There is a new negative meme going out to America regarding the Occupation at Zuccotti Park. The local merchants, so the reporting goes, are feeling abused, mostly based upon the toilet needs of the Occupiers. Never mind the lack of any free public facilities in US cities, since we all know that our cities are built only for cars and being somewhere else, but when Samantha Bee on Jon Stewart rolls a whole skit on "pooping without paying" in the local eateries, and workers interviewed highlight the gross fecal materialism of park dwellers, you know you have a PR problem. A New York Times article from yesterday, For Some, Wall Street Is Main Street, interviews a merchant who said that "the theft of soap and toilet paper had soared and that one protester had used the bathroom but had failed to properly use the toilet." The article goes on to say that a manager of Steve's Pizza said: “They are pests. They go to the bathroom and don’t even buy a cup of coffee."
Plumbing and hygiene are minor gods in our culture, topped only by profit and payment. But what to do, other than ignore it and hope the issue goes away? (And we know that it won't go away).
I propose that OWS send out two-person teams of volunteers to all local eateries and merchants each day. Go armed with a bucket of cleaning products. Have some kind of designated dress so it is visible and fun. Ask to speak with the manager, query them about the use of their facilities by protestors, and offer to clean the facilities on the spot. Also, speak with line workers and ask if there is anything that can be done to make their days happier…. "Is there anything else we can do to help you out while you are there? Is there anything you'd like us to be aware of?"
Name yourselves something cool like Anonymous Sanitation Brigade, and make a great toilet brush logo for your T-Shirts. (And please send me one!). (note: Kossack "martini" suggested the name "Wall Street Clean Up Crew" in the comment threads... terrific!)
At the height of the occupation in the Capitol Rotunda in Wisconsin, activists would go at night and hand clean the shiny marble floor. Each night, buckets and towels and clean water and they'd carefully wipe the mud from the thousands of feet off the floor. At first, the press carried the Republican's harsh assessments of the behavior of the "slobs" in an ever widening attempt to represent protestors as vermin. However, when the images got out of these same protestors lovingly wiping the skin of marble late at night, the meme simply disappeared.
Throughout the 70's, artist and activist Mierle Laderman Ukeles did brilliant "maintenance art." Simply put, she would wash things, and would shake the hands of sanitation workers throughout NYC, thanking them for keeping the city clean. This is a profound action that destabilizes the accepted norms that render maintenance work invisible.
One of my favorite Fluxus actions was done by HiRedCenter, a small group of collaborators who thoroughly cleaned a chunk of sidewalk with solvents and swabs, creating a "reductive painting" and a curious spectacle for passersby. While this can be seen as an esthetic act within the received tradition of painterly practice, it can also be seen as a reverent act, a polishing of the street, a taking away the material stress of accumulation. It is an act of care, of love, of reverence. And it is powerful in secondary reproduction.
Both of these pieces rupture habituation, allowing participants and viewers a different relationship with the inevitable impacts of our bodies in space. The fact is, we do eat. We do piss. We do defecate. But rather than having the local merchants at odds, and ignoring these truths in the way the dog owners now and then leave their doggy gift on your front walk, how about turning these corporeal inevitabilities into some form of social sculpture?
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Request to OWS: In the comment threads, many people express a desire to help with cleaning supplies and toilet paper. I have taken the information below from Ministry of Truth's diaries. Items 4 and 5 directly relate to the questions in this diary's comments.
1. Get this message out there. Get the word out about these protests of Wall Street's greed to everyone you know. Raise awareness, even if it is via word of mouth, every little bit helps.
2. Use the twitter hashtags #OccupyWallStreet and follow us on facebook and twitter accounts related to the ongoing protests. Help put this video on your facebook pageand any other social media that you use. Make it viral.
3. Make a donation to WeAreTheOther99%'s media fund. They need funding to stay active, and without huge corporate interests backing us up like the Teabaggers have, the only way this works is with your small donations.
4. Go to OccupyWallSt.org and make a donation to our General Fund to support the ongoing protests.
5. To send care packages to Liberty Square, go to OccupyWallSt.org for more information. WE NEED WATER.
6. Find out if there will be an #Occupation event in your neighborhood and participate and contribute there if you can't come to NYC.
7. Be a better person to your brothers and sisters around you.