#ALLOCCUPYEVERYTHING

BY @DICEYTROOP THE COPYEDITOR

[diceytroop]

Strike Debt organizer explains how debt interconnects our grievances

Check out this exceptional explanation of debt from the September 17th NYC email list:

All, I’ve been organizing around debt for almost a year now, but as others point out, debt is one theme among many in Occupy. We are facing and fighting many problems, with many different angles. As it should be. Debt is just one. We need and should continue to maintain many other fronts without a doubt. But I am very glad this was brought up - thank you "A". I think it highlights some very important points about debt, and is a great chance for some clarification and discussion around the issue, at least coming from one perspective organizing in Strike Debt. I have to address this recurring topic: we’re taught to see debt as an exclusive problem of the eroding middle class. But it’s not. It’s anything but. The middle class being forced into indebtedness is just the tip of the iceberg in a much bigger story. So why focus on debt, especially since so many don’t have debt – and many don’t even have access to debt? It appears that debt is some weird kind of privilege. But it’s more complicated, and for me it’s becoming more and more clear: the economic system we live in runs on debt, in all sorts of ways that we don’t see at first glance. When we look carefully, we see that global capitalism in its current form is a system that uses debt to channel money and wealth from the 99% to the 1%. This has been happening for centuries -- globally. The IMF and its structural adjustment programs are a great example. Sovereign debt is basically an imperial tax that keeps most countries in the world poor, servile and dependent on rich countries. Debt is a primary economic tool for keeping the imperial structure in place, and it only works because of militaristic bullying and the threat of violence, exclusion and exile. Greece is a perfect example. It’s being held hostage and civil society is being completely dismantled because of its sovereign debt. Big, rich countries are telling Greece: pay your debts or we’ll kick you out of Europe, your currency will lose value, you’ll lose access to global credit, etc. But it’s a big bluff. Argentina and Iceland are great examples – there are other ways. Continued growth and production in order to pay debts is killing the planet, and taking us all down with it. It’s only recently that this same structure (which we call austerity) has been forced upon the 99% within the rich countries. And it affects us in all sorts of ways, not just people who are actually in debt. Municipal debt is a great example. Municipalities are broke, owe tons of money, and have to cut services all over the place. Schools get closed, universities become privatized, hospitals lose services, welfare structures get axed, because somehow every town and city in the country is in deep debt. We never ask: to who? Non-debtors are screwed and manipulated by debt just as much as debtors; it’s just not as obvious. Countries and cities owe money to the banks, so instead of taxing the banks they make us pay for basic social goods, which often means many of us go into debt to the very same banks. Even when it comes to actual debtors in the rich countries, it’s not as privileged or middle class as it seems. I BEG everyone to look at the numbers in predatory lending: sub-prime mortgages, insane interest rates and outrageous default rates at for-profit colleges that purposefully prey on low-income communities. It’s horrifying. Payday loans, which are a huge problem across the country, especially in low-income communities, regularly charge 400% interest without shame or regulation. In Strike Debt, we are not trying to build a debtor’s movement, but a movement to resist and transform the debt-system. Debt is personal for many people, but above all it is deeply structural. Only some of us are debtors, but we are all debt resistors. Debt resistance comes in many forms: fighting for free education, defending a foreclosed home, fighting for basic services, fighting for free healthcare, offering mutual aid (so people don’t have to go into debt), refusing payments to the banks, fighting for higher wages (so people don’t have to go into debt), etc. We don’t need to focus on debt, but it is a powerful framework to be very practical and also offers sharp global analysis and connects many dots. Those in debt know how horrifying it is – especially those in default. Those who don’t have access to credit/debt know how frustrating and disempowering that can be too. The whole system needs to change. All people need and should have access to fair credit… whole societies which were fairly equitable have been run on fair, accessible credit and networks of trust and not violence. We need to figure out ways to offer each other types of credit that don’t disenfranchise and disempower. It’s a huge task, but I think it’s a great first step to a more just, humane and equitable world. For me, it’s been helpful to break it down like this: Objectives: transform economic structure, rebuild community ties & solidarity Themes: Debt affects everyone; it’s a major way the 1% takes the wealth of the 99%. Resisting debt is a way of fighting our global economic system. Types of debt: sovereign, municipal, consumer, education, medical, housing Ways people are affected: cuts in services, cuts in wages, indebtedness, exclusion from (low interest) credit, missed opportunities to avoid being in debt Possible Tactics: debt strikes, debt refusal, labor strikes, foreclosure defenses, fights for free education, fights for cancellation of debt (individual, household, municipal & sovereign), occupations, community building and mutual aid, other direct actions Sorry for being over-didactic, I just love talking about this shit. I've been trying to make sense of this for months, and I finally discovered the language to share it (due of course to help and coordination with my comrades). We are all debt resistors. Tell others: join the resistance :) With love, Wxxxxx

Strike Debt / All in the Red have been doing great organizing around debt for the last few months and plan to coordinate one of the morning actions on Monday, September 17th -- Occupy Wall Street's first birthday. They recently also issued this first Communique:

Don't sleep! Stand with us in Lower Manhattan on September 17th.

[diceytroop]

"Your consent is the ring." (Financial District, NYC, April 16, 2012)

[diceytroop]

Second WePay Accountability Update

Hi fam!

So, we're getting to the end of January, which is the second month of my three-month crowd-funding experiment / life gamble, and it's time for an update / plea for help! Ahahah. 

I've raised $2150 over the 2 months that I've been raising money. This has been my only income during this time, as I've poured myself into #OWS. I've vastly appreciated all of your support.

Still, this puts me about $1850 behind my goals for December and January (and puts February's additional $2000 seemingly out of reach). This is proving to be a serious challenge for me personally, so I'm hoping that we can push together to raise funds that bring me a little further from the brink! (If I had you at "further from the brink," please see my WePay campaign here - if not, I invite you to keep reading for the rest of the deets).

More accounting details to follow, but first, a little bit about what I've been up to.

December was a more outwardly-eventful month than January's been so far, but as much as the cold has been a limiting factor for Occupy Wall Street, it's also provided many opportunities for internal community-building, organization-growing and inter-occupational networking.

First and foremost, I'm continuing to bottomline the @LibertySqGA coverage (which I consider to be the primary and most obvious service I've been working to provide). I've gotten help on some key nights from fellow team member @jopauca and guest tweeters @shawncarrie and @PoweredByCats but, for the most part, this is a nightly gig for me. So far, we haven't missed a GA or Spokescouncil since we started, and that's a streak I'm deeply proud of!

I've been helping to plan an inter-occupational skill-sharing and movement-building bus trip, which leaves tomorrow for Providence, Rhode Island, which is its first stop! This is a great example of the kind of internal work we're doing to grow as a movement during the coldness of winter.

I've also been, as ever, providing live coverage, mainly via Twitter, of #OWS actions and events. First Night in Liberty Square was a great start to the new year, complete with bogus NYPD aggression, and then the next evening I was able to document the DI Winski of the NYPD hassling us in trying to hold our General Assembly at 100 Williams Street. This video was posted on Gothamist and led to our next GA, on January 3rd, being a successful direct action. We showed up in massive numbers and were able to collectively assert our right to gather in the public space at 100 Williams Street. If you haven't seen the video, please check it out -- it's pretty nuts, IMO:

Since then, I've also covered the #NDAA actions at Senators Gillibrand and Schumer's office and at Grand Central Terminal. I hope that these events raised public awareness of the creeping militarization of the United States' law enforcement and justice systems and the insane injustice of indefinite detention, which had already become the status quo even before the #NDAA provided (unconstitutional) legal cover.

Perhaps my proudest moment was the publication of "Eviction Memories," co-written by myself and @Molly__O, on nplusonemag.com. I'm hopeful that further donations of coverage to more widely-read publications can increase awareness of Occupy and the challenges and suppression we're facing. N+1 have done a great deal already towards that end with their first 3 issues of the Occupy Gazette, and should be applauded for it, IMO.

For more videos, please see my TwitVid page and (for longer-form flicks) my YouTube channel.

The nitty-gritty

So, since my last update, I've received:

28 generous donations! That's so amazing. Here's the spreadsheet that breaks it all down, by contribution, but the takeaways: 

Average donation: $47.51 Median donation: $33.78 Mode: $48.25 Max: $193 Min: $4.5

Total Contributions: $1282.71 Total Deducted: $1080.21 Current WePay Balance: $202.50 Here's how the deductions add up: I paid myself back my $300 food budget for December, so that's -$300. I paid $625 in rent for January (for myself and 2 day-one occupiers) I paid my phone bill for the second time, that was $-120. I've purchased four $27 weekly unlimited Metrocards (rather than the one monthly), which totals $108. I've also allocated the $300 for my January food budget. Added up, that's $1453 in expenses. The total deducted was $1080.21...

So, I have $200 in my account, which is rad. But I'm actually $-372.79 overall! Oh, plus the additional -$0.86 from last time. So, adding back the $202.50, I'm $-171.15 all told. 

That's based on the core budget -- there was some wiggle room included, though, which is where I got the $2k/month from. That wiggle room has still been required -- for example, to fill prescriptions without insurance, to purchase warm clothes, holiday travel, etc. That means that all told I'm $-1850 off-plan, in a tough spot, with my savings very much drained.

So, what's the plan?

Here's the plan! I'd like to try to raise at least the rest of my January budget, meaning an additional $1850, between now and Februray 5th. I'm extending the WePay campaign (which was originally to end at the end of January) until then. At that point, I will hopefully have paid rent through the month.

For the rest of February, and March going forward, the goal is to find other ways to fund what I'm doing. A new citizen journalism guild that myself, the @LibertySqGA team, the OWSNYC livestream team, and others are forming, may help with this. I feel better about fundraising as a collective, as collective, consensus-driven fund allocation provides more accountability (as much as I am proud of how I've done solo on that front). 

So, please -- if you do enjoy my coverage, or find the @LibertySqGA team's output useful, please throw down (even just a little bit!) so I can stay on top of this and other projects! I really, really appreciate all the help. Folks who have contributed should expect some kind of personal thank-you within the next couple weeks, because I really appreciate your trust and faith and hope and support. So so so much love!

Cheers,

Dicey

[diceytroop]

@molly__o and I wrote this remembrance of our experiences during Occupy Wall Street's illegal eviction on November 15th, and N+1 were nice enough to publish it! The portions of the piece that are from my point of view were adapted from my tweet-and-video-timeline previously posted on this Tumblr.

[diceytroop]

This is one of the two locations where my videos of Occupy Wall Street protests, meetings, rallies and direct actions (frequently guest-starring the police officers that frequently commit acts of illegal suppression and brutality against us) are currently catalogued. The other is TwitVid, but their site is having trouble right now.

[diceytroop]

Accountsourcing! (First WePay Accountability Statement, Plus Meme Report)

On November 29th, I tweeted a link to my WePay campaign and posted it on my Tumblr. My goal is to raise sufficient funds to cover my basic expenses, so that I can continue to #Occupy full-time.

