After some initial conversations, I was introduced to the guy who had started the coaching table a few days earlier, Michael, and once I expressed my desire to get involved, we escaped the noise for a few moments to grab a coffee at Starbucks. There were several other protesters there as well, and most of them appeared to be emerging leaders of the movement. All were young, 20s-early 30s, all were energetic, and all were disorganized, but all could appreciate the irony of meeting at Starbucks.
We talked about ideas of how I could help from afar, vaguely outlining a blogging project that I could get involved in, as well as other things that were needed. I began to get an idea of how things worked down there, as well as some of the problems. Clearly there was no shortage of energy or passion. There were plenty of ideas, too many, in fact, as most ideas needed people to help execute them, but everyone seemed more interested in encouraging each other to work on their own idea, even if it overlapped with others. There was clearly a lot of wasted energy, and I did my best to insert a few organizational ideas that I felt might help. After about an hour, a consensus formed, and several projects had emerged: a blog to help tell stories of the 99% (to show that it wasn’t just a bunch of crazies) and help widen the tent, a routing table for intake of volunteers that would essentially work as a sort of Human Resources department, and an “efficiency” team that would try to glue the various working groups throughout the park together.
You see, the whole thing has become something of an experiment in direct democracy, for better or worse. The General Assembly is made up of everyone, and anyone can propose an idea. From the GA have emerged various “working groups” dedicated to specific functions. As of Friday afternoon these were: Internet, Team Planning, Legal (offering free legal council, etc), Sanitation, Medical, Outreach, Media, treasury, education & empowerment, art & culture, kitchen, comfort, direct action, facilitation and open solutions. Sadly, I have no idea what a few of these were about (open solutions?), but I saw several of them in action throughout the day. OWS Sanitation organized a cleanup where everyone in an area had to move their sleeping gear for a general sweep up. As the park’s own sanitation group hasn’t been willing to deal with the protesters, it hadn’t been cleaned for a few days. The kitchen also seemed efficiently run, if somewhat limited by circumstance (and the no open flame rule enforced by the police). However, unlike most of the other groups, they posted clear signs listing what foods were needed, and orderly lines were the norm for those picking up everything from pizza (often ordered from out of state supporters) to homemade vegan casserole to breakfast cereal. Unfortunately, there’s no general quality control, and absolutely no coordination among the groups, and little general direction beyond what anyone was inspired to do at that moment.
However, after a few more hours, I began to see that all of this was totally natural. Much of what had sprung up here was spontaneous and fueled by emotion, not foresight. The population was largely transient – most people did not sleep at the park, but came and went, some staying for a day, others returning day after day after day. How do you organize hundreds of people who all have different opinions and skills if you don’t know how long anyone will be around? Sadly, it was the more permanent population that seemed least equipped to organize things. Many young and inexperienced in any field, and were certainly not professional protesters, but made up for it only with a passionate ambition to be a part of the solution. Of course, no one can be blamed for lack of experience – we’ve all been there. Ultimately, just being there may well be enough, and their passion and ideas may well inspire others with more experience to organize other events. In many ways, I think that’s the point.
In the time since, I’ve remained in contact with those I met on Friday, and am still working on trying to make some kind of blog happen. Yet much of it reminds me of the same paralyzing disorganization I saw in the park, so I’m not really sure what it will look like in the end. Still, it’s starting to come together, and I’m not ready to give up on it yet. I'll post more details when the thing goes live.
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