Yesterday I took another Saturday trip over to Occupy LA. This time was a little better, but people seem to be lacking a certain understanding ... of really how to do much of anything constructive. That seems harsh, but read on.
I arrived around 1:30pm and the first thing I saw was a group of
students from local colleges around the LA area. About half were toting some kind of video camera. They were speaking about how difficult it was to organize any kind of large movement- especially on short notice. I know there is an Occupy group at SMC (without the tents @ the college I go to) but I haven't spoken to any of them yet. I didn't really take much from this meeting besides there are a number of activists from each school who travel from Occupy to Occupy sort of networking and trying to take from those sites whatever they can- trying to bring back something to share and some kind of method for organizing people. Without talking to Occupy SMC or Occupy UCLA, I can't really say how well they are doing at this.
One thing that was constant throughout my entire experience there yesterday was an
increasing number of reports about theft, violence and general discord. There is a large number of people with mental illness- even a report of a group shooting heroin in the medical tent and leaving dirty needles. Violence typically erupts around four in the morning on the south lawn. A possible explanation of this is our (OccLA) proximity with Skid Row, formally Central City East, which is a long walk to OccLA. This area is home to the largest number of homeless people in the United States (3,668 to 5,131- so says wikipedia). A contributing aspect to this ruckus is the formulation of Tribes. More on this later.
There is some dispute over
food rationing. They are also running low on gas- having to choose between cooking hot meals and keeping the media tent running. This doesn't make sense to me because of the close proximity to public libraries, but what the hell do I know. It seems like they could just export the media outlets to the library and focus on feeding people, but I just thought about that so I haven't discussed it. Again, the formulation of tribes play into this problem, but I'll expand on that later.
I saw a
LAPD officer talking to someone I assumed to be the OccLA security team about someone apparently in OccLA who has been distributing weapons. From what I could catch, he described one weapon as a short baton, but I can't be sure. It was refreshing to see local PD working with the Occupy team. The LAPD building is right across the street, by the way. Yeah.
Occupy Los Angeles is broken up into two major areas- North Lawn and South Lawn. There is also a West Lawn, but I don't really know much about them. There is certainly a strong community there.
South Lawn has most of the action. Up the main stairs is the Media Tent and the stage, which is pretty separate from everything else. Dead center on the South Lawn is the Food Tent, Medical Tent, what was formally the print shop (AKA silk screening, since closed down due to theft), and the south-most edge is the welcome tent. All other space on the lawn is covered in Occupied tents. Again- I'll have to explain the Tribe situation.
South lawn has the most drug usage, it stays the loudest at night, has the largest transient population, the most violence (particularly amongst a single Tribe within South Lawn) and is home to the people who generally just want to party. This is a huge generalization, but it's impractical to get too detailed as things are constantly changing. Locations of the medical tent have changed several times since I last went, which makes pretty much any map irrelevant after a week. (Some locations like the media tent have remained unchanged)
North Lawn has the Library and the People's University. This is where I found the tent warning of liberal bigotry that I mentioned last week. Most of the meetings occur on this side because there is constant noise on the South Lawn. The General Assembly is held on the North Lawn- which could explain their poor turn out.
While I didn't attend the
General Assembly I went to the mid-day equivalent (if you can call it that. it was eight people- most of which didn't attend more than half, lots of rotation). I think it was called the People's Assembly- or the Occupier's Assembly- something like that. It started with an open forum to submit concerns- mostly about theft and violence. The top issues for OccLA that I can discern are 1) they don't know how to deal with violent situations and 2) separate factions or "Tribes" don't really care to participate in anything beyond their group.
Tribes. As I generally understand it, this is what people are calling the groups of people that have formed. Some have names like "Camp Two Tarp" and most are defined either by an enclosure like a fence or a network made by running tarps from tent to tent, basically making large singular tents with small modular tents attaching to the edges. The basic structure is anywhere from three to seven tents in a semi-circle with tarps often strung from trees to form a single tent. I'd say there are about five major groups formed like this and several more on a smaller scale.
