OCCUPYLONGBEACH ARRIVES AT LINCOLN PARK … FINDS IT OCCUPIED
By Jeanine Birong
OccupyLongBeach is now forming, and messages on its Twitter account and Facebook page promise that an occupation is coming soon to a park near you.
A local spinoff of the social justice movement of the moment seemed only a matter of time, and it didn’t take long—two weeks after OccupyWallStreet, itself a spinoff of the Arab Spring tactic of non-violent revolution, announced itself as “people of many colors, genders and political persuasions … the 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.” Although it took the arrest of 700 people in New York over the weekend to get the attention of TV news, users of faster media have been monitoring OccupyWallStreet and its multiplying imitators since Sept. 17.
Actually, the way OccupyLongBeach worded its Saturday post on Facebook, I thought an occupation of Lincoln Park—in the City Hall/Main Library complex downtown—had already been scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m. I decided to arrive about an hour later, figuring I’d document the occupation as it unfolded, hoping to capture the exciting setup of the tents, the kitchen, the media center and its live stream.
Alas, this was just an organizing and planning meeting. I got there as the group was finishing its introductions and deciding on its official mission statement.
Things proceeded very democratically, yet the group made decisions quickly:
• There was consensus on the formation of various committees—logistics, security/peacekeeping, media/public relations, legal.
• There was attention to practical concerns—how to ensure that participants would get food and drink, get basic first aid, get to the bathrooms.
• They agreed on the importance of creating a web site, using social media—and even a nonverbal communication system for large groups!
• They emphasized that everyone be be trained in the understanding and tactics of peaceful protest.
Then they tossed around some ideas for protests and marches they might organize in the very near future—what part of Long Beach would be most-meaningful for OccupyLongBeach to occupy.
As they schemed, my attention drifted across Lincoln Park, pausing each time it encountered people, slowly beginning to notice there were a lot of people—almost all of them homeless people—scattered around the grounds, finally coming to that poignant moment when I was amazed to realize that they easily outnumbered the OccupyLongBeachers … that Lincoln Park is already occupied.
The same thing seemed to dawn on the protesters at the same time, and they began to take suggestions for another park to stage their occupation And so the next meeting of OccupyLongBeach will be this evening—that’s October 3—at 6 p.m. … at Bluff Park.
Meanwhile, they’d also made plans for an October mini-march—maybe even a full-scale occupation to coincide with other Occupy groups.
If you want to catch up on some of the past coverage, try these:
http://twitter.com/#!/OccupyWallStNYC
http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/occupywallstreet
http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution
20 Comments
im heading down to occupyLA tomorrow, im pretty sure they are smart enough to realize the homeless are part of the problem unlike the LB group.
Frantz Fanon quotes:
Everything can be explained to the people on the single condition that you want them to understand.
Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.
To speak … means above all to assume a culture, to support the weight of a civilization.
The oppressed will always believe the worst about themselves.
Zombies, believe me, are more terrifying than colonists.
Good info, Jeanine. Thanks!
Do you know what it was about proximity to some of our homeless population that caused OccupyLongBeach to decide to relocate from Lincoln Park?
Who is providing the training in the understanding and tactics of peaceful protest and what are the trainers’ qualifications?
John,
One of the homeless guys told the organizers that Lincoln Park closes at 6pm. Also, there are signs there that say “No OverNight Camping.” The organizers commented that all the other parks in Long Beach do not seem to have these restrictions. The consensus was that Lincoln Park is treated differently by the City of LB because it has so many homeless people in it on a daily basis.
There is a peaceful protest trainer, and the group plans to educate participants in peaceful protest. I do not know that person’s qualifications.
Jeanine
Jeanine, thanks. All city parks have similar same hours of operation and camping prohibitions except El Dorado. Overnight camping is only allowed in designated campsites in that park and I think reservations are required. You might mention that to the organizers if they are truly interested in remaining in compliance with the law, at least in that area.
Citizen Journalist Quote of the Day –- Anchors Away
“Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?” –- Steve Jobs
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma –- which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And, most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” — SJ
“I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.” — SJ
“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.” — SJ
“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” — SJ
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently —- they’re not fond of rules…. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” — SJ
“I’m the only person I know that’s lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year…. It’s very character-building.” — SJ
“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me… Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” –- Steve Jobs
(Source: macstories.net)
Let’s just hope that “Occupy Long Beach” proves far more courteous, respectful and sanitary, and far less insulting, hypocrital, and entitlement-oriented, than many of their counterparts in other cities around the country.
http://michellemalkin.com/2011/10/13/costs-of-the-occupiers-plus-friday-showdown-in-nyc-boston-backlash-austin-arrests/
Looks as if Occupy Long Beach plans to force the issue tomorrow night (Saturday, 10/15/11) at Lincoln Park. It will be interesting to see how the city responds.
