Occupied Communique #8

December 19, 2011

Dear Unity,

The Day of Re-Occupation started off joyous and celebratory, but ended unfulfilled. Above is an Associated Press photo of myself and my buddy (the hands grasping my backpack behind me -- so we don't get separated in the crowd) heading up the ladder (previously disguised as a protest banner) to get into vacant lot that used to be Duarte Park. You can see the eager, happy child-within shining forth on my "gnarly and stalwart*" face, and my full backpack and one of three med kits of supplies. I had planned to be there for a long time, but 10 minutes was all I would get before being ordered to my knees and zip-cuffed with 3 other medics and about 46 other Occupiers. Included within our ranks that day was Bishop Stephen Chinlund, Bishop George Packard and four other christian clerics of note, as well as our brave and courageous Hunger Strikers, Diego and Mallory.

Let me frame this event in its historic, religious, political and civil aspects.

Juan Pablo Duarte Square and Juan Pablo Duarte Park was more than the focus of Occupy Wall Street's Day of Re-Occupation, much more. Juan Pablo Duarte is one of the founding fathers of the Dominican Republic. The highest peak in the Caribbean is named after him, and he is usually labeled as a visionary liberal thinker. He also was one of the founding members of La Trinitaria, a secret nationalist society dedicated to Dominican independence from Haiti.

Trinity Wall Street Episcopalian Church owns Duarte Square, including the vacant, fenced-off "park" slated for skyscraper development. Occupy Wall Street has asked for permission to use the lot but Trinity Church has denied the request. Trinity Church owns the land upon which the Stock Exchange is built, and owns enough property and wealth to be the second richest christian church in the world. Only The Vatican is wealthier. Make no mistake, Trinity Wall Street Church is a card-carrying member of the 1%.

Diego, Mallory and the other OWS Hunger Strikers decided to follow in the nonviolent footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi, while the christian clerics were following in the neighborly footsteps of Christ Jesus, and the Occupiers were following in the civil disobedient footsteps of Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.. All were aligned against the duplicity of the corporatist Trinity Wall Street Church. It was a legendary and epic confrontation.

The deciding factor was Trinity Church's denial of the "love thy neighbor as thyself" doctrine**, and the resultant use of the New York City Police Department to violently deny the public access to the vacant lot.

Trinity Wall Street won that battle, but the revolution continues unabated. We are still here. They may be able to keep us from occupying public space in the full exercise of our rights, but they cannot keep us out of the city. We are everywhere, and if we choose we are anonymous -- we are the 99%.

The NYPD handled us with kid gloves that day, perhaps because of the presence of the clerics and hunger strikers. Even still, there were serious injuries among the Occupiers that were suffered during the police action. Injuries included head, neck, face and torso injuries from baton strikes and foot, knee & fist attacks. Some Occupiers were thrown to the pavement and kneed in the head, back, arms and legs. The zip-cuffs were often tightened too tight causing acute pain and possible chronic nerve damage. The health needs of the Hunger Strikers were ignored, and all of us were demonized as criminals and crazy people.

My zip-cuffs were too tight and my requests for loosening them went ignored. My demand that the hunger strikers receive medical attention during the arrests was not ignored -- I was told they would be sent to the hospital instead of the jail, but they lied; Diego & Mallory went to the same place and received the same non-existent medical care that the rest of us did. That is why some Street Medics choose to be arrested with the Occupiers -- so that they can provide emergency first aid while in the holding cell, and so that they can liaison with the police on the victim's behalf. All four of us medics provided medical services during the incarceration, and the police provided none.

Upon being released I was met by our Jail Support Team outside the Police property, and they tended to all our needs. Jail Support includes legal, medical and comfort services. My medic buddy and I joined the Jail Support Team after being tended to, intending to wait for the most seriously injured of the Occupiers to be released and then transport him directly to the hospital -- which we did. We stayed with that victim through that hospital's tests, and then rode with him in the ambulance to a better equipped hospital for further tests. We stayed with him until we were relieved by other street medics. My buddy and I had to then navigate bus and subway routes, with all our medical and Occupier equipment, to a temporary place of shelter in order to sleep and get ready to hit the streets again. Our 36 hour shift was finally over.

