What we are trying to do here is huge and there are a lot of questions. Hopefully you can find some of your answers here.
What is it you are protesting?
We are part of the Occupy Wall Street protest.
Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.
- http://occupywallst.org/
We are protesting the greed and corruption that has plagued this great country.
How are you protesting?
We are protesting using peaceful assembly and open forums.
Who is organizing the protest? Why are they the leading the leaderless movement?
The protest is organized by everyday citizens just like you. This is a leaderless movement because hierarchical systems that deny people the chance to initiate changes hinder growth and morale.
Is it legal?
Yes! And yes again! America is built on the ideas of free speech and peaceful public gatherings!
When does it start? Will there be events after Thursday Oct 6th?
The protest starts on Thursday Oct 6th at 9am and continues until Oct 15th. There will be a General Assembly held everyday so that everybody’s voices can be heard. Other events such as teach-ins and marches will be decided on in the General Assembly so still tuned to Facebook and Twitter for updates.
How can I help?/ I can’t be there to protest, but I want to donate supplies/money.
Come down and participate.If you have a skill you think will be essential mention it to someone! We may be able to find a committee than can use you. If you can’t come down and participate, watch our live stream and tell anyone you can about our movement. If you’d like to make a donation using your debit or credit card you may do so here (this is a secure site).
If you’d like to donate food and/or supplies please bring them to occupation at Cesar Chavez park in downtown Sacramento and speak to one of the committee members on site.
Can I bring my kids?
This is a family friendly event. However please keep in mind we are not in control of the things people may say or do around your children (i.e. swearing or other possibly offensive behavior).
Can I bring my pet?
We aren’t going to stop you, but be aware that there are going to be crowds and loud noises. Not all animals can handle such an environment so unless your pet is properly trained, we would advice against it. If your pet often displays violent/vicious behavior towards other animals or children it may be a good idea to leave him or her at home.
Disclaimer: We are not affiliated with nor do we run occupysacramento.com
November 19, 2024 at 10:31 am
I’m still confused about what you’re protesting against. What are you trying to accomplish? If you get what you’re protesting for, what will happen?
November 30, 2024 at 5:24 pm
I’m interested in the rationale behind Occupy criticism I have read here and elsewhere — what drives us to spew hate and discouragement towards others that are attempting to put action behind their ideals? These people long for change and are stepping up to try something new.
Here’s an analogy: It’s sort of like honking at a bicyclist for making you pause for one second and adjust your driving — what a terrible nuisance! You’ve got a person sweating, out in the weather, risking themselves with pushy or distracted drivers, possibly too poor to own a car, or working to keep their body healthy, or trying to put their idealism about climate change or foreign oil consumption to work. Your honking is purely a gesture of self loathing. What is it to you that others protest what they believe is a radical unfairness in out society? Stop crying.
People protest because they feel marginalized. If you feel no compulsion to change anything then remain silent, compliant, and dreaming of living as the 1% wishes you to do. Your negativity, and desire for the status quo is frustrating for most. Unlike the popular myths of our founding fathers as God-fearing white gentry that designed the perfect Bible-like document, this country was actually founded through non-violent (and violent) protests (think of the Tea Party’s namesake — a protest in Boston where laws were broken and personal property was destroyed [tea], and the people were trying to send a larger message of anger at their lack of representation.)
Calling Occupy protesters idiots, liberals, hippies, kids, etc, is just immature and pathetic. Ask yourself what motivates you to share your opinion here? I have asked this question for myself and I answer it here:
I am proud of you Occupy protesters. I applaud your efforts, and I encourage you to continue. It takes guts, discomfort and sweat to do what you are doing. I encourage you to ignore, honking, thoughtless criticism, and continue experimenting. Be willing to use democratic principles of organization, but cling to the qualities of true anarchism that address scale, technology, bureaucracy, etc. Develop more defined goals in consensus, be respectful, but continue the resistance and continue to expand your protest. You should be thinking of huge coalescing/ gathering in D.C. this summer. I stand in solidarity with you here.
