After almost a month of blood, sweat and tears by a small number of “reoccupiers” ranging from ten to twenty people, the “reoccupation” of 101 Market Street, the Federal Reserve Bank sidewalk, continues to move forward in preparation for a mass resurgence of the occupation of public space that is expected to take off across the country later in the spring. Despite the constant presence of at least a few occupiers each day throughout the winter, the “reoccupiers” reconvened on February 28 in response to a nation-wide call for reoccupation. The first week, almost everyone was arrested and released for the “crime” of trying to sleep through the night on a public sidewalk. Some continued on at The Fed, and some left for the 99 mile education march, and some older faces from the original encampments re-entered the scene to support the occupation.
The second week, they occupied the local Wells Fargo and successfully convinced the customer service department to correct an error in a homeless person’s bank account. That week they were kicked by the police while in their sleeping bags, infiltrators were sent in to scream and yell at them in the middle of the night, and more were arrested or cited for camping on the sidewalk or placing a tarp in the rain over their belongings. But they carried on. The third week, we finally noticed. They were still there, determined to preserve the freedom of assembly and the rights of the homeless to exist, for us all. As the rain came pouring down, the police, tools of the 1%, took every tarp, blanket, political sign, or sticker that they could find. But coming on the fourth week, they are still there.
They wrote an open letter to the Mayor, and a legal injunction is in the works. They documented and streamed abuse after abuse by the police, and misstatement after misstatement of the police regarding the purported laws that were being used to harass them. They are giving their bodies and their lives to continue the occupation of the financial district, and they need support in this endeavor. We held an Occupy community meeting to develop a strategic support plan and asked the community to contribute signs, banners, literature, tables, chairs, etc. We posted a google calender on the working groups forum email for people to sign up to pass by one day a month to check what supplies are needed. They still lack the blankets, tarps, and supplies they need for survival (*see a fuller list at the end of this article).
The proposal that was passed by GA is intended to address some aspects of the supply issue, particularly the protest infrastructure. The proposal approves a maximum of $1000 from the OSF treasury in matching funds as donations come in which are $50 or more, to support the 24 hour protest site. The monies would be used for protest infrastructure such as pop-up canopies, chairs, tables, sign-making supplies but not for perishables or bedding supplies. Survival supplies such as food, clothing, bedding, etc. are expected to be donated by the community. The proposal clarifies that “101 Market is not a homeless encampment.
It is a political protest across a broad range of issues including homelessness.”
Ironically, since this movement began and is named for physical occupation, the “reoccupation” was clouded with controversy from the start as some claimed they never should have reoccupied because it would be too dangerous for them. Even now, they refuse to support the occupiers, partially because their objections were not “properly” heard in the first place. Yet the reoccupiers point out that physical occupation of the financial district is the same kind of autonomous action that sparked the occupy movement. They claim that the word “reoccupation” is a misnomer in the first place, since the General Assembly passed a resolution to reoccupy after the 24 hour protest camp was destroyed back in December, and since there was never any kind of agreement to discontinue physical occupation of public space.
The bottom line is that the police destroyed the physical occupation, and now it is being resumed where it left off. Some of us are saying, these are members of our community who began the whole Occupy SF movement, physical occupation was the rallying call that woke up millions of people across the country after decades of being asleep at the wheel, and the 24 hour protest integrates a myriad of issues together that used to be disparate single-issue campaigns including the issues of financial corruption, freedom of assembly, homelessness and poverty, police brutality, economic rights, human rights, the culture of wealth accumulation and greed, the rights of the disabled, the rights of veterans, sustainability, etc.
Physical occupation is a visible example of an alternative way of living that values community over the endless accumulation of material objects. The new and creative tactics and actions of the movement are flourishing in a beautiful manner. Lots are being turned into gardens as “Occulots”, foreclosures are being stopped, financial crimes cards are being developed, new Occupy communities are popping up in different parts of the city, but the 24 hour physical occupation is the link that can hold it all together.
The group that initiated the reoccupy campaign includes some of the original occupiers of September 17. Each one of them has struggled and learned to survive on the street. They have fought through the cold, the rain, and the concrete to keep the physical occupation going. Their words are sometimes misunderstood as they struggle to make sure the center of the movement remains on the street, instead of inside conference rooms. The proverbial “elephant in the room” is that a class division seems to have arisen amongst the OSF community which has led to some level of misunderstanding and mistrust.
Yet, the “reoccupiers” are a pleasant, reasonable, intelligent, driven group fighting to keep their balance amid the challenges of living on a cold sidewalk with the constant buzz of trollies and busses ringing in their ears, and the fatigue of the constant harassment throughout the night by the police, our “peace” officers. Their intentions are the same ones that launched this whole Occupy movement in San Francisco: unity, love, respect, organization, and the maintenance of the center of the Occupy movement as a people’s movement, instead of one distilled into a complex of non-profit organizations. They survived the winter, mostly on the street, and they stayed to revive the core of this movement: which I once described right after the crushing of the Bradley Manning Plaza (Justin Herman Plaza) encampment, as the heart that pumps the blood into the rest of the movement. That was when the beginnings of the stirrings about the Occupy movement not needing a physical occupation began, only to be reinforced by the press. Yes, we have survived, and in certain ways grown throughout the winter. Yet, whether we have grown or just dissipated into the organizations that already existed is a question. As we move onto the April first action against the criminalization of homelessness and the right to exist, lets remember and support the rights of our own occupiers to assemble and exist.
Click here to donate to #OccupySF’s General Fund, or drop off Items needed, below, directly to The Fed at 101 Market St.
*Items needed: Milk crates, tarps, socks, blankets, information: articles; pamphlets; literature; books, snacks, food, flameless water heater, water, Zip-lock bags and garbage bags for weather-proofing items and literature, foldable chairs and tables (non-wood), EZ up canopies (Sports Authority has them for below $100), sharpies, posterboard/cardboard, pens, notebooks, duct tape, binder clips, rubber bands, hot water containers for instant coffee & coffee; sugar; creamer, printing cards for library, space blankets for overnight (these are super-thin aluminum foil like thermo-materials found at sporting good stores), brooms, hand sanitizer, cleaning fluid (preferably non-toxic), other cleaning supplies, megaphones and D-batteries for megaphones, Lamination materials for signs, trac phones, (marine?) batteries for power supply, news to hand out and to keep the occupiers informed since they have limited to no technology access, more technology to continue live streaming and documenting police abuse such as: Live HD camera MHS-TS55/5, Wi-fi, MP4 video format, 12.8 megapixel full HD Video that stores 8 hours.
