Feb. 5 report of Occupy Oakland from Boots Riley:

[Starry Messenger]

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=353491384670840&id=520078663

"Occupy Oakland has many upcoming campaigns for people to plug into. We'll be moving more folks into foreclosed homes, continuing to provide food and services for folks, building a new militant labor movement, fighting for education, and creating a mass movement that can eventually change the whole system and get the wealth out of the hands of the 1%- and having the people control our own resources.

Tomorrow is the day that many folks that have been arrested at Occupy Oakland actions and events- from December up through last Saturday- have hearings.

We need to pack the courtrooms. Just to show that the movement is behind these folks and that we have organized solidarity. It really does influence the outcome of the cases. We also need to show those that have been arrested, those that will be arrested in the future, and the DA that people getting cuffs put on them doesn't tag them out of the struggle. Because that's what they're trying to do.

Most of the people that have received orders to stay away from City Hall are people who got charged with things NO WHERE NEAR City Hall. So what legal basis is there for a "stay away" order? This is a clear attempt to disrupt Occupy Oakland.

As with any movement in history, there are folks with valid criticisms of OO. But those aside, there has been an additional smear campaign against us.

KTVU exposed that OPD and city officials conspired to and lied to the public, telling people that OO had driven up crime by taking up police resources. Uncovered emails showed that they knew crime had gone down 19% while Occupy Oakland's encampment was there. But they skewed some people's view of OO.

The Oakland Tribune and city officials used the statements from one downtown business and the Oakland Chamber Of Commerce to say that the OO encampment was negatively impacting downtown business. They didn't mention the fact that the Chamber of Commerce represented NO downtown businesses, the board members live in Fresno and Antioch, and the head of the Chamber was a liar who got arrested by the FBI for embezzling millions. OO did a survey of 89 downtown businesses and 2/3 of them said that OO had a positive or no impact on their business. Many of the other third said that the police raids made a negative impact. Separately the daily national and international coverage of OO no doubt influenced the New York Times to list Oakland as the 5th best place in the world to visit. Hmmm. I wonder how much business that'll bring to Uptown restaurants? Folks from NYT have pretty much said that it was the focus on Occupy Oakland that made them think harder about the restaurants in Oakland.

We moved Gayla Newsome into her foreclosed home and The Chronicle did a hit piece on Newsome and OO basically sounding like a bank's PR person, saying that she should have paid her bills on time and deriding OO. (Gayla's still in there and the loan may be getting re-negotiated)

Mayor Quan lied to the public and said that OO tried to take over the YMCA and/or stormed the building. Video footage on youtube shows a very calm crowd of protesters being let in by supportive YMCA workers in order to escape being trapped by the police by walking through to the other side of the block.

She also lied to the public by saying that OO destroyed children's art when people went into City Hall. The truth came out later that, no, no children's art was destroyed. But the lie did the job of painting folks as frothing-at-the-mouth crazies.

People are so used to media that is on the police's side (decades of cop shows, cop movies, and biased news reports) that when they hear arrest numbers- 406 arrested on Move-In Day- that they assume that those folks were doing something that deserved arrest. However, youtube clips show at least two different instances of the police trapping people in, and giving orders to disperse. Meaning people couldn't leave and they got arrested. Out of 406 arrests, only 12 have charges currently. The arrests were used as part of the Anti-OO propaganda.

Even though the TAC announced, before Saturday's FTP March, that their march would be non-violent and asked folks to use those tactics for that march, the media falsely reported that they had the same parameters as before.

Most of these are the kinds of smears that can't be taken back. So, it affects people's approach to how the movement is talked about. As I've said before, none of the controversies- the city's lies, the honest critique from folks, the mistakes the movement has made- are new to any movement.

That being said- I attended a meeting of mostly Black SEIU members at Everett and Jones on Monday. They have a fight coming up and it seemed like every 4th and 5th word out of the mouths of speakers and attendees was "Occupy Oakland" in a very positive and hopeful light. When OO was mentioned, the crowd cheered. We have inspired them and they hope to unite with us in their fight.

We can't let them whittle us down with attacks by the District Attorney. Let's show them that it's not gonna be that easy for them.

Now is the time for massive solidarity.

See you there.

Below is posted the schedule for tomorrow.

We will start at 8:30am at the courthouse (7th and Washington).
Hearings start at 9am.
After that, we'll rally at Oscar Grant Plaza and March back to pack the courtrooms again."