November 18, 2024 at 2:30 pm
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“An intelligent plan is the first step to success. The man who plans knows where he is going, knows what progress he is making and has a pretty good idea when he will arrive.”
-Basil S. Walsh
You cannot gain anything without specific goals. Like setting term limits, Ending the ability for congress to give itself a raise when it sees fit, ending lobbyists massive influence, or ending the special massive lifetime pay/retirement/healthcare of those in power. If you actually were protesting for these causes or any real cause you would gain respect and followers….hell you might even accomplish something. However, simply stating you are tired of Greed and Corruption will not accomplish anything. Your Cause needs Definable and Attainable Goals. Without them YOU WILL FAIL.
A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
You must find a Leader or at least a group of people who Lead your Movement Democratically. Otherwise your group has no Voice for people to hear. A large group of people shouting different things is harder to understand then a single person talking backed by a group of like minded people. The leader doesn’t have to make the plans/goals but he must be someone respectable enough to show the plans/goals.
“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”
-Albert Einstein
Once you have a Leader and Goals you have to use Their system to beat them. Get the public’s respect and get people to vote with you. As a Nation we are all tired of the way Congress acts and its Hyper-partisan ways. So get people elected that wont add to that.
And remember
All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
November 18, 2024 at 2:38 pm
I would love to speak with whoever is more or less in charge in Sacramento’s occupy movement at any time. just email me and we can discuss whatever you want.
November 21, 2024 at 9:32 pm
this is great! I agree, please fight for something so your efforts are not wasted and forgotten about years from now.
if you did, I and others would join for sure!!!
November 25, 2024 at 7:53 pm
Yes,Yes,Yes You are sooo right!
November 8, 2024 at 2:47 pm
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2011/11/07/homeless-clash-with-occupy-sacramento-protesters-at-park
“The Occupy leader felt so threatened by a homeless woman, she thought about getting a restraining order.”
Is OWS going to use the courts (that they plan to clog until they’re unavailable) to push the bottom 1% out of “their” park? Does OWS plan to continue this sort of thing until the laws of economics are repealed?
This passed “funny” a while back. Now it’s just pathetic. Go home, kids. You have accomplished whatever you had any realistic chance of accomplishing. Now you’re just turning your cause into a joke. One that’s way outlasted its humor.
November 12, 2024 at 1:07 pm
I respectfully disagree with “Adult.” First, it isn’t only college age people involved with the Occupy movement so denigrating the participants as if they are a bunch of children is extremely inappropriate. Second, Adult assumes those in Occupy have a home to go back to when many of them cannot afford to attend school, cannot find a job with which to pay rent, or have been pushed out of their homes for other reasons. Finally, unless you are someone who uses the park for other reasons, why are you so upset? Instead of telling everyone at Occupy they are delusional, remember that over 200 years ago no one thought a bunch of colonists could beat the largest military power in the world, either. You don’t need to participate if you choose not to, but you don’t need to mock them either. And yes, I am a tax-paying, self-employed professional with firmly middle class issues and very ordinary. But I support what Occupy is doing because it is my right to do so.
November 25, 2024 at 7:58 pm
Annette, all protester do not have the right to use up City resources for something that has NO goal in mind! That is MY tax money too!!
November 1, 2024 at 4:04 am
Thank you for maintaining a respectful tone when asking questions about, and responding to the Occupy Wall St. (Sacramento) movement. Much appreciated
It seems to me that the Occupy movement is organized around the general (peoples) assembly, and that the protesters are leading themselves, through this process. Here is a link to a full description:
http://takethesquare.net/2011/07/31/quick-guide-on-group-dynamics-in-peoples-assemblies/
Use Google to learn more about it, then return to the discussion,
——————
What is a People’s Assembly? It is a participatory decision-making body which works towards consensus. The Assembly looks for the best arguments to take a decision that reflects every opinion – not positions at odds with each other as what happens when votes are taken. It must be pacific, respecting all opinions: prejudice and ideology must left at home. An Assembly should not be centred around an ideological discourse; instead it should deal with practical questions: What do we need? How can we get it? The Assembly is based on free association – if you are not in agreement with what has been decided, you are not obliged to carry it out. Every person is free to do what they wish – the Assembly tries to produce collective intelligence, and shared lines of thought and action. It encourages dialogue and getting to know one another.
