Oakland: Points of Unity for a Feminist & Queer Occupation

oakland occupy patriarchy

1. This Capitalist society is based upon a
racist, white supremacist racial order, and
so our organizing must confront, and attack
structural racism and white supremacy in this
city and in our own spaces.
2. Women, Trans people, Queers, Fags,
Dykes, need a space that is OURS because
we are marginalized, harassed, and attacked
in other spaces all the time. We do not all
have the same needs and desires, and
our relationships with one another are
structured by the intensified oppression of
people of color, trans people and poor
folks. However we think that we can support
and increase our power by working
with each other.

3. While we acknowledge that we are not
all affected in the same way by patriarchy,
we do believe that our degradation,
marginalization and harassment is systematic
and structural. As a result, we believe
that we cannot be fully liberated until we
abolish the system of Patriarchy in addition
to White Supremacy and Capitalism.

4. We are against Non-Profit Organizations
which end up supporting the system we
want to destroy and fucking over the
communities they claim to aid. Non-profits
have created a style of political organizing
that will never really threaten capitalism,
patriarchy, or white supremacy.

5. We are against the cops; they are our
enemy. Police protect the interests of the
ruling class, repress our resistance, and
harass, injure, rape and kill people in our
communities. We do not seek to reform,
negotiate, or work with this system; instead,
we work with each other!

Hunter College is Occupied!

Statement for Occupation – 12/06/11

Occupy Hunter will be occupying the lobby in the west building of Hunter College throughout the night and into tomorrow. The occupation started at 3:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon and there is not yet a determined end time. This is an organic process and your participation, commitment and support is needed! Currently, there’s a group of Hunter students, adjuncts and community members in the west lobby. Occupy Hunter has a main table with food, literature and Occupy Hunter information, a library table with books from the library at Zuccoti park, a table committed to studying and writing papers, and a table to organize and propose ideas. We are here to nurture an active community at Hunter College by creating a space that addresses the pressing issues relevant to the Hunter community and CUNY as a whole. Occupy Hunter is occupying the west lobby to establish our presence, promote awareness, and create a culture of resistance. This is our school and our CUNY.

Come by to get inolved, or email:

occupyhunter@gmail.com

All City Student Occupation Opened at 90 5th Avenue!

http://allcitystudentoccupation.com/

At 4:15 today during a march from Union Square, hundreds of students invaded a New School buidling to establish the city’s first All-City Student Occupation. The New School president has backed down from evicting the occupiers. Nearly 150 people are inside right now from schools across the city, CUNY Grad, New School, Hunter, Columbia, NYU, and Pratt! Come now to show your support at the corner of 5th Ave and east 14th St in Manhattan.

 

Feminist Bloc in Oakland General Strike 5pm

pstrs #oO

.

 

NYC Solidarity March Oct 26 WINS

At the GA on Wednesday, October 26th  the OWS general assembly came to consensus to donate $20,000 and 100 tents to Occupy Oakland in solidarity with the violent decimation of their camp and the brutal and violent repression they faced during eviction and after on the streets of oakland on Tuesday October 25th.

From proposal:

”

For medical and legal funds. The Oakland occupation was evicted yesterday morning very violently by 500 riot police with rubber bullets and tear gas. Yesterday night they marched to reoccupy and were met with 10 rounds of tear gas. The footage depicts what looks like a war zone. Of the injuries reported, there’s an Iraq war veteran who is currently unconscious in critical condition, shot in the head with a rubber bullet. Another vet is still in the hospital with a head injury from a tear gas canister. 12 people have injuries from the police that haven’t gotten checked out because they were in jail. There have been more than 180 arrests.

This money will also go for legal because tonight, at a 6 pm march, they will try to reoccupy. The NLG does not provide money for bail or medical expenses, therefore the responsibility is on the movement. Occupy Oakland has been the most economically and racially diverse occupation in the U.S. Thus it comes as no surprise that they were the first of this scale to be violently evicted. If we want to make any claim toward being a movement inclusive of everyone, it is crucial to show material solidarity with Oakland. The violent decimation and consequent violent attacks on Oakland will set a precedent for how occupations across the country will be dealt with. Both Atlanta and Denver were moved on last night. If we want people to resist this oppression, we need to support their resistance. Occupy Oakland, has no material support and collected money dollar by dollar [unintelligible] … their support got him bonded out. It is in this spirit of mutual aid and solidarity that we ask for $20,000 for our fellow occupiers on the West Coast. It is only together that we can keep this thing going.”

