OccupyForum presents…
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
OccupyForum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
Occupation as a Tactic:
Lakeview Elementary School and OccupyOakland
With Gerald Smith
As an act of protest, occupation is a strategy often used by social movements and other forms of collective social action in order to take and hold public and symbolic spaces, buildings, critical infrastructure such as entrances to train stations, shopping centers, university buildings, squares, and parks. Opposed to a military occupation, which attempts to subdue a conquered country, a protest occupation is a means to resist the status quo and advocate a change in public policy. Occupation uses space as an instrument to achieve political and economic change, and to construct counter-spaces in which protesters participate in the production and re-imagination of urban space. Often, this is connected the right to inhabit and be in the city as well as to redefine the city in ways that challenge the demands of capitalist accumulation. In many cases local governments declare occupations illegal because protesters seek to control space over a prolonged time. Thus occupations are often in conflict with political authorities and forces of established order, especially the police.
Occupy Oakland was one of the local manifestations of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, a national phenomenon. The occupation of Frank Ogawa Plaza officially began at 4 p.m. on October 10, 2011, with a rally attended by hundreds of supporters. The first general assembly, based on Occupy Wall Street’s New York general assembly, was held in the plaza amphitheater at 6 p.m. and several dozen protesters set up tents that evening. Oakland police estimated that as of April 2012 they had interacted with over 60,000 protesters since the movement began.
The rest is history. Come hear a participant, Gerald Smith, talk about his experiences building and struggling within Occupy Oakland. Special attention will be given to the occupation of Lakeview Elementary School, which was inspired by Occupy Oakland.
Gerald Smith has a long history in the Black Liberation and Workers’ movements. He is currently involved with the Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia, Liberated Lens, and the Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality.
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This week’s OccupyForum is affiliated with Laborfest.