At that time, I promised a "weekly" accounting statement. It's taken me until now to need to pay myself back for my expenses, so as I've initiated that process, it's time to release my first of these accountability statements.

In the first two weeks of my WePay campaign, here's what my contribution to #OWS has looked like:

* 30+ hours of attendance of meetings of the Facilitation Working Group, Direct Action Working Group, and other ad-hoc meetings. I make an effort to tweet out important outcomes of these meetings, but this component is primarily focused on doing work within the movement. The benefits of this focus are twofold: a) we need people available to do work within the movement! and b) the better I understand what's going on, the better I can capture it for the benefit of folks inside and outside this occupation.

* 13 #OWS General Assemblies and Spokescouncils livetweeted. The length of each of these meetings varies but is generally between 3 and 6 hours apiece. The rest of them (4?) were livetweeted by @heratylaw and @jopauca whom I've been working with to run @LibertySqGA, @LibertySqGA2, @LibertySqGA3, and @LibertySqGA4. They've been amazing about stepping up to cover on many nights where there is an action or other event I'd like to attend. When they're unavailable, though, I remain committed to making sure these livetweetings happen.

* A particular focus on being present at and documenting direct actions and other #OWS events. Since November 29th, I've posted 40+ videos at yFrog, Twitvid (which I've now switched to), and YouTube (which I use for anything lengthy or edited). Many of these have received upwards of 100 views. Events included: the #N30 day of action (starting at 7:30 and ending with the "Detention With Obama" fiasco), Occupy Lincoln Center, the #D6 OccupyHomes action, "Mockupy" (#D8/#D9), the #D12 action including the Winter Garden fiasco. Many videos have been widely circulated, and some even have been embedded on NYTimes.com and WSJ.com, among many others. For a more detailed attempt to track the resonance of my reporting, please see below the fold.

* Some long-form writing. See my recent post about 2012 tactics. I'm hoping to ramp this up and work it into a regular schedule. Issues I'd like to cover are explanations of our structure, inclusion/exclusion, the role that anti-racism/anti-oppression strategies have or could have in the Liberty Square occupation, and the role of Trinity Church especially re: the Duarte Square space for which re-occupation is scheduled to occur on #D17. Additionally, I'm working on pieces for other, trusted publications.

* Hosting of displaced occupiers -- as I've noted before, the rent covered by your contributions doesn't just keep my life and relationship from falling apart, it also helps provide a place to sleep for some other occupiers who have been left without a place to sleep by the eviction. Two occupiers are staying regularly, and others tend to cycle through.

So, how's my fundraising going?

As of 6:00 PM EST, December 14, 2011, 23 amazing supporters have given $880.00 to help me to continue and increase my contribution to #OWS and to citizen journalism.

My initial budget, which I made for a 3-month period from December through February, was $6000. The core of that was broken down ahead of time with the remainder for unforeseen expenses which would still be diligently accounted for.

Rent: $625/month. (*3 = $1875) iPhone data plan w/ tethering: $120 (*3 = $360) Student loan payments: $300 (*3 = $900) Food: $300/month (*3 = $900) Unlimited metrocard: $108/month (*3 = $324) ----------------- Total: $1453/month. 3-month total: $4359 

And how have I been doing?

Number of contributors: 23

All totals are post-WePay fees: Average donation: $36.92 Median donation: $24.13 Largest donation: $193.00 Smallest donation: $14.48 Total balance: $849.27

Money spent:

1 Month Rent: $625 1 Month Unlimited Metrocard: $104 1 Month AT&T iPhone service w/ 4GB Tethering plan: $121.13

That leaves me with a balance of -$0.86!

What does this mean? It means that so far, I'm barely skating by! Emphasis on the "skating by" - which is great!

Except: there's been no money for my food budget nor for my loan payments. I've been digging into some savings in order to cover those expenses. That's not sustainable; I will need to expand my fundraising efforts in some way going forward.

That said, I'm not looking to clog up my Twitter or my Tumblr with fundraising requests. But, since this post seems like a natural place for me to drop one more: please, if you are able, consider contributing to help me sustain efforts both within #OWS and as a conduit of information and transparency. Tell your friends!

I'll also be looking for other sources of funding. I'll keep y'all advised -- in detail -- and will count them towards my goals.

Since the Winter Garden arrests targeting citizen journalists -- which I suspect I escaped only because I was, ironically, in costume as a reporter for the "Squid Press Conference" that happened earlier, the idea of an #OWS Citizen Journalist's Guild, or something equivalent, has picked up a bit of steam. I'm hoping this will lead to a collective framework to support all of the citizen journalism happening in and around #Occupy.

Your contributions to my sustainability are enormously helpful and I'm deeply grateful for everyone's support. Please hold me accountable! I'm here doing this because it's bigger than I am. Each of us here on the ground at Occupy Wall Street try to strive to remember how many other folks are involved in various ways, and truly we should all be working for you and for all of us. I appreciate your support in making that sustainable.

And remember - #OCCUPYEVERYWHERE! Always.

<3 Dicey 

DOCUMENTATION:

Official WePay Balance Spreadsheet with ID's redacted by request (CSV)

Transfer records (screenshots)

* Rent payment ($625, the extra $70 is for other stuff and is not part of the amount deducted from my campaign balance.)

* AT&T bill ($121.13, the remainder is from previous-month fees and are not part of the amount deducted from my campaign balance).

* MTA card, Monthly Unlimited ($104.00)

* WePay Withdrawal Confirmation

HIGHLIGHTS: @diceytroop Meme Report:

YouTube: #D12: NYPD aggression turns a peaceful dance party into a police riot (Part 1)

Embeds: 102 views from "17 Arrested as Occupy Wall Street Visits Winter Garden", Wall Street Journal's Metropolis Blog NYPD Freakout: "I have a gun on me" - 135 views from ThinkProgress, 825 views from NationOfChange 172 views from "My Nephew Arrested By NYPD for Tweeting OWS News", Catskill Julie, DailyKos 238 views from "Don't Get in My Face, I Have a Gun:" It's Police vs. Press As NYC Cops Aggressively Scoop Up Tweeters, Videographers

Referrals: 500 from "Who is a Journalist?", Maggie Koerth-Baker, BoingBoing 928 from Twitter 298 from Facebook

YouTube: HD! #D12: NYPD aggression turns a peaceful dance party into a police riot (Part 1)

Embeds: 1,763 from "Out of Control NYPD: 'I Have a Gun On Me, Okay?'", Crooks and Liars' OccupyAmerica Blog

Referrals: 55 from "Out of Control NYPD: 'I Have a Gun On Me, Okay?'", Crooks and Liars' OccupyAmerica Blog 224 from Twitter 55 from Facebook

YouTube: #D12: NYPD aggression turns a peaceful dance party into a police riot (Part 2)

Referrals: 293 from "Out of Control NYPD: 'I Have a Gun On Me, Okay?'", Crooks and Liars' OccupyAmerica Blog 98 from Twitter

TwitVid: "More from the Room We Just Cleaned, It looks Great!" - 432 views

Embeds: "Occupy Protesters Move Indoors to Fight Home Foreclosures", Robert Mackey, NYTimes.com's "The Lede" Blog

Other Citations: "Rogue Occupiers Nearly Do the Unthinkable: Meet With Congress", Adam Martin, TheAtlanticWire.com "Occupy Wall Street Will Post a Protester's $25,000 Bail", Adam Martin, TheAtlanticWire.com

[diceytroop]

Some Thoughts RE: #OWS Tactics For 2012

Via CurrentTV's Storify collection of 12/9 #OWS tweets, the Huffington Post reported that Charlotte, North Carolina, which is scheduled to host the 2012 Democratic National Committee meeting on the week of September 3rd, 2012, is taking some questionable, predictable steps to prevent #Occupy from disrupting the DNC.

http://twitter.com/HuffPostPol/status/145192256066957314

Given that the national conventions of both parties have histories as flashpoints for populist outrage, it's not surprising that Charlotte might expect occupiers to stop by. 

Is that cop on the right smoking a cigar??

In 1968, during the heated campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination for President, anti-Vietnam protesters were brutally suppressed by Chicago Police during the Democratic National Convention. Blended with the shocking trauma of prominent populist candidate Robert F. Kennedy's murder, the left's experience in Chicago that year was a defining moment in American political history and is commonly perceived as having crippled establishment nominee Hubert Humphrey's general election campaign before it even began.

And Occupy Wall Street itself is in some ways a descendant of the anti-war and anti-globalization movements that converged in massive numbers at the 2004 Republican National Convention. The NYPD's response to Occupy Wall Street was also honed in those protests, when Ray Kelly's finest infamously detained a thousand people in an oily, asbestosy warehouse for days.

So 2012's DNC and RNC may both seem to some like an inviting rematch. They are certainly an opportunity to disrupt, and to further challenge the frighteningly militaristic police response to protests that began with the Battle of Seattle and has been continually and frighteningly deployed and honed ever since.

This is a personal assessment, but I think for some folks there is a post-traumatic attachment to these conflicts; potentially it's an unintended consequence of many activists' up-close-and-personal understanding of the militarization of law enforcement. Surprisingly enough, being violently denied access to your inalienable rights to speech and assembly can be a real source of resentment.

But despite this emotionally and politically meaningful history, and despite the massively problematic fact that our nation's militarized police are so predictably gearing up to crush dissent during the election of the United States' most powerful elected official, there are many reasons why I think we should generally avoid focusing on the 2012 primary conventions. And if we do make plans that relate to the 2012 elections, they should focus on core unique strengths of #Occupy, like what Matt Taibbi called "providing a forum for people to show how tired they are not just of Wall Street, but everything". 

A few reasons, then an alternative idea:

First of all, is this even really an election year?

On the Democratic side, there's no primary; Barack Obama's nomination for a second term is assured. On the Republican side, there's a bunch of vaudevillains performing slapstick on a sound stage.

How can anyone take any single one of these guys seriously?

While Obama occasionally polls beneath a "generic Republican," no flesh-and-blood Republican has been able to sustain any kind of lead over the President. But whether or not that trend continues, nothing of importance will happen at this year's DNC. And dignifying this year's Republican field with a collective response is, frankly, beneath us.

Secondly: Messing around with the ticking time bomb that is America's electoral process might be enormously counterproductive.

The protesters that converged on the DNC in 1968 reflected outrage and opposition to the likely nomination of Hubert Humphrey:

Humphrey ... went on to easily win the Democratic nomination at the party convention in Chicago, Illinois. Unfortunately for Humphrey and his campaign, outside the convention hall there were riots and protests by thousands of antiwar demonstrators, many of whom favored McCarthy, George McGovern, or other "anti-war" candidates. These protesters...were attacked and beaten on live television by Chicago police, which merely amplified the growing feelings of unrest in the general public. Humphrey's inaction during the riots, as well as public backlash from securing the presidential nomination without entering a single primary, highlighted turmoil in the Democratic party's base that proved to be too much for Humphrey to overcome in time for the general election. The ... unpopularity of [President Lyndon Baines] Johnson, the Chicago riots, and the discouragement of liberals and African-Americans when both Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.were assassinated during the election year, were all contributing factors that caused him to eventually lose the election to former Vice President Nixon.

