Sarah Resnick ANN SNITOW Nov. 15 page 7 Greenham Common Courtroom page 20 Geoffrey Wildanger Kathryn Crim page 30 Kathleen Ross page 14 OCCUPY UC DAVIS Bulldozers of the Arrested! page 14 Mind OCCUPY!#3 An OWS-Inspired Gazette Daniel Marcus page 30 Marco Roth Occupation to Mayor Communization Bloomberg’s page 32 SIlvia Federici Language page 2 CHRISTOPHER HERRING AND ZOLTAN GLUCK page 22 Women, Re-Articulating the Struggle for Education Austerity, Marina Sitrin page 30 and the Some unfinished issues with feminist horizon- revolution talism Nicholas Mirzoeff page 32 Eli Schmitt page 18 Mark Greif page 2 COMPLETE TABLE OF CONTENTS Occupy Climate The best Years Open Letter INSIDE THE BACK COVER Change! of our lives ZUCCOTTI RAID & AFTER they were outnumbered, easily, two to “Police—protect—the 1 per-cent.” You a life of qualities? Is quality, by definition one. were standing, twenty of you, defending immeasurable, only describable, some- “What are they so afraid of?” my com- an empty street with bank skyscrapers thing that can be charted by the cleanli- Astra Taylor panion asked when we first arrived at Wall rising out of it. You don’t belong in those ness of a street, the absence of certain Street just after 1 AM, and as I watched skyscrapers. You knew it too. smells, certain people? Is the absence of the eviction this excessive use of force the question dirt, smells, noise, and people what the kept ringing in my ears. But the answer is mayor means by “thriving?” Is there really Last night, in what seems to be part of a obvious: they are afraid of us. “This peace- a right not to see certain things, and can coordinated crackdown on occupations ful uprising against our sickening plutoc- the mayor of New York City destroy indi- across the country, Zuccotti Park was racy has them quaking with fear,” a friend vidual property in its name? raided. Thousands of us who had sub- remarked later, proud and surprised. They MARCO ROTH Alas, this property was erected on a scribed to the text alert system, or who say we are just a bunch of hippies inef- too-fragile foundation: “The law that cre- got emails or phone calls or panicked fectually camping out. But if that’s really ated Zuccotti Park required that it be open Twitter messages, went to Wall Street. what they think, why do they need guns for the public to enjoy for passive recre- But we could not get near the camp. Two and nightsticks and Long Range Acoustic Mayor ation 24 hours a day.” “Passive recreation,” blocks south of Liberty Plaza on Broad- Devices and paramilitary aircraft? We another phrase that sums up Bloomberg’s way, blocked by a police barricade that should take heart. If we make them so Bloomberg’s New York. This is bureau-speak to say that circled the whole area, I found myself part afraid, we must not be as weak as I often you can’t play a game of touch football in of a small crowd straining to see what worry we are. Language Zuccotti Park, but why not apply it more was happening. In the distance, Zuccotti A massive police action undertaken in the broadly, for instance, to the making of Park was lit like a sports field, glaring middle of the night against an unarmed, speeches and the holding of assemblies? eerily, and I could make out a loudspeaker, defenseless, and mostly sleeping group, Is that a violation of the passivity or the blasting announcements and threats. with the aim of their forcible removal recreation, or both? Sounds of people chanting and scream- Mark Greif and the incidental destruction of most of “Ever since the occupation began, that ing floated towards us. While we paced their personal property was ordered, we law has not been complied with, as the the street, seething and sorrowful, tents learned, ostensibly in the name of “guar- park has been taken over by protesters, were trampled, people’s possessions piled anteeing public health and safety.” Why in making it unavailable to anyone else.” Here up, and occupiers arrested. Later I would Open Letter the middle of the night? “This action was begins a litany of charges against the pro- come across a camper I had met earlier taken at this time of day to reduce the risk testers, which, as they multiply, become in the day sobbing on the sidewalk. A few Dear Police, of confrontation, and to minimize disrup- increasingly incoherent and contradic- blocks west, maybe thirty minutes after I tion to the surrounding neighborhood.” By tory. This first count is purely tendentious: arrived, the police line broke so two huge You keep inserting yourself and distract- the same