Last night I wrote this, intending to post it this morning.
I don't know how it could have been more successful. A ragtag bunch of #Occupiers, rousted and scattered by tear gas and arrests just a week and a day ago, pulled off what I can only describe as one of the most astoundingly successful day-long series of events protests in our history. From the initial march of 1000's early in the morning to the #Occupation of the Port of Oakland by perhaps 10,000 -- possibly still ongoing -- everything gelled.
There were people, well, f***ing everywhere.
alyssa011968 Alyssa
Mic check @BootsRiley we won!! #OaklandStrike #OccupyOakland . Arbitrator declared safety hazard port officially shut down.
CONGRATULATIONS OAKLAND. YOU DID IT!
And then I woke up to tales of more tear gas and rubber bullets, as some #Occupiers attempted to take over a foreclosed building. And thus I don't know how the world is going to interpret the events of yesterday, or whether I should remain jubilant as I was last night or on edge. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Further thoughts on the (now uncertain) significance of yesterday, below the Daily Kos Squiggly.
It is fitting that the events of the day centered around 14th & Broadway in Oakland, for the building that #Occupies the southeast corner of that intersection was the site of then-candidate Obama's first California campaign headquarters and one of the earliest established by the campaign.
Why is that of interest? Because in a very real sense the Occupy movement has taken over the job that we elected a President to do. How many of the crowd their today were Obama volunteers? How many of that crowd voted for Obama? How many of that crowd, on November 4th, 2008, went to bed thinking our national nightware had ended? And how many of that crowd, on January 20th, 2009, danced in the streets?
A bunch, a shitload, a shitload, and a lot, I can tell you for sure.
Instead of better though, it has gotten worse. No one expected unemployment to suddenly turn around in February of 2009. But who could have predicted that almost three years later corporations would be making record profits while the 99% were still being pummeled mercilessly with foreclosures, skyrocketing health care costs, and a sustained unemployment rate unknown since the Great Depression?
A few windows got smashed today, and some people may have done some stupid things late into the night. DO NOT TAKE THIS AS A STATEMENT SUPPORTING VIOLENCE IN ANY WAY, but one can imagine a lot worse given how many people have gone from Hope and Change to Anger.
Now it's up to us. The #Occupiers. The #DayTrippers. The #Bloggers and the #Tweeters. The #VoterRegistrationers and the #Organizers. The #Peacekeepers and the #NonViolenceMovement.
The people power that was demonstrated today in #OccupiedOakland needs to be kept alive and sent around the country. If the President can barely acknowledge the anger and can't or won't make things right, if he has effectively given up on the #Hope and #Change that his campaign once stood for there on the corner of 14th and Broadway, then he damned well better at least get out of the way.