So, an unprimaried incumbent Democratic nominee, with the albatross of war around his neck, in the face of a great deal of mistrust among the Democratic base, responded feebly to very public suppression of speech and then lost in the general election. There are a number of oddly familiar themes, and an outcome worth pondering, no?

The fallout from Humphrey's loss to Nixon continues to this day. Meanwhile, the civil rights movement remained politically and culturally resonant and won several reforms, but it left structural racism mostly unaddressed. The anti-war and other counter-culture movements of the '60s and '70s eventually expended the mainstream cultural capital they had and became defined within the context of traditional politics.

The point of all this? Our electoral system is a shaky and undemocratic mess, especially at the Presidential level. Interacting with it can lead to unintended consequences, and if we're going to do it, I think we'd better have a very good reason.

Third, in the interest of maintaining consensus, we should not encourage or endorse faith in a system many occupiers feel is too broken to fix.

While there are Occupiers actively working to push for systemic changes in the short term, often by appealing to legislators and elected officials, most proposals that involve using the collective voice of Occupy to do so are rebuffed by General Assemblies.

I think most of us are well-informed about the grievances of which reformists seek redress: the insanity of corporate personhood, the criminality of the financial sector, the problematic nature of currency, weakened protections for human and civil rights, and our government's failure to invest in or even to protect the commons are a few common themes. But even if we object to these things, a large percentage of occupiers reject the idea of reform, which many of us hoped we were casting our votes for in 2008.  Why waste our voice, whether we use it to beg or to demand, on hopelessly muffled ears?

In my view, we have a chance to think beyond convention as we collectively direct the movement. Acknowledging the existing system, which we broadly consider to be far from legitimate even across the reform/redesign divide, runs a high chance of damaging our consensus.

My fourth reason: #Occupy's core innovation beyond traditional protest is that it is a network of social, political, and economic laboratories in which working alternative models can be tested, shared and demonstrated.

Like it or not - and we really don't - occupiers have already experienced 1968-style suppression simply for holding our ground and maintaining our meta-protests in public spaces. Many of us were arrested for asserting our rights to speech and assembly. Our encampments were trashed and our belongings destroyed. Police departments across the country used crowd-control techniques not to protect themselves but to more easily subdue us.

But we never asked for any of that treatment. Our intent is to speak, assemble, and organize as the public has a right to do. Our occupations have been our homes and our workplaces not because police really hate it when we do that but because in so organizing we were able to present living, breathing, inspiring alternatives to our current ways of life.

It's true -- implementation is a big challenge, far too big to be fully unpacked here. There are many challenging realities, including that most of our nation's resources are controlled by the political and economic actors most empowered within the tone-deaf institutions that govern our lives. If you were to make a list, it would be an enormously intimidating catalogue of resources that #Occupy does not have. On this list would be the military, every grid system and the loudest forms of media currently in use.

But one thing we do have, and it's a doozy, is a better idea. Less glibly, we have a bunch of ideas-in-development that are already far superior to the systems currently in use. Horizontal organization side-steps issues of corruption and when based on consensus models it can provide everyone a real voice. And we can get things done: the Occupy model of direct democracy is already being expanded beyond collective decision-making (most prominently displayed in its working groups and General Assemblies) to integrating existing and successful models for collectivistic democratic workplaces. And combined with other horizontal designs still in progress or yet to be conceived of, it's not far-fetched to hope it can eventually form a completely novel political and economic structure.

So even as we keep learning and growing together, we've already got a bundle of good news to share. If we can use the 2012 presidential circus as a platform for a post-electoral demonstration of positive solutions, I think we should.

And finally: we don't need to go to the existing nexuses of power; folks have consistently come to us - and quite probably will continue to do so.

Like the anti-war and civil rights movements, Occupy's voice has become, I think it's fair to say, reasonably powerful. But unlike the anti-war and civil rights movements, which faced a vast cultural gulf they needed to bridge with herculean educational efforts, #Occupy culture is, in essence, already very familiar.

After 20 years of the Internet, Americans of all ages and stripes have become accustomed to the freedoms of horizontalism. On the Internet, all voices are equal, as long as by voice you mean your computer/smartphone/exobrain. And even that bold claim isn't comprehensive; the Internet also extends two of our most important senses, sight and sound. And the better our methods of accessing all of this info get, the more they boost our memory. The Internet offers a number of crucial new tools for self-empowerment and provides a vast, free environment in which to use them.

But the Internet isn't enough. Our smartphones have begun enabling us to bring these enhancements to our real lives. It's only natural that we would want our real lives, where we experience the full pleasures of being functioning human beings, to embody the same sense of freedom and creative potential. If this is, as I suspect it is, one common source of the urge to #Occupy, it's no surprise that folks are drawn to #Occupied spaces.

(And it ain't hard to tell why the institutions that have most recoiled in the face of #Occupy are the same ones threatened by the real democracy enabled by the Internet: those whose primary function is as middlemen between us and our democracy, our peace, our culture, and our freedom of choice.)

So, here's my view: let's forget the DNC and the RNC. Forget the unjust laws we protest, forget the money we distrust, forget the bloated zombie institutions of government. Remember the ties that really bind us in positive ways: our communities.

It's said frequently, but we must #occupy so that our alternative model can be further developed and tested. Prior to August 2012, many #occupations will have gained quite a lot of insight on the ins and outs of current and future horizontal models. So - and this is just food for thought - let me throw something out there. If we American #Occupiers want to have a true national assembly, to address issues that affect all of us as Americans, to share skills, break bread, make collective decisions together, and demonstrate our vision for the future, why not do it in Lebanon, Kansas, the geographic center of the contiguous 48 states?

  A park, you say?

Considering that it is essentially the heartlandiest of the heartlands, Lebanon, Kansas is appropriately low-profile. It appears to be a very small farming community with a declining population (303 on 2000's census; 218 in 2010). Its Wikipedia article shouts it out for experiencing "rural flight", which I guess is like white flight, except, since Lebanon is 99.01% white, not as racist. Or more racist. I don't know.

It's possible that folks there would appreciate the shot in the arm and the prominence #Occupy could bring it. It has a service station, a library and a newspaper, the Lebanon Times -- according to Google Maps. I could dig deeper, but if Lebanon is anything like the other very small farming towns I've been to, it's probably close to being just that humble. 

Or, the Lebanonians (Kansan Lebanese?) might hate the idea. Engagement with the community would obviously be a pre-requisite.

As for timing, even though we oughtn't care much about the DNC or the RNC, the media will want to focus on both. The RNC precedes the DNC, the week of August 27th.  So, maybe we can meet up in Lebanon - or do something else - during the week of August 20th.

We're pretty okay at self-documentation; folks will want to see our contribution that week whether the media cares or not.

And the bona fide democracy that would occur at such a gathering, were it to become, like, a thing (i.e., be developed collectively at #OWS and/or other occupations and widely consensed upon), would massively overshadow the pointless spectacle of the following two weeks' political melodrama. Though I feel strongly about ignoring the 2012 elections, #OccupyLebanon2012 is no more than a figment of my imagination until it leaves my brain and enters #Occupy's creative and decision-making processes at some actualized point of entry. But let's see how we feel in a few months.

And just for the record, if this, or another non-co-optive national #Occupation were to actually occur, I'd be down.

[diceytroop]

"W.A.I.T.: Why Am I Talking?" flowchart, in "the occupied office", 50 Broadway.

[diceytroop]

Someone named @maxfenton super helpfully collected the 12/4 GA's explanation of the handsignals, step up/step back, and progressive stack. There were a couple of things missing from this night's explanation: stepping up and stepping back, and progressive stack, are ultimately about making sure there is space in the discussion for traditionally-marginalized (or just more reserved) voices to be heard. Also, don't forget the Point of Affection! You just make a big ol' heart with ya hands and direct it at someone you <3.

Like @maxfenton! Thanks buddy. <3

[diceytroop]

WePay the Revolutionaries?

After being up til 4 AM last night watching and tweeting about the evictions of Occupy LA and Occupy Philly, and then getting up at 5 AM to cover this morning's actions, I woke up from an offset half-night's sleep this afternoon to find that Rosie Gray had blogged my WePay page for the Village Voice, and John Del Signore had written it up in Gothamist as well.

Oh my, where to begin?

Well, first, I have a duty to point out that I am not nearly the first OWS participant, nor social media contributor, to start a WePay account to fund continued coverage of Occupy Wall Street. My fellow occupier and PR Working Group member, and media wonk Jeff Smith has had a WePay fund for awhile, and the much-lauded, much-covered-by-mainstream-media TheOther99 team have raised a ton of money while straddling a line between being independent media and participators in the movement. I'm not exactly sure how I became the story here, but the fact is, I'm not alone.

Secondly, I want to own up to the fact that this attention makes me nervous, because this is a leaderful, horizontal movement. I created this role on my own so that I could contribute to the movement, not to be a loud voice. What got me involved in OWS in the first place was the mind-blowing experience of seeing direct democracy used by large groups of people in public spaces. My primary goal remains to bring people into that experience, because its potential and beauty are undertold stories.

Since I showed up on October 12th, and began informally livetweeting General Assembly, I've developed a small but very interested Twitter following, and since we started the@LibertySqGA team and moved the livetweeting of GAs (and now Spokescouncils) over there, it's blown up way beyond my own followership, exactly as I'd hoped it would.

We're a collectivist movement. So, why am I raising funds as an individual? Am I trying to profit off the movement, as someone from Gothamist leadingly asked me in an email? (Trap accepted!)

Answer: No! I'm raising funds as an individual because the other members of the group with which I'm in closest collaboration, the @LibertySqGA team, @jopauca and @heratylaw, are in completely different situations than I'm in, in terms of financial stability and levels of time commitment. While they both offered to work with whatever I felt was best for me, I ultimately felt uncomfortable asking them to get behind what still would have mostly been an effort to raise funds for me.

Also importantly, the @LibertySqGA team is a subgroup of the Liberty Square General Assembly's PR Working Group, and for us to raise funds for personal expenses, rather than request them from the General Assembly, might have changed our relationship to the movement. I decided that owning this as a personal situation is ultimately more accountable to the movement as a whole.

But I'd prefer a collectivist effort. Accountability and collaborative outcomes are two huge benefits of collectivist models. Occupy Wall Street's General Assembly recently consensed to spin off its first worker-owner co-operative, which is insanely exciting to me as potentially the start of a scaleable alternative economic model. But, unlike printing, which is the first co-op's focus, the services I provide are free (with 'net access), and they always will be, so the challenges in making that work as an independent, fair-wage-paying co-operative would be many of the same challenges I'm now experimenting with ways to overcome.

