Tuesday 15 November 2011

A Look Back At Occupy Oakland


James has been popping back to the United States recently, working on a project for Ford. Look for more information on that job in upcoming posts.

In the meantime, he's been lucky also to pop in to see family. While visiting his sister in the San Francisco Bay area, he had a chance to stop by and see what Occupy Oakland looked like before its Monday dismantling. In a word, impressive. Time will tell if their voices were not in vain.

As you may know, the Occupy movement began on September 17 on Wall Street as an objection to corporate greed, bank bailouts and the power of Wall Street. The movement has since spread to dozens of cities across the United States and has swept up Americans from all political parties as well as movie stars, musicians, writers and educators. 

Here's what it looked like in Oakland: filling the park in front of City Hall. A nice orderly array of tents, its own little city.



There's serious organizing happening. The calendar of events area and the kitchen. They're there for the long haul.




How long? Well, stop by the library and grab a book. Need to find a better place for your money? Check out the credit union area. Is the hay bale the modern version of the mattress for money storage? Surely the point of all this protesting is a better bail(out)?



It's not all protest, protest, protest. Sometimes the band gets together and jams. But the place is full, better wait your turn at grabbing some real estate for your protest place.



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