WEBVTT - A General Strike Might Be Closer Than You Think Pt. 2 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:08.479 Welcome back once again. You're listening to it could happen 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:10.920 here with the crew from Its Going Down taking over. 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:13.520 This is our second show and we'll be doing a 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:16.159 total of five episodes throughout the month of January. So 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:18.239 if you like what you here, please let the amazing 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:21.480 folks at cool Zone Media know. Yesterday we began by 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.599 looking at general strikes in US history, starting with the 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:28.280 mass plantation strike during the American Civil War. We spoke 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.920 with labor historian Robert Ovetts about the revolutionary and bloody 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:34.400 history of general strikes in the United States, and we 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:37.120 also looked at the immigrant general strike in two thousand 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:40.960 and six that successfully beat back drough Conian legislation that 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:44.720 sought to further militarize the border and attack and documented people. 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:46.839 On today's show, we're going to be looking at a 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.960 general strike that was called for by Occupy Oakland, which 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:54.080 took place on November two. Occupy Oakland was part of 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:57.040 the much larger occupy movement that beginning New York with 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:00.040 the occupation of Zukkati Park, but was seen as a 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:03.160 radical focal point for the growing struggle. Starting as an 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.199 occupation on October tent in front of Oakland City Hall 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:11.119 named Oscar Grant Plaza. On October, IRAQ war veteran Scott 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:13.600 Olsen was nearly killed after being shot with a police 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:18.240 projectile during clashes between police and demonstrators as law enforcement 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:22.280 attempted to evict the growing Oakland commune. Following the Olsen shooting, 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:26.080 thousands reoccupied Oscar Grant Plaza and the general strike was 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.080 called for A week later. Upwards of one hundred thousand 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:32.840 people took part in the strikes associated actions, which included 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:36.720 mass marches, a large anti capitalist black block which broke 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:39.560 bank windows, and the shutting down of the Port of 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:43.840 Oakland with upwards of one hundred thousand people participating. But 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:45.760 before we hear from our guests on the subject, I 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:47.919 wanted to talk a little bit about the occupy movement 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:50.520 and Occupy Oakland and why it was so important. The 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:54.200 occupy movement itself grew amidst this growing anger over the 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:57.559 economic crisis, but also this fading belief in the hope 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:00.760 and change promised by Obama. While not see it seemed 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:03.160 to kind of sort of come out of nowhere, there 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:06.760 were certainly things that really helped influence it. Naturally, there 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:10.480 was the occupation by Chicago workers at the Republic Windows 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.120 and Doors factory, which signaled a real turning point, as 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:17.120 well as the occupation of the Wisconsin State Capital in 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:21.160 two thousand eleven against anti union legislation, and all this 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.320 was happened against the backdrop of the Arab Spring, and 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:27.120 then in the Bay Area the Oscar Grant rebellion and 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:29.680 riots in two thousand and nine and two thousand ten 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:33.080 kicked off and had a massive impact, centering discussions around 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:36.120 police race and white supremacy, as well as the role 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:39.280 of rioting and social movements. At the same time, students 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:42.920 and graduate workers occupied college campus buildings in New York 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:47.040 and across California, which really spread the concept of occupying 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.959 across the social terrain, as well as slogans like strike, occupied, takeover, 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:54.840 and occupy everything. Now, the explosion of the occupy movement 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:57.480 in the fall of two thousand eleven cannot be overstated. 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:00.639 Occupying cam It's became a focal point for people angry 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.280 at the general state of the world to gather discuss 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:06.880 an act and they became a real focal point for encounter. 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:09.840 While some cities saw these encampments come and go pretty quickly. 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:13.440 Then he saw concrete projects and organizing come out of them. 