Occupy Movement Marches On
On Tuesday, November 15, more than 700 University of California Berkeley students, faculty, and supporters marched past Berkeley High School and around Berkeley while protesting in solidarity with the Occupy Cal movement. Occupy Cal declared November 15 a Day of Action and the UC Berkeley campus in an “open university” strike in response to the Occupy Cal protesters being removed forcibly by police from their campsite in Sproul Plaza on November 9. After protesting around Berkeley, the march moved up Bancroft Avenue to Sproul Plaza for a general assembly.
During the general assembly, protesters voted to pitch tents and reestablish the Occupy Cal campsite again. However, at 3:30 AM on November 17, police shut down the campsite for the second time, this time without retaliation. In the neighboring Occupy Oakland movement, protesters held a strike protesting police brutality on Wednesday, November 2. Many Berkeley High School students and staff chose not to attend school because they were joining the Occupy Oakland general strike. The Occupy Wall Street movement has been gaining significant amounts of momentum in the last few weeks in the Bay Area, especially after the police brutality incidents that took place in Oakland on October 25. With the first rally followed by a march scheduled for 9 AM on November 2 at newly-christened Oscar Grant Plaza, many BHS representatives were present and ready to make their voices heard. As the day progressed, the crowd continued to grow, with estimates as high as 100,000, leading up to the grand finale of the march to the Port of Oakland.
From students to teachers, there were many different reasons for attending the event. “I’ve been distressed about the deteriorating state of our country’s economic choices for about twenty-five years,” says Ms. Albrecht, a BHS math teacher. “I’ve seen how this has impacted my students and their schools. With people becoming poorer and more marginal we also become more fearful and less likely to speak out against unfair policies,” Albrecht continued. She then added, “It’s been incredibly refreshing to hear voices speaking up in a creative and thoughtful way.” Many students were also excited by the possibilities that were opened by such large a movement. An anonymous BHS student comments: “I have been following the Occupy movement for a while and I think it is a very important cause that I wanted to be involved in. I love how huge the movement has gotten and I believe that it has the potential to affect real change.” Another student who was in attendance, Molly Rosenthal, shared her opinion on the strike: “The main thing that critics say is that the movement doesn’t have enough of a focus. When I went down to the encampment and marched to the ports, I realized that this is what makes it work.” Rosenthal continued: “Everyone is down there for every kind of reason, and I think that it’s amazing that we can all get together and support each other without putting the movement to a specific agenda. It feels like everyone has been waiting for this for a long time.”
Although the protest was very important to students and teachers, the decision to miss a day of school can be tough. But in the end, many decided that they had a greater responsibility to speak out for one day than attend school. “Because I have three children of my own and a teaching job,” said Albrecht, “I have very little time to participate in events of this type.”
However, Albrecht added, “On the other hand, because I am a parent and a teacher I see the need for protest and change nearly every minute of my day. I think it was also valuable for my students to see that this was something I felt was important. I rarely miss work, and so they know that I did not take the day off frivolously.”
Often, the opportunity to participate in a crucial political movement was much more enticing to students. Student Gina Gonzalas–Roundey said she participated in the event because it is going to go down in history.
The protest was viewed by those in attendance as an extremely successful event. The beautiful weather and high–energy gave a normally serious matter a pleasantly festive atmosphere. “There were all different kinds of people there and there was a real sense of community that everyone came together for the same cause. It was very inspiring to see,” stated an anonymous student. “I liked the shouting and yelling,” said Milo Henderson in regards to the protest’s general manifestation.
Overall, it was a sunny day full of peaceful protesting, but many participants were upset by the media’s focus on violent incidents to take place later that evening. “I think the press is confused by the movement because they cannot find a clear spokesperson or leader to interview,” stated Albrecht. “Instead they focus on the rare acts of violence or destruction.” The faction of protesters that often incite violence are seen by many as taking the Occupy Oakland movement in an unfavorable direction. An anonymous student said: “There was one group of people who tried to take a different, more violent, approach (breaking windows, spray–painting, and throwing things). It is those kinds of actions that really undermine the whole movement and mess things up for a lot of people.”
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