After the GA there was an incredible solidarity march with about 700 people that marched up Broadway and many other streets in downtown Manhattan. 14 people were arrested.

THE PROTESTERS HAVE TAKEN THE NETTING AWAY FROM THE POLICE

HOW WE DO IN NYC: BAGPIPES AND A PUPPY IN THE STREET

Oakland: On the Previous Few Days, And What Is to Come…

http://www.bayofrage.com/from-the-bay/on-the-previous-few-days-and-what-is-to-come/

Oakland Takes Out The Trash.
Tuesday, 3am – 7am

On Monday, October 24th the second weekend of #OccupyOakland had come and gone; charisma from Saturday’s march [link] had passed and a police raid was imminent. Beyond popular speculation that the city and the police were planning the destruction of Oscar Grant Plaza, there were a few obvious clues that Monday night would be the night. For one, the city had issued letters to select businesses around the plaza suggesting that there would be police activities sometime in the coming day. In addition, the city seems to have forced the Fire Marshall to come to the occupation to “remove” the propane tanks (and thus restricting us from cooking on site).

Library. Riot. Continued.
Tuesday, 4pm – Midnight

12 hours later, the contingency plan approved by the GA in case of a raid, was put into place. At 4pm, close to 1000 people gathered at the main Oakland Library to listen to inspirational speeches and condemnations against the police. One could not avoid the general feeling of animosity towards those responsible for what happened last night. Something spectacular was going to happen tonight.

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On the Previous Few Days, And What Is to Come…

Posted by OaklandCommune on Thursday, October 27, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Oakland Takes Out The Trash.
Tuesday, 3am – 7am

On Monday, October 24th the second weekend of #OccupyOakland had come and gone; charisma from Saturday’s march [link] had passed and a police raid was imminent. Beyond popular speculation that the city and the police were planning the destruction of Oscar Grant Plaza, there were a few obvious clues that Monday night would be the night. For one, the city had issued letters to select businesses around the plaza suggesting that there would be police activities sometime in the coming day. In addition, the city seems to have forced the Fire Marshall to come to the occupation to “remove” the propane tanks (and thus restricting us from cooking on site).

Before the rubber bullets and concussion grenades, the hundred or so arrests and unrelenting spider mobs that saturated downtown Oakland, there was joyous, eager barricading. It was trash night. The already desolate streets surrounding Oscar Grant Plaza were quickly cleared of whatever debris could act (symbolically and/or effectively) as an impediment to the police. Locked in an alley of City Hall were nearly one hundred metal police barricades. They were quickly liberated from their cage and placed strategically around the encampment. Reports trickled in slowly: several police units, from many agencies all the way out to Vacaville, were mobilizing and traveling to the plaza via motorcade or BART. Arguments broke out at the occupation – some called for a united strategy of defense, while many continued building barricades, spray painting and hammering away at the cobblestone floor. Eventually, around 4am, the distant sirens quickly turned into dozens of police units in formation, giving dispersal orders before attacking the encampment.

There was hopeful but little supposition that these people and barricades could deter the police, let alone defend the camp. When the spotlights from police helicopters began indiscriminately scanning the plaza, a panic fevered the already frantic people. It took only moments to realize that to stay inside the plaza was hopeless. Those intent on posturing and symbolically “standing their ground”, were subject to projectiles, batons and ultimately arrest. The scene was panicked, oppressive and defeating. For now, the fight for the plaza had been lost and most everyone inside dispersed.

Outside police lines, many looked to reconvene, others arrived responding to the emergency text messages and phone calls they’d received from others – they found each other at 14th and Franklin, one block east of the plaza. To the police it was clear that this massing crowd would not be reduced to impotent spectators. Moving away from the sidewalks into the street, what was now the morning traffic detour route, the intersection filled with hateful slogans directed at the police. There was a startling impatience and lust for revenge. It had grown to nearly 200 people when a police motorcade was ordered to intimidate and disperse the crowd. Shape shifting and turning over trash cans, the group headed in the opposite direction. Shouts of excitement, more seething remarks toward the police and a medley of thudding and crashing filled the streets. The police came prepared to assault the plaza, not to be met with the consequences of doing so.  From 5am to 6am the streets east of the plaza held a familiarity to some and an unprecedented emotion for others.

