Tear gas, cops-gone-wild, broken windows, beaten protesters, all condensed down into headlines like "Protesters Confront Cops." By now most of you have probably read some version of Oakland's May Day; half truths at best, much of it outright lies.
But that's not what I wish to tell you about now. I want to show you some of what else came down in Oakland, California on May 1st, 2012, International Worker's Day and Immigrant Rights Day. I want to show you the inspiring and the amusing, the ordinary and the silly.
I will try do it with a few choice pictures.
Entrance to Oscar Grant Plaza
This is the work of Occupy Oakland's 'chalkify' artists, no less impressive than that of our bus painters and poster makers. It was created the evening before May Day, and I had fears that the City would send a crew to destroy it overnight. But they did not. Perhaps even Mayor Quan has some sense of respect for beauty, if no respect for human rights. The mural, which is only partially visible in the photo, is a composite from various posters. The banner across the top reads "GENERAL STRIKE", and the now-iconic fist is at the lower left. The silouette with the flag is taken from this poster.
The work survived the day; I do not know if it is still there or if it has been erased from the tiled surface by cleanup crews. It rained yesterday, so one way or another I suppose it is gone.
Early evening, Oscar Grant Plaza. Before the nighttime police violence.
This is Kossack allie123, diarist about Haiti and incessant tweetmonger (tweeting as alyssa011968), hanging out after the 5,000 strong March for Dignity and Resistance made it to Oscar Grant Plaza. (The march left at about 3:30 PM from Fruitvale, about four miles south by march path if not as the crow flies, and arrived back at OGP around 7:00 PM.) Oakland City Hall is in the immediate background. The chalkify art above would be between the two light posts and slightly in front of them.
Alyssa was not arrested on May Day. She's been arrested twice before, though -- for nothing more threatening than being in the wrong place at the wrong time -- once on October 25th, 2011, and once again on January 28th, 2012. In addition, she's been tear-gassed and chased through the streets of Oakland by police who seemed to be out just to 'fuck with some Occupiers.' All for the crime of wanting a better world.
Alyssa has multiple sclerosis. Every three months the greedy, slimy bureaucrats at her health insurance company make her go through hell to get her next batch of medicine. Even though they are legally required to give it to her they delay, and delay, and delay, keeping her on hold for hours, and not approving her medicines until after she has run out of her old prescription, bringing her symptoms to the fore.
But she is indefatigable. If there is a march or an action, you'd be a fool to bet against her being there, phone in hand, tweeting about it and the latest police atrocity.
On the way from Fruitvale to OGP. It's not heavy, it's our banner...
This is the banner of the Occupy Oakland Foreclosure Defense Group, and two amazing members who carried it a good portion of the way (as did many other members of our group; it was a long march!)
Like other Occupy groups around the country, the OOFDG has been involved in struggles to prevent banks from foreclosing on and/or evicting homeowners defrauded by banksters unwilling to renegotiate loans until called out by very public actions.
OOFDG helped put Gayla Newsome back in her home, and saved "Miss Katy" from being foreclosed on and evicted. We've also aided in auction shutdown actions and other home defenses in conjunction with ACCE and other Bay Area organizations. We are currently working on a number of other cases.
You can watch the banner being made (with a little help from our young friends) in this awesome video, created by another OOFDG member.
We can't directly stop all, most, or even more than a minscule percentage of foreclosures -- yet. But that's not the whole point, as Congressman Ellison makes clear in this interview:
What impact do you think social movement groups organizing against foreclosures are making with respect to the Washington debate?
Congressman Ellison: I think that they're having an enormous effect. In fact, I don't think we'd be anywhere close to doing anything ((about homeowner relief)) without them. Clearly, the people are leading the politicians in this situation. And I'm so grateful to them. Without raising the public ire, we would not be able to make the forceful demands that we're making now...
What actions do you recommend that concerned citizens take if they want to support legislation to stop foreclosures?
Ellison: I recommend that they engage in visible protest.
Heh. The Occupy Oakland Foreclosure Defense Group specializes in visible protest. Caveat bankster.
Drums, drums, drums in the streets!
These are members of the Dignity & Resistance Coalition's newly formed drum corps (among those pictured some Occupy Oaklanders) in the center. I'm not quite sure exactly when on May Day or where this picture was taken, but it looks like downtown Oakland and is probably in the evening, as the march was nearing Oscar Grant Plaza.
The press never shows you photos like this. To the world, the press reveals young masked people in black confronting riot police. To the rest of us, we see drums, and banners, people of all ages, races, ethnicities and sexual orientations, bicyclists, roller boarders, flag wavers, chant leaders, those who bang on drums and those (like me) whose eardrums like to stay far enough away from them.
Mollie and Frank
This is Miss Mollie (left), the person who took some of these amazing pictures, and Frank Chu. Frank is a veritable Bay Area Institution. He even has a Wikipedia page. You know your protest is A-rated if and when Frank arrives, carrying his sign with its usual, yet changing, indecipherable message.
Frank received the "Best Protester" award in 2000 from the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Frank was first pointed out to me at rallies against Proposition 8 outside of Perry v Schwarzenegger court hearings, and I have seen him many times since. I didn't personally run into him on May Day, but it is reassuring to know that he was there promoting his particular version of semantic chaos.
Miss Mollie loves the Occubus, and rode it extensively promoting Occupy Oakland and May Day in the hours leading up to May 1st. She's a nurse, but has taken some time to try to heal the world as an Occupier as well as healing one patient at a time.
Photo credit: AP | California Highway Patrol members stand watch at the Golden Gate Bridge in preparation for possible May Day protests in San Francisco, Tuesday, April 1, 2012. Protesters had backed away from a call to block the bridge. But scores of California Highway Patrol officers nonetheless lined the span and gathered around the toll plaza this morning.(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
I said no police violence in this diary, but I thought you'd enjoy a bit of police silliness. These police (and lots more) were lined up on and around the Golden Gate Bridge on May Day morning. They were there because Occupy Oakland said, a couple weeks ago, that they would help the unions of the Golden Gate Coalition shut down the bridge early morning on May Day, if the unions decided to take that action.
But the Coalition didn't want to, and so the idea was nixed, publicly, multiple times. It was also announced publicly, multiple times, that there wouldn't even be a rally near the bridge, let alone any civil disobedience. In fact the message went out -- stay away from the bridge. It was announced, again very publicly, that all efforts were to be directed at the ferry terminals, where pickets would be formed (which came off successfully).
In other words, you'd of havd to have been, well, on the level of most police intelligence agencies, I suppose, to have believed there was still a serious threat of a bridge blockade. (I could understand several officers, and backups ready to be deployed if it looked like anyone was showing up, but scores and scores?). Well, it was a nice day, and I'm sure they all enjoyed their overtime, and maybe somebody brought donuts.
I'm sure the higher ups will manage to justify it. After all, it had something to do with Occupy Oakland.
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Photo credits:
Alyssa took the drum photo, Mollie the one of Alyssa.
Someone using Mollie's camera took the one of Mollie and Frank.
Not sure where the chalkify art picture came from; it's up on Google Images.
The banner photo is from Eve of the OOFDG.
Bonus chalkify picture by Glenn Halog.
8:57 AM PT: If anyone knows of an aerial shot of the chalkify art I would love to know about it.