THE OSCAR GRANT PLAZA GAZETTE
Monday, October 17 2011 Day 8.
“the commons is back”
FROM A COMRADE
To those who seek a message:
There is no message here. How could there be? Messages are for
political parties, and how could this be one when it is clear that
political parties have failed? Messages are words, and how could we
trust words to prevail against the batons that always appear in the
end to enforce the present state of things? Messages are for those
seek to learn an answer in advance, but how could there be one, when
learning means not waiting to be told what to do, but discovering it
yourself?
For those waiting to watch and learn, we say do and learn! An
occupation will never be an idea for a different way of life, because
it is already itself the enactment of a different way of life. An
occupation is not a utopian model, but a practical example. An
occupation is society.
The message is clear: join us!
HOT LIST OF NEEDS
~~~ highest priority listed in bold
~~~ for more info/questions contact occupyoaksupply@gmail.com
~~~ no need to contact us first, just bring it on down to the Supply Tent at Oscar Grant Plaza at 14th & Broadway
| PHYSICAL/MATERIALS, GOODS** buy used goods wherever possible!!!!! and be thoughtful about who/what businesses you patronize… | |
| Medical – see detailed list for Wellness CenterGenerators and/or 9 volt car batteries (Deep Cycle) for Food, First Aid and Media
Blankets, sleeping pads, tarps, tents – more people joining us every day Easy up/shade/Pop up tents Hotspot cards for Media tent Two burner cell phones for media tent Water Sharpies Magic markers, poster board, sheets, sticks for making signs! ***Funds for porta-potty servicing*** Batteries – A, AA, AAA, D Bikes
|
LentilsStorage containers (multiple tents, groups)
Clean socks Solar collectors Wood pallets Bales of Hay Phone chargers and prepaid cards Kitchen utility shelving Tape – duct, masking Dry erase boards – lots, for tents and committees Sanitizer Zip ties Milk crates Gloves Bakers racks Spray paint |
FROM A COMRADE
Dear Occupiers, today my partner and I came to visit the Occupation. From what I experienced, I can understand why the corporate mass media seems so confused and dismissive about the Occupy message(s) to society. What y’all are doing is creating a developing model of society that is so alien, so diametrically opposed that it is baffling and offensive and threatening to those with vested interests in the status quo. I watched people working together to feed each other, distribute information, building a road made from scrapwood pallets, building a community, building a road by walking. And not in exchange for money. Valuing people over profits, cooperation over competition, reality over illusion, participation over passivity, these are the values that the Occupation embodies, develops, nurtures and transmits virally into our sick world. The bosses and their mouthpieces criticize these values and call them Utopian, but it is Rampant Capitalism that is utopian (an imagined state of things in which everything is perfect). The movement is finished with illusions and waiting for the Market Capitalist Paradise to materialize, the movement is building towards a new world, which requires a new language of human relations, of sorts. We don’t need a reality mediated by political machines or markets, we need real community, direct democracy. No doubt, the form of the Occupation will change, as if this present moment is but a larval stage. I work in a worker-owned and operated cooperative. I feel that the thing my coop community has in common with the movement is the intentional engagement of the challenging yet rewarding process of cooperation and consensus decision-making. In my 3 years of experience at the coop, I’ve learned that it’s all a process, not a product or a ‘paradise/utopia’: the people change, the coop changes, the larger community changes. Conflicts will arise, and this is good! In this world dominated by hierarchical structures (in family, school, religion, work), conflict is managed and suppressed, institutionalized. In a coop structure, conflict is freed from these constraints and people need to work it out. In my experience, I’ve always seen conflicts resolved to everyone’s benefit when we keep talking, whereas repression breeds violence and resentment.
“time has fallen into our hands/out of all the clocks”
— George Stanley
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