I did not get to participate in the Immigrants Occupy rally, march & GA on December 18, as I was still working on December 17 when the rally started. I was finally asleep sometime about the start of their General Assembly.

It is now the 19th, and I have to go figure out where I am going to stay tonight, and whether or not I will be working the night (and day).

All of this did not go on in isolation. The same day, the 17th, in Cairo, our sisters and brothers in the 99% were viciously attacked, beaten and senselessly brutalized. That same fate is in our future. With the National Defense Authorization Act the power and desires of the 1% are blatantly obvious. Now we know exactly who the FEMA camps are for . . . us. You. My child-within wants to hide, but there is no sanctuary.

This video below is of Cairo, December 17, 2011. It is a portend of Occupy Wall Street's future. Watch it and wake up! Only you can save us. Occupy Everything!

* "Mortimer is a trained street medic, one of many gnarly and stalwart veterans of the protest scene who form an underground collaborative of more or less medically savvy people who get their qualifications more from experience than from classrooms." The Fix, Does Occupy Wall Street Have a Drug Problem? http://www.thefix.com/content/does-occupy-wall-street-have-drug-problem8130

** Leviticus 19:18 & 19:34, Matthew 7:12, 19:16-19, 22:35-40, Mark 12:28-34, Luke 06:31, 10:25-28, Romans 13:08-10, Galatians 05:14, James 02:08



Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
 and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
             will we realize
      we cannot eat money."

            -Cree Wisdom-

Occupied Communique #7

December 16, 2011


Dear Unity,


Tonight is Friday the 16th of December. Tomorrow is the Day of Re-Occupation, the day we assemble once more and take back the commons. The day after is the rally, march and general assembly of Immigrants Occupy, somos el 99%! Tonight I am on duty as Medical Dispatch, tomorrow I will be at Duarte Park at 6th & Canal for Occupation 2.0, and the day after I will be running on the Immigrants Occupy march.

I have no idea of what exactly to expect Saturday, but I am ready for whatever happens. Generally, I have a good idea of the wide range of possible scenarios, good, bad and ugly. I am very excited and hopeful for Occupation 2.0, not the least of reasons being I will have a place to call home once more; a place, the same place every night, to lay my head and sleep; a place full of authentic human beings, Occupiers! I can't wait! The people united will never be defeated!

And then on Sunday I get to be a part of a very important and daring rally, march & GA -- Immigrants Occupy! We are the 99% -- all of us worldwide. My own notion is that political boundaries are also a tool of the 1%, and so there is no such thing as an Immigrant or Foreign Occupier -- an Occupier is an Occupier, yo. No matter where in the world one was born, or which imaginary boundary lines one has crossed, an Occupier is always home at any Occupation. The notion of aliens and immigrants is nonsensical. We are a worldwide race of beings. We are the 99%. Who is left to immigrate to us? The 1%. If there is such a thing as an alien or an immigrant, it is the 1%. All of us in the 99% are family, yo.

I had a relatively restful week, first recovering from a slight stomach ailment, then traveling to Maine visiting Unity College, meeting with a couple of he evicted Occupy Augusta (Maine) people, and attending a meeting of Occupy Waldo County. I was welcomed back to New York City with love from my medic buddies, and was instantly back to work as we planned trainings for the future evolutions of Street Medics and the Occupy Movement, and discussed the tactics and strategies of hunger strikes and the failing health of the OWS Hunger Strikers.

Just a short letter this time. I wanted to send you my thoughts on the important Days of Action ahead because I don't know when I will be able to get online again. Until then, take back the commons!



Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
 and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
             will we realize
      we cannot eat money."
 