And, not to be super defensive, but to those focused on the money, this isn't exactly a trade-up in terms of compensation. I left my full-time job, but I've got other freelance options that I enjoy and don't find to be burdensome at all. I'm not into this for the money, and I honestly think that if you follow me on Twitter that'll be more or less clear. It's also not very different from other jobs I've had being paid to fundraise for traditional electoral political organizations, where my paycheck came from the money given to whoever was hiring the company I worked for.

After all, If Barack Obama can raise millions and millions from small donors like myself, and then work for the big guys anyway, crowd-sourcing a bare minimum of funds to hold my life together while I throw myself into the most promising movement of my lifetime seems likely to be a much better deal for all involved.

Finally, to zoom out: I think it's awesome that this conversation, about compensation and the OWS movement, is being advanced. OWS has an economic message, and it also has economic solutions to offer. But Occupy is a laboratory, and we are working to perfect these and other new ideas. This is the story I hope we can tell next.

I spent a lot of time before setting up the WePay campaign thinking about what it meant to ask folks to fund my work, given that the movement is volunteer-driven, and that many, many hours of hard work, including professional services, are being donated by many committed people. I spoke to a lot of OWSers, too: a bunch of people on the ground here, the other members of the @LibertySqGA team, and those who responded to my musings about it on Twitter. So, I've got some ground to stand on here, I think.

OWS is a 24/7 movement driven by social media and on the ground physical presence. It's a huge opportunity to work together towards change. But these strengths are also challenges for many -- including, as one poignant example, sympathetic police officers -- who feel, or just are, trapped in their financial situations and cannot participate full-time.

This can be a pretty big accessibility issue. After all, we, the ones with 9-to-5 jobs, leases, mortgages, overdue loan payments and frustratedly limited options, are a big portion of the 99%. Occupy Wall Street events, like actions, working group meetings, General Assemblies, and Spokescouncils, are constant, and together they represent a movement "narrative" that it can be tough to stay with unless you can give it a lot of focus. Many 9-to-5ers I meet in Liberty Square express frustration that it can be such a challenge to feel plugged into OWS at the working groups level, and to really participate in building that larger narrative.

That was my situation. I worked 9-to-6 5 days a week, with the occasional 24/7 on-call stint, providing professional services to the 1%. After two weeks of juggling my full-time job and allocating nearly 100% of all other time to OWS, I felt compelled to follow my heart, leave my job, and throw myself into Occupy Wall Street.

Money wasn't on my mind, for the first time in years. To some who have totally internalized the wake-work-sleep ideal, this may seem like just absolute folly, but to me, it was a blissful, freeing moment that went hand-in-hand with firing on all cylinders for the first time since I was in my early 20s.

I embraced this and quit my job because I wanted to be able to be present during the day, to participate in the occupation's organizational dynamics, and to lend a fuller portion of my abilities to the movement.

Finding ways for those of us in similar situations to join the movement, or sustain our commitment to it in the longer term, is something that can benefit many. If folks like myself, Jeff Smith, and TheOther99 team can find ways to sustain our commitments to the movement, without reneging on our financial obligations to those we love that depend on us to uphold our commitments, maybe we can help others find ways to do so, too.

Many will sneeringly disagree, but we occupiers are putting in a lot of work to try and improve the world we live in and solve some of the heartbreaking problems that our existing politics have failed to address. The more hands we have on deck, and the more folks who can actively lend their voices, ideas, and consent, the better.

[diceytroop]

My #N15 Story: Arrest and Eviction from Liberty Square

Twitter embeds display if yr Tumblr is using EmbedTweet . Tuesday, November 15th, at 1ish in the morning, the New York Police Department removed the contents of Liberty Square in an attempt to end Occupy Wall Street. They succeeded in clearing the park of tens of thousands of dollars of personal and collective property and dozens of protesters who chose to stand and be arrested in defense of their Constitutional rights.

But they did not succeed, and cannot succeed, in ending Occupy Wall Street.

I've shot a bunch of videos and photographs in the last couple of weeks. Many of them were posted during the eviction itself. A couple came later Tuesday, after I was released from jail. Some were posted on Thursday during the spectacular day of action in celebration of Occupy's 2-monthiversary. Some of them were reblogged to other sites, sometimes without attribution (which I don't mind per say, but hope that folks will link to this more complete account).

All of them were in low quality compared to the admittedly-sort-of-crappy quality produced by my phone. In the interest of completion and of cementing my recollections before this crazy week fades into the future history of the movement, here's the collection from the raid, and my explanations / larger story. In a future entry I'll collect all my videos from #N17 in a similar format.

-------------------------

Spokescouncil, #OWS' operations and logistical decision-making body, met Monday evening, November 14th, at 7:30pm in a space near Canal Street. While also directly democratic, Spokescouncil differs from the General Assembly in that is a process in which collectives participate, rather than individuals as in GA.

"Spokescouncil" is actually a general term, and this is the "Operations Spokescouncil", but this particular spokescouncil is mandated by GA to take place in an indoors, publicly-accessible space with amplification. Thus, many of the people most committed to the occupation were outside the park that evening. Whether choosing this night for eviction was a clever decision on the part of the NYPD or just a coincidence, we may never know.

Spokescouncil was very productive, but ended with some disruption, and a few folks lingered at the corner of Walker and Broadway to process. Lopey, Malik, an awesome dude whose name I can't remember, Tim Pool, and that night's Queering OWS spoke (as in 'spokescouncil'), whose name may be Craig. George Machado was there too… and some other people. The conversation was about racism, and how to deal with it when it is raised as a concern within the OWS community. People eventually peeled off; "Craig" was headed back to the park, and I tagged along even though I expected just to hop on the subway and head home once I got there.

It wasn't until I returned to Liberty Square that I realized I'd been pinged on Twitter by someone forwarding me @questlove's now famous Paul Revere moment:

http://twitter.com/#!/mcduh/status/136316299394564097

I was already across Broadway by the time I replied:

http://twitter.com/#!/DiceyTroop/status/136316805911298048

...And hadn't even yet seen Questo's original tweet:

https://twitter.com/#!/questlove/statuses/136302031873916930

@OccupyWallStNYC also followed-up:

http://twitter.com/#!/OccupyWallStNYC/status/136317095267938304

One note: this exchange was plastered all over the Internet as proof that #OWS was too arrogant or even racist to heed Questo's "Paul Revere Moment", as many excited journos termed it. It's a convenient theory, but no! We just weren't onsite. Most of the folks who were at Liberty Square at the time were occupiers or other folks w/ no Internet access (and, remember, no electricity). As far as I know, I was the first one to follow up physically w/ Questlove's warning, and I did it as soon as I heard about it (and before I even saw the actual tweet).

I jogged down Liberty to Maiden and:

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136320660581519360

I was still in denial, clearly. Kept jogging, and by the time I got to Water it was obvious what was happening:

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136321314540630016

I called several people at this point to sound the alarm, let Quinn Norton know what was happening, and headed back up Pine St to put a block between myself and the police. As I jogged up Pine, at every intersection I looked down to Maiden Lane and saw a stream of police vans, 5 passing during the time it took for me to cross each street, all the way up. 

I made a right on Nassau. It was obvious already, but I knew for sure that it was really happening when I saw several of the homeless ppl who had taken refuge in Liberty Square scattering as I rounded the left onto Cedar. By the time I returned to Cedar and Broadway, the NYPD was already set up, with 50 riot police on the plaza across Broadway from Liberty Square, backed by enormous and shockingly bright klieg lights, the ones I'd seen the trucks hauling earlier.

http://twitter.com/#!/diceytroop/status/136322461150093312

I was allowed to cross into the Park, possibly because I had gotten there just in the nick of time, and on the Liberty Square side of broadway there were dozens and dozens more officers, shoulder to shoulder.

I ran to the Kitchen area, knowing that the park defense plan would be executed there. There were only a few dozen people in the park itself, mostly folks on park defense duties and "occupiers" (in our parlance, those who actually lived in the park), as well as a few random people. Many undoubtedly left, and those of us who remained were frantically running around.  The only bit of panic I felt was in this moment, when I realized my mind was moving too fast for me to use my phone to tweet, and because that was unacceptable, I set panic aside and composed my thoughts:

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136323055709454337

I began snapping photos and tweeting to capture the moment.

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136324751344930816

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136325063069810689

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136326415011422208

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136327196070526976  

A woman calling herself Sarah Harper asked me to tweet something she'd written on a piece of cardboard; this actually became kind of a thing:

http://twitter.com/#!/DiceyTroop/status/136328176157736960

It was surreal, watching the police move in very, very rapidly and just begin hauling tents full of belongings and throwing them into the trash. They began from the east side, the Broadway side, and worked their way in. I felt like they were certain to just walk up and take us, but they cleared everything around the Kitchen before approaching us at all.

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136330227004608512

http://twitter.com/#!/diceytroop/status/136331210405330944

Eventually, I found myself on the south side of the Kitchen. Folks had begun to barricade the kitchen with various items, and some others hard-locked themselves in (though to what, I'm not sure). The remainder of us built human walls around the perimeter. 

The idea had been, with ideally several thousand people that we hoped to have an opportunity to rally, to build these human walls -- of people with linked arms and legs in various ways -- in concentric circles, providing a significant and peaceful deterrent to police action. It was even conceivable that we wouldn't need to use these tactics at all, as on October 14th, when simply having 3-4,000 people in the Park was enough to forestall illegal evacuation.

But, these tactics didn't succeed, obviously, in preventing this evacuation. While the timing of the raid was obviously well-considered (as documented here), whether they picked the day of the week because it was an evening where many residents of the Park were at the Spokescouncil meeting offsite, or just got lucky, it's hard to say. In any case, because the police barricaded in a 2-block radius and banned all media from the perimeter, whether it was 40 or 400 of us trapped in there, it wasn't going to be enough.

No matter.

It wasn't even a decision I needed to make. Liberty Square was the closest thing to an actual free public space I've ever experienced, particularly in New York. We had been there for just shy of 2 months, built a community, built shared resources and values, built a space where all were welcome. We were exercising our constitutional rights to speech, assembly, and press. More importantly, we were using that space to test, modify, and re-test new models that I believe our society, and the world, can use to operate free of oppression and with equality of voice. Now, the NYPD was going to roll in and with almost no delay just remove us and all of our work, throwing our signs, books, renewable energy generators, tents, and other belongings into the trash?

Naw. If they were going to bury our civil liberties, we would go down with them. And we'd go down singing:

http://twitter.com/#!/diceytroop/status/136331555260993536

And chanting:

http://twitter.com/#!/diceytroop/status/136332652532862977

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136333131530776576

We reminded the NYPD of our First Amendment rights using the people's mic:

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136334356728909824

And later, though I did not know about this until I saw this video, folks shared their "why we occupy" stories with the NYPD:

This is very, very emotional. I can't help but wonder if the impact of these stories accounts for part of the reason for the NYPD's long delay between clearing everything but the kitchen, and moving on the kitchen itself.

