Dreaming in Public: Building the Occupy Movement is the latest book on the Occupy movement, scheduled for publication this summer. Unlike other books focused solely on Occupy Wall Street, this one covers other regions – as can be seen by the cover! –  and it emphasizes the writings of the participants themselves.

Two of the authors in particular – Jaime Omar Yassin and Aaron Bady – were active in Occupy Oakland in the earliest days and have contributed to the print edition of the Occupied Oakland Tribune.

The history of this movement will be written – and re-written – many times over in the future. For now, thankfully, New Internationalist has archived some of the important primary sources.

Check out their web site for more information.

Occupier Kali (Marcel Johnson) will be sentenced June 20th after accepting a plea deal. Learn more about the situation at http://occupyoakland.org/2012/06/support-kali-come-to-his-sentencing-620/

By Molly Batchelder

We walked rapidly to meet hundreds gathered in front of the Art Institute. I found out from a comrade how the march there was started by four people, walking home from the large protest, who decided to take the streets. Yes, four people ignited hundreds! So together, at the intersection of Adams and Michigan Ave, we danced and draped our arms around each other and howled our favorite chants. “A-Anti-An-Ti-Ca-Pa-Ta-Lista. An-Anti-An-Ti-Ca-Pa-Ta-Lista.” People looked so beautiful in the streetlights, all faces absolutely shining. Oh, and it started to rain! We did not disperse! In fact, the rain was what actually gave rise to our complete exuberance. This was my favorite time, if someone were to ask me to choose.

But the riot police then moved in as a malicious force to snatch and grab a comrade (a new tactic for arresting “trouble makers”). I am sure they have a reason to put on paper, but really it was to divide us; to end our moment of cheerful solidarity. As my friend Ramon wrote of his experiences with the oppressors of his Basque people, “They don’t like seeing you having fun”.

So we voted to march, as our energy had shifted. We had a GA! And while most comrades who spoke expressed a longing to stay, to hold the space, to meet each other, when we voted it was overwhelmingly to march. So we marched. It was spirited at first, but became a sort of manic advance on unknown dark places as police lines blocked us from the fancy hotels filled with dignitaries we had hoped to reach. Some kids became interested in turning things over (benches, flower pots), for which Occupiers got to demonstrate our familiar beauty by turning things back and then talking to the youth. But cops moved in shortly after with a reason.

These cops were not the ones with the brimmed hats and the pressed suits, who stood on street corners engaging pleasantly with folks. These wore black body armor. They were huge. They looked like robocops. They reminded me of OPD. We were walking very fast in the back, and the scuffling sounds their back body armor made as all of them rushed in behind me… Do you know what that is like? When your body goes to fight or flight? And then they tackled someone, the scuffling sounds peaking, and I turn around and see four or five holding a woman up against a wall, her arm pinned above her head, the shock on her face! A woman! We walked towards her and said “We are just watching you arrest our friend. We have a right to do so.” But they don’t follow those laws, and we felt this and started for the march again. And again I hear hideous sounds and turn around to see another sister thrown to the ground with officers on top of her. I left. I headed for the nearest subway stop. I did not turn around again.

I spoke with other Occupiers during the convergence who have deduced that police go after women to insight our anger. How it is that police around the country are displaying similar tactics at the same time? Who is giving these orders?

I return to Oakland the next day to realize another young black man has been murdered by OPD. They claim Alan Blueford had a gun. But really, the officer shot Alan three times and then once in his own foot for his own protection. And now I find out they have just arrested my friend…

We are being systematically brutalized and murdered by the state because of who we are and what we represent. It’s very romantic to think change comes about in peaceful, non-interrupting ways. But that is not our consciousness yet, and now I struggle with the notion that maybe it is not the goal after all. So, I join my comrades on the street and yell, “Stand Up, Fight Back!”

What I saw in Chicago were so many brave people, using their bodies (no shields!) between others and police. To be on the front lines as the crowd attempts to push through and police beat heads with billyclubs… “What did they say back in ’68?” one officer said. “Billyclub to the fucking skull,” another officer replied.

I read an article about revolutionaries in Egypt, impoverished by the system, who come to the mosques for refuge, their eyes red from the tear gas, their bodies bloody from police weapons. They receive medical attention, food and water and then take back to the streets to return to the front lines. We are resisting! Please, don’t tell us to be peaceful. We have tried that long enough. And our redwood forests are gone; Our black, brown and poor people and abducted, incarcerated and murdered by the state; The Keystone Pine line is being built! Lakota grandmothers are standing in front of supply trucks. Let us have our anger! Let us demonstrate outrage! It is necessary.
We are in the midst of great transformation. And we are being challenged physical, mentally, emotionally on so many levels. Our adrenal systems (controlling hormones), nervous systems (controls signals between different body parts), muscular systems, are all hypervigilant.

