DC's Two Occupy Camps plan merger at McPherson Square -- this is big news because Freedom Plaza
Last edited Wed Apr 11, 2012, 04:06 PM - Edit history (3)
This is big news because Freedom Plaza was the first-planned Occupy in the country. The timing of their planned "Tahrir Square protest" on October 6 -- the ten-year anniversary of the War on Terror -- was initially planned in April 2011 and set the date for the Occupy Everywhere movement, after Occupy Wall Street and various online groups that supported it, such as Anonymous, endorsed the Freedom Plaza action. Also note that October 2011 movement, the group that started planning actions in DC last fall, had a falling out with Kevin Zeese, the well-known anti-war activist who was one of the group's co-founders, and has since been siding more closely with OWS.
The comments section here could use a little help. Read the comments (or hell, the article) and you'll see the typical attitude by the Post's readers toward Occupy:
[font face="New York" size="3"]District’s two Occupy camps headed toward McPherson Square merger[/font]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/districts-two-occupy-camps-headed-toward-mcpherson-square-merger/2012/04/06/gIQAOqka0S_story.html
Ever since Washington's Occupy protesters pitched their tents in two high-profile spaces downtown, observers have been asking: Why two?
[font face="Times"]ed. note:
-- LG.[/font]
The answer wasn’t exactly clear. [font face="Times"](to Post-reading intellectuals)[/font] One camp, in Freedom Plaza, was founded by veteran antiwar activists; the other, in McPherson Square, by recent college graduates. While both groups advocated similar goals of economic justice, they fiercely prized their independence and some days barely got along.
[font face="Helvetica"]
Occupy Wall Street in D.C.: After Saturday's sweep of the Occupy encampment at McPherson Square,
U.S. Park Police conduct a less contentious compliance check on Freedom Plaza, resulting in one arrest. [/font]
[font face="Helvetica"]
Photos from the occupation --?A look at life for the Occupy DC protesters living in McPherson Square. [/font]
Until now.
Facing an uncertain future, the two Occupy camps agreed in principle this week to join forces, with three dozen or so Occupiers probably packing up at Freedom Plaza and moving their vigil tents to McPherson in the next week or 10 days. The deal was cemented Friday evening, when activists at Freedom Plaza voted unanimously to approve the move. The group plans to keep an information tent at the plaza, however. “The two occupations in Washington, D.C., are uniting in McPherson Square,” said Lacy MacAuley, 33, an Occupy protester. “We’ve been getting closer and closer and doing joint [protest] actions. So this is something that’s been in the air for a while.”
Carol B. Johnson, spokeswoman for the National Mall and Memorial Parks, said that in recent days the Occupiers at the federally owned Freedom Plaza had been negotiating for a new protest permit with the National Park Service. Their permit is set to expire April 29. But when Park Service officials told them that they would have to vacate the plaza throughout the spring and summer to make way for other groups that had reserved it, they began to think about leaving. Occupiers in Freedom Plaza said they felt good about the plan to unify.
“It’s going to be fantastic,” said Barry Knight, 44. “Initially, there were differences in terms of age. McPherson started out with a much younger crowd. But I don’t understand how that age difference would be a negative if we merged. Diversity is a strength; division is a weakness.” The two groups had moved into the federal parkland at different times in October in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement but had long operated separately, each holding its own marches and creating separate governing structures.
The overnight campers remained in both spots for four months until U.S. Park Police evicted them in February, clearing the parks of bedding and debris while leaving a handful of tents behind. The Occupiers can maintain symbolic vigil tents in the public spaces, but are not allowed to sleep in them. Park Service officials are grappling with the prospect that they could face bigger crowds in the park just as its spring refurbishment is underway, Johnson said.
On Thursday, Park Service employees began turning over the flower beds in McPherson Square and preparing to reseed some $8,000 worth of sod that was ruined during the long protest.
Note how the article fails to mention:
* The historic importance of the Freedom Plaza protest as one of the first Occupy groups in the nation.
* The fact that NPS has refused to allow Occupy to pay for or reseed the grass ("Occupy Turf"
because that would legitimize their presence in MacPherson Square.
As mentioned in an earlier thread, Occupeep DC won the Post's annual Easter Peep Show diorama contest. While they said that it quickly became clear that an Occupy entry would be the winner, the Post said they picked the winner because of the journalistic fairness displayed by the winning entry, accurately displaying both the political signs and major events featured in the park at MacPherson Square, and the rats, "which everyone remembers" according to the Post. (Post editors especially liked the rats.) "I heard about the Guy Fawkes mask, and I heard about the rats, so I had to include those," said the person submitting the winning entry (paraphrased). "I don't necessarily agree with Occupy, but I support their right to protest."
= new reply since forum marked as read
rec.
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I am familiar with Kervin Zeese, I don't know the details of what happened
so I can't offer an opinion, but I first learned about October 2011.org from him. 