- Denis C. Theriault
- Drumming! After last night’s general assembly.
After a boisterous general assembly that really did feel like the grand affairs at the start of the movement (except way more efficient this time), Occupy Portland today has sent out a somewhat formal schedule of events for what’s expected to be its last day in Chapman and Lownsdale squares and Terry Schrunk Plaza.
As mentioned earlier, it’ll be a potluck and dance party meant to last into the night, until police come by at 12:01 AM Sunday and give the official word to scoot. One concert is planned for 6 PM, when the food will be served, organizers said last night. And another is set for 8 PM.
And to help with plans to clean the parks before the promised sweep, Occupy sources say the state AFL-CIO council has offered space in a storage trailer behind its offices on SE 32nd and Powell. It’s a sensitive dance, much like with the portapotties unions provided, because occupiers are wary of observers and activists thinking big labor might co-opt the movement. In addition, occupiers also are looking at church space. I’ve got a call into the AFL-CIO for comment.
Update 12:45 PM: Elana Guiney , the council’s spokeswoman, confirms the storage arrangement, saying the AFL-CIO had the extra space and was willing to provide it. She also said that while labor backs Occupy and much of its message, and will continue to provide help when asked, “it’s a separate movement.”
Much of the plan for Saturday includes drawing a “critical mass” of people, in the style of the successful and diverse October 6 march that preceded the occupation. It’s partly meant to recapture community support as Occupy figures out what’s next—but some also hope that drawing lots of people to the parks will make it more difficult for the eviction to be carried out.
Whether people come, and how many? That’s still unclear. Occupiers have talked to unions about also sending people down—which is tenuous—and also the religious community, like at the First Unitarian Church on SW 12th and Salmon. Occupiers from other cities may also come down—with Seattle sending at least 10 people, according to an email I was shown last night.
One person on hand today? Chief Mike Reese. According to the O, he said on KINK radio this morning that he’ll be working a patrol shift for an officer—something he does every month.
That effort also may include a massive cleanup of the campsites—including, some occupiers hope, of some of the campers who’ve been less about the politics and more about enjoying a safe place to get loaded and, in a rising number of cases, pick fights and sell drugs. That work began last night, with tents vanishing here and there, and will continue today.
And although the GA expressed widespread, passionate support for nonviolence, it’s fair to point out that the crowd that gathered was largely self-selecting. It didn’t necessarily include those who won’t abide by such a posture—either for their own political reasons or because they’re drunk or disturbed and would react as such.
Read Occupy’s plan for Saturday—including a rough schedule of events—after the jump.
Occupy Portland is responding to the Mayor’s threat of eviction on Saturday night, November 12/13, by throwing a Potluck Dinner: a family-friendly event with music and celebration for the entire city. Affinity groups will lead neighborhoods in marches beginning around 2 p.m. converging on the Occupation from about 5 PM. At least one group is coming from Seattle. There were announcements of support from local and regional groups. The purpose of the Occupy potluck is to bring a significant mass of people together in solidarity with the nonviolent, humanitarian goals of Occupy.
Energy at the General Assembly on Thursday night was high, and attendance was sharply up. Observers say between 200 and 300 were in attendance. Volunteer facilitator Adriane said the only larger General Assemblies have been in the first week of the Occupation. Many speakers voiced a belief that the movement is growing stronger, that the threatened eviction will bring more energy into the movement, and that a continuing public presence is necessary to provide a place for people to meet and to make visible the systemic problems that corporatism has long kept invisible.
After the emergency GA held in front of City Hall at noon, working groups prepared lists of actions that people can take before and after the eviction date. Most of the ideas put forward include the importance of gathering the largest crowd Occupy Portland has yet seen, united in peace, united in support for the 99% whose interests have not been served by corporatism, by war, and by the concentration of wealth in the hands of the very few. Visions include the following:
—a mass of people, singing and chanting, circling the encampment Saturday night on foot and bicycle;
—food: empanadas, pizza, cake, locally-grown fruits and vegetables;
—music: guitars, drums, shakers, singalongs;
—more signs: creative signs, funny signs, home-made signs with memorable slogans;
—playful costumes (warm and fuzzy ones, bunny suits, Portland at its weird and wonderful best);
—dancing all night long.Adriane reminded the assembly that as always, in Occupy events, “Whatever the whole group decides, everyone can go with whatever feels right to them, so long as it’s peaceful and nonviolent.”
Before Saturday night, those who have valuables in the Occupied parks are urged to secure them and to move them off-site. Coalitions of local labor groups and some local churches are offering transportation and storage. Friday is a day for clean-up for the potluck. Some voices recommend “leave no trace.”