Let’s take care of ourselves. And take care of each other.

Love Live the Oakland Commune and Fuck the Police!

*Meet at North Berkeley BART (Acton and Delaware St.) at 6 PM TONIGHT, 5/9. We will march to the Gill Tract Farm!*

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/327390270663835/

At 6:30 AM this morning, UC Police arrived at the Gill Tract Farm in Albany. They set up cement barricades to block entrances to the land, announced that ‘chemical agents’ would be used against those who interfered, and as of now are still mobilized around the farm with riot gear and zip ties. No arrests have been made.

If you haven’t yet had a chance to experience the farm – or if you’ve been there since the occupation began – tonight is the night for us to mobilize in support of this beautiful project. Meet at North Berkeley BART at 6:00 PM (Acton and Delaware St.) and we will march to the Gill Tract Farm to support our comrades, the land and food sovereignty. Bring banners, signs, warm clothes, tents and sleeping gear (if you’d like to stay overnight)!

The UCPD has been issuing daily warnings to occupiers since the occupation began. Today, they escalated these warnings by barricading entrances to the farm, where they remain mobilized. Let’s show UC administrators and UCPD that we will not be intimidated. FARMLAND IS FOR FARMING!

History:

On Earth Day, April 22, hundreds of urban farming advocates – including community members, students and occupiers – reclaimed the five-acre plot known as Gill Tract, planting rows of vegetables, establishing a youth garden and building community in a sustainable and peaceful way.

The land represents one of the only agricultural spaces with ‘class-one’ soil left in the East Bay. UC Berkeley administrators would prefer to develop the plot, ignoring the work and voices of community members for at least the last decade. In 2000, the Bay Area Coalition for Urban Agriculture presented a proposal to the university for the creation of the ‘world’s first university center on sustainable urban agriculture and food systems.’ It was ignored, as was a later one presented in 2005 by Urban Roots to create the Village Creek Farm and Gardens, ‘a farm that would provide Bay Area students from preschool to community college and university with an educational resource par excellence.’

Urban Agriculture:

From UCB Professors Miguel A. Altieri (Agroecology) and Claudia J. Carr (Environmental Science):

“The rapid urbanization that is taking place in the Bay Area goes hand in hand with a rapid increase in urban poverty and food insecurity, a situation aggravated by the economic crisis affecting California. Half a million people are at risk of hunger every month. About 38 percent of them are children…Many low-income urban residents in the Bay Area reside in ‘food deserts,’ i.e. in areas having limited access to affordable and nutritious food, particularly in lower income neighborhoods and communities.

The benefits of urban agriculture go beyond producing food: they extend to the promotion of local economic development, poverty alleviation and social inclusion of the poor — and of women, in particular. Urban agriculture also contributes to the urban ecosystem by greening the city, productively reusing urban wastes, conserving pollinators and wildlife, and saving energy involved in the transport of food (in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions!).”

From ‘Occupy the Farm’:

“We are reclaiming this land to grow healthy food to meet the needs of local communities. We envision a future of food sovereignty, in which our East Bay communities make use of available land – occupying it where necessary – for sustainable agriculture to meet local needs. This particular plot of land is very special:

- These are the last acres of Class One soil left in the urbanized East Bay. Ninety percent of the original land has been paved over and developed, irreverisibly contaminating the land.
- Students, professors, and community have fought for decades to save this amazing land from development and use it for sustainable agriculture.
- UCB capital projects currently administors this land and has slated it for rezoning and redevelopment in 2013 (i.e. supermarkets, parking lots, and apartments).
- The University uses the land to research corn genetics. This research can be conducted anywhere as opposed to this unique site.”

More info: http://www.takebackthetract.com/

UCPD, WE DON’T NEED YOU!

FARMLAND IS FOR FARMING!

LONG LIVE THE GILL TRACT FARM!

WHAT: Occupy Oakland Press Conference and Day of Action in solidarity with postal workers.

WHEN: Tuesday, 17 April 2012. Tax Day.  Press Conference @ 4:00.Community Protest 3:30-7:30PM.

WHERE: Oakland Main Post Office. 1675 7^th Street.