We did spot a "sound cannon", and in the heat of the moment I expected it to be @TheLRAD ("SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE") but it was just used to project announcements into the Kitchen:

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136335377869979648

(@olikewoah is actually @molly__o, and she was maced immediately after exiting the subway, which is nuts. At the time she texted me that she'd been tear gassed, but she'd never been maced before (go figure, huh?) and she didn't know the difference.)

We didn't yet know the extent of the perimeter -- it was massively enforced, it turned out, hence the random macings -- and I did my best to keep on cheerleading:

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136336358041075712 

Some of the stories I heard from the perimeter were far more brutal than the rough treatment I saw in Liberty Square itself. People were arrested for asking questions; press were penned in and assaulted if they attempted to reach the Park. Pepper spray and batons were used liberally. It's ironic -- I can only imagine that the police on the perimeter thought that protecting the perimeter from prying eyes was of utmost importance due to the abrogation of rights being committed. But their own treatment was well-documented, and in many ways just as or more scandalous.

At this point, the NYPD began using the "sound cannon" to project this announcement into the Kitchen, which is something that was not a part of their standard loop from when they first showed up:

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136337313813901312

Anyone who observed Bloomberg's statements in the days after may have missed this, as he said the responsibility was all his. I'm not sure he has the right to accuse us of trespassing on someone else's property, though.

Next:

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136337666965897216

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136338860253786113

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136341448055459841

http://twitter.com/#!/diceytroop/status/136341759184736256

Here's how close they were to us at 2:19AM:

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136342509247922176

I really thought our moment was coming, but really it would be another hour at least before they took us.

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136343464576155648

A super helpful OWSer and Twitter follower of mine, docr0cket, gave us some encouragement, letting us know how many people were on the perimeter trying to support! It was really amazing to hear because as far as we knew it was just us in the Kitchen and a LOT of police at this point.

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136344786989879296

At this point, the police arrived with the saws, and we saw them cutting tents down. Someone yelled that they were trying to cut the lines that held up the Kitchen roof. It's 2:30 AM when I tweeted this:

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136345625846489090

I started shooting more videos. Every single one I expected to be the last… http://twitter.com/#!/diceytroop/status/136346522018263040

(somehow, this one didn't make it into my phone's memory, so there's just the yfrog version: )

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136347026324594688

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136349066878656512

http://twitter.com/#!/diceytroop/status/136349752051761152

We kept chanting:

http://twitter.com/#!/diceytroop/status/136350368484442112

There were several people walking around outside of the Kitchen. The police reminded me of the Borg at this point -- if you didn't interact with them, or you weren't a tent or piece of property, they left you alone. Someone came by and handed out a bunch of books, which led to what I thought was a priceless moment. It's almost 3 AM at this point:

http://twitter.com/#!/diceytroop/status/136351767611969536

Meanwhile I'm still all rabble-rousing:

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136352120571035648

And we're chanting "You are the 99%" and singing The Star Spangled Banner at the police:

http://twitter.com/#!/diceytroop/status/136354179110277121

http://twitter.com/#!/diceytroop/status/136354608460210177

(Fair warning, you may want to turn the volume down for that last one, I'm trying to sing. I was hoping it'd drive the police away. No, really.) 

At 3:11 AM, another Sarah Harper update:

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136355548005277696

A few minutes later, this guy started waving a big ol' American flag at the police. I heard that this dude was arrested after everyone else, when he ran back into the park to plant the flag.  Guy is a legend. I showed him this video a couple of days ago and he was so proud.

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136356317156753408

More rabble rousing!

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136357558398091264

And then, what looking back was definitely the canary in the coal mine:

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136361067986157568

At that point, things got much more hectic. It was like time went into slow motion. The universe flipped upside down. I was live on the BBC global service world news! WTF?

Dicey Troop Live from Zuccotti Eviction - BBC World Service by Dicey Troop

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136362031078055936

It wasn't long after that when police began entering the north side of the Kitchen, pulling folks apart and arresting them with cavalier use of force, and our shouts and yells of love towards the cops became more frantic. Folks began narrating the arrests, and I accidentally started a viral Twitter rumor with this video:

http://twitter.com/#!/DiceyTroop/status/136361137267679232

This video was massively distributed around the Internet and received over 25,000 views on yfrog alone. Gizmodo reposted it, linking to a YouTube rip that did not credit me. This doesn't matter, except that in detaching the video from contexts I could influence, my clarification of the video's contents was not widely distributed.

It was widely reported that this video showed tear gas being used by the NYPD. While we were briefly confused about what that gas was, it was not tear gas. It came from a fire extinguisher that someone sat or stepped on. I'll be waiting for everyone to help me correct the record! :P

http://twitter.com/diceytroop/status/136363824554061824

Meanwhile, while they're arresting folks on the North side of the Kitchen, they're chatting us up on the south side. Totally surreal:

http://twitter.com/#!/diceytroop/status/136362888691593218

Finally, they went in hard on the other side, smashing the kitchen:

http://twitter.com/#!/DiceyTroop/status/136364038807490560

They destroyed the shelves full of food not by, like, lifting them up and moving them, but by smashing them. They made a huge mess of, like, pickle juice and mayo all over the place. They're all cursing, irritated; it was hilarious to me at the time. I hope they got it all over their boots. I hope their boots still smell like brine. Brine and injustice.

That was my last update, so you'll have to go without the visual aids for the rest of this story.

I was among the last people arrested. Zip-tied face-down on the granite tiles of Zuccotti Park, I felt calm. I was lifted up by at least two officers and stood up willingly. I was handed to another officer and was led around the mess that was once a kitchen feeding thousands each day. "Have a seat," he said, and pushed me down on my knees. I was surrounded by at least a couple dozen of my friends and allies, and we laughed and joked at the absurdity of the situation. All of our rights had been violated, but it happened together, and we had stood together in solidarity with our movement. It was pretty intense. We sang one fellow prisoner "Happy Birthday." Less humorously, there were several folks whose plastic cuffs were far too tight, and we advocated for each other until police freed and then recuffed those folks.

After about 20 minutes of kneeling on the sidewalk with hands cuffed, during which I saw one man wheeled out on a stretcher, they began to load us into buses. Each of us were handed to an officer who'd become our "arresting officer," even though they in fact did not arrest us. They took two polaroids of each of us, one solo and one with our arresting officer, and then stuck stickers on the back.

The bus I was to be loaded into was full, so they brought myself and two other arrestees to a paddy wagon. At this point, I began experiencing an intense burning situation in my right hand. "Excuse me, officer, my hand is killing me -- it feels like it's on a stovetop," I said.

I could tell he heard me, but he didn't respond. I took a deep breath and tried to be patient, but this was the only time in the night when panic really became a thing, and I started to compensate for it by detaching myself from the situation. I kept picturing my hand all swelled up with blood, ready to burst -- unrealistic, but the pain was extremely intense. Detachment kept me from panicking, but it also kept me from advocating for myself. Fortunately, one of my co-arrestees noticed the state I was in. "Excuse me, officer, can you re-cuff him? He's in pain!" 

Eventually, an officer went to retrieve 'the snips' and a new pair of zip cuffs, muttering to the other officer nearby, "I've heard this is happening -- there's something wrong with these cuffs. They're too thick." I noticed that the cuffs WERE really thick, about 2 inches across. 

He came back and tried to snip the cuffs off. WHICH REALLY HURT WAY WORSE. One of the cuffs was wrapped tight around my wrist bone, when he tried to cut it off, it only became tighter and I felt like some serious damage was being done. All of a sudden, the pain stopped. I thanked the officer profusely while he recuffed me.

Eventually, the three of us were marched back to where the full bus had been -- an empty bus now awaited us. We were loaded on, men in the back and women in the front. I gathered that we were the last bus. Eventually, we left.

We drove directly to Central Booking, but apparently it was full! I later found out it was because many of the arrests outside the 2-block perimeter happened far earlier than the clearing of the kitchen. The bus turned around awkwardly.

Meantime, in the bus, we're singing "This Land is Your Land" and "Redemption Song", trying to get the officers on the bus to join in. We catch one singing along; he gets embarrassed and stops.

After turning around, the bus proceeded back towards Dewey Square. THERE ARE MAD PEOPLE THERE! They see us and flip out! We see them and flip out! It was amazing. OUR PEOPLE! We circled Dewey Square while a mob of people ran towards us in a spiral as we rounded the Square.

The bus proceeds back to Central Booking; pulls up to the gate, and after a moment, turns around again! This time, though, they didn't take us back to Dewey, they parked the bus.

Then we sat. For a long time. Then we were waved through, and then parked again, and sat. For a longer time. Meanwhile, the adrenaline had passed and we were all exhausted. We slumped uncomfortably. I tried to sleep, but couldn't. My wrist cuffs kept dragging towards my hands and I had to constantly readjust.

Then, arresting officers started showing up to retrieve people. After about an hour, there were only 5 of the original 20-something. After another hour, our arresting officer finally came. 

At this point, I'm just anxious for this to move forward. One of my busmates tells me that once we get inside, they'll remove the cuffs, and so I now have a checkpoint to look forward to.

Our arresting officer eventually came to get us. He was a Staten Island Task Force officer, called to the first precinct strategically because he'd never seen #OWS before. To whatever extent the first precinct's finest have grown accustomed to us, or even sympathetic with us, the police administration knows better than to ask them to ruthlessly remove us.

Our arresting officer wasn't jovial, he wasn't mean, he wasn't condescending, and he wasn't supportive. He reminded me of myself working some of the less interesting jobs I've had in life. He seemed to have no personal investment in the situation he was in. He was a worker doing a job, and not a job he particularly seemed to want to be doing -- but it's not like he had objections, either. He just wanted his shift to end.

They marched us into a gated yard, where we were again photographed. We waited in line to enter, and all I could think about was "where's the part where they uncuff me?" But after a few minutes standing there, I realized that there were many officers, well, horsing around. It was bizarre. These folks had just committed a massive violation of civil rights on the orders of their superiors, likely to spawn court actions and create headlines lasting well into the future. And yet, the weight of events meant nothing to them. It reminded me that officers bear no responsibility for their actions, even if they willingly accept orders that are illegal or morally wrong. How can we accept that a human being, especially a law enforcement officer, can become essentially above the law?

I had to wait for quite while to get uncuffed, as it turned out. That came after we'd slowly filed into the building, through an entry room, and into another room with two holding cells, one for males and one for females. The gender binary is a huge problem in our justice system, and I can't imagine how folks with non-binary gender identities must feel walking into that room.

While we were waiting, we began conversing in earnest with our arresting officer. One of his other arrestees asked him why he was a cop. "Well, I was in the military. Then I finished my service, came home, and now I'm a cop." I asked him what led him to decide to serve, and he told me that for him it was a choice between going to college, which he didn't feel ready for or didn't want to do, and joining the military. I asked him if it upset him at all that those were his only two choices. He didn't see it that way. "Even when I was in high school, I was in ROTC. Like, when I was a kid, I'd want to play soldiers."

