A web-site following the ongoing occupation of wall street.
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Only the beginning…
David Graeber’s piece in The Guardian on the Wall Street Occupation situates what is happening there in terms of the imagination. How refreshing to be reminded in stark terms not only how capitalism crushes so many imaginations but also the conceptual force of refusal. It also appears that a network is developing as the occupation movement spreads across the country. What this movement means and where it is going remains to be seen but it seems clear that this is only the beginning of something.
July 16, 2011: Police pursue and shoot Kenneth Harding for evading a fare on a public bus in the Bayview district of San Francisco
A cell phone video starting seconds after Harding was shot several times in the back:
Police use another video to bolster claims Harding was armed. yet the “handgun” appears to be a cellphone. Later, police will describe the figure in striped hoodie as wearing a black hoodie.
Harding dies at 7 PM on the evening of the 16th, amidst claims by police that he had a gun, even though none was found on the scene and despite multiple witnesses who said Harding was unarmed.
The shooting happened in the context of the Bay Area’s long history of police racism. Kenneth Harding was an African American shot in the black neighborhood of Bayview .
From SF Bay View
Another Black man – shot down in the street like a mad dog by occupation forces paid for by our tax dollars and 456 years of dehumanization – I read accounts of the incident and wonder: What is this young man’s name? Who are his people: family, friends etc.? Does he have a mother? Does she know her son is dead?
July 16-17 (overnight) Demonstrators respond to the murder, briefly occupying streets in Bayview and the Mission.
From the So Stadium Status blog:
The angry, but mostly controlled crowd gathered near 16th and Valencia streets and walked through the Mission and Bayview around 1 a.m. Sunday morning. Police said there were reports of garbage being thrown into the street and several newspaper racks being overturned, but they made no arrests.
The demonstrations keep local Bay Area media focused on the shooting. KCBS quotes a woman saying “They’re rioting because people are pissed.”
A flyer distributed at the protest declares war on the police: In reporting this we hope to make it obvious: we will no longer allow the police (regardless of what badge they wear) to murder us in the streets. When they kill, we will respond with force. These two marches along with the burgeoning revolt in Bayview are only a beginning. We do not care about their attempts at justifying themselves. In each of these killings they claim that their lives were in danger. We say they lie, but honestly don’t care either way. As the State has removed any illusion that it exists to serve or protect people, we can see clearly that it exists only to push us into prisons and to shoot us in cold blood. Two single dollars are worth more to them than our lives. The very existence of the police clearly endangers all of us, and we won’t be safe until they are destroyed.
Various groups report on the protest and connect the series of police murders in the Bay Area to the neoliberal economics of austerity
Meanwhile, the SFPD issues the following statement:
Information is still preliminary. The officers detained a 19 year old male suspect on the Muni light rail platform. This suspect then ran from the police officers who pursued him on foot. It appears that the suspect was armed with a gun and fired at the pursuing officers. At least one of the officers returned fire, in self defense, wounding the suspect. The suspect was transported to the hospital with life threatening injuries. He was pronounced deceased at 7:01 p.m.
July 17: Residents of Bayview hold an impromptu speakout . Police pepper spray and attack participants. Meanwhile, activists organize a protest on the 19th.
July 18: Bayview residents hold a second speakout
July 19-20 (overnight): Activists protests in the Mission, near the Powell Street BART station.
(above) photos of action in the Mission July 19, 2011
Police with shotguns kettle activists, adopting a despicable strategy recently used by London’s Metropolitan Police in recent protests over cuts to education.
Meanwhile police attempt to justify their action by releasing information about Harding’s past as a pimp and his conviction for attempting to promote prostitution involving a 14-year-old girl and stated that he was “a person of interest” in a shooting in washington state. The SFPD attempts to justify their actions on the basis of Hardings past, despite the fact that the cops involved knew nothing about it when they murdered him. Protestors responded to this specious argument in a leaflet distributed at the action:
The Police and the State consistently justify their systemic racist violence by saying they are protecting women. Patriarchy, the dominance of men over women, happens everywhere in our society, but the state tries to convince us that Black men are the main perpetrators. This racist lie helps the state justify their violent control over “uncontrollable” communities. Patriarchy is one of the overarching structures of our world and therefore we should not be surprised that any man has a past that includes violence against women. The police’s shooting of Harding is one instance of the way the state terrorizes a community that is a threat to the current social order, that has been historically attacked and barred from access to stable employment, etc… Its no longer politically correct to lynch Black men, but the police can shoot down Black and Brown people in the street and justify it through demonizing them.
