A quick update on what happened tonight – more analysis to come later.
A breath of fresh air.
I left the plaza an hour ago and my adrenaline is still pumping. It’s been close to eight years since a group has been in the streets of St. Louis and made me feel this way. And that seems to be a common sentiment I was hearing: people asking one another when was the last time they’d felt like this – some said they never had and they loved it. And I overheard a Vietnam veteran say he hadn’t seen this since the 60s.
Tonight at the plaza there was a concert with 100-200 in attendance. Two political hip-hop groups really got the crowd going towards the end – mad love to them. As the concert ended it was announced that there was a march going down to Washington Avenue – the heart of gentrified downtown St. Louis. The march had also been announced last night at the General Assembly and a leaflet with the following text was circulated:
“We serve their food. We clean their houses. We watch their children. We drive their taxis. We build their homes. On Friday, we bite our tongues no longer. We go to their doorstep. Bring noise. Bring your disgust….Class War Now.” And then an image of our favorite superhero, V.
A sound system quickly pulled 100-150 people to the group, and we immediately got into the streets – something that hasn’t happened at other marches yet. We walked to Washington Ave. with chants we’ve heard before such as “Who Are We? The 99%!” and “What do we want? Justice” etc., but also some new ones: “What do we want? Class War!”, “Re-vol-u-tion! Re-vol-u-tion!”, “Class War Now!” and when we passed the Federal Reserve Building, “Burn the Banks! Burn the Banks!” Certainly, not everyone was on the exact same page, but tonight we began to find out our voice again.
Best of all the march surpassed the announcement’s expectations: once we had gone down Wash Ave. the group headed towards the Landing (downtown St. Louis’ other yuppie stretch of clubs and restraunts) and then a quick stop at the Federal Reserve before returning to the plaza. Everyone seemed pumped. Tonight was awesome.
See you tomorrow night.
The text that was handed out tonight: