Occupy Philly: From the Frontlines - Part 2: Why We Occupy

I've decided to start a series of short posts concerning not only my involvement in the Occupy Philadelphia movement, but also the movement itself in my opinion. This is the second in a series.

It is now 22 days into the Occupation, and everything seems different. Over the past week I barely went back to the Basecamp at Dilworth Plaza, really returning more to my own personal life than to helping out the occupation itself. The attacks in Oakland... they're just horrifying. To me, its just a harbinger of what's to come in Philly once the cops kick out the Occupation for the construction to begin on Dilworth Plaza.

On Thursday, the General Assembly in Oakland voted for a General Strike. The strike was later adopted by the entire movement. Today, Friday, I talked to a few co-workers I knew who were either following or semi-involved in the movement if they were going to participate. The reaction was split.

The general reaction from my friends is just one question: Why? Why are you doing this?

With everything I do, with all the running around and working I've done lately, its nearly impossible for me to actually explain myself to them without going into a diatribe. So I decided to take their most interesting and common questions and explain what I've seen:

1. Why are you even out there?! You guys have no message!

We're all out here for different reasons, but the general sentiment is the same; We're mad as hell that the banks got bailed out for doing a poor job while we were all left to fend for ourselves. We're mad that the income of the Top 1% rose over 270% over the last 30 years while that of the 99% percent only rose 18%. We're mad that over 50% of the people in this country only make less than $27,000 a year. We're mad that jobs are being sent overseas, that the job market stinks, that education in this country is so poor, that we can somehow pay for another war but we can't seem to get enough cash together to let everyone in this country to at least have guaranteed health care.

At this point, there is no one single message. Instead, it's a jumble of hundreds of thousands of messages, but everything I said are, in essence, the underlying points.

If you had to put it on a bumper sticker, it would simply say, "It's the Economy, Stupid."


2. It's nothing but spoiled rich kids!

If I'm a spoiled rich kid, then you're the Queen of England. At one point, I was actually on food stamps. At another I almost lost everything. Right now I work full-time. It was with hard work and persistence that I got my current job, and it wasn't because my parents put in a good word for me.

A lot of the people down there are anything but spoiled or rich. In fact, virtually everyone on the tech team I know works a full-time job and are just trying to pay their bills. Based on who I met, that's the vast majority of people. The people down there protesting aren't looking for a handout; they're looking to help the world.


3. You guys aren't getting anything done!

Actually, we are.

I was thinking about this today while reading Consumerist.com. Over the past month, there have been some MASSIVE reforms! I can't say for a fact there's an immediate cause-and-effect, but I think its safe to say that some of these could be connected:

People were protesting at Bank of America's around the country, writing them letters and closing their accounts because of their new $5 fees for using debit cards. The company refused to eliminate the fee. Chase Bank, which had considered a similar plan for $3, got rid of theirs October 28th.

One common things protestors have said they wanted was a forgiveness of Student Debt. Student debt is currently at $1 Trillion (Trillion with a T) Dollars, and for countless people its a source of pain and problems. Even with a job, most people can't make payments. The White House came up with a plan to cut some payments on October 26th.

We're marching on the streets demanding that the people who got us in this mess face justice! Criminal charges were brought up to an ex-Goldman Sachs Director for insider trading and he turned himself in on October 26th to the FBI.

We want Corporations to treat people better and be punished for their crimes! A federal ruling will make it easier to be sued for human rights violations in foreign countries on October 26th.

Want more?

They're making it easier to refinance your house.
People are closing their accounts at big banks and going to credit unions.

So, no, we may not know exactly what we want, but we are making a difference.


4. Why aren't you protesting the government?! They started this whole mess!

The problem with the economy today boils down, in my opinion, to unrestrained capitalism. Ronald Regan, during his Presidency, did everything he possibly could to being the re-regulation of not only the U.S. Stock Market, but also industry as a whole. During his term, we saw more and more businesses begin to ship jobs to Mexico. Over the last 10 years, we've seen more and more deregulation and more volatility in the market resulting in market and eventually destroying the country.

Is this partly the governments fault? Yes. Could you also make the argument that the government has been corrupted by the same companies that are hurting us and that they are, to a degree, nothing more than a middle man between us and them? Yes. So why not just go after the source?

We've tried voting out the bums, and we've tried writing and calling our politicians to actually effect change.


5. You're all a bunch of Communists and anti-Capitalists!

Not even close. I actually like Capitalism myself. Although I have some Libertarian leanings, the truth is I do believe in government regulations of business to a degree. Because of the mess this country is in now, I now believe more than ever that there is a need for them. At the same time, I don't want to see a system in place that says that my money and gain is not my own. A lot of people do believe in Capitalism, but they want restraints. Meanwhile other people would rather see Communism. That's just how it goes.

6. What, you guys just want a handout?! I WORK!

We don't want a handout, we want what's fair and what's right. We want to go back to the days of the New Deal and FDR, a return to the America we were promised at one point. Instead we were given a nation in over $14 Trillion dollars in debt and growing thanks to wars we shouldn't be fighting in the first place. We're not looking for people to give us stuff (outside of donations for the occupation), we're looking for a chance to get things better.

Occupy Philly: From the Frontlines - Part 1

I've decided to start a series of short posts concerning not only my involvement in the Occupy Philadelphia movement, but also the movement itself in my opinion. This is the first in a hopeful series.