The national media continue to ignore the murder of Harding and it’s aftermath, but bloggers in the Bay Area, such as Davey D, focus on it and the SFPD’s troubled history, pointing to the department’s recent dropping of more than 50 felony cases due to tainted evidence and insisting that the police account of the murder should not be taken at face value.
Local Bay Area media start to mildly question police inaction after Harding shot.
July 20th: Blogs associated with the national independent press start to cover Harding’s murder.
Bayview residents shout down San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr at a town hall meeting intended to justify the police’s action and calm the community. The meeting serves to radicalize the consciousness of those in attendance. Many participants made statements such as:
July 21: Police claim that the SF Medical examiner’s report shows that Harding shot himself while running away from police. The new SFPD account claims that they recovered a gun that matched the ballistics of the shooting and alleges other facts contradicting eyewitness accounts of Bayview community members.
July 22: The Chief Medical Examiner of San Francisco states that she had not concluded that Harding shot himself. Suspicion and outrage grow among activists and Bayview community members. Some at rallies begin to ask if Harding was shot by a cop’s secondary weapon. Others call for a fare strike against MUNI and BART. Some invoke Chief Suhr’s dubious past to attack the limits of the SFPD’s credibility.
July 23: Activist Debray Carpenter A.K.A Fly Benzo arrested by 9 police officers “obviously in retaliation for organizing he has been doing” around Harding’s murder. “With this arrest, SFPD is attempting to fragment resistance to police terror & isolate the Bayview from collective action.” Call for action his arraignment July 25 8:30 AM San Francisco Hall Of “Justice.”
The New York Times finally publishes a piece about Harding’s murder. The story assumes the police told the truth and frames SFPD Chief Suhr as the beleaguered hero of the story, among other bits of disinformation.
July 25: According to @mrdaveyd on Twitter®: Hardings family holds press conference with lawyers at the offices of John Buris, run down the police department’s shifting story, point out fallacies in official statements, the Buris law office formally requests all SFPD evidence, family demand evidence be made available to public, address Harding’s suposed criminal background and refute the claim Harding was “on the run.” Oscar Grant’s uncle and a dozen community leaders at press conference. Harding was enrolled in a Seattle community college. He was in the Bay Area to meet with a music manager. Harding’s brother owns a San Francisco record lable. Witnesses have contacted Buris law office contradicting SFPD claims and stating Harding was left bleeding on the ground for 30 minutes. The nearest firehouse was 7 Blocks away, but paramedics did not come for 30 minutes. Witnesses establish a timeline.
Fly Benzo arraignment and action “tentatively” delayed until Thursday July 28th.
July 26: Charges dropped against Fly Benzo. Police repeatedly delay his release.
July 27: Early AM: Fly Benzo released after crowd at Hall of “Justice” dissipates.
July 28: Press conference about DeBray Carpenter, AKA Fly Benzo, Noon. SF City Hall.
The people of the bay area will not accept serial summary executions by police. Further actions to come.
With a series of important events over the last 5 days, the city of Paris has been witness to the material transnationalisation of the radical democratic movements that began this spring in Maghreb and the Middle East.
Thursday, May 28th between 300-400 Tunisian exiles arrived in Paris, France. After having travelled for over 45 days – from Tunisia to the small Italian island of Lampadusa where they had been initially held by Italian authorities and overcoming the French government’s attempt to block trains entering France from Italy – this community of migrants made a makeshift camp at a small park on the exterior of the French Capital.
Almost immediately, the police welcomed these young migrants – predominantly young males no older than 25 – with mass arrests, militarily invading the Villette Park where they were staying and launching a citywide manhunt. Between Friday the 29th and Saturday the 30th over 100 arrests were made, including at least 4 minors.