            -Cree Wisdom-

Occupied Communique #6

December 08, 2011


Dear Unity,

I had the opportunity to run on the march that put a homeless family into an abandoned, foreclosed home. It was very exiting to be a part of that -- of standing up to the robber banks and claiming our inalienable right to shelter for this family. After the march and a joyous block party, the Occupiers got down to the nitty-gritty of an extreme makeover for the neglected house. I have been one of the medics assigned to the Occupied Real Estate at 702 Vermont Avenue. Our job is to be on site for any construction-type injuries, to be there for the Occupiers in case the police assault the house, and to provide security at the front door. I am proud to be helping the Occupiers fix up this house so it can be a good home for a needy family who were forced onto the streets by the predatory and criminal practices of the banks. The Occupiers, who rotate in and out in shifts to cover the 24-hour day, are without homes themselves. They do not know where they will sleep from day to day, yet they are working hard and risking arrest and injury for a family they don't know . . . but they do know that the family is part of the 99%, and that is all that matters. We are the 99%.

Last night I had just returned to the medic safe house from being on duty all day and evening at Vermont Avenue when the call came in that the police were going to arrest everyone in the Vermont Avenue house. I joined a couple other medics, one who is down here from Maine helping us out, and made the long trip by train and foot back out to East Brooklyn in the cold rain. By the time we got there the situation had been diffused by the local political representative. It now seems that we have a few days to fix up the house before having to worry about the police shooting tear gas through the windows and then breaking down the doors to brutalize us for helping a homeless family fight back against a robber bank.



Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
 and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
             will we realize
      we cannot eat money."
  
            -Cree Wisdom-

Occupied Communique #5

December 05, 2011




Dear Unity,

Time. Nobody knows what the future will bring, but one thing is certain: we are not going home. We are home. The Occupation is home to many of us here. Home is a place where you know you belong. Home is a place you know you must protect. Home is a place where you are loved. OccupyWallStreet is my home, and I live with hundreds of other people who all feel the same way as I do. It was with great joy we welcomed the Farmers March yesterday. It was with great joy we watched Liberty Plaza fill up with happy people. It was with great joy that we saw dancing again in Liberty Square The farmers came to Liberty Square on Sunday, and we welcomed them and their message of sustainability, seed exchange, local food, and no more GMOs.

MOFGA was there. Jim Gerritson was there. Maine farmers were there. One sign made me smile widely. It said: "MAINE FARMERS OCCUPY!" Yeah, baby! That's how we roll! Whose land? Our land!

It was beautiful. The march was a long one through the east side of Manhattan. City folk were amazed to see more than a thousand farmers, some with cardboard pitchforks and torches, marching proudly and happily through the streets shouting slogans of independence and defiance. Whose food? Our food!

When we got to the park the Brookfield Properties security goons got out of the way and let us pass without trying to bully us. Bullies are cowards at heart, and the large number of people scared them. The police, however, are terrified of our drummers, and they intervened to block our drummers from getting into the park. Bringing a drum into the park is a capital offense nowadays. On Thanksgiving, during the feast we gave for everyone (including the 1%, the police and the politicians), 20 police entered the park and tried to arrest 1 drummer for criminal trespass. We all came to the aid of the drummer, preventing the police from arresting him by demanding they arrest all of us on the same charges. The police walked away empty-handed.

The drumming is the heart of the revolution. The drumming is the pulse of change. The drumming is our voice lifted on high, defiantly proclaiming "WE ARE HERE! WE ARE THE 99%! WE ARE NOT GOING HOME!"

They are terrified of our drummers.

I am always happy to see the drummers, and I am moved to action whenever I hear the drums.

