While thousands marched to support OCW in Oakland,
a group of less than 200 anarchists stepped on the media coverage and
encouraged police repression.
This is how the AFL-CIO reported on the march on
their blog:http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/11/03/occupy-oakland-unions-march-together/
“More than 7,000 Occupy Oakland protesters, union
members and community and faith activists peacefully rallied against
Wall Street greed, bank foreclosures and for good jobs yesterday in one of the
largest demonstrations since the Occupy Wall Street movement began last month.
The Alameda County Labor Council endorsed the Day
of Action and encouraged local unions and union members to take part. Many of
the union members who joined in the action took unpaid time off work to make
their voices heard. Unions also worked with the city government, the Oakland
school system and other employers to make leave arrangements.
All of these different problems—foreclosures, schools closing, attacks
on labor unions—they all basically stem from the fact that the top 1 percent
and corporations are never satisfied to just make profit. Their profits need to
go up and up every year. It’s sort of a realization that a lot of people are
having that we’ve all been fighting our own issues, but really, it’s all
related, it’s all the same issue.”
….
After the march thousands returned to the park for hamburgers and
food. But, when night came, the
small group of anarchists returned to the streets and smashed windows, started
fires, and spray painted graffiti.
Opinion.
This kind of irresponsible action by the small group seriously impaired
the work of the large demonstration.
The Occupy Oakland group wanted to say – we are the 99 %. But, media viewers saw- that is not
me. I don’t want any part of that
petty vandalism.
In the prior week Occupy Oakland had received considerable community and
labor support after the police
attack on their camp. Now, an
entire segment of the community sees the police use of force as possibly
necessary. The next time someone gets hurt by the police a segment of the community
will say, “ Well, they deserved it.”
There is not much that DSA can do about this kind of violence and
vandalism. However, we can be
clear that we support the large, non violent efforts and we oppose the
vandalism, chaos, and petty crimes. That is not what WE are the 99% stands for.
They just made organizing harder- much harder. And, so much for
consensus decision making. Their
was a consensus and they deliberately broke it.
I personally am not absolutely for non violence due to a religious or pacifist
position. But I am for non
violence in this situation as the
only strategy that has a chance of winning.
I have worked in non violent movements such as the UFW, and
in other movements where non violence was not an absolute commitment.
There is now a significant record that police departments
and others deliberately plant agents and others to create violence to discredit
movements.
It is vital for those of us on the left to not allow this
petty trashing to become the face of the movement
Good post Duane!
ReplyDeleteTom