Following the arrival and persecution of the Tunisian migrants, Parisian activists – notably the Front de libération populaire tunisien (FLPT) Coordination des Intermittents et Precairs (CIP) and Knowledge Liberation Front (KLF) – began organizing in order to find safe havens and supply basic needs (food, shelter and medicines) for the new arrivals. Representatives from leftwing parties and unions also began concerning themselves with the urgent situation.
However, after several grassroots meetings, the Tunisian community made clear that they did not want any (colonialist) charity from French organizations but rather a stable and safe place where they could exercise their right to self-organize. They vehemently insisted against any political manipulation of their situation by the institutional left.
A last minute decision to participate in the traditional demonstration for the 1st of May was made in order to bring attention to their situation and to gather the Parisian community of Tunisian together.
The demonstration was a huge success. Hundreds of Tunisian migrants created the most lively and politically decisive blocks of the otherwise traditional march. The block was lead by a huge white banner that read “No Police Nor Charity: A place to organize” signed by “The Tunisians from Lampedusa to Paris”. Carrying ad hoc placards and signs that read “Ben Alì, Murabak, Sarkozy…” and “We’ve come to help you do the same” the message was clear: the Maghreb wind of radical democratic change has arrived in Europe.
Despite continuing police repression and the attempts of the institutional left to coopt the burgeoning movement, on the night of May 1st well over 200 migrants and activists (now officially organized as the Collective of Tunisians from Lampedusa) occupied a building in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. Although the police arrived almost immediately at the scene and attempted to enter the building and arrest the occupants, an overnight sit-in outside and physical resistance inside has so far managed to prevail over any eviction.
Currently, the City of Paris is now trying to conduct negotiations between the occupants and the national government and police. Tonight an activist meeting has been called to continue this new mobilization. But one thing in sure: this autonomous, transnational and grassroots movement has no intention of giving up their right to self-organize nor will they fall into the trap of political manipulation by the institutional left.
Jason Francis Mc Gimsey
by China Martens
http://indyreader.org/content/notes-childcare-wisconsin-occupation
Working to create support for parents and children is one of my main forms of political activism (see http://dontleaveyourfriendsbehind.blogspot.com/), so after reading reports of how the protesters had settled into a camp within the Capitol Building that included childcare, I wanted to find out more. I asked Ryan Harvey (who had written about the childcare station in his “Dispatches from the Madison Fight #3, also here on indyreader.org) to put me in touch with an organizer. Mary Jo, a mother of three active in the protests, responded to my query.
Caretakers of young children will appreciate this: When I finally got voice- to-voice phone contact with Mary Jo she said that, ironically enough, she was having childcare issues at the moment. She couldn’t get to the Capitol to get her press pass on time this morning (she’s with radio), and now the kids are throwing flour all over the kitchen floor because she is on the phone with me. “Gotta go, China, call me back!” In a bit she called back and rushed out this informal interview over the telephone. Day-by- day the situation is changing. These are the typed notes from our chat on Thursday March 3, 2011:
Mary Jo said that people/families are already in crisis in their daily life. Being at the Capitol and holding space like this puts them in further crisis. Camping out in the Capitol building for almost 20 days is creating stress. Authorities only let one person go in and out of the building at a time – it’s not clear to families if they can get back in, but they can. But it’s okay, since people need to rest. It’s been three weeks and they are regrouping: this is going to be a long battle.
Childcare is important space and (she designates it as) stress-free space!
They were asked to move yesterday (March 2nd) and the childcare space had been targeted since they were the only ones on the second floor. It was started by mothers looking for a quiet space to relax and recoup away from the main action. The police told them they must leave for the building to be cleaned. When I asked if they were still in the building, Mary Jo replied, “OH YES – we are still there and we are not moving. If you move – you’re done!” Mary Jo is holding space for children who will also be affected by this bill and for their parents who have come to protest. Her vision is to lobby for families.
How did (what Mary Jo has dubbed) “The North Wing Family Center” start? First a friend R. started by getting meals for youth and putting their art and other flyers on the wall. That helped change the space and set the tone. Others started hanging murals and banners and stuff. L. had a baby. Put up signs for childcare. Two moms, S. and L. just sat with each other, and then L. spent the night. The next day Mary Jo came. She asked what the mothers wanted and together they made a list.