Ever since the Occupation started, I wanted to write about my personal experience, thoughts, and feelings about the movement. I've seen this movement go from the highlight of the entire occupation and devolve into something I'm not even sure of anymore. The same spirit that was there the first two weeks seems to have given way to something that I don't know how I feel about anymore, yet I still feel hopeful.

But lets go back to the beginning.

I was at a planning meeting for the new Art Committee and having a background in both graphic design and marketing, I felt particularly apt to tell them what the feeling was from the other 99% who did not want to join us. "I told my co-workers I was going to this, and they said the same thing; 'I support their message, but they all seem like hippies who don't know what they want.' I say we start working on an image for our part of the occupation and prove them wrong!" The reaction was less than pleased, with the general feeling being that everyone should be able to express themselves as they see fit and we go from there. I was skeptical, but at the same time I wanted to see where this would go. I spent the night making designs for protest posters to print and distribute at the protest.

The day of the start of the occupation was amazing! I had met with the rest of the art committee and had signs paid for and printed and ready to go for the first of our marches! I wore a suit and tie and had plenty of people take my photo. Only one reporter asked why I was out there, and my answer essentially came down to, "I don't think the current system of capitalism without restraint works, and it needs to be fixed!" The fact that there was no unified look, no logo for the movement yet, or even a unified message actually started to make sense. The reality was that everyone working together, that we were all the 99% fighting against the Top 1% of American's who controlled everything.

...

It has now been over 2 weeks into the movement. Friday I ran over to Basecamp (The new name for the Occupation at Dilworth Plaza) and was alerted soon after that there was a meeting in City Hall about Dilworth Plaza being held by Design Philadelphia. More than anything, I wanted to know when the start of construction was planned. I want to note that on the first day of the occupation the General Assembly voted to have a permit on the condition there was not end date. The fact that the city is now LYING about this is not something I'm happy about! Myself and a lot of other protestors went into the room the meeting was being held, and one of the people heavily involved with the occupation handed out sheets with questions to ask.

The Q&A was part of Design Philadelphia and no politicians were present. The only person there with any real power to control the project was the head of the Center City District himself, and even he didn't control the purse strings. He knew there were a lot of protestors from downstairs and, in my opinion, he did his best to understand their concerns before giving the presentation. The new Dilworth Plaza will cost $50 Million and $30 Million will come from the Federal Government and was slated for Transpiration. $5 Million will be spent by the city on the project. The project would also include creating a park and a water fountain/ice rink.

The occupations main grievances were that that the money should be used to help the homeless, education, and other system-wide improvements. Despite being told repeatedly where the money was coming from and why it couldn't be used on other projects, my fellow occupiers didn't seem happy. Here was a project that was going to create 500 - 600 union jobs for 2 years, and then 20 new jobs for Philly Residents, a new park, free movies, a fountain, and improved transit. In essence, a lot of what we were fighting for. Yet they weren't happy.

...

Earlier on Friday, that same day, we had scared the crap out of GOP House Minority Leader Eric Cantor who was supposed to speak at the University of Penn but wound up getting freaked out when he found out we were going to be there! It was a massive victory for the movement! For 2 weeks we had stayed outside of City Hall protesting, and it had begun to pay off! First the city tabled the idea of making the new curfew for teens permanent, and now this! I was proud of what they had done, although pushing for the end of DROP and demanding paid sick time be applied to ALL businesses in Philly and not just ones with government contracts would be great, but that's me.

...

Last night, Saturday, the word came out that a group of protestors from Occupy Philly marched to 8th and Race to Police Headquarters to protest police brutality in solidarity with those who suffered in New York and Boston. At first I was happy to hear it... and then I heard where they were; the middle of 8th Street. They sat in a circle, arms inter-locked, in the middle of 8th Street. The police came out and simply blocked off part of the street to traffic so that they could protest.

To me, the action made no sense.

First, its an awesome reason to protest. The actions in New York and Boston are sickening, and showing solidarity with them makes sense. At the same time, why would you sit in the middle of the street? Not only that, but on the side with less traffic and on the side of the building? Why not on the sidewalk of the police station itself? Why not on the steps of the Roundhouse itself and around the statue of the officer?

The entire thing reeked of the protestors simply trying to get arrested for their cause, and not in a smart way. The group also was not truly part of Occupy Philly. Their demands came down mostly to asking them to do things that were outside their control, and renouncing them as puppets of the 1%, despite the fact we consider them part of us, the 99%. Occupy Philly works on consensus, and something like this would need to be approved by the General Assembly (GA). During the first week someone tried to get people to occupy a Bank of America branch and no one joined him largely because it wasn't agreed and discussed with the GA. Nevertheless, Occupy Philly still gave them support during the night, most likely in solidarity. The Occupation itself is distancing itself from them.

After over 12 hours of sitting in the street, the police put a stop to it. Fifteen people were arrested and charged with the minor crime of obstructing a highway. It is being dubbed the first arrests of the occupation.

....

On a whole, the occupation is GREAT! I know I'm not painting it in the best light right now. Sadly, that's where it is right now. Tomorrow is a new day and I'll be back on the front lines when possible to witness what's going on and try to help. There is still a lot of hope and optimism in the people not only at Basecamp but also with everyone volunteering when they can.

Please know that what I write, I write out of love for this movement! I write because I see hope and promise in this, and know it can and will be great!

A week ago we were the model for the nation, now we're no longer talking about jobs, the economy, the lack of accountability on Wall Street, the bank bailout, or anything related to the rest of the Occupy movement. We once again need to go back to our core messages! We need to not think of the police as our enemy but as a group that does want to work with us! We need to realize that this is about jobs! This is about making things better!