Photo: Stacy Lanyon
I
actually had just moved to New York from San Francisco shortly before September
17th. I had no idea what it was going to happen or
how many people were actually going to show up, or if there would be immediate
police oppression. I had absolutely no concept of how large or small this event
was going to be. I actually really thought that it would not survive or last
beyond the day. On the morning of Sept 17th there were maybe a
couple hundred people there, and there were many, many more police. Through the
day, more and more people started showing up. I remember it growing from a
couple hundred to about two thousand through the evening. Each hour that would
go by, I thought it was a slight miracle that we were still there, that they
hadn’t moved in and cleared everybody out, so it was a complete shock that they
were actually able to stay there through the night and hold the space.
For
me, it was one of the most extraordinary things I had ever seen. Occupy
literally created a city within a city that was actually zoned and planned with
all of these different public and private areas, almost like neighborhoods,
somewhat to its detriment at times, but still, they had assembly spaces, a
kitchen area. Occupy had all of these
support areas, and it literally turned into a small community. I thought that
was quite extraordinary. Occupy was
providing many of the services that the city could not and would not provide
for its most vulnerable citizens. They were handing out clothing and really
great food and medical services for people who don’t usually get that. I had
never seen anything like it, nor had I dreamed that it could ever potentially
get to that scale and hold on for as long as it did.
I
thought that the energy was a real mix. I think there was an overwhelmingly
positive excitement. There was quite a bit of negative energy as well brought
in certainly by the continual repression by the police and by the stress that
they would intentionally inflict on the protesters. The negative energy was
also brought by some of the people in the park.
At times our inclusiveness and openness drew in a different kind of
energy to the park that could be detrimental or difficult in the consensus
building process. In the attempt to be extremely inclusive, I think it might
have been too inclusive in the sense that very simple decision making processes
could get really tied up. In the larger context of recreating and restructuring
and rethinking democracy as a true participatory event, I thought it was really
extraordinary. There were many
negatives, but in context with how much of a success it has been, I don’t think
there is much more to be inspired by.
I
became involved with the OWS Photo affinity group. What was great about the
photo group is that it grew out of the park. There was nothing really
structured about it, but it was a group of individuals who loved photography
and really wanted to tell and document the story with their cameras. There were
amateurs and professionals, and just people who wanted to photograph this event.
There was no barrier to entry. It was anybody with a camera who wanted to
coordinate with other photographers. The idea was that if there was an event
happening, we would make sure that we had photographers there, documenting the
event. Many of our photos have been used
in various court cases. Many in OWS
Photo have used our photos to document what was happening during arrests. The
more cameras we had to witness what was happening, the better.
It was
a really great mutual collaboration and spirit of comradeship with a desire to
make sure that this was really documented and used as not only a historical
document but as a way in which the various groups could then use the
photographs to promote their events on Facebook or on social media sights. If
someone needed a photograph from Brooklyn Bridge or any event, we would just
put the word out, and immediately all of those images would come in, and the
idea was that these photographs could be used for free providing it was for the
cause. Also, it was very important that from a very early date, it was clear
that the established media was attempting to tell our story for us, and as
usual, got it extraordinarily wrong. It really became a critical need that the
Occupy story also be documented from the inside for the people who know what’s
really important because the media tended to concentrate on the more eccentric
elements and on the periphery of Occupy, making very little attempt to find out
what it was truly about.
It’s
important for a number of reasons, but most particularly, because our democracy
has been stolen from us. I do not feel that we actually live in a
representative democracy. I think that has pretty much been bought and sold
entirely. The two extremely vetted individuals that are presented to us at the
end of each election cycle continues to be voting for the lesser of two evils,
and I don’t feel that that’s democracy. I don’t feel that that’s really a
genuine consensus process by the people to pick the best leader. I don’t think
we get the best leaders due to the way our democracy is currently being run by
corporate interests. I feel that this country has been entirely bought out by
corporate interests, and that we are given this very small slice of what it is
that we think democracy is, and then we vote for two vetted individuals chosen
for us and call ourselves democratic.
I do
not feel that everybody has an equal chance right now. It’s highly stacked.
Freedom is a fundamental right. I think it's also important that we live as a
community and not as a group of individuals trying to accumulate wealth. That
comes at the expense of the community. I think Occupy is based around a sense
of community.
In
order for Occupy to be truly representative, to represent everybody, it needs
to have physical representation from all walks of life, and be truly inclusive.