There were also many ideas concerning actions during and after the planned eviction. Some will sit in wait to be arrested. A training for those who are willing to risk being arrested is offered by the National Lawyer’s Guild at 2 PM on Saturday. Others will provide support for those being arrested. Ideas for after the eviction include the following: outreach to unions, homeless organizations and faith organizations, plans to keep the occupation visible, plans for community events occurring on a regular basis, plans to return to the park and clean it, re-seed the grass, care for the trees, and make the two parks that have been so important to us, more beautiful than they were before the Occupation.
Family friendly.. HA!
Unless you mean street kid families. Of which there are 10 different ones by my most recent count.
This blog and by extension publication has been cherry picking bits of information (to give a positive spin) to give such an absurd extent it is worse then the way most area network media does the same (to negative ends)
And how fucking stupidly Portland is this whole thing anyways.. “I know, in order to protest our right to assemble and assert our free speech we’ll have a dance party!” that is about as fucking stupid as when they attempted to take Jamison Square with the attitude of “I know, we’ll show the economic inequality perpetuated by our government and a corrupt banking system by having a cuddle party! That’ll really chaff their hides!”
Pathetic. Both on the part of this blog/publication for refusing to show all sides of the story and to the remains of Occupy for completely losing the plot and purpose of the whole Occupy movement as a whole. I hope that the rumors of Child Prostitution end up true just so that everyone involved will have to eat some fucking crow and beg for the forgiveness of the families of Portland and the Occupy movement as a whole.
Oh, and how fucking convenient is the whole “leaderless” structure so that anyone who does anything that can be construed as anathema to the cause or otherwise illegal all Occupy has to do is say “They acted independently.” This sure works out great for Occupy, no matter what Occupy had nothing to do with it because no one acts on behalf of Occupy. I am just glad this sort of absurd, grade school level responsibility avoidance is seen for the bullshit scheme it is by people with half a brain.
God.. I have been with this movement locally since its infancy and now all I see is a cabal of morons who think their doublespeak and kumbaya singing will absolve them of the crimes of those they took in.
News flash, you fucking dunderheads, you should have quit while you were ahead and shut things down when you realized that the drug and alcohol problem had spiraled out of control to the extent that a group felt they could erect a fucking METH LAB with impunity.
Hell, they even lie to delude themselves. The other night someone went and set fire to things in the dumpster the city has provided in the vain hope that the Occuparasites can at least put their detritus somewhere that people aren’t likely to step on a dirty needle or pick up a blanket and thusly catch fleas. Come to think of it, for the fleas, body lice, scabies, bed bugs, and any other parasitic bug you can think of whose infestation is often the result of squalor, this must be like Christmas, New Years Eve 1999, their birthday, and winning the lottery all at once.
Two nights ago someone from the medical team came around to where I was hanging out and asked if anyone had any razors. I had just purchased some from the Dollar Tree and gave her one. She insisted that she take 4 (the entire pack) so for the razors I purchased with money I actually worked for I got zero use because a girl was being looked at by medical when they realized she had head lice, fleas, and scabies so they were shaving her head.
And the “This is a microcosm of society! If there are problems, it’s only because society has problems! WAAAA!” bullshit crying and justification for living like petulant rich kids throwing a god damn epic tantrum because they can’t get their way line doesn’t work for you, you god damn ingrates. Even if that were true (which is debatable) then aren’t you, as protestors, activists, and demonstrators supposed to be able to use the fixes that you propose for the nation and world on your own little slice of heaven you have stolen from the rest of the city to magically fix things and have a beautiful utopian village where no one is hungry and everyone is beautiful snowflakes? Oh wait.. I forgot.. there hasn’t been a single fix proposed by Occupy Portland.
I love the Occupy movement nationwide, if I had the resources I would gladly go to New York or Washington DC to join their protest. But Portland doesn’t have an Occupy, we have a tent city where the street kids have all amassed to buy sell and manufacture drugs.
I am sure it doesn’t really offend anyone here, but last night I was sitting on a bench reading a newspaper when a girl who couldn’t have possibly been older then 13 walked by.. well, stumbled anyways. Clearly intoxicated out of her brain, and being led by a grown ass man carrying two Four Loco’s I am guessing around the age of 32, to his tent. I will quote his exact words to her “I am going to put the hurt on that tight little snatch of yours.” she giggled, I puked, grown ass man smiled knowingly, God prepared his best smiting materials for when came grown ass mans time to get his comeuppance for getting a 13 year old drunk and raping her.
Of course, no one believes anything I have to say. Because the local “alt media” says there are problems, but not nearly as bad as the network media would make it out to be and the people who have worked every day to try to make a safe environment have given up the ghost and now simply try to divert attention from the horrors and atrocities being committed within with completely missing the point things like cuddle parties or if they must speak of it using political doublespeak so effectively masking everything horrible in layer upon layer of meaningless babble they should be speechwriters for actual politicians instead of finding just the right words to sugar coat “the rape of children” into something more palatable.
TL;DR