We estimate we have 350 homeless people within the occupation of Wall Street. They have been staying at churches, in the subway, in alleys and doorways and rooftops, in shipwrecks and abandoned buildings, and everywhere there is shelter and a modicum of protection against the 1% and their hired guns (the police). The churches have not been as open as they could be -- trying to force their hierarchical system upon the people they have invited in - appointing bouncers and instituting curfews and lists of acceptable people. I was on housing duty as a medic at one church when I was faced with an ethical dilemma. Occupiers who were not on the list were being turned away. Occupiers who were on the list but were late arriving, were turned away. Women were told to go sleep in the subway. Women were turned away to walk the streets alone at night. People were turned away but there was plenty of room in the church for a couple hundred more people. This is not how the Occupation treats people. The Occupation welcomes everyone. The Occupation makes room for everyone. I could not hold my silence, and when one bouncer declared that the Occupiers coming late were disrespecting the church and the rules, I declared: "The church is disrespecting Jesus Christ, so the church can go fuck itself." Jesus preached a message of love, kindness and inclusion. He did not preach about lists and curfews and obeying rules. I walked out of that church because I could not be a part of turning people away when there was plenty of room for them.

Speaking of room . . . I lose my living space in less than a week. On the other hand . . . in two weeks another church will allow us to occupy an empty lot they have -- that is if the powers that be don't prevent them (political pressure was put on them immediately after they announced). In the meanwhile I will be wandering about with the poorest of the homeless. I will not take refuge in a church while my brothers and sisters are being turned away at the door. I will walk with my brothers and sisters. I will walk all night, sitting here and there and nodding for a few minutes at a time. I will stay at Liberty Square even though the security goons do not allow anyone to lie down or to sleep, and harass us all night long. I will not go home. I am home. Whose city? Our city!

We are working on several new occupations, including a farm (or two), a national forest, abandoned buildings, donated spaces and more. We are not going away, yo! We are the ones we have been waiting for.



Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
 and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
             will we realize
      we cannot eat money."
  
            -Cree Wisdom-

Occupied Communique #4

November 25, 2011



Dear Unity,

A little time and a lot of events have passed since I last wrote. I keep saying that nobody knows what will happen next, and I learned first-hand just how wrong I could be about the future. I had thought that police invading the park and brutally evicting us would send shock waves across the country, and even the world. Well, the police did invade the park -- after a restraining order was issued that sought to prevent them from even entering the park (but Bloomberg bought another judge to countermand it) -- and the police did brutalize us. That night over two hundred people locked down inside the park, and they were all tear-gassed, beaten, and arrested. All our property was tossed into garbage trucks, dumped in a warehouse, and systematically searched and destroyed (we were later allowed to sift through the destruction in case we wanted our broken, ripped, mangled property . . . if it was still there . . . none of my property was in the pile, all was lost, I am left with 3 changes of clothes . . . nothing else). The police did more than beat us and destroy our property, they also killed four dogs that night. I watched all through the early morning hours from between the first and second barricades. The police would not allow us into the park, and if we exited past the second barricade we would not be let back in. We were also told that when they finished with the park they would come and get us . . . despite that threat we stayed until the end, but they let us be.

I spent the next overnight, 15 hours, standing in the rain at the park, supporting 10-40 Occupiers who refused to leave the park. Brookfield Properties hired a private security force to "help us" follow the new rules -- rules such as no lying down, no sleeping, no personal property left unattended (even for a minute), no sleeping bags, no large backpacks or bags, no food, no music, no large signs, etc, etc, etc. In reality, they are goons whose job it is to harass us in every way possible while the police look on and protect them. Protect them? We have demonstrated time and again we are not violent.But still, they are frightened of us. Perhaps it is because they know what they do is dreadfully wrong.

Then came Thursday, and the day of action. I was involved in actions all day long, from the attempt to delay the opening bell at the Stock Exchange, to the march to Foley Square, and everything inbetween. I did not go on the Brooklyn Bridge march, but more than 32,000 people did go. I was there when we re-took the park, and I was there when the police tried twice, unsuccessfully, to force us out. I was there when they stole our rental truck full of army tents, and I was there when they brutalized non-violent protesters in the park. I was also there when we marched through the city streets, and the people came out on all the fire escapes and cheered us on, as people in their cars honked their horns in support of us, as people on the sidewalks smiled, laughed, took pictures and high-fived us as we passed.

