Melissa Bailey Photo
“Tired of capitalism,” Nick Long rolls free cigarettes.
LIBERTY PARK — Instead of listing demands, the activists “occupying” Wall Street said they’re building an alternative vision to the world they reject right in the heart of New York’s financial district — and offering a vision of what may arrive in New Haven next week on a smaller scale.
That vision has unfolded over the past three weeks, as a loose association of free spirits has built a tarp-covered, cooperative community in Zuccotti Park on Broadway. The group congealed around the broad goal of fighting corporate greed and its impact on unemployed and foreclosed-upon citizens, seeking to tap into the Arab Spring to launch an American revolution of its own.
As the Occupy Wall Street movement grabs international headlines and begets “occupations” around the nation — including this one planned for New Haven next week— observers have pressured the group to come up with a list of demands. What policy proposals are they uniting around?
Some individuals associated with protests have tried to draw up such lists, like this one. But in general, organizers both in New York and in New Haven don’t see their goals taking the form of such lists.
Ari Cowan (pictured), a vocal member of Occupy Wall Street’s “direct action” committee, said people who ask for demands are “misunderstanding the movement.”
Instead, he said, “we’re creating an example of another world that is possible” — one that’s cooperative instead of competitive, and exists outside the bounds of capitalism. Organizers of the “occupation” planned for New Haven’s upper Green beginning next week are offering a similar vision.
Cowan, who’s 21, is a San Francisco native who most recently lived in Northampton, Mass., playing violin on the street for money. He said the group plans to occupy Zuccotti Park, a privately owned space in New York’s financial district that’s zoned for public use (renamed “Liberty Park” by the occupiers), indefinitely — “until we create the world we want to see.”
That world involves decision-making by consensus — or 9/10ths plus one of the group, when consensus is not possible — in two town meetings that take place every day.
And it involves volunteers who sweep, take out trash, administer band-aids, sing, drum, and prepare food for the hundreds of people who sleep under tarps at night and come through during the day. The group is sustained by a steady flow of donations, including $35,000 in cash, according to organizers.
On Tuesday afternoon, reggae artist Dilinga Movements took a moment to sweep out the plaza. He said he hasn’t been sleeping in the square, but he visits and sings with drum circles when he can.
“I feel [the square] should be swept four to six times a day,” he declared Tuesday as he wielded the broom in a Che Guevara T‑shirt.
“I’m not going to submit myself to slavery and working for a minimum wage,” he explained. “I’d rather volunteer my time, my music” to Zuccotti Park. “It’s time for global change” for justice, said the Jamaican-American from Brooklyn.
He’s one of many volunteers pitching in on various committees to keep everyone safe, warm, fed and politically organized.
John Johnson, who described himself as a war vet and doctor at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Staten Island, handed out band-aids to an activist Tuesday afternoon. He’s supplementing a medical supplies station stocked with vitamins and bandages.
Nick Long, an unemployed 22-year-old, set up shop with a bag of donated tobacco and some rolling paper with a sign that reads, “Nick @ Nite.” The donations came rolling in, and soon he found himself with a brisk business. He said he rolled 1,665 cigarettes on the first day, and handed them out for free.
“I’m tired of capitalism, all that bull crap,” he said.
The group has set up a robust lending library, which remained well-stocked in periodicals and books throughout the day.
Aminafu Williams, a 71-year-old retired auto worker and lifelong civil rights activists, stopped by to peruse the magazines around 5 p.m.
“I like what these young people are doing,” said Williams, who lives in Newark. He called the movement “part of a universal consciousness that’s rising up not just here,” but around the world, highlighting the gap between rich and poor.
In the new space, some found time to redraw the “socioeconomic power structure” map.
Drummers kept the beat to bouts of dance.
“There’s joy and fun,” noted media-relations volunteer Bill Dobbs to some TV reporters who had just arrived at the scene. “They’re emotions, but emotions are important — they get you revved up and excited” about political action.
Others met that aim through free massages.
Food flowed freely throughout the day, thanks to continual donations in cash and edible form.
Donations included cookies sent from a grandmother in Idaho and pineapples from Hawaii, said Anj Ferrara, who’s organizing the food. She said her food committee has shifted focus away from ordering food like pizza and donuts. Instead, they solicit donations from farmers, then find people with large kitchens who are willing to cook for a group.
Ferrara said the encampment at Zuccotti park “is not sustainable, because it’s being sustained by donations.” But she said the group has succeeded in “creating a place where we can restructure how the democratic process works,” by giving everyone a voice through consensus decision-making and by empowering young people to be leaders.
The vegan drumsticks she set out went quickly Tuesday afternoon.
Ponchos were the hottest ticket at the comfort station, which offers free clothes and bedding.
The dress shirts went untouched.
The only thing the community doesn’t have is a bathroom, said info-desk staffer Kevin Sheneberger. In the absence of any public toilets, many of the occupiers have been using the bathroom of the local McDonald’s.
Sheneberger said his group recommends that protestors use bathrooms of local businesses, but make sure to buy something on their way in. He recognized that many of the activists may not want to buy anything at the mega-corporate McDonalds, and have been popping inside anyway.
“You’ve got to choose your battles,” he said “we’re opting to cede a little ground so we can use the bathroom, so we can change things” farther down the road.
Previous Occupy Wall Street/ New Haven coverage:
• Protesters To Occupy Green Starting Oct. 15
• Wall Street Occupiers Page Verizon
• New Haven Exports “Free”-dom To Occupiers