Will our duly enacted laws be enforced, or will OLB be given a pass?
Glad to hear (via audio at LBR) that Occupy Long Beach chose to abide by our duly enacted laws and vacate the park at 10pm as directed.
Also glad to note that OLB participants chose to comply with LBPD lawful orders to remove themselves and their belongings from the park and then, later, to remove their tents from the sidewalk and strike them altogether.
Congrats to OLB for a peaceful and entirely law abiding protest!
http://www.lbreport.com/news/oct11/occupy3.htm
A competent thing is HR1489. But, look at the PT question today: Is overpopulation a problem, 82-yes; 6-no. The word overpopulation is is by definition not good, but still you get a shadow. The baby boomers and higher have money, while gen X and lower does not. Plus, there is the demographic thing. Or, maybe small thinking is the only thing we can handle.
rino2, I think we really have just a very short cultural memory.
It wasn’t that long ago in the grand scheme of things when almost no one in this country had much. But most were happy and felt very blessed just to be here anyway, and to have the many opportunities that this great land afforded them.
Now many of us have grown spoiled and expecting all the very great comparative wealth we have. No matter what some have, it never seems enough. Desiring more and being willing to struggle and sacrifice and work hard for it is one thing. But more and more have come to feel entitled to more…to be *given* more…whether they struggled to earn it or not.
More and more people who have little, look about them, observe that some have more, and experience envy and entitlement, rather than sincere admiration and a motivation to work harder to get there.
Our government feeds this entitlement frenzy every chance it gets.
Not all corporations are evil or behave unethically. Many corporations actually engage in quite a lot of philanthropy and charity…to the tune of billions of dollars each year. But those who protest *all* corporations are not willing or able to draw a distinction between those that may need to be corrected, and those may not.
I think that is unwise and unfortunate.
Citizen Journalist Quotes of the Day –- Paying the Rent
“We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.” — Martin Luther King Jr
.
“Activism is my rent for living on this planet.” — Alice Walker
“A disturber of the peace, am I? Yes, indeed, of my own peace. Do you call this disturbing the peace that instead of spending my time in frivolous amusements I have visited the plague-infested and carried out the dead?” — Katherine Zell
“I honestly do not know if civil disobedience has any effect on the government. I can promise you it has a great effect on the person who chooses to do it.” — Martin Sheen
“Around the time my mother taught me how to tie my shoes, she also taught me how to protest. Her rules were simple: Look respectable, act respectable, and don’t give the opposition any ammunition. Together we buttoned those top buttons and combed our hair for peace, civil rights, the ERA. You name it, we marched for it. In sensible shoes.” — Julia King
“So often we think we have got to make a difference and be a big dog. Let us just try to be little fleas biting. Enough fleas biting strategically can make a big dog very uncomfortable.” — Marian Wright Edelman
“WHAT DO WE WANT?! Respectful discourse. WHEN DO WE WANT IT?! Now would be agreeable to me, but I am interested in your opinion.” — Message on a protest sign
(Source: “Sunbeams” — The Sun Magazine, October 2011 — thesunmagazine.org)
John, HR1489 would again divide the commercial banks from the mega trillions of speculation, then with the right policies we could rebuild the real economy to get people in good jobs. But, a great percent of the nest egg would get whacked, but all for the future common good. So, you can infer where the natural divide occurs.
It’s sad when people think that the bullshit they are served up tastes good, because….well….150 years ago it was sooooooooooooo much worse. So be thankful, you could be a child laborer in China.
rino2: I prefer to not infer anything about the various way we humans choose to divide ourselves. There seems inherent within us a natural need and desire to divide and sub-divide ourselves along pretty much any sort of line you care to mention, race, religion, creed, sexual orientation, politics, finances, and on and on.
Mankind is not, by nature, an either homogenous or uniting sort of species. We are naturally tribal and divisive.
In the so-called civilized world there will always be some who have more than others. Whether through merit or plain happenstance, there will always be some who are wealthy and some who are poor and some who are somewhere in the middle (monetarily).
Movement can and routinely does occur between the various economic dividers we have created for ourselves. Sometimes the wealthy squander their riches and become poor .Sometimes the poor work hard or simply have the good fortune to inherit or win vast wealth.
The best way to assure that the most people have the greatest chance of improving their economic station is to create government systems that help to guarantee that they have the most opportunity to do so. The best way is to increase opportunity…not impose outcomes.