During the stolen truck incident a police officer went berserk and attacked a protester who was demanding the police produce a search warrant before going into the back of the truck. I was right next to them, and, in a break of medic protocol, I tried to break it up after the officer went berserk -- but before I could do anything I was blindsided by another officer, who dislocated my knee and sent me tumbling in a hail of police fists. Lucky for me, the crowd of protesters saved me. They started chanting, "He's a medic, he's a medic!" Before any serious damage was done to me other officers responded to the crowd and pulled the berserk officers off of myself and the protester.

I popped my knee back in, my medic buddies wrapped it up, and back into the fray I went.

I was fifteen feet away when they brutalized one of us during the first attempted park eviction that day. The police beat bloody a protester, by the name of Branden, smashed his head into the granite curb and beat him with fists, feet and clubs. They then picked him up, handcuffed him, stood him on a stone ledge -- the highest spot in the area -- and displayed him to the crowd. When he did not show fear, two officers went behind him, and bent his fingers back until he cried out and sobbed in pain -- that pain was photographed and the New York Post ran the picture over the caption "Crybaby!". I was fifteen feet away, and the line of police would not let me through to treat him. My pleas to be allowed through to treat him were rejected, and I was physically restrained from getting to the injured protester. Who do the police protect? Who do the police serve?

Without our army tents, we decided not to stay in the park -- and we left of our own volition in the evening. Of course, there is a steady presence of Occupiers in the park even now, but the "occupation" has not yet re-commenced. The security goons harass all Occupiers, and police provocateurs continually try to disrupt the determination of the Occupiers. But still we persist. Still we remain peaceful. Our response? We sent a drum circle and love-in festival to Bloomberg's neighborhood. We held a Thanksgiving Day feast and invited the police, the politicians and the 1%. We remained peaceful despite the unjustified, criminal violence perpetrated upon us.

Only the police came to the feast on Thanksgiving -- and they came to disrupt the festivities, not to join in. At one point, 20 police officers entered the park to arrest a lone drummer -- to charge the drummer with criminal trespass because no musical instruments are allowed in the park nowadays. The crowd went to the aid of the drummer, and after a long confrontation where everybody was willing to be arrested with the drummer, the police backed down and left.

I was wrong about the police starting to "get it". I was so wrong, that the violence I witnessed all day long (even I was manhandled or clubbed several more times that day) had a traumatic effect upon me. In the days that followed I found that I could not control my anger. That I was getting dangerously close to fighting with the police whenever they harassed Occupiers. I had to leave for a couple of days in order to center and ground myself, to re-affirm my commitment and reason for being there, to find the ocean of calmness within me so that I can do my job as a medic. Do no harm, is a street medic's first rule.

After the eviction from the park the Occupiers needed a place to sleep. Several local churches opened up their doors to us at night, allowing us floorspace to lay out and sleep. Quickly, however, the police threatened the churches with raids, code violations, arrests, and shutting them down. The Fire Marshall was sent out to intimidate the churches, and some closed their doors to us. This police-church struggle continues at this moment, and overnight housing for the Occupiers is a daily problem . . . but we are not going home.

Whose city? Our city!

 
Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
 and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
             will we realize
      we cannot eat money."
  
            -Cree Wisdom-

Occupied Communique #3

November 14, 2011


Dear Unity,

If anyone doubted that this is a global movement, that global politics and political borders do not restrain or chain us, that we are the 99% around the world and we are the revolution you have been waiting for . . . let them read this:

Communique from Cairo Re: Egypt Trip

November 13, 2011 in News

What follows is a response from our Comrades from Cairo to the recent proposal from our Movement Building Group to send OWS Ambassadors to monitor upcoming elections in Egypt. You can also download this communique as a pdf file, as it was originally sent to us.

