We made it over to Occupy Oakland on Saturday the 2oth to have a look around and donate some water to the campers at Oscar Grant Plaza, formerly know as Frank Ogawa Plaza.

I don’t believe I’ve seen anything quite like what was going on there. Most of my experience with protests has revolved around anti-war marches, which are often heavily scripted, permitted and planned well in advance. The Occupy movement is none of that!

The Occupy Everywhere phenomenon is a spontaneous outpouring of revolt from every corner of the country, without leaders. It’s a beautiful thing to watch a truly improvised post-march music performance and poetry reading on the makeshift stage in the plaza. each artist waiting their turn but not slated for any given time slot. Dancers joined them on stage at will and were not shoed away. No one was turned away for having unpopular views by groups like MoveOn.org or any of the random socialist groups that tend to place speakers to meet their various agendas. These groups may have had members present but they weren’t selling their wares as far as I could tell.

I must say this probably scares the living shit out of the wealthy and powerful as they peer out from their bunkers. There is no one to bargain with, arrest, neutralize. These people couldn’t care less who you are and much less so if you are an elected official. They, and we are taking over don’t you know? We let you try to fix it and you proved you had no interest in doing so and now you are totally irrelevant and need to move aside so the important work of rebuilding a destroyed society can begin.

My favorite picture from the day was this one of the decorated Civic Center building in Oscar grant plaza. Pure beauty expressed by the concerned citizens of Oakland and vicinity.