At this early juncture
it's already safe to say that Occupy Wall Street has succeeded. I'm
not being sarcastic. Yesterday I wrote about the media storm that's
showered their protests from early on, and that's rained down even
harder since the New York Police Department began brutalizing
demonstrators. And after last night's Occupy Boston meeting on the
Common, I'm convinced that the hordes have achieved something even
greater than attracting press: regardless of what they actually
accomplish in the end, Occupy has already become the hottest protest
franchise since the Tea Party. Which is why it makes sense that contrarian
Boston is emerging as the first city to strike while the brand is
hot.
Last night's kickoff
meeting was at least a testament to the popularity
of this movement. People have been angry for some time, but for many
it was Occupy that motivated them – not the countless other
protests that take place every week around here. Roughly 300 showed –
with a significant number of reporters on the scene documenting –
despite the event having been announced less than a day ahead of
time, and almost exclusively through social media (Steve Annear, who you should follow on Twitter if you're keeping tabs on the actions, also broke the story in the Metro). By a show of hands, a few
dozen folks on the Common got their feet wet in Liberty Square during
the first stretch of Occupy Wall Street. But for the most part, these
were people – mostly young, but overall from a mix of backgrounds,
ages, and ethnicities – who'd become interested by what they'd seen
online and in the news.
Following an introduction
by default organizer Robin Jacks – whose opening “Welcome to Occupy
Boston” remark may have summoned Thunderdome memories for older
onlookers – an array of speakers took no longer than a few minutes
apiece to chime in. They were asked to address Occupy priorities,
still many introduced tangential causes – the 5th Amendment,
capital punishment, and so on – until about a half-hour in, around
8pm, when someone asked the crowd to begin thinking about where this
all might go down. The same activist then detoured onto a rant about
growing his own food, but he nonetheless rolled the ball in the right
direction.
Video furnished by Chris King @ KingCast
When asked early on how
many people would be willing and able to maintain an actual
occupation, only about 20 hands went up. But some who came as
observers seemed to get more serious as the night progressed, and as
the posse split up into working groups to discuss a range of
implementation issues: legal, food, arts and culture, medical,
location, tactical, outreach, media. There were still some goofy
moments – some of the night's loudest cheers came when someone
randomly screamed "FUCK CAPITALISM." Plus it was meta-rifically
hilarious to see groups hold votes about breaking into smaller groups
and about what those groups should do. But overall the maturity level
increased dramatically over the three-plus hour congress (despite
those who came with bandanas wrapped around their faces, presumably
to avoid detection by the two bike cops who were on the scene).
As was reported by the
Guardian, Occupy Boston is already emerging as a model from which
other cities might learn how to effectively piggyback Occupy Wall
Street efforts (the comprehensive site Occupy Together seems to be a legit
clearinghouse for Occupy actions nationwide). That's also been
the word on Twitter, where Occupy Boston peeps have been
congratulating themselves since late last night, when they made the
group decision to occupy Dewey Square near South Station and the
Financial District. It's a major responsibility – there are a dozen
scheduled Occupy actions planned for now through next week, from
Philadelphia to San Francisco. But from what I saw, Boston might have
the numbers and gusto to become the first legit expansion team.
Occupy Boston operatives
and others return to the Common today at 6pm, when they'll take more
votes regarding the action. Their biggest decision will be when to
occupy – a question on which the group appears to be divided. (UPDATE SEPT 29: OCCUPATION SET FOR FRIDAY AT 6 PM, NO PERMIT.) According to Robin Jacks (who does not speak for the entire front,
but tweets @occupy_boston and is an “initial organizer”), some
want to start this Friday (9/30), while others think they need a week
beyond that to get prepared. There's also the issue that Right to the
City, MassUniting, and dozens of other groups already have a massive
anti-Bank of America action planned for this Friday and Saturday – but judging
by sentiments I witnessed, those efforts won't likely impact the
decision on when to squat in Dewey Square. Most people on the Common
last night didn't come to support those organizations. They came to
Occupy.
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