To our kindred occupiers in Zuccotti park,

When we called out to you, requesting you join us on 12 November in defending our revolution and in our campaign against the military trial of civilians in Egypt, your solidarity—pictures from marches, videos, and statements of support—added to our strength.

However, we recently received news that your General Assembly passed a proposal authorizing $29,000 dollars to send twenty of your number to Egypt as election monitors. Truth be told, the news rather shocked us; we spent the better part of the day simply trying to figure out who could have asked for such assistance on our behalf.

We have some concerns with the idea, and we wanted to join your conversation.

It seems to us that you have taken to the streets and occupied your parks and cities out of a dissatisfaction with the false promises of the game of electoral politics, and so did our comrades in Spain, Greece and Britain. Regardless of how one stands on the efficacy of elections or elected representatives, the Occupy movement seems outside the scope of this; your choice to occupy is, if nothing else, bigger than any election. Why then, should our elections be any cause for celebration, when even in the best of all possible worlds they will be just another supposedly “representative” body ruling in the interest of the 1% over the remaining 99% of us? This new Egyptian parliament will have effectively no powers whatsoever, and—as many of us see it—its election is just a means of legitimating the ruling junta’s seizure of the revolutionary process. Is this something you wish to monitor?

We have, all of us around the world, been learning new ways to represent ourselves, to speak, to live our politics directly and immediately, and in Egypt we did not set out to the streets in revolution simply to gain a parliament. Our struggle—which we think we share with you—is greater and grander than a neatly functioning parliamentary democracy; we demanded the fall of the regime, we demanded dignity, freedom and social justice, and we are still fighting for these goals. We do not see elections of a puppet parliament as the means to achieve them.

But even though the idea of election monitoring doesn’t really do it for us, we want your solidarity, we want your support and your visits. We want to know you, talk with you, learn one another’s lessons, compare strategies and share plans for the future. We think that activists or as people committed to serious change in the systems we live in, there is so much more that we can do together than legitimizing electoral processes (leave that boring job to the Carter Foundation) that seem so impoverished next to the new forms of democracy and social life we are building. It should be neither our job nor our desire to play the game of elections; we are occupying and we should build our spaces and our networks because they themselves are the basis on which we will build the new. Let us deepen our lines of communication and process and discover out what these new ways of working together and supporting one another could be.

Any time you do want to come over, we’ve got plenty of comfy couches available. It won’t be fancy, but it will be fun.

Yours, as always, in solidarity,

Comrades from Cairo
13 November, 2011

P.S. We finally got an email address: comradesfromcairo@gmail.com
 

Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
 and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
             will we realize
      we cannot eat money."
  
            -Cree Wisdom-

Occupied Communique #2

November 14, 2011

Dear Unity,

Thank you for the generous hospitality and loving support you gave me during my visit last week. Everywhere I went in Maine and Connecticut I was welcomed with open arms, and the people of Unity treated me as family. At the moment I am with other medics preparing for November 17th, our two-month anniversary of occupying Liberty Park. The 17th will be a day of many actions, and all the medics will be active and ready for any situation. I encourage you to help one of the Occupations in Maine with their own plans for that day.

While I was in Maine and Connecticut the New York City General Assembly ( www.nycga.net ) passed another important document: The Statement of Autonomy. This joins the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City and the Principles of Solidarity as the guiding documents of the Occupation Movement. These three documents reveal the identity of the revolution. Discuss them. Debate them. Spread the word. When someone asks "What are these Occupations about? What do they want? Who are they?" -- the answers are within these three documents. Read them. Listen to our voices. Join us and let us hear your voice!

Statement of Autonomy

Passed by the General Assembly at Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street is a people’s movement. It is party-less, leaderless, by the people and for the people. It is not a business, a political party, an advertising campaign or a brand.  It is not for sale.

