Thomas MacMillan Photo
The newest addition to the Green’s tent city: a teepee.
With winter looming, public opinion souring, and some in the national movement calling for a folding of tents, New Haven’s occupiers on the Green — infused with new inspiration from their trip to New York — said they’re not going anywhere.
In the two months since it began in New York, the Occupy Wall Street movement has shifted national—even international—discussion toward consideration of income inequality and corporate greed. It has spawned tent communities of protesters camping out in public squares across the country, including New Haven.
Now the original people to propose the protests have issued a call that occupiers should “declare victory” and pack up for the winter. That suggestion came from Adbusters, the Canadian activist organization that published the call that led to Occupy Wall Street.
In New Haven, the call to move on has proved about as popular as the latest Wall Street CEO bonuses.
The occupation’s work is not done, said Occupy New Haven’s Tommy Doomsday. New Haven’s protesters are holding strong with some 60 tents up and occupied.
“I’m not sure they get it yet,” said Doomsday. The occupation must continue, in order to “keep a big flag in the middle of the public eye,” he said.
An anonymous occupier.
Another protestor (pictured), who asked to remain anonymous, agreed that the work is not over. “If we were to declare victory, by what standard does Adbusters think we’re rating success?”
Adbusters put victory-declaration forward as one of two possible strategies going forward. The other is to “grit our teeth” and tough out the winter to “impress the world with our determination and guts.”
New Haven’s occupation is embracing the latter option.
“We have to make it through the winter,” said Occupy New Haven’s Ray Neal, while marching from Zuccotti Park to Union Square in Manhattan last week. He was one of 30 New Haven occupiers who journeyed to New York to participate in a “Day of Action.”
Occupiers need to show that they’re not just camping for fun, he said. When people see the occupiers shiver through the winter without surrendering ground, the public will realize the movement is serious, Neal said. Occupier Drew Peccerillo expressed similar sentiments on the bus ride down to New York from New Haven Thursday.
Cold weather isn’t the only obstacle the occupation faces. Recent polling has shown that public opinion is turning against the occupation protests.
More recently, the movement narrative has centered around clashes with police in Oakland, New York, and UC Davis. Occupy New Haven stepped into that story last Thursday during the day of action. Two New Haveners — Todd Sanders and Sara Neal, Ray’s wife — were arrested while trying to stop people from entering the New York Stock Exchange.
Back on the Green on Monday evening, Sanders said he was inspired by his time in the New York City jail. He said he spent hours with his fellow arrested protestors, trading notes, “mic checking,” singing songs, and applauding each new arrival. He said he also learned a lot from talking with guys in jail who weren’t part of the movement, and were curious to know what all the radicals were doing in lock-up.
“I’d go back to jail if I had to,” Sanders said. While the process is designed to humiliate and intimidate, he said it had the opposite effect on him. “Going to jail empowered us.”
Sanders said he’s due back in New York on January to answer to charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Sanders, a philosophy student at Southern Connecticut State University, said he’s still committed to staying on the Green, but he acknowledged that the movement needs to start thinking about what “Phase Two” is going to look like. If occupiers leave public spaces, it’ll be easier for people to ignore the movement, Sanders said.
The occupation is not simply a protest, it’s a way to “start modeling the society we want to see,” Sanders said.
On the Green, that society consists of some 60 tents, punctuated by piles of leaves raked by occupiers, plus large pavilions stocked with food, blankets, and warm clothes. At this point, the movement is fueled largely by day-old sandwich wraps from Blue State Coffee.
On Monday, L.A. blogger Joe Peterson (at right in photo), in town for Thanksgiving, brought by some blankets and a box of toiletries, pasta, and Mountain Dew.
Elsewhere, two newcomers set up next to a large farewell note from an occupier who went by the name Somalia. David Vinelli said he lost his Wallingford apartment recently. He couldn’t afford it anymore on the meager wage from his telecommunications installation job, said the 40-year-old.
Culp and Vinelli set up camp.
Jeffrey Culp, 41, said he’s gainfully employed as an arborist. He had been renting a room in New Haven until recently, he said. With a new tent from Walmart, the pair said they’re prepared to spend the winter on the Green. But Culp said he has little hope the occupation will change the world.
“I believe this is pretty much futile, I really do,” Culp said. “I think the corporations are going to win out.” But you can’t stand by and do nothing, he added.
At the other end of the occupation, Michael Barton-Sweeney was putting the finishing touches on his teepee. “Maybe if this works out, I’ll bring some wigwams over,” he said.
Inside Amurrica.
Barton-Sweeney said he’s not sure if he’ll be staying in the teepee, which may not be the most winter-ready dwelling at the occupation. That honor might belong to the “United Tents of Super Amurrica,” a collection of five tents joined together under a patchwork of tarps and centered on pallets and camp chairs.
Amurrica’s border, like that of other tents on the Green, is marked by a new sign indicating that a warrant is required to enter, featuring New Haven attorney Irving Pinsky’s name.
Inside, Doomsday and an occupier, who asked to remain anonymous, entertained questions from Luc Erard, a Swiss journalist.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Doomsday told Erard, when asked the inevitable “What do you want?” question. “There is so much wrong with this country and this world,” it’s going to take more than a couple of months to figure out what the answer is, Doomsday said.
Doomsday.
Previous coverage of Occupy New Haven and Occupy Wall Street:
• New Haven Occupiers Clash With NYC Cops
• Who’s In & Who’s Out At The Occupation?
• “I Knew It — He’s A Scumbag”
• “Occu-Pies” Arrive
• Occupation Weather(ize)s Its 1st Storm
• Clergy Bless The Occupiers
• Occupiers Eye Clock Factory
• In New Haven, “Occupiers” Embrace The Cops
• Midnight Drug Warning Sparks Soul-Searching
• Emergency Session Poses Democracy Test
• The Password (The Password) … Is (Is) …
• 1,000 Launch New Haven’s “Occupation”
• Klein: Occupation Needs To Confront Power
• Whoops! Movement Loses $100K
• New Haven’s “Occupation” Takes Shape
• Occupy Branford: Wall Street Edition
• Anti-Bankers’ Dilemma: How To Process $$
• Labor, Occupiers March To Same Beat
• Protests’ Demand: A “World We Want To See”
• Protesters To Occupy Green Starting Oct. 15
• Wall Street Occupiers Page Verizon
• New Haven Exports “Free”-dom To Occupiers