NEW YORK—The community that has grown out of the Occupy Wall Street,
protest in Lower Manhattan is comprised of New Yorkers and those from other states and countries, and spans many social classes and age groups.
The hundreds of protesters have occupied Zuccotti Park near Wall Street for the past nine days.
There is an organizational structure to the group based on volunteering and focused on providing basic needs like sustenance, maintaining personal and park cleanliness; and, as the weather cools, keeping everyone warm.
A group of facilitators, explicitly making clear that they are not leaders, since they are practicing “horizontal democracy,” ensure the logistics run smoothly. The community gets together twice a day at the General Assembly, a community-wide meeting. Subcommittee leaders make reports, discuss pertinent issues, and ask for help. There are subcommittees for everything from finance to food.
The food subcommittee has been keeping everyone fed, a common meal being donated pizza. Over 10 boxes of pizza, as well as burritos, chips and salsa, guacamole, and granola bars, appeared around 4 p.m. on Monday.
Finance leader Casey reported that the group currently has $3,000 available, and $22,000 they are working on gaining access to. Donations have been pouring in steadily.
“We’re working on financial transparency, we'll have charts where all the money has gone,” Casey said, the crowd echoing his words, a mechanism dubbed “the people’s mic.”
There is a general schedule: principally, a morning and afternoon march, and blocks of several hours for activities like games, teach-ins, and eating. The schedule is flexible; on Tuesday, the afternoon march was canceled in favor of joining a protest at Baruch College.
“There’s been a sense of camaraderie and community, and I’ve had a really enriching experience,” said Mae Fraser, a resident of the Bronx who has enjoyed getting to know people and hear their stories.
The principal problem is “the uneven distribution of wealth … and the 1 percent of the rich owning 40 percent of the wealth,” said Fraser. “Coming from a middle-class family, I’ve seen my parents pay outrageous taxes. … Everyone has a right to free enterprise, wealth, [and] all of that, but it just doesn’t make sense when the burden is on backs of classes that make less money, and that have more of a problem with their finances.”
Christian, who traveled from Florida said, “I love being here. ... We’re making the change right here, right now. It doesn’t matter how big it gets, or how small it gets, it’s beautiful.”
Talia Hagerty, a Global Affairs and Peacebuilding student at New York University who has been studying nonviolent social change, stopped by for field research, she said.
The occupiers have had increasing tension with police, principally on the weekends. The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment about the 80 protesters that were arrested on Saturday, or a YouTube clip that appears to show the police using pepper spray on several girls while trying to barricade a street in Lower Manhattan.
“You’ve got all kinds of different people squashed together; people may get sprayed where maybe they shouldn’t have,” said a lawyer who works on Wall Street.
The protesters may need to leave Zucotti Park. One speaker said a “relocation/evaluation plan” would be discussed at the evening General Assembly Monday night.
“There’s an issue as to when private property becomes quasi-public property,” said the lawyer, who suspected a judicial decision would rule that sleeping in the park is illegal.
protest in Lower Manhattan is comprised of New Yorkers and those from other states and countries, and spans many social classes and age groups.
The hundreds of protesters have occupied Zuccotti Park near Wall Street for the past nine days.
There is an organizational structure to the group based on volunteering and focused on providing basic needs like sustenance, maintaining personal and park cleanliness; and, as the weather cools, keeping everyone warm.
A group of facilitators, explicitly making clear that they are not leaders, since they are practicing “horizontal democracy,” ensure the logistics run smoothly. The community gets together twice a day at the General Assembly, a community-wide meeting. Subcommittee leaders make reports, discuss pertinent issues, and ask for help. There are subcommittees for everything from finance to food.
The food subcommittee has been keeping everyone fed, a common meal being donated pizza. Over 10 boxes of pizza, as well as burritos, chips and salsa, guacamole, and granola bars, appeared around 4 p.m. on Monday.
Finance leader Casey reported that the group currently has $3,000 available, and $22,000 they are working on gaining access to. Donations have been pouring in steadily.
“We’re working on financial transparency, we'll have charts where all the money has gone,” Casey said, the crowd echoing his words, a mechanism dubbed “the people’s mic.”
There is a general schedule: principally, a morning and afternoon march, and blocks of several hours for activities like games, teach-ins, and eating. The schedule is flexible; on Tuesday, the afternoon march was canceled in favor of joining a protest at Baruch College.
“There’s been a sense of camaraderie and community, and I’ve had a really enriching experience,” said Mae Fraser, a resident of the Bronx who has enjoyed getting to know people and hear their stories.
The principal problem is “the uneven distribution of wealth … and the 1 percent of the rich owning 40 percent of the wealth,” said Fraser. “Coming from a middle-class family, I’ve seen my parents pay outrageous taxes. … Everyone has a right to free enterprise, wealth, [and] all of that, but it just doesn’t make sense when the burden is on backs of classes that make less money, and that have more of a problem with their finances.”
Christian, who traveled from Florida said, “I love being here. ... We’re making the change right here, right now. It doesn’t matter how big it gets, or how small it gets, it’s beautiful.”
Talia Hagerty, a Global Affairs and Peacebuilding student at New York University who has been studying nonviolent social change, stopped by for field research, she said.
The occupiers have had increasing tension with police, principally on the weekends. The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment about the 80 protesters that were arrested on Saturday, or a YouTube clip that appears to show the police using pepper spray on several girls while trying to barricade a street in Lower Manhattan.
“You’ve got all kinds of different people squashed together; people may get sprayed where maybe they shouldn’t have,” said a lawyer who works on Wall Street.
The protesters may need to leave Zucotti Park. One speaker said a “relocation/evaluation plan” would be discussed at the evening General Assembly Monday night.
“There’s an issue as to when private property becomes quasi-public property,” said the lawyer, who suspected a judicial decision would rule that sleeping in the park is illegal.