I let that one drop, aware of the vast chasm between our perspectives. Someone else began asking him about what he thought of Occupy. He wasn't invested either way -- he was just doing his job. He also really didn't know anything about it, having never seen it and only being, he claimed, vaguely aware of it. We tried to explain it to him. He told us we were breaking the law by being in the Park, but he didn't seem aware of why or how. We told him that the Park rules made our presence legal and that dropping a sanitation order with no notice, while blocking the press, was obviously not a content-neutral enforcement action and was thus a violation of the first amendment. "It's nice to have rights, but if there's no place in society where you can use them without someone having a superseding power, what is the point?" He seemed unsure how to answer that, and after a few minutes I tuned back out.

After some time in line, they took our IDs and put us into the holding cell, one at a time. There were two women in the opposite cell, and they seemed to have been there quite awhile. Their arresting officer had gone missing, and no one much seemed to mind. It reminded me of my own time waiting on the bus for my AWOL arresting officer. Being abandoned, with no agency, cuffed and stuck -- that sucks.

After a very short time in the holding cell, a suspiciously friendly officer invited me out the other end and asked for my ID. He commented on my hometown sports team and, gesturing to the officers performing pat-downs in stalls across the way, suggested a fan of a rival team should be the one to pat me down. They laughed. I was directed to a different stall, where I was freed from my cuffs (Ahhhhhhhh.) and told to empty my pockets. Then I placed my hands on the wall and an officer frisked me.

The contents of my pockets went into a manilla envelope. I stood in line at the next table, where I asked if I could turn off my phone, thinking I'd like it to have a charge when I'm released. I was told to clasp my hands behind my back, and when called I dumped the contents of my envelope on a table. An officer counted my coins and catalogued my belongings, stapling an inventory to the envelope and giving me a copy.

Then I was led into the jail, past a large room full of arrestees, and down the hall and past a desk to a row of 2-person cells, with a cot, enough room to stand next to it, a sink, and a toilet. There were already two people in the cell, but I joined them. A fourth joined us shortly. They gave us stale bread, apparently meant to resemble a peanut butter sandwich but with the smallest dollop of peanut butter. "They're not much good for eating, but they're OK as pillows," my cot-occupying cellmate told me helpfully.

I curled up in a corner at the foot of the cot while the rest was being slept on by someone else. Two other people lay on the floor, one under the cot and one next to it. It was cold and unbelievably boring. Eventually they pulled someone out and I stretched out on the floor with a sandwich under my head. It was unbelievably cold. And boring.

I passed out. I woke up feeling like I had no idea how much time had passed. I sat there for a short time, contemplating. We weren't sure how long we'd have to wait, and we tried to figure out whether they'd hold us for arraignment or give us desk appearance tickets (D.A.Ts). Since I lived in New York, I was more likely than my non-New Yorker comrades to be released with a D.A.T., while they'd be more likely to stay until arraigned, which could take many hours more. I began to worry that since I used my previous address, they would forget I lived in New York, and hold me for arraignment. The passage of time was a slow bleed, so slow that it was easy to doubt that time was passing at all. Frankly, I was beginning to get a little crazy, and the only thing that kept me focused was remembering how much longer people endure this sort of thing. It must be endurable, right?

I lucked out, though. It was only another 30 minutes when my name was called. "You're being released," they said, and it was like a movie again. I was walked back towards the entrance, and they asked me to wait next to the large "tank" holding cell, where I could see occupiers dancing, playing drums, drinking water and socializing. I had a bizarre and brief moment of envy for their shared cell, until I came to my senses and realized that I was about to be freed. They'd more likely be envious of me.

I was walked out, on the way having my items returned to me -- my iPhone surprisingly dead (though later, I developed suspicions that it was because the police had turned it on and used it). Our arresting officer walked us out back the way the bus had entered and stopped at the gates. I shook his hand and thanked him for talking to me. 

He shook loosely, and nodded. He just wasn't very invested.

Congrats, you made it to the end! I hope this record of events benefits humanity, and, in particular, you, in some way. And dear reader -- if you reckon it does.. Please check out my WePay page if you'd like to help me continue to tweet the revolution. Among other revolutionary activities! There's a bunch of info there if you're curious why I'm so bold as to even make that request.Thank you!! changelog: 1.0 - TL;DR. Known issues: broken yfrog embed. 1.01 - Fixed yfrog embed, triplicate tweet and stray sentence-that-became-a-lie while in beta (something about how I was going to let the rest of the videos speak for themselves.) TL;DR 1.1 - Shortened boring technerd intro and moved WePay plug to bottom. Felt weird about having put it at the top to begin with. TL;DR

[diceytroop]

OOPS: A Working Guide to Out-Of-Process-Statements Misattributed to Occupy Wall Street

In my last entry, "The Truth About the 99 Percent Declaration", I tried to clear the air about one particular proto-viral document that assumed the name of Occupy Wall Street. Unfortunately, a lot of the information that was available to me at the time turned out to be wrong, and I ended up only confusing matters more.

So, this is going to be a standing, working document explaining and debunking various "Out-Of-Process Statements", or OOPS (yeah, I just made that up), that risk spreading and defining peoples' concept of the Zuccotti Park occupation, widely referred to as Occupy Wall Street.  None of my entries in this list will be approved by the Zuccotti General Assembly and Occupy Wall Street can't be held accountable for errors or missing info that may appear as this document transforms.  I'd use a wiki for this, but I don't have time to monitor editing to keep the result from being manipulated by the many interested and willing forces.  I'll try to avoid the mistakes made in my previous entry by a) not claiming to know "the truth" (such a classic, dick mistake) and b) explicitly avoiding and/or stating assumptions. Please comment with corrections and further info.

To restate more briefly: Last time, I wanted to draw a complete picture so people knew what was going on and why anything claiming to be "demands" from #OWS couldn't accurately be described as such. This time, I will stitch facts together as they come, even if incomplete.

The 99 Percent Declaration

The 99% Declaration states that it is the product of an "#OWS Working Group on the 99% Declaration", "announced to the New York City General Assembly on October 15, 2011 at 7:45 p.m.," (which unfortunately happens to be the only evening GA I did not participate in since Oct. 12).  However, the document itself has not appeared at a Zucotti GA and seems to have made its debut on the group's website and there is a discussion around it in their forum.  

They've also got a forum in the Working Groups directory on the nycga.net site, but its title states:

This Declaration is NOT representative of OWS or the NYC GA. This is a DRAFT document and will remain as such until issues are […]

That's a fairly clear statement, but two further notes about its attribution to #OWS: 1., there is currently no voice that represents the entire Occupy movement. Zuccotti Park (Wall Street) is the original occupation and is seen, or has been appointed by the media and public as, the flagship occupation - but even if you're inclined to appoint the Zuccotti GA's voice as the voice of the movement, this document has not been proposed to or considered by that body, nor by any of its officially-recognized working groups (announcing a Working Group is not the process by which a working group is empowered by GA). So: it has no process connection to the occupations.

The second thing is that we don't know how the document came into being. Did its creators organize using a direct democracy model, like the General Assembly model? I don't know. Would that change its legitimacy? No, but it would mean that its introduction into the movement would be far easier than if it was ideated by a small and unaccountable group.

The way things stand right now, to gain legit status, the 99 Percent Declaration would need to be taken up by a Working Group physically linked to one of the occupations, operated using a consensus-based process, and recognized by a General Assembly to gain legitimacy. One reason why so many demands-oriented OOPSs seem to come to our attention is that entering a consensus-based, collaborative creation process would inevitably result in modifications that may not completely align with its original form. It would have a chance to become a document that everyone could get behind. But its creators would lose their power to wholly influence its vision and form. That is one genius of the process, and that is the reason why impatience -- both in the demanders, and those looking for demands -- is disincentivized within it.

The Zuccotti Park Demands Working Group

The Demands Working Group, which was officially recognized and empowered by the General Assembly as a group using modified consensus process to work on presenting to it a potential list of demands, went off the rails sometime between October 10th and October 16th, when it was announced to the Zuccotti Park General Assembly by one of its members that a small group within the WG had gone rogue and had contacted the New York Times with a working document not representative of WG consensus.

Although I had previously named two members of the group, that was based on a collective -- and unchecked-by-me :( -- assumption that the two members of the Demands WG named in this New York Times article were the ones contacting the press and pushing their own demands. But, because the reporter, and later, a photographer had been invited to the Demands WG meeting, it was more complicated than that. Consensus was usurped over the question of the Times' presence and David Haack requested that a facilitator join the group to help them operate within process. At the next meeting, the process was bypassed again and the group was photographed by the Times. Beyond that, we know that Haack and another member, Sean Redden, ended up in the Times article, which has the general narrative that OWS is working on demands, though Haack is quoted emphasizing democracy instead of demands.  Members of the working group have told me that Redden and others brought a pre-made list of demands to the working group, and attempted to bypass consensus process by reaching out to the media to inform them of their process for making specific demands, and philosophical assumptions, on behalf of OWS.

When as much was stated to the Zuccotti General Assembly on the eve of the Times article's release, the GA consensed upon a statement informing the world that anything not proposed to nor consensed upon by the Zuccotti GA is not representative of the Zuccotti GA.  The statement was kept general because it applies universally to all unaccountable processes, be they demands or otherwise.

This week, OccupyWallSt.org posted the following statement on the Demands WG:

A group claiming to be affiliated with the General Assembly of Liberty Square and #ows has been speaking to the media on behalf of our movement.

This group is not empowered by the NYC General Assembly.

This group is not open-source and does not act by consensus.

This group only represents themselves.

While we encourage the participation of autonomous working groups, no single person or group has the authority to make demands on behalf of general assemblies around the world.

We are our demands. This #ows movement is about empowering communities to form their own general assemblies, to fight back against the tyranny of the 1%. Our collective struggles cannot be co-opted.

The Demands Working Group forum and entry was removed from the nycga.net list of NYC GA Working Groups at some point as well.

Why did this happen? The narrative is somewhat blurry, but the point is that folks were not participating in the direct democracy process that Occupy Wall Street has consensed to operate using. Structures of hierarchy threaten what I see as core motivating values for Occupy Wall Street: an equality of voice and influence and the right to participate in decisions that affect you. The consensus process has brought us, and many, many others in occupations all over the world, closer together despite traditional contentions and across deeply-ingrained cultural boundaries. We've been able to create and build together, and hope to continue doing so in perpetuity. By not minimizing certain voices during our workflow we are smarter, more effective, and considerably wiser. A demands document -- so-called, as I personally don't hope that is language that we will ever use -- that does not come about as a result of this collaborative process cannot reflect the powerful consensus that keeps us working, learning, and creating together.

So, if you want results from #OWS, join the process. It works. You'll have to give and take a bit, you'll need to truly listen to others and collaborate with them and win together. Hold on to your prerogatives, but leave your expectations at the door.

[diceytroop]

The Truth About the 99 Percent Declaration (I think)

Hi! This article, uh, kinda sucks. Please see my working record of various Out-Of-Process-Statements (OOPS) for a more accurate, working record of various such statements including the 99 Percent Declaration.  I'm sorry this initial attempt to understand and explain events sucked so much, but it did.  It's here for posterity.

