Occupy everything

Something happened yesterday which really upset me, and now I figured I should probably tell you something about it.

As you may well know, Wall Street is currently being occupied. And maybe you know, maybe you don't (though you probably do, because it has spread all the way to Maastricht already), but the Occupy movement has spread all over the United States, to where I live, in California.

The Occupy Everything movement is everywhere, even in the little town of Santa Cruz. It's very interesting how things work, how the movement is organized. Basically, all over the US, people are tenting in the financial districts of their town, attempting to overthrow the system that is benefiting so few, and making so many people suffer. It is interesting that this is happening here because I always saw the US as a hegemonic power where everybody is rich and fat and consumerist, before I got here. I thought they were the *cause* of all the problems, not that they actually suffered themselves. I thought wrong. Truth is: I have never seen so many poor people, homeless or otherwise, *anywhere* where I have been. The social security in this country is...not so good, to be subtle about it. I know quite some people who can barely get by, and that's not the barely get by that I see in the Netherlands, it's more serious here. When you have no money, that means you have no money. at all. And you steal things, or dumpster, or clean somebody's super disgusting kitchen for a very low amount of money. Quite some of my friends live off food stamps, and cannot get jobs. Santa Cruz is a very particular place in that respect, becaus it's a student town where the rents are high and the jobmarket is overflowed.

Anyway.

I feel rich here, even though I never really considered myself to be rich.

They say here "we are the 99 percent". 1 percent of the US population owns 40 percent of the capital, 1 percent is in prison (this is something that I cannot grasp...but I cannot believe how much of a police state this is, and for what kind of petty crimes you can get emprisoned-I mean: just spend that money on social security and everything will be better! But I guess that's a socialist tendency, and socialism is a dirty word here). I'm not American, so I can't count myself in one of these categories, but I am definitely not as disadvantaged as some of the people here.

Anyway, two weeks ago, I went to Oakland to occupy, in solidarity with the movement. And. Wow. I had only seen the Santa Cruz occupation, which was *fun*, but more in the *giggle that's funny* kind of way. Occupy Oakland is BIG. There were about 50 tents set out in the middle of the financial district, with at least 100 residents, changing from time to time, and it was like a small hippie village inbetween the office buildings.

I was only there for one night, so I didn't really get to understand how exactly it worked, but what I did get to see was amazing: Everybody comes together every night in a general assembly, and talk about what they want to be changed, and plan marches and protest actions. It is really a site for political action.

And meanwhile, the place itself is really organized. There is a Free food tent, a Dishes tent, an Internet tent (you have to bike to generate electricity though), a First Aid tent, a children's tent, an Arts and Crafts tent and what more. It was really a proper hippie village. The inhabitants were-as far as I noticed- people in their 20s and 30s, students, hippies, some really old people and some junkies, and it was generally a very pleasant atmosphere, very peaceful.

I made a small video of it:

Anyway, what upset me was that last night, Occupy Oakland got raided. A ridiculously large team of cops came at 4 am and arrested everybody present at the site at that moment, and 83 people got arrested.

http://jpdobrin.com/blog/2011/10/photography-of-police-dismantling-occupy-oakland/

Here are some pictures somebody took of the arrests. The police sprayed teargas and threw flashbombs at the protesters, and it was all very violent. As you can see the the entire infrastructure was just brutally ripped apart, tents are shredded, complete chaos.

I know you can't blaim it all on the police, but the police is pretty bad in this country.

Fortunately on the day itself, a huge protest was organized and 1000 people showed up and marched, and they reoccupied the square (or are re-occupying) as we speak. I'm kind of curious to join, but I'm also not very keen on trying out how much tear gas hurts or to get my visa suspended.

Anyway.

Things are happening here.

Oakland is planning a general strike on the 2nd of November.
http://www.occupyoakland.org/2011/10/general-strike-mass-day-of-action/

That's just. Wow.

This movement might actually change something.