There’s a whole kind of mindset that has to be transcended. It’s still entirely
a white dominated group. I know there are a lot of people who are really
pushing hard and working hard to make it more representative. We have a long
ways to go on that, but when that happens, I think Occupy will appeal to a
larger group of individuals and communities.
Hurricane
Sandy was a catalyst moment for Occupy where it momentarily reinvented itself.
I think the extraordinary thing about Occupy Sandy is that it shifted the
emphasis to being for something that was really tangible, which was getting out
there and directly helping people dig out basements and provide relief in
communities that were largely forgotten by government agencies. It was a
completely different type of energy and process than what it was when we were
occupying the park. Occupy Sandy was on the ground, fully mobilized long before
FEMA and the Red Cross. Occupy Sandy actually created the infrastructure that
FEMA, the Red Cross and all of the aid agencies ended up using because Occupy
had already set-up this vast infrastructure network through its social
networking capabilities.
Occupy
is in a quiet phase again, but could erupt at any moment, easily mobilizing
thousands of people. That infrastructure is in place and is ready at any
time. Occupy is currently in neighborhoods
and spreading out and working on more local issues, but I feel that it’s really
there and ready for the next big eruption.
All of the working groups will continue to do their work maintaining
that infrastructure very quietly and out of the view of the media because it
doesn’t obviously make very big news when nobody is getting arrested. People
are meeting and consensus building. That’s continuing to happen, and it creates
that kind of foundation still from which we can really grow this movement the
next time something happens.
One of
the really extraordinary things is how Occupy will show solidarity with
movements on the other side of the world. It's a global community in that
sense. When something happens in Egypt and the Middle East and in Europe and in
London, many in Occupy are in direct contact with those individuals. We can
show solidarity and reach this vast, vast group of individuals all over the
world. It’s becoming a global revolution, and it’s really, really exciting.
There’s no idea how this is going to move or morph, and that’s one of the other
great things. There is no predicting where this is going to go. Occupy is very
organic, and it builds on itself, and it builds larger and larger in its reach.
I don’t think we know what’s going to happen next, but I can’t wait to see.
It’s
interesting because we always kind of dream of this Utopia and this different
society. I don’t know if there is any real Utopia or a sudden society that is
going to be made. I think it is always going to be a process of trying to get
there, that that destination will never be quite reached, that the goals will
change every time. Moving down that pathway, I really profoundly hope that we
will increasingly move to a more democratic and open society, where there are
not any distinctions between color and race and ethnicity, where that has no
bearing on a person’s success. I think there has been remarkable progress, but
the distance we have to go is really, really long, and it’s going to take a
long time to get there. I don’t know if there ever is going to be a there.
Once
goals are reached, I believe that boundaries will once again have to change. It’s
always the process of trying to move to a better society and a better world for
everybody. It’s not just about a world for us here in the United States, but
it’s about a better world for people all around the world, and our better world
should not come at the expense of somebody else’s better world. I would love to
see humanity really come together as more of a community and have a greater
sense of empathy and love and caring, not just within one’s neighborhood and
city and country but also with the people who we have never met on the other
side of the world, where there is this sense that what we are doing here is
affecting people elsewhere.
I’m
not sure as an entire global community or as a country that we’ll ever get to
the point where we are completely equal. I think it will happen within smaller
communities, and that those smaller communities and groups of individuals can
act as an example to other people, in which case, it might grow. I’m a little
more pessimistic I think than many people in regard to what that final goal is
really going to look like. I’m fighting to get there. I will always fight to
get there. Realistically, are we going to get there? I don’t know. I feel like
it might even be somewhat doubtful, but you have to try. You have to commit
your life and put all of your efforts into attempting that because if I’m
wrong, then I’m a very happy man, and if my pessimism is right, I’ll know I
made the best effort possible.
I
think the success of Occupy is stunning. It’s truly beyond anything I could
have imagined for or hoped for relative to that first day when I stepped out on
September 17th and saw what was beginning to happen. I had no idea at that time
Occupy would become such an internationally recognized terminology, that the
99% would become so well known around the world. The language of Occupy was taken up in the
2012 presidential election. It’s very possible that Occupy created a different
tone in the election cycle where words of inequity and poverty were raised far
more than they ever would have been if Occupy never existed. No, we’re not
going to change the world over night. That’s just not realistic, but where we
have come in a very short year and a half is pretty extraordinary. That does
give me hope.
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/