Cross posted from Socialist Progressives: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1024819

[Magoo48]

1. Stay strong Oakland.....with you in spirit from SoCal.

[Starry Messenger]

2. +1

[pinboy3niner]

5. +2

[Voice for Peace]

3. good wishes & thanks to all occupiers

and everyone else too

[Starry Messenger]

4. Thanks for the thread-love Voice for Peace.

[sabrina 1]

6. Love Oakland Occupiers, they are the bravest. And Boots Riley among others, has been

fantastic in his support for them.

[Starry Messenger]

7. He's tremendous.

I love his writing too. Powerful analysis and keeps people amped. I'm glad he writes about union struggles and bridges them to Occupy, he's really great about that also.

[sabrina 1]

8. He's been a committed activist almost all of his life, I read. A guy with a real, genuine, social

conscience. He could just sit back and enjoy his money, but he puts himself out there for ordinary people. I have the utmost respect for him.

And my other favorite, and a tremendous spokesman for this movement also, is Rage At The Machine's Tom Morello. He has been wonderful and is an impressive speaker also for OWS.

[Zalatix]

9. LOL, Occupy brings DOWN crime in the city. They're all kinds of win!

I can't wait until Benjamin Chavis's Occupy the Dream coalition comes to join the ranks.

It's gonna be ON, then!

[sabrina 1]

10. Yes. I read that Oakland's crime rate went down while the occupiers were in the park.

And once they removed them, the City did nothing to take over the work the occupiers were doing with the homeless, addicts etc. Just threw them back on the street.

And it raises a real question, if ordinary people in cities around the country have been able to deal with some of these problems and without many resources, why can't the cities do so with all the resources they have? Maybe this is something to focus on in the future. I know in one city, they were given an empty building to use and are now fixing it up so they can continue to help the poor and homeless.

And what was really wonderful was how some of the homeless were teaching the occupiers survival skills and as some of them said, felt useful in this world once again, losing the sense of hopelessness they had felt.

[Zalatix]

12. Occupy ought to come back, and record it as a reality show

Show the work they're doing with the homeless. Show the homeless feeling useful again.

Make it a stream-of-reality show to connect with the people.

[sabrina 1]

13. Good idea, and someone like Boots Riley and Tom Morello, or Michael Moore eg, have the contacts

to make a really great documentary, and maybe that is something they should think about. I know they anticipated the Corporate Media's reaction to them and they have started their own newspaper, eg. The Occupy Wall Street Journal. I have tried to contribute to that, but have not been able to. Another city, Chicago I think, recently started their own newspaper also.

'We have to be our own media'. Absolutely, the Corporate media will not cover this movement fairly.

[Zalatix]

17. How do we get Michael Moore to do this? Who has his ear?

[sabrina 1]

18. We could all send him messages on his twitter account. If he heard from enough people, he might

consider it. Remember when he made 'Capitalism A Love Story' he said that he was not going to make another documentary if we did not get up off the couches and join him in his fight for equality and justice. He stuck his neck out so often, but he was beginning to feel that he was pretty much on his own and he no longer wanted to be out there as a target without any backing.

Then OWS happened. He was thrilled, and people started asking him if he would change his mind about making another documentary. He said he didn't know, but he was thrilled that finally there was a movement like OWS.

So, yes, I think he might be persuaded if enough people let him know how they feel.

I follow him on Twitter but one tweet isn't going to get his attention, it would have to be a whole lot.

[Starry Messenger]

11. We have to be the media for this stuff.

The local news stations run hit-pieces on Occupy like clockwork. No positive coverage at all.

[LooseWilly]

14. I love that he's renamed it Oscar Grant Plaza...

Though, a quick search on who Frank Ogawa (the official Plaza after-namee) is rather educational.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_H._Ogawa

Inspirational as Ogawa was though, that's really hardly a story that says "Oakland".

Oscar Grant, on the other hand... that's Oakland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BART_Police_shooting_of_Oscar_Grant

(Though, I heard from many that, back in the '50s and '60s a story like Ogawa's was more the tone of Oakland... with its groves of Orange trees and the like— of course, those were stories I heard from old white folks... who lamented what happened to Oakland after the Black Panthers and such appeared on the scene... just to pass on a spot of Oakland oral history...)

[Starry Messenger]

15. It was Occupy Oakland that renamed it, early on.

Some #OO Twitter posters also call it FO/OG Plaza to keep the honors for both alive.

[Starry Messenger]

16. kick.