I write this as the standoff continues. Thanks to Charlesincharge's excellent reportage, I found out there are at least five factions simultaneously Occupying and participating in their own flavorings of the reassertion of the rights of the 99% that is on the grounds outside LA city hall.
We are at a crossroads with "Occupy" as many people have weighed in in the past days and weeks. Although the movement grows in a horizontal fashion, meaning its impact and reach on the popular imagination keeps penetrating and growing, its political maturation is very much at a pause and reflect. That is partly the fierce resistance being mounted on it from a coordinated effort by the alphabet soup of agencies so well documented now on this site and others: DHS, PERF, NSA, the TAC (continued below)
squads and "Red" squads of NYC, other major cities and the conference call for unified sort of actions and front to face the challenge of a popular uprising by over 40 medium and large cities from Seattle and Oakland to Boston and Atlanta and Philadelphia and of course, NYC.
What this demonstrates is the existence of Occupy sites which is the part in common, the declaration of a new direct action politics, peaceful marches, protests to solve immediate problems is an enormous threat to the existing economic organizations of society. Thus the eviction battles launched by an existing, moribund, corrupt and collusive political structure totally approved by the beholden except for some twinges of unease that full on repression might not work.
The battle in Los Angeles shows the repetition of the same forces: the new Occupy and the fears of the old elites, such as Brookfield's commercial property holdings teaming up with Bloomberg in NYC and now Villagairosa in LA to try to dislodge and suppress the OWS encampments. To decouple from its mother and father and to smother a new baby before it grows up and demands its place in the world.
Is the fight over holding a campsite 7/24 in LA now moving to a new state action, to a new plateau, a new state by the Occupiers of involvement and purpose?
When Zucotti Park was cleared, the kitchen, Library, Medical services tents and equipment were swept away. The idea of a public space that was a fiction to sell the public on giving Brookfields, the corporate "owner" more of a taking from the public, the commons was truly exposed.
The 1% elite don't want the 99% to succeed or grow their own organizations. They want control and to suck the sweat and blood and wealth untrammelled and forever.
The evictions of Occupy sites are a copy of the evictions of ordinary homeowners who have not escaped the mortgage snare and snakepit of the banks. The goal there is to extract maximum profit even in a crisis and somehow retain the turnover, landtitle to further enrich themselves. What is supposedly "our government" aids and abets this theft.
Can the cities have a standoff, uneasy, wary yet allowing the new to experiment and grow and show its value? There must be a politics aided by a mass movement that allows that in spite of the ferocious opposition of a militarized state.
There are no solutions from the electoral politicians except more cuts to safeguard the holdings of the elites. We now have 3 years of examples to show they won't change.
We need to find a strategy to expose, surround and neuter the violence against citizens as the "1%" response to our crisis. Mayors, city councils, can't have that as the basic strategy and continue running a functioning city. It is by consent of the governed that city services, city policing are seen as legitimate.
Cities attacking the Occupy site to pleasure frightened billionaires and their fantasy of greater empires in real estate and finance has to be pushed back on them. If they attack peaceful people to force the issue, they do so at very great risk of bringing down the house of cards that is the rule of the 1%. Why does the city need to clear the grounds?
If it is sanitation, housekeeping of 500 tents, sure, that can be settled with a rotation, allowing one, two fields to be emptied and restored while the others are occupied. Occupation in a formerly unused building with amenities is not a "sellout" it is a tactical concession that makes life easier for both sides. The presence of a vibrant Occupy that is developing and a school for informed focused, peaceful political action is a great thing. The services and the asset to those unserved and underserved in the community is also a great thing. Can it be sustained in a total standoff situation? No. we don't know how far and how developed this might become, but the value is undeniable. Let it grow in a complementary, not adversarial and antagonistic way. There are precedents for this process. For years, anti slavery associations were harassed until the churches incorporated them in their daily work, unions were outlawed and attacked until their positives and contributions to a decent society were accepted and allowed to grow. These were not welcome events, but were reality.
There are millions of people in LA. Only a small fraction, even though they be many thousands will come to a single "Occupy" site to protest as a symbol of discontent or to show solidarity. Don't mistake that ratio for a true number of supporters. The rest of the city is ripe for other actions, political events that can carry the message and translate it into new structures, new organizations. LA has a chance to truly innovate here, much as Californians have done over the past many years including the turbulent Twenties and Thirties to adress the inequalities then. As far as the 99:1?
The choice is both theirs and ours: Making peaceful protest irrelevant and impossible by full on attacks on Occupy sites and attempts to extinguish the Occupy will show millions of people peaceful political actions that address their issues are impossible. The alternative is far worse than the roundups and sweeps. Peaceful actions like the Occupy being impossible to carry on make violent reaction inevitable. It won't even be the same people, just those who are skeptics now, but now their time is coming because the peaceful movement has been discredited by the city, state, federal government actions themselves. Your thoughts and comments?
10:44 AM PT: thanks to Publius2008:
OWS_Live #OccupyWallStreet
City Council is Los Angeles just passed a resolution in support of #OccupyLA - Claiming Mayor and Police dont have authority to evict! #OWS
https:/twitter.com#!/search?q=%23OWS
10:47 AM PT: The struggle there is complicated, and the city needs to find solutions that empower and extend the efforts of its residents, not simply manage or marginalize them. this vote recognizes that the Occupy speaks to pressing and urgent needs in the city as elsewhere, and should have a chance to demonstrate its utility.