What types of Assembly have we used so far? Working Group Assemblies, Commission Assemblies, Local Assemblies (in neighbourhoods, villages and towns), General Assemblies of the Puerta de Sol Protest Camp and General Assemblies of Madrid (Puerta de Sol plus neighbourhoods, villages and towns). These latter (General) Assemblies are the final deliberative or deciding bodies from which the consensuses are decided in order to articulate the different lines of Joint Action for the 15th May Movement in each city.
What is Consensus? It is the way that the assemblies make a final decision over each specific proposal. Consensus is reached when there is no outright opposition in the assembly against the proposal. The following format must be applied to each proposal: 1) What is being proposed? 2) Why is it being proposed? 3) How can we carry out the Proposal if a consensus is reached? To sum up: What? Why? How?
What is Direct Consensus? A Consensus that is directly reached without opinions against it: Proposal > Consensus.
What is Indirect Consensus? A Consensus that is reached after debating different opinions on a proposal which did not reach a Direct Consensus. The following steps are taken to reach an Indirect Consensus: 1) What? Why? How? 2) After the moderator asks ‘Are there any strongly opposed opinions?’, and if there are, a queue for floor time is prepared. The Floor Time Team and Coordinator(s) open the first round of debate. Three arguments for and three arguments against are allowed. After that, the Assembly is asked to show its opinion again through Gestures. If consensus is still not reached when asking if there are opinions against, the Moderator will ask the Assembly to discuss the issue for three to five minutes in small groups where they are sitting. After this small break a second round of interventions consisting of Proposals for Consensus takes place. If a consensus is still not reached after these two rounds, the following takes place: a) If the Proposal comes from a Commission or Working Group, it is returned in order to be reworked, b) If the Proposal comes from an individual, it will be taken to the competent Commission or Working Group so it can reach a consensus on its usefulness and present a reworked version of it in the next Assembly, where it will once again go through the same procedure. And so on until a Real Consensus is reached.
October 27, 2024 at 10:05 pm
Define “leadership”, and then explain why you don’t need it.
Wealth does not exist in a vacuum, it must be created.
Define “economics”, and then tell me how you plan on distributing the resources required to create wealth?
IF you cannot, your protest is “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
December 29, 2023 at 11:13 pm
Wealth is not created; it is just moved from the weakest to the strongest. For over 6000 years, each empire throughout history has reached as far out as possible to usurp whatever resources it could from the weakest and poorest. In our case, the American empire has not only sucked the marrow out of most every American citizen’s bones but has its fangs in just about every country in the world, except coincidentally the ones that it happens to beat the war drums against like Venezuela, North Korea, and Iran. You may ask how did all that wealth in the form of home equity disappear; it didn’t. It was transferred from us to the finance sector in various ways. Or in the worst case, this artificial wealth this artificial wealth created by the push of a button by the Fed never really existed in the first place. Read “13 Bankers” by Simon Johnson and James Kwak or “Bad Money” by Kevin Phillips.
October 27, 2024 at 9:54 pm
The tea party is complaining about paying for bailouts and OWS is complaining about not getting bailouts.
October 21, 2024 at 1:16 am
Why are “the 99%” rallying against Wall Street again? The banks are corrupt for accepting a payout from the same government officials whom they put into office? You’re doing the same thing >> (” If you’d like to make a donation using your debit or credit card you may do so here.”) Seems a bit hypocritical to me.