More up-to-date update: According to Shawn Redden, his and David Haack's attempt to co-opt #OWS is not related to the 99 Percent Declaration.  I apologize for the error.  I'll be following up with the relevant parties. What is for certain is that attempts to co-opt the movement are prolific, and that the 99 Percent Declaration, as well as the work by Redden and Haack mentioned in the NY Times article linked below are not accountable to the Zuccotti Park General Assembly and thus should not be considered projects of Occupy Wall Street. Update 10/21/11: Some doubts raised in comments below as to whether the 99% Dec is the same co-opting demands doc as the one mentioned in Hoffman's NYTimes article from 10/16.  Even if it isn't, though, the point is that neither of them are actual products of #OWS and the reason they cannot speak for #OWS is that Zuccotti Park has a process in place that this is not accountable to.  The link between the two situations is the only part of my recounting that is actually (trusted) hearsay; it's also the part being questioned.  More as we hash this out.

-----

OK — here is the true story of the 99 Percent Declaration.

The 99 Percent Declaration is a fake. In fact, it has nothing to do with Occupy Wall Street.

Two guys from the Zuccotti Park occupation’s Demands Working Group went rogue after this very document, of their own design, failed to reach nine-tenths consensus, required for approval, during two successive working group meetings. On their own, these two men contacted, or were contacted by, Meredith Hoffman from the New York Times. Hoffman later wrote this story about them:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/nyregion/occupy-wall-street-trying-to-settle-on-demands.html

The headline describes the Zuccotti occupation as “trying to settle on demands”, and the story would have you believe that the 99 Percent Declaration’s writers, David Haack and Sean Redden, are leading participants in the Demands Working Group. Unfortunately, this document has nothing to do with the Zuccotti occupation, and the Times, knowing this, went to press with the story anyway. The Times’ story didn’t mention the document itself, but Haack and Redden hoped that Hoffman would represent it as the work of Occupy Wall Street.

The Demands Working Group WAS empowered by the Zuccotti General Assembly (the open, nine-tenths-consensus-based forum in which participants make decisions every night of the week) to work towards creating a list of demands. Haack and Redden introduced the above document, entitled “The 99 Percent Declaration”, to this working group. The first meeting at which it was brought for consideration ended without the working group reaching consensus on the document. The second meeting ended with 4 blocks to consensus, which means that 4 members of the working group blocked its approval by the Working Group (that is an overwhelming number, though I don’t know the number of people attending the meetings). A New York Times photographer attended this meeting, and despite the other members of the Demands Working Group reaching consensus on asking him to leave, Haack and Redden insisted that he could take photographs of them, telling him the group ran on 2/3rds majority rule and that the measure had passed.

All of this is besides the fact that even had the Demands Working Group reached consensus on Haack and Redden’s document, its next and non-negotiable step towards approval by Occupy Wall Street would have been to propose its adoption by the Zuccotti Park General Assembly. There, it would have had to have been approved by nine-tenths consensus.

It is difficult to imagine that, had the 99 Percent Declaration not been blocked by the Demands Working Group, and had it been presented to the Zuccotti GA, it would have reached nine-tenths consensus the first time it was proposed. It would have probably gone back to the Demands Working Group for further revision and — based on its language and proposals — possibly would first have been workshopped by a wider group of people than the Demands Working Group itself. On October 16th, immediately before the article was published, the Zuccotti Park General Assembly was made aware of these events and consensed, with no blocks, upon composing a statement emphasizing that anything that hasn't been "presented to and consensed upon" by the Zuccotti Park GA does not represent the Occupation of Wall Street in Zuccotti Park.

All of this is based on information gathered during my participation at Zuccotti Park during the past week, including and particularly the 7pm General Assemblies. I’m not sure the minutes for the relevant day are on Occupy’s website just yet, but you can check my livetweets of the General Assembly for documentation. The point is: the odds are quite low that this document, given its creators’ relationship to Occupy Wall Street, will or would ever be approved by the Demands Working Group or the Zuccotti Park General Assembly.

The irony is - at least, as I read it - that the Constitutional Convention Haack and Redden’s document proposes would involve many occupations around the country. The wording of the document speaks for all of these occupations and for other participants in Occupy Wall Street all over the United States, and notably ignores those in other countries. As such, the only conceivable Occupy Wall Street decision-making body that could ever be empowered to approve and enact the document as worded is the very Constitutional Convention the document proposes. Sorry, guys.

@diceytroop

[diceytroop]

Occupy Wall Street 10/13/11 General Assembly - Zuccotti Park, New York, NY

The following minutes were livetweeted at http://twitter.com/diceytroop during the meeting.  They appear here with some modification, but any major additions are in [brackets].  Other changes were for clarity, to improve attribution and... I'm sure there's some other reason but shit am I tired.  Follow me on Twitter if you want; I'll be on the ground as much as possible.  If you're interested in collaborating to cover more of the action together, let me know. 

 7:01:22 PM Dicey here, getting ready-- GA in 10 mins.  Some people are marching to Cipriani where Bloomberg is dining @OccupyWallStreetNY

7:05:11 PM Mic Check!  Apple BT keyboard should make this much, much easier.  Using Twii, so won't get responses til later, but we'll continue convo

7:11:57 PM When I got here, GA wasn't at all set up -- now we're about to start http://t.co/1FtQcuP8

7:13:40 PM First Mic check since I got here, about that march to annoy our 1%er mayor!  A little odd during GA but maybe they want to scale down a bit

7:17:20 PM Please RT: for #OccupyWallStreet General Assembly live tweets follow me. @OccupyWallStNYC

7:17:44 PM "We will now begin General Assembly."

7:18:41 PM A rousing "Show me what democracy looks like" from someone who was here for the first GA.

7:19:59 PM Some groans when people are asked to sit on the wet ground, "but at least it's clean!"  Chuckles.

7:21:10 PM Two generations of the people's mic tonight.  Leo and Nyceva (sp?) are our co-facilitators. Eileen is time, Kathryn on stack.

7:21:40 PM Tonight we're using "progressive stack, which means traditionally marginalized voices" get priority for questions and announcements, says Kathryn.

7:22:07 PM Dan is stack reader.  Come to him if you want to be on stack.  @OccupyWallStNYC  Please be concise!

7:23:01 PM "Tonight's assembly, in light of recent events, will be curtailed."  Asking working groups to keep reports pertinent (ha!) @OccupyWallStreet

7:23:26 PM Nycema (sorry that's so wrong) continuing -- no announcements tonight, so give them during soapbox at end of GA.

7:24:49 PM Leo: schedule: WG reportbacks (relevant (ha)), then an agenda item on drumming (oh word). I smell sage.

7:25:11 PM Leo: Meeting is time sensitive, because there's still lots of cleaning to do. Please wait for sanitation WG to guide us through it.

7:25:37 PM "We're gonna make this place look goooooood!" (LOOK GOOOOOD, say the people's mics)

7:27:05 PM Introducing hand signals: fingers up = I agree w/ what's being said / fingers in middle = not sure / fingers down = disagree

7:27:23 PM And everyone's favorite: fingers rolling = we get you dawg, wrap it up B!!

7:28:54 PM Fingers in triangle means what is being said is out of order, i.e. not at the correct point in process. It's respectful but firmly applied. Rep. John Lewis would agree.

7:29:15 PM 1 finger up means "point of information" -- "I have factual information that will directly clarify question or concern being stated."

7:30:12 PM Final hand signal is a VERY SEVERE HAND SIGNAL: ARMS CROSSED.  It's a BLOCK -- it means you have severe ethical or safety concern w/ motion being discussed.

7:31:01 PM Good blocking habits are one of the most important things to keep clear, because if abused the process halts. "Means you'd walk away if proposal is passed."

7:31:58 PM Prior to WG, surprise 10-second speech, says Nycema.  March apparently wants more people-- they're delivering signatures. Not just hasslin.

7:32:19 PM HEY EVERYBODY I'M LIVETWEETING WOOO 

7:33:35 PM Legal WG! Always fun. First point: take care of each other.  They went to Bennington Law I guess ha. Recommend you use the buddy system for safety.

7:35:09 PM 212 679 6018!! That's the # for Natl Lawyers Guild, if you see an arrest, get name, and call NLG.

7:36:01 PM NLG filed letter with Brookfield stating 1st Amendment right to be here and strongly stated Brookfield needs to show legal cause before...

7:38:59 PM NLG sent strongly worded letter to Brookfield asserting 1st amendment right for OWS to stay, demanding they demonstrate legal cause 2 ask PD to enter park

7:41:05 PM Sanitation: been cleaning all day, but stepping it up after GA. http://t.co/8aidEW23

7:41:52 PM Sanitation speaker: "I'm gonna eat off the ground, and if I die, it's on you!" Big push to clean. 6AM is the zero hour.

7:42:29 PM "I'm gonna clean this place, and I'm gonna live here!" Big cheers.

7:43:01 PM Nycema introduces next report back: Medical Working Group!  Shawn w/ the medics has some exciting news!

7:43:54 PM Shawn (sp, but he looks like a Shawn): Tomorrow morning, beginning a mobile First Aid Station. It'll be staffed by some of the best Drs and RNs in US.

7:44:37 PM Nycema (still sorry about the sp): Next report back is from mediation.  No idea what that is exactly.

7:46:05 PM Talshik (sp)): from Mediation - We need as much community support as possible, to protect against eviction. Request ppl for all-night vigil here.

7:46:43 PM It's a glowstick vigil. "Please light them, stay here, and tell all friends to come." Actually I think this is about keeping park full.

7:47:31 PM Nycema: 'Hi yaaallll!  I had to change that word to make sure I was including everyone! So Hi yalll! How yall feelin?" FEELING GOOD HOW R U

7:48:08 PM Direct Action Working Group!  "Hi, we're direct action!"

7:51:52 PM Sensitivity towards peoples' various arrest flexibility. There's a 9:30 meeting @ red cube for people who can be arrested.

7:50:54 PM Direct Action WG is coordinating 2 lines of nonviolent resistance that divide park in 3rds. Lines have "high arrestibility levels."

7:50:09 PM There is a compromise plan: if they really want to clean, they can clean in thirds. "We will hold no less than 2/3rd of YOUR park @ all times."

7:49:33 PM "We will resist any attempts to remove us from this park!" Direct Action WG throws down the gauntlet @ Zuccotti. @OccupyWallStNYC

7:49:04 PM "Tomorrow's cleaning plan seems a lot like eviction plan -- same tactic used to evict occupations in Texas, Barcelona, Bloombergville." @OccupyWallStreet

7:53:51 PM "Everyone can and should be involved in defending this park!" Various levels of arrestability in the plan.

7:54:39 PM "We have received word that cops may come as early as 4am".  "Defend our home! This is our revolution!" The human mic echoes. 

7:55:43 PM Sustainability yields to time-sensitive announcement: storage unit closes in an hour. Call for volunteers to meet there now. 