She tells me that lots of power plays go on within the Capitol – some try dictating what they should do, and how others should do things. Some of the people said, “We should compromise, they want us to leave–we should”. However, Mary Jo is part of those who say “No.”
The mothers had started it by needing a space to rest, and they found it. But by the next day, there were already some (without children) that were trying to kick them out of their space – which is a really good space. “Stake your ground,” her friend recommended. Half the moms decided they would leave like they were asked to. Mary Jo says, “I’m not leaving, I’m going to sit here and hold space.” The moms left, but a half an hour later they came back because they had been shooed out of the first floor when the hearings started and there was nowhere else to go. There were three moms. Then I. and E. with her two-year-old made five moms.
I ask if anyone who’s not a mom is helping out now? Yes, Mary Jo says. C. (a male without children of his own) is holding the space now. She tells me that conceptually the idea came from M.G. (another male) who said “Everyone is not here,” and then they had a long conversation about what they could do for families. The Children’s Museum is a block away and has offered some support with a discount on admission. They are strategizing about what to do next.
These are Mary Jo’s key points about the family space they have created:
-We are holding space for the people who aren’t here yet
-Not everyone is at the table
-Everyone is affected.
-If we don’t put family first and foremost in the movement, the movement will fail!
Mary Jo tells me a little more about her struggles with holding space. “I held that ground [where we had set up the families’ area] at least 3 times where it became very unsure and I had to be very strong and clear. And people aren’t used to that in this day and age. I’m uncompromising. I call it the battle of the north wing.” The most recent incident had happened the day before. Five police officers came in, very forcefully, with their shoes on (You couldn’t ask them to take off their shoes. She had instituted a “no shoes” rule at the door because snow was tracking in and getting very dirty, and she wanted to keep the space clean for babies crawling on the ground). They pushed away the rocking chair she had brought from home at the door. “Excuse me!” she said. A policeman said, “I’ve worked here for 21 years and I can do what I want, I have immunity.” “What does that mean?” she asked. He answered that it means you can come and go, as you like. Mary Jo replied that she has immunity too! “The police told us that we needed to get our stuff out! But we ignored them and they didn’t come back. You just don’t leave when they say!”
Bringing the children to the occupation is good for the kids, Mary Jo tells me – and its good for the community! People recharge and ground themselves watching children.
Mary Jo is good at showing how an action is built from the conversations and actions of many. She tells me another kernel of wisdom to ponder. C. (who works as a “mama’s little helper” and helped Mary after the birth of the last of her three young children) said “Families need backup at home. The GOP wants to affect us in our communities and homes.”
Mary Jo expands: “There is a whole tier of people who cannot get to the Capitol. It’s too intense there. But they are supporting the occupation from the outside. We need to figure out how to increase the support there.”
Mary Jo wants to emphasize how parents are organizers and that many parents who are organizing this action at the Capitol have children at home. Parent organizers first seek support from their own families but even their extended support systems are not enough during this time. She asks other organizers that she knows are parents how they are doing; and how they are keeping things sane at home. What has been happening is there are a lot of typical gender divisions: many of the mother activists are staying home with the children while the father activists continue more visibly working on these issues. She and her husband are currently hiring a nanny to stay home with the children as she continues to organize but she is well aware of the fact that not everyone can afford this. What Mary Jo would like to express to the reader is that the struggle in Madison is going to come to us all. We need to reach out and ask for help. The reason Mary Jo and others continue working to keep a Family space at the Capitol occupation is to work towards collectively supporting children and parents, primarily mothers–those most affected by the new state government’s policies.
Note: As of Monday, March 7 the “North Wing Family Center” is no more. All their stuff has been removed. Concerned participants are planning what to do next and how to rebuild in a new setting or format to support families at the protest. I will post up more information when I receive it.
For more background on the larger protest in Madison, Wisconsin:
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/whats-happening-wisconsin-explained#
Inspired by “Did You Know There Was a Pop-Up Kindergarten in Tahrir Square?” :
www.good.is/post/a-moving-letter-from-egypt-about-the-role-of-children-in-tahrir-square/
And with thanks to Ryan Harvey for his reports and putting me in touch with the North Wing Family Center:
http://voiceshakes.wordpress.com