Pamela Drew/Flickr
All eyes are on Occupy this morning as they attempt to re-ignite their nascent movement during today’s May Day festivities. At noon, protesters will convene at Union Square, then march to Wall Street, hopefully peacefully, to drum up support for labor and immigrant solidarity. Reports this morning, however, reveal that the NYPD visited three activists in their homes yesterday to interrogate them about their involvement in the May Day activities. Marina Sitrin, a lawyer for OWS, said that these NYPD raids represented an effort by authorities “to create fear and silence dissent, and to keep people from coming out into the streets.” (If you’re curious: NYPD’s SHIELD counterterrorism program has compiled a meaty dossier on the General Strike).
Whether this aggressive surveillance of protesters will have the effect of diminishing today’s marches remains to be seen. But you can be sure: The outrage and frustration fueling this summer’s first OWS protests has not subsided. And though Occupiers are off to a slow and soggy start, there’s still time to make a splash (especially when Tom Morello’s ‘guitarmy’ is on your side).
I really think the first order of business for Occupy, anywhere, is to come to grips with just how insignificant your “movement” is. You will get nowhere with the larger population if you cannot go beyond fooling yourselves. Pretending you have a “general council” of consequence, that two people in a given locale means you have presence, and your profoundly anarchal “Occupy everything” presents no plan at all – well, if your were a ship, you be lost at sea without a rudder. I am sure you all mean well, but organization is your friend and, without, you will have no more success that what you having, today.
I doubt there were more than 1,000 “Occupiers” on this day, nation wide. .