If this whole Occupy Nonsense is “leaderless,” who’s in charge of taking (and spending) my credit card payment? Don’t tell me you are going to have a General Assembly and use hand signals to get consensus on what you’re doing with my money. (I’m not THAT stupid.)
Here’s an idea. If you really want to make a difference, go to your polling place next November (2012) and elect Ron Paul. END THE FED! #occupywhitehouse
October 20, 2024 at 7:21 am
#1, you really have NOT answered the question. “What is the purpose of your protesting? What are you trying to resolve?”
2. 99% of WHAT? 99% of the people who would rather the government feed and house them for free instead of working for a living?
3. Today is October 20. In your posting you say this protest is going to end on October 15th. So, . .do you REALLY have any plan to accomplish anything?
All I see is a bunch of ill-informed liberal democrat supported puppets with nothing better to do camping out in public parks against the reasonable laws meant to protect the public health and well-being (laws such as ordinances that close the park after dark for public safety). You are expecting the government to not enforce laws because you are somehow “exempt”, really all you are accomplishing is forcing the government to spend excess money on law enforcement, sanitation, etc. A RESPONSIBLE group holding an event like this would get the proper approvals, permits, provide their own meals, sanitation, etc.
IN MY OPINION, YOU ARE A BUNCH OF FREE-LOADING IDIOTS!. I would like to see your explanation why you feel differently!
October 20, 2024 at 11:08 pm
If you had done your homework, you would know that the concept of the 99% comes from the known fact that in the United States, 1% of people control of the wealth of the entire nation. The 99% are those who do not have a hand in this money, nor do they have any control over what happens to it. According to the US Census Bureau, there are over 300,000,000 people living in the United States today. What is one percent of that?
This isn’t about liberal or conservative ideology, it is about the fact that too many people in this nation are suffering because of the hoarding of economic/political resources in the hands of the elite. This protest is about American citizens realizing that this does not have to be our reality, and they are using their CONSTITUTIONAL right to do so.
If only every American had the courage to step their toes out of line enough to fight for what is truly right. Everyone having access to the basic goods in life (housing, education, food)- that is something worth fighting for. I’m sorry that you disagree.
And this post wasn’t written by a free-loading idiot. It was written by a 4.0 Sociology student at the University of California.
October 22, 2024 at 6:43 am
A 4.0 Sociology major. Kewl. What’s the ratio of Liberal Arts majors to Science majors in the Occupy crowds? I’ll guess 5:1. Rigorous thinking is not really much in evidence here. All you need to get a 4.0 in Soc or Wymyn’s Studies is to agree with the prof’s opinion.
October 25, 2024 at 8:53 am
It’s okay, you can continue to be in denial about the fact that no matter how are you work at it, You will NEVER become the 1%… The fact that the 1% has the money to brainwash the population in actually believing in the bootstrap theory makes me think how amazing it would be to snap my fingers and the majority of people believe me. I work while paying for school at a UC as well… It is fine by me, if you want to continue believing in fairy tales and degrading those who not only are juggling school, work but also fighting for justice… Long over due… When one group is oppressed we all are… The problem with our nation is civil obedience we live in the richest country in the world, but we have hard working Americans losing their homes, jobs and every source of pride… Until now, now they can have a voice and start utilizing their strengths to gain the one form of integrity that will never go away… Fighting for the future of America.. One day these people will wake up, either when its too late (I only hope this isn’t the case) or soon… Keep believing in the stereotypes that the wealthy has been feeding you, that we are lazy/complaining/want a free ride group of people.. this GLOBAL movement wants justice, a living wage, and end the corruption.. They are exercising the PEOPLE’S right to participate in a democracy… What has protesting ever accomplished? I don’t know have you ever heard of the Civil Rights Movement, Women’s Rights Movement, Workers Rights Movement… Ooooohhhhh THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION! Some food for thought..