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:16.359 People were fighting to resist foreclosures, for instance, of a 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:19.120 lot of cities, and for many people this was where 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:21.959 they were introduced to anarchist concepts such as direct action, 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:26.760 horizontal organizing, and consensus decision making, which really brought these 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:29.520 ideas front and center to hundreds of thousands of people 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:32.440 in a real and tangible way. And while a lot 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.040 of people on the left from a variety of backgrounds 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.040 took part, the real backbone of those involved and Occupy 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:41.080 were just everyday people who were new to social movements 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:44.960 and became activated by material conditions and just the zeitgeist 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:49.200 of what was happening at the time. Occupy was fascinating 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:51.720 for me, Like I was in the rest belt at 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:54.200 the time. Still at the occupy, I was a part 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:57.000 of the first march of five thousand people there. There 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:59.320 may be like two or three hundred people at the 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:01.920 general assemble the night before, So most of the people 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:04.360 that showed up were not people currently connected at that 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.480 point to any kind of political organizing. They were just 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:09.000 people that showed up because they heard about it on 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:10.840 the internet and they showed up to do the thing, 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.360 and that camp a lot lasted nine months, but we 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:16.560 can start to see the impacts that that kind of 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:19.880 breakdown of that division between people who declare themselves political 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.359 and quote everybody else. We start to move forward past Occupy, 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:26.400 we start to see that manifest during my Ground Uprising 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:28.160 and Ferguson. We start to see that manifest during the 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:32.360 George Floyd Rebellion, where this kind of division between those 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:35.640 that declare themselves to be political agents and those that 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:38.080 have not declared themselves to be so just ceases to 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:41.320 really exist. And it's in those moments where we really 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.560 actually see uprisings occur. Occupied pointed out an important thing 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:46.280 which is a fallacy in the way that we think, 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.320 and that we think that radicals make revolts happen, when 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.000 in reality, people make revolts happen, and our job is 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:54.640 to antagonize circumstances. And it's only at the point in 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:58.000 which that division breaks down between quote us and everybody else, 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:01.719 that revolts actually occur. And Occupy it was a really 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:04.479 important point in a trajectory of I think a sector 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:06.480 of the American anarchist movement and a sector of the 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:11.640 American political scene starting to really internalize that understanding, starting 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:13.960 to really grasp how different that is from the way 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:16.120 that we have been taught to organize. And we're still 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:18.880 seeing the ramifications of a lot of that work today, 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:21.800 many many many years later, looking at like occupy are 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:24.479 looking at any of these big moments. When we look back, 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:27.840 we can see all these things that like contribute to it, 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:29.599 you know. And I think that this thing that you're 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:33.240 spoking to Tom of like the kind of losing that 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:36.520 thing of like professional activists or like the political actor 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.560 in a situation is like so important, and I think 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:41.720 that that is something that can really inspire us in 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:43.719 terms of what's happening in this moment too, or like 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:47.320 how general strikes happen, or how something that occupy happens. 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:50.279 Is that things happen, like there are sort of moments 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:52.560 that are kind of outside of our control. It's not 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:55.159 something that can be like planned for, and if you 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:57.920 do all the right things, then you get a general strike. 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:01.440 But you can kind of like be related to circumstances 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:04.479 and to each other and then different things happen. Um 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:08.240 Like thinking about the George flood uprising in twenty like 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:12.000 none of us predicted COVID, you know, and like how 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:14.400 that might have contributed to what happened in that or 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.400 just like all these different circumstances that come together to 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:21.159 make these moments um and I think that you know, 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:23.279 something like what's going on now we could look back 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:25.240 and look at all these different things that are happening 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:27.599 that then make something big happen and we never really 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:31.480 know or can control that. A lot of the striking 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.599 and occupy it serves the purpose of not us just 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:37.719 coming together collectively, but it also serves as purpose of propaganda. 