Craig Kanalley: Occupy Wall Street: At Zuccotti Park, Conflict Arises Among Occupiers

There's no shortage of talking, and you never know who will take hold of the People's Mic. Persuasive speakers on all sides can give General Assembly meetings a roller-coaster feel. Someone always seems to oppose a budget proposal, or have a strong dissenting opinion on something that seems on its way to sure passage. Just one voice joining the debate at the last minute has the power to sway the entire discussion.

With every proposal, there are questions and there are concerns, and the process continues and continues. The facilitators say numerous times the group has strayed off process. Questions are sometimes ignored for being "off-topic" even when they aren't, time constraints are cited and frustrations boil over. Occupiers curse, speak out of turn and sometimes they just keep on talking, despite "Mic Check" calls over them. Those on all sides alienate each other.

This is what I have witnessed at Zuccotti the past few nights. On Thursday, the matter at hand was a proposal from Pulse -- the group of drummers -- for $8,000 for new musical instruments. They say they hoped to secure the funding after a $5,000 handmade drum was sabotaged and destroyed during a rain storm. They say that because they've been there since Day 1, they deserve the funding more than anyone.

"We have worked for you! Appreciate us!" the leader of the proposal shouted angrily to the GA in response to voices of dissent.

After a long debate, the proposal was tabled. No funding for the drummers. After the meeting, one drummer cursed and yelled at GA members for their decision. He confronted another occupier and the two shouted obscenities back and forth; a physical fight nearly erupted but a peacemaker came between them.

On Friday, a proposal for a Spokes Council -- a group led by cluster representatives that would make budgetary and logistical decisions -- was debated at length. The General Assembly meeting Friday night lasted from 7 p.m. to 1:30 a.m., even though they're officially only scheduled to last until 9 p.m. and quiet hours are supposed to begin after 11 p.m. The NYPD decided not to disrupt the assembly, and the People's Mic quieted as a sign of respect for the final two and a half hours.

But those two and a half hours were just as tense as the drummers' proposal. General Assembly members complained that they would lose power if a Spokes Council was formed, while facilitators and speakers for the working group behind the proposal insisted that the council would decentralize power in a necessary way. They argued that anyone could be part of working groups and clusters, which would each have a representative on the Spokes Council. One prominent organizer made the point that there would even be a group for people not in a working group, so everyone would be included in some way.

The concerns nonetheless continued. Occupiers raised their voices louder, saying they felt disenfranchised and confused. A two-sided document jam-packed with text contained all pertinent information about the proposal, but only five minutes were set aside to read it. "This is too confusing to read in five minutes," said one occupier. "We need more time," said another.

The two sides went back and forth. "This is a living document! It can be added to, amended to," a speaker pleaded. Another said the proposal has been in the works for three weeks, "workshopped to death," and they did not want to draw the process out longer. As the debate continued, those behind the proposal conceded, "No system is perfect."

In the end, the proponents of the Spokes Council, which included several working group members and a Finance Committee representative, caved to the dissenters -- even after making a significant amendment that would allow the General Assembly to dissolve the Spokes Council at any time. The occupiers were granted more time to consider the document; they now have five days before the GA reconvenes for a vote on Wednesday.

That decision was made after 16 blocked the proposal, meaning they were prepared to leave the movement if it was passed in its current form. They gave many different reasons for opposing it.

But an occupier who favored the Spokes Council wasn't convinced, saying in disbelief after the discussion ended, "That's it? What have we been doing the last 5 hours?"

The conflicts among occupiers can't continue forever, and the most passionate organizers know this. They're planning to "Occupy Central Park" next month -- on 11-11-11 -- and hope the move will bring the protesters together again and unite them with their counterparts across the world.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

Comments

[Elizabeth Fox]

Unfortunately, any group of people without specified leadership and a single unified purpose has this problem. The original reason for the Occupy movement was to serve notice that we the people are not happy about the current economic situation. To show our senators and representatives in DC and throughout the states that we won't have our tax money spent bailing out the rich while the poor starve. And that we are tired of corporations and the 1% controlling our government. This has been done. The Occupy movement has served its purpose. A once a month occupy of public facilities will serve as a reminder. To organize further, to attempt to make sense of the chaos that the movement has become, is not going to work. There are too many voices, too many reasons for the occupy, too many groups wanting to be heard. And the small, petty issues, such as a set of drums damaged during the protest, are clouding the issue. Time for Occupy to disband until 11-11-11.