October 25, 2024 at 5:05 pm
I’m definitely NOT a liberal and am certainly NOT a Democrat voter. I support this movement based on their First Ammendment right to assemble, ask the govt for redress and freedom of speech.
Sounds like you are closed minded about this movement. Many people, including Conservative Republicans are fed up with how this country is run. Just because someone protests against corporate welafe and govt. corruption does not mean they are a “liberal Democract”.
October 17, 2024 at 12:27 pm
What will “protesting greed and corruption” accomplish? It’s like “protesting” against gravity. Unless you have a plan to do something about it, protesting either greed or gravity just makes you look foolish. I haven’t seen anything that even looks like a plan, just a lot of protesting. How is that different from a mass tantrum?
October 18, 2024 at 2:44 pm
So you dont think the civil rights movement accomplished anything? How about the long and tedious process of protesting the vietnam war? What we want from this is our government back. As in ‘We the people’ not ‘We the people that have some random financial credit score and other indicators of our value in how fair someone should treat us’.
I dont know about you sir or mad’am but when i know something is wrong i act, i dont twiddle my thumbs and ponder how the paragraph structure should look in my essay to someone called a ‘congressman’ should look like.
October 21, 2024 at 7:36 pm
Yes, we want our government back. What makes anyone think we’ll get it by standing in the streets and “demanding” it? Do you think that it was the protests that ended Vietnam?
Look at MLK’s protests for civil rights. They were well-mannered appeals to decency, to people’s consciences. (The Watts Riot didn’t help them out, it was a setback.) You have to win hearts and minds. Acting like an unruly mob doesn’t do that.
When something is wrong, it isn’t enouch to just “act,” Sir or Madam, you have to “act” according to a plan that will FIX it. Clogging up the streets and pissing off the locals won’t win any hearts or minds, and it won’t get our government back.
October 23, 2024 at 8:51 pm
Hmmm,
What is it that YOU think ended the Vietnam war? Our “winning strategy”, the brilliant tatics? If you study General Giap’s history, you’ll find that the anti-war movement was something he counted on within his strategy.
MLK nonviolent protest were met with water hoses and ax handles. This “appeal” you are talking about was the reaction by the masses of seeing people beat by the police and bystanders (AKA the southern white racist). MLK had a plan— to help striking garbage workers.
I guess there are “locals” that might be pissed off but hey, wait until we clog up the entire furloughed courts, city attorneys, public defenders and DA’s offices. Then you will have something to piss and moan about when you cannot pay that ticket, get your divorce or re-register to vote. To quote an old Vietnam saying, “If you want to get their hearts and minds, grab by the balls.” If arrested, demand a jury trial.
OCCUPY!!!!!!!
October 24, 2024 at 2:40 pm
You are correct that the NVA realized that declining American support for the war worked in the NVA’s favor. But the protests had little to do with it. The Vietnam war ended because the public saw it as an expensive, bloody meatgrinder that seemed more and more pointless with every passing year. The American military strategy seemed designed to avoid winning it.
The conscience of the “silent majority” (in reaction to the police brutalizing MLK’s *well-behaved* protestors) won their hearts and minds; grabbing the majority’s balls didn’t, and wouldn’t have. MLK’s protestors were seen as victims to be rescued. Social vandals deliberately clogging up the system won’t get that kind of public sympathy.
You seem to think that the public will accede to OWS demands in order to stop the protestors’ tantrums. How well did that tactic work with your parents?
October 27, 2024 at 10:00 pm
One man, LBJ, lost the war. Read “A Nation of Sheep” by William J. Leaderer (If you can find it.
October 14, 2024 at 8:24 pm
I for one want to know where they are getting their money. I’ve been around enough to see where these socialist movements take us.
I for one really want to know: Why is the official Occupy Wall Street website in league with lobbying fronts (moveon.org) for the Wall Street-backed Obama White House?
October 10, 2024 at 1:20 am
“Who is organizing the protest? Why are they the leading the leaderless movement?”
I would very appreciate these questions answered.