It was a pretty good May Day. The good is obvious—it's May Day and May Day meant something in many cities in the US for a change. Of course, there was the immigrant-themed protests of 2006, but a lot of the political energy then was absorbed immediately into the Democratic Party. This, of course, is one of the roles of the Democratic Party. But here we are in an election year, and the Dems are nowhere to be seen. President Obama even had a "surprise" overseas visit today—by an amazing coincidence this kept him from having to answer questions about the events of the day.
Also good—actual labor involvement. Here in the Bay we saw one-day strikes and other labor actions by ferry workers, nurses, janitors, longshoremen, etc. At the same time, there was also some clarity on what a "general strike" actually is. Anyone who has kicked around the left has heard utterly abstract calls for a general strike before—mostly they're just background noise, a one-size-fits-all response to any situation from Mumia Abu-Jamal's latest court case to city college tuition hikes. This call for a general strike was no less abstract, but at least it was louder background noise.
Also good, this neat May pole:
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The usual mess of broken windows and the occasional thrown brick is becoming a sort of tedious fetish, but it hardly matters and even the police crackdowns weren't so crackdowny today. There was a bit of protester-on-protester animosity down in Oakland, where I stopped by for some time on mid-day. I was too late for a larger rally, so the union folks and other affinity groups had already taken off for other activities (bank shutdowns and whatnot) and basically it was the hardcore occupy fans who were left to give speeches and read poems and enjoy the sunshine and to walk away when a Revolutionary Communist Party member told everyone that he "felt sorry for" us for not being down with Bob Avakian. Oh, and this lone far-right idiot, who went unmolested and sadly for him, even uninterviewed*:
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When Occupy is tied in to communities, into unions, etc. it works well. When it's by itself, it can falter. At the risk of taking a single minor incident as somehow exemplary, here is something I saw today. A man body-checked a female protester and she followed after him, calling him out. Quickly, a group followed her, backing her up. Several people were witnesses to his shoulder-shove and yelled at him, following him to the edge of the demo. All good so far. Mostly men get to abuse women in all sorts of ways in the middle of the street, and nobody says anything. Not today! Then someone else, not part of the original group, took her megaphone and shouted "Go home!" at the man. Also good advice. Then she added, "You don't belong here; you don't look like the rest of us!" Not so good at all.
Occupy needs to be oriented outward, not inward. What lessons were learned today? It does look like Occupy has managed to fully alienate itself from the Democrats while making important connections to the unions, but if it turns into a "scene"—you know, an even smellier Burning Man that can manifest itself at any time—it's not going to go very much further.
*It's called "fair play", though really isn't fair at all. Being the lone nut going in the opposite direction from the other nuts at a demonstration is the best way to end up on television.
Also good—actual labor involvement. Here in the Bay we saw one-day strikes and other labor actions by ferry workers, nurses, janitors, longshoremen, etc. At the same time, there was also some clarity on what a "general strike" actually is. Anyone who has kicked around the left has heard utterly abstract calls for a general strike before—mostly they're just background noise, a one-size-fits-all response to any situation from Mumia Abu-Jamal's latest court case to city college tuition hikes. This call for a general strike was no less abstract, but at least it was louder background noise.
Also good, this neat May pole:
The usual mess of broken windows and the occasional thrown brick is becoming a sort of tedious fetish, but it hardly matters and even the police crackdowns weren't so crackdowny today. There was a bit of protester-on-protester animosity down in Oakland, where I stopped by for some time on mid-day. I was too late for a larger rally, so the union folks and other affinity groups had already taken off for other activities (bank shutdowns and whatnot) and basically it was the hardcore occupy fans who were left to give speeches and read poems and enjoy the sunshine and to walk away when a Revolutionary Communist Party member told everyone that he "felt sorry for" us for not being down with Bob Avakian. Oh, and this lone far-right idiot, who went unmolested and sadly for him, even uninterviewed*:
When Occupy is tied in to communities, into unions, etc. it works well. When it's by itself, it can falter. At the risk of taking a single minor incident as somehow exemplary, here is something I saw today. A man body-checked a female protester and she followed after him, calling him out. Quickly, a group followed her, backing her up. Several people were witnesses to his shoulder-shove and yelled at him, following him to the edge of the demo. All good so far. Mostly men get to abuse women in all sorts of ways in the middle of the street, and nobody says anything. Not today! Then someone else, not part of the original group, took her megaphone and shouted "Go home!" at the man. Also good advice. Then she added, "You don't belong here; you don't look like the rest of us!" Not so good at all.
Occupy needs to be oriented outward, not inward. What lessons were learned today? It does look like Occupy has managed to fully alienate itself from the Democrats while making important connections to the unions, but if it turns into a "scene"—you know, an even smellier Burning Man that can manifest itself at any time—it's not going to go very much further.
*It's called "fair play", though really isn't fair at all. Being the lone nut going in the opposite direction from the other nuts at a demonstration is the best way to end up on television.