It may not have been spontaneous, a la Wisconsin. It wasn't 50,000 people -- perhap only Scott Walker could engender that much disgust. But it was still a hella event.
Beginning with a march from Berkeley and Oakland, 5000+ people came to California's State Capitol today to protest cuts to education funding, organized by OccupyEducationCA. Students, Teachers, Occupiers, Labor Union Activists, Socialists, Anarchists, Children. Even some Capitalists, I'd wager. Plus plenty of others who'd surely object to any such of these affiliations.
After the obligatory march replete with chants with an education twist such as
Banks Got Bailed Out! Schools Got Sold Out!
and a rally on the Capitol steps during which Darrell Steinberg (President of the State Senate) proclaimed -- wittingly or unwittingly -- to the crowd that the Capitol was "your house", the Occupation began!
Hundreds lined up to go through the North and South entrance metal detectors, and one by one made their ways into the Capitol building. By 2:00 PM the Occupation had succeeded. The Capitol has a small rotunda area on the first floor, and a "gallery" ring on the second floor (shown below). Both were filled with Occupiers, along with the halls that led to the rotunda.
The rotunda is Occupied! Dana, an Occupy Oaklander, teacher and one of the organizers of the protest, is at the very center of the photo with her back to us and her head in front of the statue
I'd guess something like 300 people had ensconsed themselves inside -- along with their "friendly" police escorts, who blocked more people from entering the rotunda itself and decided to be complete assholes by not allowing those already in the rotunda to leave to go to the bathroom and return. (The Capitol is open until 6:00 PM, so none of this activity was, at this point, technically illegal).
Me, I was shuttling between the hallway to the Rotunda on the first floor and the gallery area on the second. At one point, most of the gallery Occupiers decided to march vigorously and repeatedly around the ring, chanting. It was amazing. All we needed was the Wisconsin Solidarity Singers to magically appear and, who knows, Jerry Brown and the entire Legislature might have been recalled on the spot.
Occupiers then attempted to hold a General Assembly. Despite the logistical and acoustical problems, they did manage to finally arrive at a list of five demands. (Remember the zombie lie that Occupiers have no message and no demands?)
5:41pm PST The General Assembly of the Occupiers at the Capitol building in calls on the State government to heed the following demands:
1) Pass the Millionaire Tax,
2) Cancel all student debt,
3) Democratize the UC Board of Regents and the CSU Board of Directors and Trustees,
4) Fully fund all education, and
5) Amend Prop 13 to move to a split roll tax, commercial vs residential.
When you put three hundred peeps into a small space and it's 75 F and sunny outside, it gets a bit, shall we say, uncomfortable. So long before they finally reached agreement on these demands, I left the assembly to go outside where I found...
Riot police!
This picture does not do justice by far. It must have been taken before the entire regiment arrived. At one point, along with this line, there were at least two more lines of police in full riot gear. Plus lots of police on horseback.
Then there were police in helicopters. There were police in reserve on every corner and in between surrounding the Capitol grounds. You'd think they were expecting the apocalypse.
And why, you may ask, was there such a massive police presence? As best I can tell this late afternoon protest began when a police officer on a horse brushed up against or knocked over a ten year old child (I didn't see it, only the aftermath), and then refused to apologize. (You can't see them, but there were a couple hundred people to the right and down of the police line in the picture). Since this new protest the police themselves precipitated was -- gasp -- unpermitted, the police seemed to feel it necessary to try to make it go away.
Which it would have eventually, had the policeman apologized, or even if the police had dispersed to non-threatening positions. Instead, more and more police kept arriving in more and more threatening battle armor and demeanor. Demonstrating, yet again, exactly what a police state looks like -- and just how moronic and arrogant the police can be when they set their minds to it.
But I digress.
As the Capitol was about to close at 6:00 PM, some 60 Occupiers agreed to stay, continuing the Occupation in civil disobedience and facing arrest. I and my fellow Occupy Oaklanders walked back to my car for the 1:15 drive home to the East Bay. When I got home, I learned that the last of the "Sacramento 60" had been arrested for trespassing, staying non-violent the whole time. The Capitol had been Occupied for six hours. Not bad at all.
Did the message get through? At some level, I suppose it did. But Governor Jerry Brown is being stubborn, and the California Legislature is hopelessly dysfunctional. So to whom is the message really directed? It has to be the people of California. As Rick Jacobs of the Courage Campaign put it (very, very paraphrased), addressing a labor rally late in the afternoon on the North steps (separate from the police riot around the corner):
100 years ago, millionaires controlled the California Government. A Governor and the people came up with a way to wrest control of the government back -- ballot initiatives. Now, the people have to use ballot initiatives again as the only way to force real change in Sacramento.
The so-called
Millionaire's Tax advocates were out in force at the rally with signs, ballot initiative petitions and speakers. But Governor Jerry Brown is advocating his own, less progressive, taxing initiative. Darrell Steinberg told the crowd to support it. He was, if not booed, ignored. It looks to me like these pols are making a big mistake not hopping on the millionaire's tax bandwagon. It's going on the ballot, and it's likely to pass as things stand now. If you're going to co-opt a movement, at least do it right!
The other demands made by the Occupiers will take more time, or may never be met. But the fact that discussion around such things as modifying Proposition 13 and renouncing student debt has started, rather than being relegated to the "crazy uncle you have to put up with on Thanksgiving" category, means that, in the words of occupiers,
Another World Is Possible.
We need to keep working at it.