On the surface, it looked like a victory for the police. The two parks that have been permanently Occupied from the beginning are now cleared and fenced. The Occupation has no home at the moment (though many Occupiers are staying in the UU church basement tonight). Nobody has a clear idea what the next step is.
But the Occupiers remained, almost without exception, completely peaceful. We stood there toe to toe with riot cops, and offered them donuts and sang them songs. They thought they would be dealing with a few hundred, and then 8,000 showed up. And stayed through the night. 2,500 came back the next day.
Many are new to the Occupation, and many have differing agendas. Some want to Occupy a vacant school, some want to do focused day protests, some want to Occupy another park. There's nothing close to consensus, the weather has turned filthy, the Occupation has no infrastructure at the moment.
And that's OK.
What we have done in Portland will resonate, and grow. We have proven that we can have mass direct action, hold to nonviolence, and shut down a city. That knowledge will not go away. I do not view this as a failure at all.
What's next? I don't have a clue. That makes it scary and fun and frustrating and creative. For damn sure I'll be at tomorrow nights GA.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY: 7pm Monday, Pioneer Square I remain deeply pessimistic about the short and mid-term future. But the Occupation is actually giving me hope for the long-term future. Even if the pay-off doesn't come for 50 years, we are planting good seeds today.
http://occupyportland.org/
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