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:41.080 And it just reminds me of this idea important idea 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:43.920 of us occupying public spaces and the reason why we're 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:46.720 not allowed to occupy public spaces because it's like sort 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:48.640 of taking the power. And when there's lots of us 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:51.360 occupied in public spaces, the media covers it and then 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:53.159 it's like, well, what are these people talking about? What 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:55.599 are they doing? And that would then itself also serves 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:58.400 like as a propaganda mechanism to like spread so like 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:01.159 I like just like listening to and I remember when again, 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:02.760 like occupy was one of the moments that I was 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:04.880 one of the people who viewed myself as not political 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:06.680 but I cared about what was happening in the movement 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:08.440 because that was the first time I heard we are 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:11.800 I think about moments of radicalization that I think of 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:13.440 this one as being one of them as a person 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:16.200 who's just like recently and as a five years ago 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:18.720 recently awoke, Like these are moments that I remember, like 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.600 had an impact on me seeing people on the street 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:25.040 taking public spaces, and I think that perhaps that's something 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:27.640 that we should continue to do. And maybe it's not 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:29.480 one of those things where it's like maybe not as 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:32.360 large as occupy, maybe it's not consistently large, but like 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:34.880 maybe we as civilians to just take over public spaces 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:37.280 all the time, just as a reminder to ourselves that 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:38.840 we do have the power to do that. Like we 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:40.400 can't have a free store here because we want to. 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:42.120 We don't have to ask the government for permission to 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:43.960 do anything, Like I think it's a huge first step 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:47.600 of becoming ungovernable and speaking of things that belong in 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.560 a free store. We're now going to hear from our 0:07:50.600 --> 0:08:02.080 sponsors for us understand how the Oakland General strike of 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.240 took place. We first have to go back to what 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.720 made Occupy Oakland so important to so many people just 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.720 a few short weeks in October. In the following interview, 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:15.160 you speak with It's Going Down contributor, author and translator 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:19.480 based in Mexico, Scott Campbell about his memories of occupy 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:21.560 and what set the stage for a massive strike on 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:25.040 November two. We didn't speak with Tova, who was involved 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:29.200 in the Occupy Oakland Labor Solidarity Committee, about Bay Area 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.640 labor unions becoming involved in the strike. So to kick 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:35.680 things off, Scott tell us about Occupy Oakland, what it 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:39.160 looked like, how life and Oscar Grand Plaza was organized, 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:41.960 and about this living, breathing thing many came to call 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:45.880 the Oakland Commune. If you were to walk into Occupy Oakland, 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:51.079 I think you'd be overwhelmed. Um. It was an amazing, vibrant, 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:56.520 self managed, auto jestive community where you had folks living 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:01.720 there in in Oscar Grant Plaza. You had food, childcare, 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:07.480 medical care, libraries, UM, all sorts of projects UM in 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:12.520 a self run sort of directly democratic assembly based, communally 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:16.520 organized space. And it was open to anyone except for 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:21.040 police and politicians who wanted to come and participate in 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:25.240 this sort of radical experiment, this radical form of being 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:28.640 with one another outside the constraints of how society normally 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:31.880 constructs us to perform and interact with one another. And 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:34.720 I think what really stuck out to me the most 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:40.080 during this time period was just the the welcoming atmosphere, 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:43.360 the sense of potential that the camp um and the 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:47.760 activities based around the camp held, the openness of people, 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:52.199 and really the wide range of individuals who were participating 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.560 in collectives who were participating, which certainly, of course led 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:58.840 to differences of opinions at times that made that created 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:02.319 some dynamics that were a struggle to work through and navigate, 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:05.600 but at the same time really added to a sense 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.480 of a space that went beyond a single project, that 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:12.320 went beyond a single vision, but that was horizontal, communal, 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:15.480 and open in a way that I had never experienced 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:19.600 before and that I have yet to experience again. It 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:22.880 definitely had an organic feel to it of of sort 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:26.400 of people coming together, lending what skills they had, lending 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:30.800 what resources they had across a variety of positions um 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:34.280 that may be broadly categorized on the left or or 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.960 post left spectrum, a spectrum of folks with