform. Simply put, there is no candidate. There's always war, no matter who's president.
Finally, I asked a couple of police officers what they thought of the movement. They had no opinion, being on duty. I should have guessed, but you can't blame me for not trying.
Conclussion: I must say I was disappointed in the lack of clarity in the message. It seems that even within my small sample size in the camp I got a wide range of demands coming from the very personal experiences of the individuals demanding them. I've always felt the Occupy movement's demands could be summed up easily as "economic justice," but that's just my take. On the other hand, things still seemed to fit together. It probably had something to do with that community that the young man talked about. A community of people who are dedicated to big level change, so big that the US government is too small a venue for it. Because to defeat the barons of war and corporate greed we are going to need a unimaginably huge pool of resources.
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