An offensive decision by the city and its allies brought opportunity to those subject to their increasingly irrelevant authority. Tuesday morning, the city took to actively discouraging people from going to work in the downtown area. Despite this official suggestion, one could overhear security guards, baristas and other service workers phoning into work announcing their absence on their own initiative. Someone initiated a campaign to eject Jean Quan from her position as mayor. Tweets and texts exploded with announcements to rally at the downtown Oakland Library at 4pm. The Alameda County Labor Council among other local unions had publicly denounced the actions of the police and the city.

Yet to take shape as either a spectacle or rebellion, The Town, once again, opened itself to the freedoms found in possibilities.

Library. Riot. Continued.
Tuesday, 4pm – Midnight

12 hours later, the contingency plan approved by the GA in case of a raid, was put into place. At 4pm, close to 1000 people gathered at the main Oakland Library to listen to inspirational speeches and condemnations against the police. One could not avoid the general feeling of animosity towards those responsible for what happened last night. Something spectacular was going to happen tonight.

After the speeches, people marched to the Downtown jail to show support for those arrested the previous night. Along the way, the march passed through two separate lines of police, but on the third one, as the march was a block away from the jail, the police pushed back. They grabbed two people from the front of the march and threw them to the ground. Seeing this, the crowd immediately surrounded the cops yelling at them, trying to grab the comrades and free them. People pushed and paint was thrown. As the tension continued to escalate, the police knew they were fighting a losing battle, so they brought in reinforcements with tear gas and flash grenades to disperse the crowd. Those being arrested initially, amongst the chaos, were secured by the pigs and loaded into a van. One of the arrestees was fucked with while in jail, called racist slurs and physically harassed. How could we not hate the police?

Throughout the arrests of Occupy Oakland’s resistance, we demonstrate solidarity with the state’s hostages in a multitude of ways, emotionally and physically. The march regrouped and proceeded past the jail making noise and letting those inside – every single one of them – aware that the march was here for them in total solidarity. A comrade who has been released from jail, arrested the previous night, said that it was one of the most beautiful and powerful things they have ever seen. To hear and see 1000 people outside making noise, making their solidarity known to those on the inside. Solidarity means attack.

The march returned to Oscar Grant Plaza where the group proceeded to try and retake the plaza. After 20 minutes of confronting the police at 14th and Broadway, rounds of tear gas and flash grenades were used once again (there would be somewhere around seven different instances of the police using tear gas and flash grenades in an attempt to disperse the crowd. The crowd did not deteriorate this time nor any other).

This first major tear gassing was also the incident were a veteran was hit in the head with a tear gas canister and either knocking him out or causing his system to go in shock – he was on the ground in front of the police with eyes open, not moving and not responding to anything. People immediately ran up to him and tried to get him out of the way, which is when the police throw another flash grenade directly on top of him and near those who responded in aid. This bears repeating: the police throw a flash grenade directly on someone that was lying motionless on the ground, dispersing the crowd that was trying to take him out of the warzone. The injured protester was eventually removed and taken to the hospital with a skull fracture and is currently in critical condition and undergoing surgery. Many were injured. Not everyone has reported their injuries for obvious reasons.

By this point, the march had doubled to more than 2000 people. The group marched to Snow Park to gather, but it wasn’t long until people marched back on the plaza again. In what became the standard of the night, the march confronted the militarized area formerly known as Oscar Grant Plaza and was met with tear gas and flash grenades causing people to faint and throw up. But this didn’t stop anyone; it only galvanized the crowd and incited many at home to head downtown and join the resistance.

The march started at 5 and lasted until late into the night with over 6 hours of snake marches and almost constant confrontation with the police throughout downtown.

Towards the end of the night, people began to worry about being kettled, so some people took it upon themselves to set up barricades around the surrounding intersections. This action would allow people to respond before being trapped, by either getting away or fighting back. The barricades included the city’s own barricades that were established throughout the area, dumpsters and trash cans (some of these were set aflame to relieve the lingering tear gas present throughout all of the downtown and to cause more trouble for the police if they dared to intimidate or assault crowd).

As the night went on, the group slowly dissipated, confident that this fight was not close to over.

The Retaking of Oscar Grant Plaza.
Wednesday, 6pm – Midnight

It was obvious to everyone the previous night that people were heading back to Oscar Grant Plaza. By this time, police were nowhere to be seen around the plaza. The only thing that was there was a metal fence erected around the spot of the occupation. Well, it only lasted a little while. Before the General Assembly even started, people spontaneously began to tear down the fence. Initially, some “peace police,” spouting something about non-violence were trying to get them to stop – that was of course to no avail as the fence quickly was torn down.