a spectrum 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:43.920 of capacities of needs um. I mean a large number 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:47.559 of unhoused neighbors who were there, who brought their own 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.640 life experiences and their own knowledge and their own skills 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.559 to bear on the project, which I think was a really, 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.080 I guess, a powerful learning opportunity for a lot of 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.600 people who hadn't really been in direct contact with unhoused 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:05.000 folks UM, and who were unfamiliar with really perhaps the 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:09.480 impetus beyond Occupy Oakland and beyond Occupant, the impetus behind 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.680 Occupy Oakland, and the impetus behind Occupy Wall Street in general, 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:15.120 which was of course the two thousand and eight financial 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:17.600 crash and the Great Depression and the bailout of the 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:20.320 banks while people got fore clothes on their homes, especially 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:23.520 people of color and black folks, which which hit particularly 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:26.080 hard in England. And so we see all these dynamics 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:28.640 coming together and trying to work themselves out organically without 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:32.720 being mediated by any one organization or any particular ideology. 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:37.559 And it was a powerful, confusing, messy, lively beautiful experience. 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:40.720 How to categorize the general assembly is a is a 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:44.520 great question, I think for me, how I interpreted it 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:49.520 is it added a structural framework for how to navigate 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.560 issues that would arise within the camp within the sort 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:54.960 of occupation, for lack of a better word, of Oscar 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:58.560 grand Plaza, facilitating the day to day functionings of things. 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:01.680 In a lot of it was a decision making body. 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:05.480 I wouldn't call it a government as such, because it 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:10.160 tried to run on consensus or modified consensus, and anyone 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.319 was free to bring proposals to the General Assembly that 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.400 were free to bring their ideas for and promote their 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:19.480 events and promote their actions and activities. A lot of 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:22.160 decisions were also being made by people who just showed 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:25.240 up to do the work without necessarily consulting the General Assembly, 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:28.720 So you almost had different tiers of activity and different 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:32.000 tiers of organization occurring in the same space. That seemed, 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:34.680 again I go back to this word, that seemed to 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:38.200 organically work itself out most of the time, and within 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:41.080 the General Assembly that was the more formal structure where 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:47.319 people came together at times nightly to discuss issues facing 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:51.199 the camp, to discuss issues with in terms of um 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:53.960 dealing with the police and the city government and eventually 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:56.040 the state and federal government as they showed up to 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:58.480 determine how to respond to various acts of aggression and 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:01.040 attacks on the camp and attacks on the space, to 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:02.960 figure out how to better run the space. Even to 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:05.280 figure out how to better run the General Assembly itself 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:09.160 was a big question within the General Assembly, and these 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:13.079 were general assemblies that anyone could participate and you didn't 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:17.680 have to show qualifications or necessarily be living in the space. 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:21.000 Anyone was free except for the police and politicians, to 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:24.000 come and speak to the General Assembly. I remember one 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.199 time Gene Klon, then mayor of Oakland, wanted to come 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.120 and speak to the General Assembly, and she was told 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:31.320 she could, but she had to wait her turn, and 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:33.600 so she decided to leave because she didn't want to wait. 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:35.320 She didn't feel like she had to wait. It was 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:38.280 really a space of encounter for people to bring up 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:40.719 different aspects that there were concerning them, that they were 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:43.120 working on, that they wanted to see flourish in the space. 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:46.719 The biggest general assembly was happened around when to move 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:49.280 forward with the general strike, but there were also general 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:52.800 assemblies on on things like issues around smoking and people's 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:55.480 health and well being in the space, issues around cleanliness, 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:58.320 issues around safety, how to interact with the police, how 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:01.120 to interact with the government, do we put forward demands? 