That is the sum total of the difference between conservatives and liberals. Conservatives want to increase opportunity for advancement but leave people alone tomake their own decisions and to succeed or fail on their own merits or lack thereof. Liberals want to guarantee outcomes and they want to misapply government systems to achieve those guarantees.
The conservative approach relies upon and supports the principles of personal freedom and individual liberty that all men and women are entitled to as a matter of natural (God-granted) rather than statutory or case man-made) law. The conservative approach requires people to put forth effort to achieve results. It encourages and rewards innovation, effort, risk and excellence.
The liberal approach relies upon and supports the principles of envy and entitlement. It is an approach of excuse-making and of self-pity. It is an approach that suppresses effort and innovation and punishes achievement and excellence. The liberal approach caters to and encourahes the worst in all of us.
Because man is by nature evil and egocentric, when we create systems wherein people need not put forth effort to achieve or succeed, they will eventually stop putting forth effor to do so. As we have seen all over the world in nations in which predominantly communist and socialist systems have been attempted, they have largely failed. Where they have succeeded there has either been so small a population and so great an amount of natural resources that Mickey Mouse could have made the country work -or- the government has had to be so autocratic and militaristic that the people have virtually no individual freedom at all and very little in the way of personal freedom.
Our system has its flaws, of this there can be no doubt. But if we cherish freedom and liberty as we claim to, it is the best modern system extant.
Or so I sincerely believe.
You say, ” There seems inherent within us a natural need and desire to divide and sub-divide ourselves…”. And, ” Mankind is not, by nature, an either homogenous or uniting sort of species. We are naturally tribal and divisive.” Then, ” Because man is by nature evil and egocentric…”.
John, I think you call yourself a Christian. So, my question is how did your religion get so messed up?
My bias shows. The question should be how did YOU get so messed up?
John,
With all due respect, some people who actually work hard and get rich deserve the rewards–none the less they still need to pay their fair share of taxes. A bigger percentage tax for people who are making over 250K is not likely to affect about 90% of US citizens. And it is fair.
In addition, I challenge the notion that Wall Street CEO’s are rich because they earned it or are smarter than the rest of us. Well, they are smarter only in the fact that they cleverly skirt the law, or get it changed to their liking.
For example, let us examine the now-famous Koch Brothers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_Industries. They have repeatedly committed crimes, even including negligent homicide of two teenage boys. Or how about Bernie Madoff–he was rich, and smart–did he deserve that money? I wonder how much tax he paid.
Okay let us now look at a couple of interesting articles about those “clever hardworking CEOs” http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/03/rich-get-richer-ceo-bonuses-skyrocket-worker-pay-flat
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/11/bonuses-bounce-back-wall-st.
The thought occurs to me that these guys get big bonuses even when their companies fail and get bailed out. They literally received our tax dollars to cover CEO bonuses, meanwhile the bailout money–which I believe was actually intended to help the consumer, not the banks– never helped a single homeowner. HAMP was a disaster because banks refused to cooperate. It is far more profitable for them to take the house.
Do you not understand that these people are actually thieves who have convinced congress to deregulate banking so they could take all the “profits” for themselves?
The only thing these people have done that could be called “hard work” is to change the laws to their own advantage. Nothing noble nor proud about that.
I find it quite ironic that these people believe they are so completely entitled to the money they stole from the US, while they simultaneously rail against “welfare” mothers and old people who collect Social Security mostly because they think those people are suffering from “entitlement.” It is more than a bit ironic–it literally disgusts me. The token donations they make to charities are total BS. They use these non-profits to shelter their wealth ( another tax haven) while their hire their wives and kids (at exhorbitant salaries) to run the non-profits.
Please, please please stop embracing the ridiculous notion that these people are working hard. People who inherit huge trust funds ARE NOT working hard. In fact they are worse than the worse “welfare Mother” ever was at believing they are “entitled.”
And then today I read this:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/18/goldman-execs-stay-fat-and-happy.html
More proof that the top 1% is not working hard. This article illustrates that Goldman Sachs’ earnings were actually DOWN, and yet the managers will still get massive bonuses. I don’t know about you, but any job I ever had that gave bonuses only gave them when my department PROFITED, not when it lost money. In addition to the bonuses thousands of lower level people were laid off.
Does this seem fair to you? In order to maximize profits, the managers lay off the lower paid workers–so they can take home a bonus that essentially amounts to the pay those workers should have gotten.
Sounds like hard work to me…not.
A visit to Occupy Long Beach reveals that the protesters are not only taking food and blanket donations meant for the homeless, but they are keeping those food donations for themselves. Lincoln Park, Long Beach, CA. October 24, 2011. Many thanks to Beth and Bobby for their willingness to be interviewed for this short video.
http://youtu.be/E3kFKYnhScU