The GA that happened that night was the largest one yet for #OccupyOakland, with over 2000 people participating. Since it was such a large GA, everything took more time, but the one proposal that was passed was worth it all. Following announcements that various occupations around the US were participating in solidarity marches, and that people in Cairo are going to march on Tahrir square this Friday saying that “Cairo and Oakland are one hand,” the proposal to call for a General Strike this Wednesday, November 2nd was passed with overwhelming majority (97%). Get ready Oakland, shits about to get real….

Following the GA, people announced that OccupySF was under threat of eviction. People made a call out for people to go to San Francisco and make their solidarity physical. But this wouldn’t happen. Before people could even make it into BART, the station was closed. Pissed, the small group that was heading to SF instead took to the streets in Oakland where the rest of the GA, who was still around, joined them. The march immediately headed towards the jail to show solidarity with those still inside. Everyone could see the inmates hands on the windows and the flickering of their cell lights, letting us know that they see us.

Over the next couple of hours, the group marched around downtown Oakland with no police interference. There were reports of police staging close by, but they never made themselves visible more than a few cars in front and back. After the previous night, they realized how badly they fucked up. Tonight, we controlled the streets. It finally ended in Oscar Grant Plaza, with people just chilling, standing and sitting in the middle of 14th and Broadway (the main downtown intersection), with no attempt by the cops to disperse the crowd.

As the proposed General Strike is just but a week away, there is a lot of work that needs to be done and a lot of connections to be established and strengthened. Some people began to set up camp again at Oscar Grant Plaza, but others are merely taking this time to rest, to regroup, to gather themselves for what is to come.

Get some rest comrade. We have yet to see what’s around the corner…

 

OPD Continues to Teargas Protesters Attempting to Re-Occupy

On Tuesday October 25th, about seven hundred gathered at the Oakland Public Library tonight, the Oakland Police Department geared up for another offensive. A march  that grew to about 1,500 people started from the Oakland Public Library to what the city calls Frank O’Gawa Plaza and what occupiers in Oakland have re-named Oscar Grant Plaza. Police released many teargas canisters on protesters including a woman in a wheelchair. Police fired rubber bullets into the march as well as flash grenades. People were in the streets till 4am and plan to go back today on 14th and Broadway at 6pm.

Police teargas woman in wheelchair whose batteries had run out.

Iraq War Veteran Protester shot in the head with a rubber bullet

Occupy Oakland Evicted: Cops fire Rubber Bullets, Flash Grenades,Tear Gas, Many Injured and Arrested

full article here  photos here

“Around 2am word spread that riot police were massing in around the area where Occupy Oakland has been for more than two weeks. Hundreds of people gathered and began to make non-violent barricades at all the entrances to the plaza.

At about 4:30am, riot police appeared on all corners of the encampment. There were roughly 500 to 700 riot police in total.

The entire plaza was completely barricaded on all sides, with palates, trash cans, chairs, a gigantic christmas wreath, police barricades from a neighboring street.

Occupiers began chanting ‘go home’ as they always do when police show up at Occupy Oakland, but it quickly became clear that there was an overwhelming number of police from at least four different jurisdictions.

As people continued to chant and fell back within the barricade, off of the street, the police announced that we would be arrested within the encampment. They said [they’d use force to disperse demonstrators within] five minutes, and within a minute they fired the first rounds of flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets, and then tear gas into the camp, hitting and injuring multiple people.

At this point much of the crowd began to flee through an area the police had opened up to flush the crowd out. All those who remained were arrested.

We know of roughly 70 arrests and multiple injuries, none of them extremely serious, but many for sure.

At this time people are still standing up to the police line. The camp looks like a tornado went through it. Everything is destroyed, and it is currently occupied by hundreds of police.

We’re asking for public condemnations of police repression of the occupy movement in Oakland and we’re also saying that people should reconverge at 14th and Madison at the public library for an emergency demonstration at 4pm today (Tuesday).” Tim, an organizer with Occupy Oakland.

Over 100 occupiers were arrested as of 10:03am this morning the National Lawyers guild told us this morning. The city of Oakland has told it’s employees not to come to work today in anticipation of response to the violent eviction of the largest encampment of people living in an #occupy space. This morning’s raid widely believed to be the most violent so far, yet NBC is reporting a “smooth” and “peaceful” eviction by OPD. The use of tear gas, rubber bullets, stun grenades, a sound cannon, the LRAD, and batons is peaceful and smooth according to the C.O.N. media.