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:04.000 What should the name of it be? Is occupied Oakland 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:06.319 the problematic name? Should we change it to occupied to 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:09.559 colonize Oakland? These were all sorts of issues that were 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:11.760 brought forward to the General Assembly, along with like how 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:14.240 do we meet the material needs of the space, and 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:17.040 how do we handle the supplies that are being brought 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.080 in and make sure that they're equally equitably distributed. Who 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:22.960 can do what for whom within the space. How do 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:25.560 people's skills get the most use out of them. It 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:29.760 was a very much a lively atmosphere. It felt like, 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:33.040 I don't know, I I know the word democracy is contentious. 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:35.960 It felt like a directly democratic process um. But there 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:39.040 were also you know, it's important to recognize that there 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:41.440 were some people who were more skilled and more familiar 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:45.440 with how consensus works, who are more familiar with the 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.440 process that was behind the running of the General Assembly, 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:52.080 which which has its roots and anarchist practice and anarchist 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:55.720 forms of decision making, and so those folks definitely had 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:58.320 a hand up when it came to making decisions, when 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:01.400 it came to presenting proposals, when it came to even 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:04.960 administering and running the General Assembly itself, those tasks often 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:07.880 fell into the lapse of anarchists, who I think did 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:11.080 a good job of making sure that these general assemblies 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.880 ran smoothly and that they were inclusive and open to 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:16.800 all who wanted to participate, and people could bring their 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:19.800 ideas and sometimes they got approved, sometimes they got rejected. 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:22.640 Even if they got rejected, some some folks decided they 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:26.040 would implement them anyways, and and that also worked out 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:29.880 as well as sometimes creating conflicts. The city grew increasingly 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.800 frustrated with the encampment as they were, they found themselves 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:37.000 unable to make any progress in trying to recuperate, in 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:40.840 trying to gain favor sort of make the encampment their 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:43.880 own and extension of the electoral body right of the 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:48.480 electoral body politic. Ultimately, that's what moved Kwon, the supposedly 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:51.240 progressive mayor more to the side of the police way 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:54.000 of seeing things as force was the only option to 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:57.000 deal with these people who are you know, being unrealistic, 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:00.440 were being naive, who are being entrenched in and transigent, 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:02.960 and you know, at the same time, the police, along 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:05.440 with the city eventually started building up this narrative of 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.120 the camp as a violent and unsafe space where people 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:11.000 were being harmed in a variety of ways, and it 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:14.360 was necessary for for public safety's sake to move against 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:18.120 the encampment. I was there the night the encampment was evicted. 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:22.400 I think it was October or early morning October twenty five, 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:24.960 around three am in the morning, three thirty four am, 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:27.360 and I was actually arrested. I was one of I 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:31.800 believe eighty eight plus people were arrested. UM. During the 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:35.040 process of the camps eviction UM, the police came in force. 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:39.240 They massed up outside of Oracle Arena and the A Stadium. 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:41.680 It was a massive operation that came in from all sides. 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.880 People upon hearing word that the camp was going to 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:50.040 be evicted, UM set up barricades. They laced the entire 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:53.800 area with string, trying to impede the possibility of the 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:56.800 police getting injured. Quickly, there were battles with the police 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:59.440 as they tried to make their way into the encampment, 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:02.280 and eventually UM they came in from all sides and 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:05.359 until they took over the encampment and encircled the people 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:07.920 who remained in the camp. I was in jail when 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:12.760 Scott Olsen was shot. But I do recall the prison 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:16.920 guards or the Almeda County sheriffs who were making these 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:19.840 comments as we were being released finally after about twenty 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.120 four plus hours of being held, saying things like, oh, 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.680 go have fun rioting and that sort of thing. And 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:26.280 and we get out there and then hear about all 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:28.320 the events that had happened over the course of the 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:30.240 day that we had been locked up, of these people, 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.359 of folks in the thousands, just like you said, coming 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:35.719 out to try and retake the space of running battles 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:37.959 in the streets. I have so many friends and comrades 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:40.160 