7:57:04 PM And now... Sustainability!  Lauren from the working group. They're stacked with talent, want to connect with other WGs. 

7:57:47 PM They want to help redesign this space -- they are talking about shelter via "alternative solutions." Think we all hear that. Though I wonder what that meaaaaans??

7:58:48 PM Sustainability contact: owssustainability (at) gmail.com. Meeting at 5:30 @ Trinity and Rector. #ows #sustaintheparksustainthemovement

7:59:55 PM If you have a truck or can hook one up, meet Elisa at Comfort station -- urgent need to move stuff. Bright orange jacket. 

8:00:21 PM Next is INTERNET working group! An emergency mic check from back of crowd!!

8:01:14 PM Dude's name is Anthony, no one quite heard him. "They look really eager." Something about police movement. 

8:02:24 PM Police are about to tow a truck with our stuff in it! Where's the driver? #ohmovement #getittogethermrtruckdriver #pretexttho #occupywallstr

8:03:43 PM Gonna wait until this calms down. For some reason driver doesn't get that his truck is about to get towed; everyone else does tho. #hahahjk

8:04:02 PM MIC CHECK!

8:05:09 PM Leo just used the people's mic to tell the cops on the other side of the park that the driver is en route.  Fucking awesome. @OccupyWallStreetNYC

8:06:50 PM Drew from Internet: training session for working groups on how to use new GA website (oh word?). 1 rep from ea WG @ red struct @ 9:15 #ows

8:07:25 PM New NYC General Assembly site -- http://t.co/8fhk1nXH -- goes live tomorrow morning!  @OccupyWallStreetNYC

8:07:48 PM LIVE TWEETING FT MF WIN

8:09:07 PM Archive WG rep gets up, holding beaten up sign: "This is our voice, and this will be trashed if we are not careful." Go store stuff now! [They're referring to impending threat of eviction.]

8:10:12 PM Second to last announcement, from Chris: "Unity I'm observing tonight is truly inspirational." "We're not leaving this park."

8:11:03 PM There's a proposal to adopt a color. Mix Red White Blue = light purple. Because this movement is not anti but ULTRA AMERICAN! @OccupyUSA

8:12:06 PM So, if they want to not know who we are, we can stop them by all wearing purple! This is everywhere in life. Purple armbands. [I should clarify, this was just an announcement that this one guy had these armbands.]

8:13:21 PM Request for legal to go to truck.  Whoops!  @OccupyWallStNYC  #hahahahahaha #ohbrother

8:16:10 PM Report from October 15th WG. "this Saturday is the largest mobilization globally." linked to Arab spring (oh word?), Greece, Spain, etc @Occupy_USA

8:18:30 PM Nycema: done w/ announcements + WG reports. Lou: Tonight's sole agenda item is a proposal regarding drummers.

8:20:43 PM Drum proposal is really about responding to community concerns and setting precedent for comm relations in other groups. 

8:21:34 PM "Pres Stringer of Manhattan Borough absolutely backed up Occupy Wall street, q after q." [There was more detail provided about Stringer's commitment to defending OWS -- he was described at having stepped up to defend us even against difficult frames that portray small issues or petty concerns as massive problems.]

8:22:29 PM "Scott Stringer responded overwhelmingly, saying that above all, protection of our rights to speak and keep home come before all else." #ows

8:23:14 PM In return, Community Board has asked 1 small request... But a time-sensitive issue is interrupting for a sec.  Suspense!

8:25:00 PM Storage space at 52 broadway closes at 9pm, says Sanitation. Deadline looms.   http://t.co/TkBkN9XB

8:27:21 PM Manhattan Community Board, who have supported us, came back w/ request that drum circles (not single drums) be kept to 2 hrs of time between the hours of  11am and 5am

8:28:48 PM Speaker points out limits on "things that are really fucking loud" would help make space for other types of music + art. 

8:30:34 PM Me, I feel it would also be nice to have fewer really loud drums during GA. Though they are eerily quiet now! Proposal time. @OccupyInfo

8:30:59 PM At this point, stack opens for clarifying questions. Then, concerns.

8:32:15 PM Only a few questions. First pertains to something I didnt catch: speaker's request that reps of OwS be here to respond to cmnty.

8:33:47 PM Question: who's a representative of OWS? Thought we all were. Speaker clarifies that he meant someone whose job it is to relay requests. @OccupyWallStreetNYC

8:34:49 PM Question: How will we agree on which two hours? A: drummers can choose any 2 hours bw 11a and 5p. Hmm. That's it for CQs. @OccupyWallStreetN

8:35:41 PM Concerns now. "My Concern is that the drummers may entirely disregard decisions made by this assembly." Fair point

8:36:25 PM A: "This is very poss, but we must consent as a community to give ourselves the ability to inform drummers."

8:37:45 PM C: I feel we must resist any attempt to peel away support by fragmenting community. If we go along w/ curtailment of freedom, who's next?

8:38:38 PM And then, he continues, where will we draw line?  This is where it gets interesting. "Should we not draw the line now?"

8:39:44 PM Proposer points out concern included many uses of "they" to show request is from outside. This is not the case. They rep our neighbors.

8:40:46 PM "Wall street bankers are far too high up to hear the drums!" it's old ladies, school kids, and working people who are being bothered -- in short, fellow 99%.

8:41:54 PM C: As rep of older gen, I am inspired by great moral values & aspirations for different world. (I can hear people's mic 4 gens. Wow.) #ows

8:42:52 PM C: also concerned with making the world a different place, but views this as working with government entities we're against. "Corporations -- " (Ed: sigh.)

8:44:31 PM C: important for movement to make friends with working class. She is speechifying. Fingers are spinning! Stack is closed. [Wrap it up!]

8:45:42 PM Leo reminds us to pay attention to process while more logistical help is requested to unload stuff at storage in prep for AM.

8:47:14 PM Back to proposal: speaker affirms Anna's concern, "something I struggle with." Scott Stringer and CB are governing body, which means they must have connections to people we are struggling against.

8:48:26 PM "Regardless of what happens with this vote, MCB and Stringer promised to be here at 5am to resist eviction." @OccupyWallStreetNYC [He also said he wouldn't have brought this to the GA if that were not the case.]

8:49:21 PM C: Drums are way to find us, touched by last statement of CB solidarity, but wants to stand free, as flagship. Proposes we table this for now.

8:50:30 PM Speaker responds: Amendment is important one. Drums do hold energy and attract, but going 12 hrs day has downsides: drowns out discourse, teach-ins, meetings, etc.

8:51:19 PM More: drums will still lead marches, and when police try to kick us out, and when we need urgent energy and strength.

8:52:16 PM C: Drums are at worst noise pollution. Meanwhile, serious concern is that we stand here breathing fumes/pollution. (Ed: sigh). Fingers spinning.

8:52:41 PM Kathryn is sort of trying to remind her what we're doing, and the speaker gracefully wraps it up.

8:53:25 PM C: Hours might feel marginalizing to working drummers. Everyone feels Nina has made a great point, lots of sparkle fingers. [This concern did get a broadly sympathetic response from the assembled occupiers, significantly less mixed than any other.]

8:54:25 PM Answer: Great point, but remember we're talking only about drum circles, not smaller performances.  OK: Concerns stack is done.

8:55:16 PM Someone tried to break in with another concern out of order-- but we need to move a truck, again, so game off for a second.

8:56:22 PM Game on!  Additional concern being raised again.  Stack is already closed though.  Sorry guy, next time #processisveryimportant

8:57:40 PM Amendment proposal: agree it's important to respect neighbors and not to drown out teach-ins.  BUT drums are great outreach for ppl getting off of work!

8:58:24 PM The proposal is to tilt hours a bit so people getting off work get to witness our mighty drums!

8:59:26 PM Answer: It's all work in progress, we can change it later. Still, "working drummers are welcome after 5." suggests drummers come to next GA [to continue dialogue and suggest modifications].

9:00:31 PM Leo: We've addressed clarifying questions and all concerns.  How are we feeling?  Lots of sparkle fingers (up), a few low fluttery fingers (not feeling it).

9:01:31 PM Recap: proposal is to keep drum circles to 2 hrs bw 11-5 and appoint reps from OWS to Community Board to be at park at all times.

9:02:40 PM There's a block on the play.  Leo reminds that that is severe: means there's a severe ethical or safety concern w/ proposal. 

9:03:33 PM Blocker: I think we should at least have drums for more than 2 hours a day, bc ppl who walk by will stop + enjoy. Propose 4 hrs.

9:04:22 PM This is where consensus gets tough- not bc it's flawed but because it is not a process everyone understands. Principle vs preference [is the key differentiation to make when deciding whether or not you should block.]

9:06:09 PM I haven't seen a block yet, eager to see how this goes.  Blocker is a drummer.

9:07:18 PM Blocker yields: we all raise spirit fingers in respect for his commitment to the movement. [He was more committed to the movement, they mean, than he was to his preference.] Speaker encouraged him to come back and speak to changes in order.

9:08:49 PM So we now check temperature again-- the goal is 9/10ths consensus [first I learned of this], I guess because it is a visual vote.  And we have another block!

9:07:58 PM He didn't want to block, is my guess-- just to be heard, and didnt know proper time to do so within the process.

9:10:15 PM Blocker is asked to explain: feels two hours is not enough.  Emphasizes outreach tool.  "Thinks it's fair to make more hours".

9:11:16 PM That's not really blocking language, and Leo just pointed that out: it's a concern. Both blocks were.  Another dude reminds how important tomorrow is.

9:12:30 PM Other dude is continuing, saying things are dire, sort of reminding us how many other things we need to do. Urges us to push through & pass the issue [or maybe he was saying table it, unclear.]

9:14:02 PM CONSENSUS!!!! NYC GA agrees to work with neighbors, limit loud drum circles (not single drums) to 2hrs bw 11&5. @OccupyWallStNYC

9:15:46 PM One more notice: we're filing an injunction, w/help of great legal team, to stop eviction. They're gonna work all night. 

9:18:53 PM And Nycema adjourns tonight's GA.  Soapbox starts, but I'm done-- watch http://t.co/9iXH8C3g for continuing coverage!  Thanks!

9:20:06 PM Again, sorry to Nycema for probably definitely butchering her name.  Send me corrections and concerns!  @occupywallstreetnyc @occupyinfo

9:21:12 PM Soapbox: One last warning about problematic participants and provocateurs this weekend.  Hahahaha he just proposed rainbow fam method of tree-taping

9:22:03 PM I knew I knew this dude!  Yeah if people get out of control at Rainbow Gatherings, sometime a consensus emerges to tape them to trees and talk it out with them.  [Pretttty sure you can't do that here, as effective as I know it to be in the middle of nowhere.]

9:25:28 PM Wow- amazing how many people are still here to clean. This weekend is going to be nutty. @OccupyWallStNYC  http://t.co/wabTKJqU

9:27:10 PM Hahaha I used the wrong spelling of @OccupyWallStNYC for the entire GA. Couldnt stop to check. Oh well. I'll tumblr this stream as minutes.