I've seen private storehouses of food within each Tribe as well as individual organizational structures (each tribe acts differently). Like I've mentioned last week, individually people have become much more organized but at the cost of a larger cohesion.
Ok- let's address the two major issues.
1)
Violence. There is a security team- and a security word (which I find completely absurd. it's something like Sha Shanti) During the meeting I went to, some possible solutions were given such as to either dissolve the security team and form another or have trainings to make everybody part of the security. The second makes much more sense as you don't have to do anything with the existing security team. Also, you wouldn't have to waste precious time running around trying to find one of the security team, yelling Sha Shanti or whatever.
2)
Larger Cohesion. As Tribes have become more popular out of frustration with the General Assembly, there has been a major loss in large-scale participation (especially if you don't talk with your fists). I was really surprised when possible solutions for this included alienating dissenters TO MAKE THEM WANT TO PARTICIPATE. Really? Really..? I tried to put my two cents in at this point, but was constantly interrupted. I should work the whole "being loud" thing.
I've had some training in
dealing with difficult people. While I was working on a sailboat in Hawaii, we were planning a trip to a number of islands in the South Pacific where there would be yacht networks that I would have to infiltrate. Yeah, I've been trained in boating espionage, you want to fight about it? ANYWAY. Part of that process was to deal with the issue that many captains in the region are strongly egocentric and generally prickly characters. The way you'd get them to accept you, and, more importantly, actively care about your success was simply to ask for their help or input on your boat. No matter what their suggestion was, no matter how badly the advice (just short of punching a hole in the bottom and sinking your boat) you had to accept it and have them help implement the idea.
During that time I was also further trained in
diplomacy by having to deal with several difficult characters including managers of several box stores and a Chieftain from Samoa. Turns out I'm pretty good at it.
This is
how I'd apply that information to the Occupy Los Angeles issue: I'd go tribe to tribe, actively seeking help with some fundamental aspect of organization. I'd find out what each group was good at and try to implement that towards something I could use help with. The main objection within the Tribes is basically that the General Assembly does not give equal voice to all opinions. The counter to that would be to redesign the basic organization in regard to these voices. You'd essentially develop a much more complex system with many more parts- much more than any one group could organize. Done correctly, each tribe would have a vested interest and responsibility in running the infrastructure of Occupy Los Angeles. I'm going to write up a suggestion to that end and deliver it on my next visit.
This is precisely the same way I'd get more people involved with the movement. The same guy who suggested we alienate people to get them involved also suggested we kick out anyone that isn't political. I really wanted to punch this guy out.
I once heard art defined as anything you could speak about in an artistic language. (there is a reason I was going after philosophy of language. HEY LOOK, PRACTICAL APPLICATION!!!) Now, apply that to politics.
Now, all of a sudden, it isn't to find people with a political perspective but a matter of TRANSLATION. To take their concerns and even solutions and POLITICIZE THEM. I can't believe that I have to stress this but...
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE A POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE TO SOLVE POLITICAL PROBLEMS. Let's try to remember that NOTHING exists solely within the political landscape. Every single political issue has ties into at least a bajillion other issues and if you reject ideas because they aren't political, it seems to me that you've missed the bus completely.
So I suggest that Occupy LA- or anyone with the slightest tie to the Occupy Movement (if you've heard of it) takes their (major) concerns IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE and presents it to someone within the Occupy sphere. A friend of mine had to close his bread delivery business because the price of flower was raised. I'm really too tired to do the due diligence but I'm 100% certain that one could convert that into a political issue if you tracked back the price of flower- as it's a basic commodity and it effects his livelihood as a small business owner.
I'd be more than happy to teach
free classes in this kind of translation between ideas and the kind of research necessary. I guess I should get on that. After math homework.
Oh, a small note- Kat, the woman who started the silk screening printing @ Occupy LA lives a few blocks away from my house. Apparently
Westwood area is trying to get something substantial started. I'll keep the facebook crew keen to those developments as they happen.
If you've got something to add, PLEASE DO SO. Especially if you disagree.
Basic recap:
Train the masses in problem resolution.
Ask for the help of dissatisfied groups.
Ask for the help of non-political people.
