Hello Fellow OOers,
I am writing concerning an incident that happened at the march and
rally in support of the Lakeview School Sit-in on Saturday June 23rd.
While the actual march and rally were successful and a good example
of what the Occupy movement can lend to popular struggles, how we can
take part in a constructive way in building a mass movement to resist
all the egregious methods of corporate control, what I witnessed I
believe to be an example of disrespect to this movement that must be
prevented. The parents and teachers organizing Save Our Schools have
been very clear, and have gone so far as to print out a list of
behaviors that they do not wish to see within the ranks of those
supporting them, no Black Bloc Tactics being one of them. Two young
men chose to ignore this and came dressed in black and wearing masks.
I asked them to remove their masks or leave and was told by them that
masks are not Black Bloc tactics. I said, “well, if its okay with the
organizers,” at which point one of them acknowledged that it wasn’t
and that they had been told not to but that it was their “right” to do
so anyway. Later, at the rally I went up to them again to ask them to
leave and was joined by another OO member that has been more involved
in the Sit-in than I have. Again, these two young men refused to
comply with the requests of the organizers and instead went to stand
front and center of the stage but towards the back.
I do not know any way, other than writing this message to the
web-site, to get the attention of fellow OOers. I think this type of
behavior dangerously threatens our ability to work with the people of
Oakland.
Thank-you, Katy
Kathy, I recognized two of them (perhaps the same that you are talking about) as a non-local OO supporters. It is very likely that they didn’t even know about the rules and the agreement. They were not at the BBQ when the rules were read. I am not excusing anyone, but I thought I should mention it, for the sake of the ones that followed the agreement.