We were you 44 years ago. We won. So will you.

October 26, 2011 at 2:46 am.

Categories: Open Mic

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

44 years ago we were you. 44 years later you are us. We occupied the same streets you occupy. We tried to stop the military draft by closing down the Oakland Induction Center. Almost on this very day 10,000 people seized the streets of downtown Oakland during Stop the Draft Week. We were maced and beaten and arrested just as you are. The more the police attacked us, the more support we received. When seven us were tried for conspiracy (the Oakland Seven) we were acquitted by a jury who represented a true cross-section of Alameda County.

We won. We stopped the draft, not immediately but in time. You will win, not immediately but in time.

Anyone interested in Stop the Draft Week can contact me at tmcannon@earthlink.net. If you want to read a semi-fictional account of those days while you’re sitting in a tent or a jail cell or a hospital bed, try www.liberatedzone.com. It will seem familiar.

In solidarity and love,
Go for it!

Terence Cannon

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This website was created in the fall of 2011. Most of it is now moribund, but the Occupy Oakland Calendar, which lists activist events in the East Bay (and occasionally elsewhere) is still maintained, the Search facility works to find earlier posts and keep OO’s history alive, and articles are occasionally still posted to the front page.

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly met in-person weekly (with a rare skip) since October 10th, 2011 up until the pandemic, at which point we went to bi-weekly Zoom meetings. We do checkins, go over the activist events of the past meeting interval, and have general discussions on politics and revolution.

For many years, until the pandemic, we put on a Feed the People event monthly at Oscar Grant Plaza, where all were welcome to come and partake of a freshly cooked, savory meal, before our GA.

If you would like to participate while the pandemic is still amidst, send an email to occupyoakland-request@lists.riseup.net. Check the calendar or this text to see if we have resumed in-person meetings.