No responses to “Report From South Grand Oakland Solidarity March & Solidarity Actions Around the Country”

  1. Perhaps another angle to conversation is that of the community or neighborhood. They aren’t homogeneous, and in general most communities are a myth. Even though we’re told certain neighborhoods mean this and certain neighborhoods mean that there’s all sorts of other tensions and dynamics at play: class, race, to what level you’re respectful of and following of power, all the petty privileges that go along with that. etc. South Grand is totted as one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in st. louis, and there is a fair amount of class diversity too. Sadly, people usually prefer to identify along lines of race or sexual identity even when those aren’t the same as identifying along lines of exploitation.

  2. i know mulitiple people who live near grand who thought it was awesome. its obvious that you don’t know everyone who lives around grand. why do people talk like that?

    registering anger at the system for the sake of it has a place, and so i understand the idea of it not being about a “numbers game” (which to me is an alienating manipulative term ) – but i have enough of my own shit to deal with in my life to put myself at risk of state violence for the sake of making a righteous point (if i can help it). if my goal is for things to be different from how they are now, i want to figure out and understand – how can we make things different? how can i use my limited energy to make things different? and while i don’t think there is anything wrong with being angry at injustice and being really loud about it and would defend people’s right to do so, if i am going to risk state violence, i would like to have it possibly contribute toward making things different. i would like take action with people who are also trying to figure out how to possibly make things different and go beyond expressing justified, but ultimately righteous, indignation/anger.

    i think that anyone who talks in terms of there being a “right” way and people who are hyper-focused on the idea that everyone and everything outside of their own worldview and methodology is stupid/counter-productive is an elitist who is subconsciously/explicitly seeking concentrated power around themselves, and they can suck my dick. maybe I haven’t read enough theory, but i just sincerely don’t understand how people that focus exclusively on “black bloc” tactics in our current context see them as ultimately leading toward things being any different from how they are now. ?

  3. ok. my point is not that many people dont feel alienated, it is that not everyone feels alienated by it. this is not a numbers game for me. it’s about meeting and find others who have a distrust for a society based on imprisoning people in cages or a distrust in a the most dangerous gang of people in the city (the police, of course) who has a hand in imprisoning people. i personally dont care if i am a minority, and really i dont think it’s such a minority (or a majority) viewpoint to be distrustful or hateful against the institution of the Police. so be it, if it is.

    the police can be nice, mean, whatever. it doesn’t matter to me. they are only doing their jobs, you’re right. but their job is entirely counter to the world that i aspire to. they might say nice things to me or beat me, but i could careless about them as individuals. what i am against is the Police as an Institution. if an officer renounced his/her role in the management of the prison society we live in… i’d be excited. i refuse to get in a personal grudge match with particular police, but rather recognize their role as an oppressive one (regardless of their personality).

    they evicted us because they couldn’t refuse to follow orders. and besides, the police do not have to listen to the political powers.

  4. I live pretty close to south grand and i thought the action was good fun….except for the arrest. In any case what about a solidarity action for Greece? Folks there need to know that even here in ST. Louis we are with the Greek people in their fight against capitalist pillage….just a thought, Lin Biao

  5. P.S.: All of my neighbors were flaming pissed at you people. ALL of them, and that is about 2 blocks of people around where you were marching. So, where is this massive amount of support from the people who live and hang out in South Grand that you are crowing about?

  6. I’m one voice, typical of the people that live and hang out in this area. Were you not all saying, “I’m pretty sure that anyone who thinks marching down south Grand at 9pm chanting “Fuck the Police” is going to alienating the people living/hanging out there is *definitely living in a bubble.*”? I call bullshit. The people living in a bubble are the ones thinking that this type of message appeals to average people living in this ‘hood.

    There are MANY, MANY people who are alienated by this type of immature crap. I’m only one, true, however, the ones that were smiling and fist pumping for you are the definite minority in my neighborhood. If you think you are garnering massive public support with this kind of crap, you are completely delusional. That was my point, that these commenters, and the original poster, claiming that you have so much support in the neighborhood, etc., are full of shit.

    Contrary to your stereotypical pigeonholing of me, I *have* experienced police harassment. I am just smart enough to realize that the minority of police are the ones harassing people. The majority are good people, part of the 99%, who are just trying to do their jobs of protecting us. They evicted us from the plaza because the political powers that be ordered them to do so. You are directing your anger at the wrong targets.

  7. im sorry they are alienating to you. but you are just one voice. a lot of people live in this city. you can’t expect them to all agree on something. i dont think anyone is saying that the “People” are more on our side or that they are more on “occupy’s” side. that’s a pretty brain dead attitude.

    im sure there are many who are alienated. but the point is that there is actually a lot of support from others, namely people who have no idea about occupy or give a shit about it… maybe if you were there, you might have some perspective. you might of seen the smiling faces of people who heard “fuck the police” and the fist pumps from bar goers and people on the street.

    so many people in st louis experience police harassment and violence everyday. maybe not you…. it’s not just about oakland, it’s about the use of police to harass and stifle peoples freedoms. and to stifle movements. the police in st louis shoot people 3 times more often than any police force in the US. I don’t really care if they were nice to the occupy movement. they also evicted us from the plaza.

    the occupy movement is full of lots of different people with differing ideas and feelings. and it’s also not the only movement in the world.

  8. The people living in a bubble/disillusioned are the ones that think this march actually accomplished anything productive. What delirium!

  9. I hang out in this neighborhood, and live very close to it. Chants of “fuck the police” are very offensive and alienating to me. The video is repulsive, the police are also part of the 99%, and the hate spewed at them is ridiculous. STLMPD have been very good to the movement. If you have an issue with the Oakland police, go to fucking Oakland and say those things to the cops there. I am not living in a bubble, I am, instead, one of the many, many people you alienated due to this stupid, immature crap. That is, I am one of the people that lives and hangs out in this neighborhood.

    Tagging city busses and throwing rocks and paint at police substations is not only massively immature, but extremely ineffective. You will lose public support for the Occupy movement quickly if you keep up these types of actions.

  10. I second that. People were definitely excited during the march. Every march I’ve been on where we’ve stopped traffic has generated way more support and excitement than I had expected, even from a lot of the people that we were “inconveniencing.”

    I imagine that some of the smiles and support are real — coming from people that actually have to deal with police violence — and others are from people who are just enlivened by the fact that we were doing something different, breaking the standard flow of the evening’s work and consumption. Either way, something productive was accomplished: support was shown for the victims of police violence and imagination was expanded for the victims of consumerism.

  11. It’s interesting that marches like this have lead to such a debate, and that one of the main objections to stuff like this is that it’s inaccessible or alienating to people seeing it . . . . I don’t know if I’ve ever been at a march that on-lookers were so excited, engaged or turned-on by.

    I might be living in a bubble, but I’m pretty sure that anyone who thinks marching down south Grand at 9pm chanting “Fuck the Police” is going to alienating the people living/hanging out there is *definitely living in a bubble.*