who were telling stories about getting tear gas, of getting 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:43.800 shot at with pepper balls, of Scott Wilson's devastating injury, 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.439 of getting shot in the head. It was violence that 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:49.199 occurred outside the normal narrative of violence deployed by the 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:52.560 police in Oakland, right, and so it made it exceptional, 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:55.480 even though much more brutal violence occurs daily by the 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.800 police in Oakland against primary the black black population in 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:02.359 Oakland and of people of color um. But we see 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.280 a huge upswelling of outrage at the rate of the 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:10.639 camp Um outrage at the injury against Scott Wilson, and 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:15.480 this ultimately the attempt to use force to quash a 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:19.720 movement tremendously backfired against both the police and the city 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:22.280 government in terms in terms of it building up even 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:25.920 more support for Occupy Oakland and its efforts. I recall 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:30.000 going to the General Assembly when the general strike was 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:32.560 decided to be moved forward, when the proposal was made 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:35.000 to have a general strike in a week, which was 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:39.719 just seemed like a completely impossible notion and completely impractical, 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:43.520 but also within the realm of the possible at the 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:46.480 same time, because what had been going on, especially the 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:49.800 response to people in terms of fighting against the police, 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.159 in terms of taking back Nancamin, of basically winning against 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:57.000 the government, winning against the police forces, reclaiming the space, 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:01.080 um taking injuries, supporting one another through the process, it 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:03.440 seems possible that we could pull up a general strike 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.119 within a week. When it came around, it was clear 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:09.159 that the word had been spread, that that energy that 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:11.840 brought on that impulse to move forward with the general 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.480 strike was still there a week later, and I would 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:17.560 say that that day itself was a tremendous success. We 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:20.480 had a hundred thousand people marching on the Port of Oakland, 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:23.560 shutting it down. We had a day's worth of activities, 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:26.679 everything that encapsulated Occupy Oakland. I feel like I found 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:31.040 a home UM in particular on that day on November two. Again, 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.440 we've been listening to Scott Campbell. Next we'll hear from Tovah, 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:38.040 who was involved in the Labor Solidarity Committee of Occupy Oakland, 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:41.560 which worked to bring in labor unions into the organizing 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:44.840 of the general strike. There were just masses of people 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:49.000 down there at Oscar Grant Plaza. Some of them were 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:55.280 working on maintaining or re re establishing the different services 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:57.600 that they had set up. I had been involved in 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:02.480 labor struggles the past, back in Detroit when I was 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:05.880 in the U a w. So UM volunteered to work 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:11.840 on the Labor Solidary Committee to do the outreach to 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:17.080 get support and participation of various unions, teamsters where it 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:20.359 played a very big role in in support UM for 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:23.720 that general strike as well. And that I think it's 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:27.040 the o e A, the Oakland Education Association as a 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:30.399 teachers union, and they were very much involved, and so 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:34.119 was the s c IU, particularly the SCIU, the City 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:37.240 Workers so the city workers were down there every day 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:40.840 and saw what was going on. UM, and we're you know, 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:43.959 very much involved and affected by it. You know, the 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:47.840 teachers Union had, like you said, been involved with in 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:53.320 support work before all the attacks by the police happened. UH, 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:57.359 there was a lot of involvement beforehand as well. UM 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:01.600 one or two Teamsters locals that were you know, supporting officially. 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:05.600 They you know, it wasn't just their rank and file members, 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:08.199 which had been great also, but you know, the we 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.439 had support from one or two Teamsters locals, and the 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:17.040 i LW is primarily Local ten. The longshoreman whole proposal 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:21.240 was to march down to the port UH and shut 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.960 down the Port of Oakland. We had people involved from 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:29.480 my LW. You although, I'm pretty sure that the i 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:33.959 LW Local ten officially was not involved in calling for 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:38.280 that strike, but there were members who were involved in 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:43.560 the i LW organization who were definitely involved in helping 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:47.480