At the celebration of the two week birthday of Occupy Oakland about two thousand people circulated through the occupation. On Monday, October 25 the city of Oakland gave the occupation the final warning of eviction. During the General Assembly on Monday evening the GA came to a consensus that occupiers would stay to defend the camp. The occupiers then built barricades and discussed various tactical plans about how to defend to the camp.

The security of the camp was on high alert, and at 3:15am occupiers say riot cops staging and preparing. The camp then woke up and began to barricade walls made out of everything from couches to metal barricades and wooden pallets. This was many unemployed people, many homeless people who camp in the camp, rank and file union members, students, the entire camp joined to barricade to defend the camp. Carlifornia highway patrol, Riot police, and police from four counties, a chopper, stages a very large scale operation with at least 700 police show up against at least 200 campers and about 100 more non-camping supporters and media observers.

The riot police immediately teargased the front entrance of the camp where everyone was behind the barricades.  When they teargased the front of the camp the media who had been parked by the entrance has to move their vans as they had also gotten teargased. The media and outside supporters left because of the teargas. Then the police moved in to push apart the barricades and shoot into the camp with rubber bullets. The went through the camp and shooting people with rubber bullets causing what protesters described as a “chaotic warzone-like situation”. They beat several unconscious in the process of arresting them. Throughout the next half hour they closed all the streets within a three block radius around the plaza so no one could see what was happening in the plaza. The police trampled and destroyed the entire encampment.  About 70 were arrested and many were injured.

At 8am a large group of people got through when the streets opened up and attempted to re-occupy Snow Park.

The Okaland Tribune reported that police successfully demolished the camp and cleaned out all their tents, a medical desk, a makeshift kitchen and more, after having declared the whole site a “crime scene,” even though no other crime than an “unlawful assembly” had occurred.

Aggregated Media (a lot of Gross Mis-reporting in favor of the Police Department):

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/25/dozens_arrested_at_occupy_oakland_as

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/25/watch-live-occupy-oakland-attacked-by-police/

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2011%2F10%2F25%2FBAUB1LLTC9.DTL

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news%2Flocal%2Feast_bay&id=8404801

Oakland Tribune: Early morning police raid ousts Occupy Oakland

Oakland Tribune: Live Blog: Police arrest protesters, tear down Occupy Oakland tent city

Think Progress: Occupy Oakland Evicted: Cops fire Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas, Many Injured and Arrested

Oakland North: Police raid Occupy Oakland camp, make arrests

Bay Citizen: Police Dismantle Occupy Oakland

San Francisco Chronicle: Cops arrest Occupy Oakland protestersLive UStream feed of the raidMayor Jean Quan’s statement

YSERBA: Police Raid Occupy Oakland, Push Me To The Ground

ON THE RECENT #OCCUPATIONS

full communique here

A COMMUNIQUE FROM W.A.T.C.H > HALLOWEEN 2011 > BALTIMORE, AMERIKKKA

This occupation is inevitable, and yet we need to make it. There is no way for capital to continue its reign – this is clear. And yet, capital will not behead itself: we know that we need to struggle in some way if we are to overcome it. This statement is not a rejection of the occupation – as if it could be avoided, as if the present conditions were not so grave, as if we haven’t all had enough. But there are things that need to be said. We submit this critique in the deepest solidarity with those people of color, women, queer, and trans* folx that have endured this occupation while labouring on making it more livable from the inside.

Before anything else, we must frame this movement within a prior occupation, that of white settlers on Nanticoke and Susquehannock land. The genocide, expulsion, and dispossession of native peoples is foundational to the ascent of the US as a center of global capital; we cannot reclaim this country, only acknowledge it as a unit of capitalist destruction.

              “We are the 99%”

If we want to use this figure to underscore how far polarized the rich and the poor are today, fine. But those of us that don’t homogenize so easily get suspicious when we hear calls for unity. What other percentages hide behind the nearly-whole 99%? What about the 16% of Blacks that are “officially” unemployed, double the number of whites? The 1 out of 8 Black men in their twenties that on any given day will be in prison or jail? The quarter of women that will get sexually assaulted in their lifetime? The dozens of queer, trans*, intersex, and gender-variant folks that are murdered each year, 70% of whom are people of color? Is a woman of color’s experience of the crisis interchangeable with that of the white man whose wage is twice hers? Are we all Troy Davis? As austerity grinds down on us, who among us will go to prison? Who will be relegated to informal, precarious labor? Whose benefits will be cut, whose food stamps canceled or insufficient? Who will be evicted? Who will be unable to get health care, to get hormones or an abortion?