logic, a thief breaks into a house the park was not “unavailable to anyone dump trucks could pass through. So that ing OWS. Could you please stay home? at an hour when its residents are least else” until the police themselves erected was it: we, and everything we had made The conflict is between American citizens expected to be home, or least ready for barricades around it. Maybe it was a less and were trying to make, were trash. and concentrations of wealth, and the confrontation, so as not to raise the alarm nice place to walk your dog or take a lunch The authorities must be ashamed, government hangs in the balance between and bring out the neighbors. A surprise break than it used to be. There were funny because they so badly did not want anyone them. But you keep pushing in and trying attack by an overwhelming force is not people and they smelled funny, and they to see what happened last night. First they to fight, or beat people up, as I saw you the action of a brave man, nor of a man had to shout over the drum circle, but the attacked the senses, flooding the park with do last night, or just throw your weight entirely sure of himself. Surprise is the City of New York has no problems telling bright light and using sound cannons. around, needlessly, and waste our time. weapon of the weak, but has been chosen people where they can and cannot walk Then they corralled the press into pens, It’s narcissistic. It’s tiring to even think by the strongest in the name of minimiza- their dogs and where they can and cannot arrested reporters, and shut down airspace about you. What last night’s wasteful- tion and harm reduction, the language of have lunch, smoke cigarettes, make out, et over lower Manhattan, so that no news ness reminded me is that I need to stop risk management, imported into a political cetera. The protesters barred no one entry stations could broadcast from above. As defending you, or worrying about your arena, an arena for the struggle of ideas to the park, a fact that the police would we strained our necks over their barri- humanity and underlying goodness, or and concepts, from the realm of econom- use against them to encourage drug users cades they kept telling us that there was your possibility of recognizing your places ics, the household, where the financial and drinkers, as the New York Daily News nothing to see. But clearly there was! We as citizens, too. All that would be nice to sector’s failure to minimize risk and reported, to “take it to Zuccotti,” helping knew they were lying. And when we told think about. But I was reminded, looking reduce potential harm led us directly to to create the very conditions the mayor them so, they, with batons in hand, forced at you, that every one of us is still respon- the crisis that caused the mayor to call out cites in his brief; the protesters threatened us away. We were herded like sheep, and sible, and everyone has a choice finally, the armored might of the NYPD to quash instead what the City of New York views I felt like one, meekly following orders, to obey or disobey, to do wrong or right. a bunch of campers, kick over their tents as its sovereign right to control the use of a terrible coward. Those who resisted— You abdicate that choice; that doesn’t like sandcastles, destroy a library of over space. those who stood their ground on a public mean you have to ruin it for the rest of 5,000 books, and throw away countless But that’s not the real reason that sidewalk we all have a right to stand America. I believe that when your Officer personal possessions, each of which had a the riot gear and the bulldozers and the on—got maced in the face, right in the Cho was leaning on my chest last night story of its own, all so that a neighborhood helicopter and the floodlights were called eyes. The authorities so badly did not want with a plastic police shield, to clear room may not “be disrupted.” out at 1 AM on November 15th. “I have anyone to see what happened last night for pedestrians who didn’t exist, on an But what is a neighborhood? Who said that the City had two principal goals: they were willing to temporarily blind us. empty sidewalk at 1 AM in the Financial decides what belongs there and what guaranteeing public health and safety, and As the hours wore on, a single menac- District, pushing hard with a line of his doesn’t? The mayor knows and the mayor guaranteeing the protesters’ First Amend- ing helicopter hovered overhead, omi- coworkers on a crowd of us, all of whom decides: “There have been reports of busi- ment rights.