On Tuesday, 17 April, Occupy Oakland is calling for a day of action at the main branch of the People’s Post Office (Oakland Post Office) in response to an OWS national call for a Tax Day of action at post offices and mail distribution centers. The day of action is in solidarity with postal workers across the country as well as poor, elderly, and rural populations who depend on postal services. In a separately organized effort, the National Postal Mail Handlers Union and the American Postal Workers Union who have sanctioned an informational day of picketing.

Postal workers currently face 200,000 job cuts and 3700 post office and distribution center closures. Most of the closures are in poor and rural communities where jobs are needed most and postal services are much more essential. The privatization of these services will make sending letters considerably less accessible to the poor, the elderly, and rural populations. Cutback supporters point out that cutbacks are a natural outcome of tightened budgets. But postal workers argue that unnecessary and burdensome policies passed by the Congress in 2006 manufacturedthe fiscal mess.

Occupy Oakland invites all members of the press to a 4:00 PM press conference. OO also encourages all members of the community, the working class, and those interested in preserving postal services for all sectors of society, to join them and demand that postal jobs and benefits be protected and public services be preserved. Activities will commence at 3:30 PM.

by Eric

It had rained all morning and though the clouds had cleared was still cold by mid day, at least by our mild California standards. I arrived at Moss Wood park a little before 1:30 PM, when our group would walk down the few bocks to Telegraph and join the marchers coming from UC Berkeley and go on together with them to the city center plaza (now often called “Oscar Grant” plaza after the 18 yo killed by the police here a few years ago) in down town Oakland where other marches would converge for a rally against the on-going cuts in public education.

There were only a hand full of us, less than ten, and we shared a mix of humor and sadness at the poor turn out. We were getting to know each other while one was following the progress of the march form Berkeley on twiter. “They’re at 48Th now”, the man said, “we should start clea…” POP POP POP, Interupted the casual conversation though I didn’t understand how serious it was until I looked across MacArthur Blvd. and saw a teenage boy, at most 16, and likely several years younger, shooting a gun into the crowd at the gas station on the corner of Webster, pumping their gas and paying the attendant. He probably seemed even smaller when compared to the large gun he was holding, like something from the “Dirty Harry” movie.

All of us, there for the rally, quickly got behind the large tree as more shoots were fired, POP POP POP POP. In some time, maybe 30 seconds or so after the last shot was fired I peaked around the side of the tree and the shooter was gone. The mechanics had come out of the garage and the customers and employees at the gas station were milling around, confused and disoriented. I and another guy went across the street as we could see that there were a few people part of the way down Webster and one of them seemed to be hurt.

“Call an ambulance he’s been shot!”, the one standing yelled. The other one was on the ground and starting to lay flat as I was close enough to see. “He’s been shot in the shoulder”, call somebody!” the guy standing yelled. He was holding a bike that I think belonged to the guy who had been shot, also a very young person, a teenager, his bood flowing onto the side walk. I called 911 three time and it was busy every time.

The police were there in less than five minuets but it took eighteen for the ambulance to arrive and we were only two blocks from two different hospitals. The victim was alive when they loaded him into the ambulance, after that who knows?

It took a while for me to clam down and take in the fact that the day hadn’t changed much; there were children playing not far away in the park, a community center with seniors doing pottery across the park were back at it, small crowds at the gas station and on the park side of the street were debating what they had seen, traffic went by on its way to where ever it was going and I was struck with how ironic a thing had just happened.

Here a small group of us had gathered to protest cuts in education. Really we were there to protest exactly what we had just seen; young lives gone a very bad way because of a lack of good alternatives. Who knows what these two young people were fighting over but it’s safe to bet it was something trivial; a small piece of property (a bike or piece of jewelry), a small drug debt, a petty insult, something passing, of no real import.

As services and education continue to be cut because of increasing debt burden on all our public institutions I expect more of this kind of thing. Without a normalizing frame-work for young people to plug into; education leading to stable employment in functioning communities this kind of thing will, sometimes and increasingly, be the outcome. This is what we as human beings default to, and fairly quickly, without those things; a “kill or be killed”, “get them before they get you” kind of barbarism. With the answer of the elite and those who work for them being more police and more prisons.

As my body reluctantly adjusts to being 45, slows down with every calorie seeming to turn to fat on me, I was so struck by the sadness of wasted youth and wonder what will happen to those two young guys and the millions like them. I also worry for those who may be unlucky enough to be in their way and the growing state apparatus that claims to be there to protect us from them but actually seeks to more completely control us all.