I went to an OWS General Assembly meeting the weekend before last in Zuccotti Park (also ironically called Liberty Plaza). It was interesting to observe the process, and to contemplate how the ham-handed response of the opposition has only seemed to strengthen the movement. For example, watching the human mic in action ("Mic check." "MIC CHECK.") was really interesting, and brilliant. It came about in response to law-enforcement taking away microphones and amplifiers from the protestors; it is amazingly empowering and has changed the way people communicate in this context. It makes discourse really really slow, and forces people to be concise and to stick with the model for meetings. There is a whole vocabulary of hand signals: I agree, I'm not sure, I disagree, point of process, point of information, clarifying question, be more concise, wrap it up, I vehemently disagree and I block this action. Amazing. The slowness of it disallows grandstanding. The commitment to consensus building is profound. The opponents seem not to know what to do about this movement which does not have clear leadership and does not articulate talking points.
I was surprised at how small Zuccotti Park is. I've read that it's 3/4 of an acre, but it seems smaller, maybe because it was enclosed all around the main area with metal barricades, tied together with zip ties, with one place to enter and exit. It's a tiny space. Anya said it was completely full of tents before the crack-down. Now they've put white lights in the trees and it's very pretty. There are lights in the concrete paving of the park as well. A facilitator announced that the General Assembly would start in 5 minutes, and about 2 minutes later the park went dark. The people in the park just scoffed and laughed. Some people lit candles. Of course, there were tourists (like me) there, homeless folks; a couple of times somebody yelled something out of order and the crowd just ignored it. There was little overt police presence, though I'm sure the meeting was well-attended and watched. Two men with a big video camera and boom mike were filming the whole time. It's not clear if they were from the press, from OWS, or from law enforcement. The camera was pointed directly at me for a long period of time. Am I paranoid? I don't think so, but I wasn't doing anything very interesting if it was a media camera. But it was very overt; all the occupiers seemed to be ignoring it. Maybe someone is making a documentary. Maybe they're just getting new faces on film for the homeland security archives.
We stayed for about 1-1/2 hours. The group was discussing a Vision Statement proposed by a sub-group. There was intelligent commentary, thoughtful and respectful disagreement. The process allowed for voices to be heard, and the culture of the group dictated that the discussion remained civil and honoring of all sides. This was definitely not the Tea Party. And by the way, why are protestors being tortured with clubs and pepper spray on college campuses, while Tea Party protestors were coming to town hall meetings with guns a year and half ago?
After that, we went to see traditional Indian music at a cafe. It was amazing, wonderful musicianship, moving and uplifting.
