By Dorothea Hahn
Translated By Ron Argentati
16 October 2011
Edited by Gillian Palmer
Germany - die Tageszeitung - Original Article (German)
It is day 27 of the occupation, and thousands again demonstrate in New York. To stay within the law, they stay on the sidewalks, but the police arrest 80 of them anyway.
The skies are a brilliant blue, the banners beyond imagination. The Occupy Wall Street demonstrators play by the rules and stay on the sidewalk, never venturing into the street. They stop for red lights, but the New York police can't leave well enough alone: On the day of international solidarity, they arrest over 80 demonstrators, including 24 of them at CitiBank. At noon, they had protested against CitiBank's evictions and other fraudulent practices.
Most of the other protesters end up that evening at Times Square, sitting in police vehicles with their hands cuffed behind their backs. Outside, others shout “Who does the park belong to?” and “The whole world is watching.” Meanwhile, more and more police in uniform arrive on horses and motorcycles. More shouts of “Who are you protecting, anyway?” Late that night, new tensions between police and the demonstrators develop.
According to the Occupy Wall Street movement's calendar, it is day 27. The protesters moved from their campgrounds to Liberty Plaza in the financial sector earlier that morning. They stopped at several banks, then moved on to Washington Square to join with thousands of students from the nearby university for a mass demonstration in the open.
“I'm Lorraine and I'm glad to be here,” says one young woman to the “human microphone” — her words are repeated from one demonstrator to the next until they reach the farthest edges of the crowd. Then Lorraine continues, “I've waited 20 years for this. Since Reagan.” Again, her words flow like an acoustic wave through the crowd.
A few meters further on, physicians and nurses from New York clinics assemble in their white uniforms. Using the human microphone, Doctor Steve Auerbach says that 45,000 people die each year “in the world's richest country” from lack of health insurance and that Obama's attempts moving healthcare away from a profit-based system and the Western world's most expensive medicines haven't improved the situation.
These medical personnel have been advocating for a basic reform of healthcare based on their motto, “Everybody In. Nobody Out.” They demand a unified public insurance program for all modeled on the systems in Canada and Taiwan. They have steadily gained an audience in the midst of occasional interruptions and noise from a diminishing tea party movement on the right.
In the late afternoon, several demonstration parades course through Manhattan. The goal is Times Square, a location with theaters and military recruiting offices, home of the bright neon lights. No parade route has been announced, but true to the letter of the law, the demonstrators stay on the sidewalks. The police form an impenetrable human chain separating the marchers from the street traffic. The dense crowds of marchers on both sides of the street raise their battle cry: “We are the 99 percent.” It's occasionally interspersed with shouts of "The banks got bailed out and we got sold out.”
In the midst of all the tumult, a guitar teacher protesting for the first time with the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators says that this is a slogan competition. Walking along, one sees further signs: “Stop socialism for the rich.” A man in his underpants carries a sign saying, “Unemployed naked cowboy.” Then someone holds a new sign aloft saying, “Welcome to reality.” How does that make him feel? “Happy,” the young man, a student from New Jersey, replies.
“The world will be what we make it.”
For many, this global participation day marks their first experience with the movement. 57-year-old John Bird, who had watched it on television over the past few weeks, believes it's an opportunity for change and has written a banner stating “Native Americans for economic, social and ecological justice.” He quotes a Mayan calendar that extends only as far as the year 2012. In it, he sees an obligation. “The world that follows this one,” he says, “will be what we ourselves make it.”
Everyone believes that the Occupy Wall Street movement, threatened with eviction from the financial district yesterday, is something new for the U.S. and that it will continue to grow and develop new goals with each passing day. Paralegal Nathan Riedy from Pennsylvania says, “It's not about handouts, it's about fundamental issues.” He voted for Obama and says he will vote for him again. He won't protest against his president but says he's “part of the system.”
Cameron Kelly, a fitness studio owner from upstate New York, has spent several nights camped out in the park. She took part in anti-Vietnam War protests as a student, later demonstrating against other wars and for environmental issues. But the Occupy Wall Street movement is the first she feels is no longer about single issues nor trying to “educate” members of Congress. This, she says, is about “all or nothing.”
“These people understand something that we didn't realize. This is aimed directly at those who see war as a source of income and profit,” she says. She sees an example in a small, hostile neighboring country. She says Cuba is a poor country, yet education is free and its citizens pay nothing for their health care.
"Oh Sh*t. We the people are here."
What will become of the Occupy Wall Street movement remains an open question. Four weeks after its inception, it is still in the process of taking stock and organizing its list of concerns and expectations. Becky Herman, a 24-year-old New Yorker, says she doesn't talk of a “lasting success.” Her banner demands a halt to military assistance to Israel and taxpayer funding for education and healthcare instead. Not many address that subject.
In front of the Times Square Chase Bank, a young man waves a banner reading “Banks Steal Homes.” Tourists take snapshots of the demonstrators from the upper levels of double-decker buses. A police officer shouts into a megaphone, “Clear the square!” Postal worker Eric Fernandez, 31, waits. For what? “I want everyone to see that I'm against laissez-faire capitalism,” he answers.
In the hubbub around him, Charlotte Souza watches the advancing line of policemen. The 23-year-old has been living in Liberty Plaza for two weeks. She quit her $5.80 per hour job as a kitchen helper. Her black leather jacket bears the slogan “Eat the rich” as well as a large U.S. flag. She says, “I can't understand how we allowed the gap between rich and poor to grow so ridiculously large.”
The police pushed the Occupy Everything crowd away from Times Square. When the square was again totally in the hands of the usual Saturday night visitors, all that was left was a sign lying on the ground. Its message: “Oh, Sh*t. We the people are here.”
*Note: The quotes in this article, while accurately translated, could not be verified.
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