We welcome all, who, in good faith, petition for a redress of grievances through non-violence.  We provide a forum for peaceful assembly of individuals to engage in participatory as opposed to partisan debate and democracy.  We welcome dissent.

Any statement or declaration not released through the General Assembly and made public online at www.nycga.net should be considered independent of Occupy Wall Street.

We wish to clarify that Occupy Wall Street is not and never has been affiliated with any established political party, candidate or organization.  Our only affiliation is with the people.

The people who are working together to create this movement are its sole and mutual caretakers.  If you have chosen to devote resources to building this movement, especially your time and labor, then it is yours.

Any organization is welcome to support us with the knowledge that doing so will mean questioning your own institutional frameworks of work and hierarchy and integrating our principles into your modes of action.

SPEAK WITH US, NOT FOR US.

Occupy Wall Street values collective resources, dignity, integrity and autonomy above money.  We have not made endorsements.  All donations are accepted anonymously and are transparently allocated via consensus by the General Assembly or the Operational Spokes Council.

We acknowledge the existence of professional activists who work to make our world a better place.  If you are representing, or being compensated by an independent source while participating in our process, please disclose your affiliation at the outset.  Those seeking to capitalize on this movement or undermine it by appropriating its message or symbols are not a part of Occupy Wall Street.

We stand in solidarity.  We are Occupy Wall Street.



The Declaration of the Occupation of New York can be found at https://www.nycga.net/resources/declaration/
The Principles of Solidarity can be found at https://www.nycga.net/resources/principles-of-solidarity/
The Statement of Autonomy can be found at https://www.nycga.net/resources/statement-of-autonomy/


               



Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
 and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
             will we realize
      we cannot eat money."
  
            -Cree Wisdom-

Occupied Communique #1

 November 08, 2011


Dear Unity College,

I have been working as a street medic for 39 days at OccupyWallStreet. I would have written sooner but my access to computers is very limited, and free time is a luxury I have not experienced since arriving. It has been an incredible journey, and I wish you all were here with me to ride this wave of history. However, all of you back in Unity have a more important job than I do, because to be successful the Occupy Movement has to spread to every neighborhood. Wall Street is a battleground in the revolution against the global power structure. Occupying your neighborhood is the revolution realized. When the people in the neighborhoods rise up and determine their own sustainable future by solving their own local neighborhood problems the global elite will have lost all power. Whose streets? Our streets!

The occupation at Liberty Park (aka Zuccotti Park) evolves daily. Nobody can foretell what will happen next. This is what democracy looks like.

The day I arrived at Liberty Park 700 people were arrested while on a protest march across the Brooklyn Bridge. Since then I have been on many marches as a street medic, witnessed many incidents of police brutality and provocation, and many more incidents of protester courage and restraint. The occupation has remained peaceful in the face of constant provocation because the protesters are powered by love -- love of themselves, love of their sisters and brothers, love of their inherent human rights. On the other hand, the police are being paid to act the way they do. No contest, yo! Money can't touch love.

I am sure you have heard of the incidents of crime at Liberty Park, a place that offers free food, free clothes, free shelter and free medical care. Yes, there is criminal activity victimizing people at Liberty Park. Men have been bussed in on Rikers Island buses. Dope dealers and drug addicts from the surrounding neighborhood ply the edges of the Occupation community with the previous knowledge that they would be free from police intervention. Homeless people of all description have been purposefully sent to us in order to over-burden our infrastructure. Yet through all this the community at Liberty Park has not lost sight of their goals while creating new and constructive ways to deal with the constant attack upon their integrity and resolve. Through all of this we continue to provide free care and love to all who come to be with us. Through all of this, though we struggle against all the problems that have plagued society for ages. We know that the sick society that the elite have abused us with has traumatized these people. This trauma can be healed, and is being healed by the outpouring of love by the occupation community. Many times I have heard a person exclaim: "I have never experienced such love in my whole life." It is a beautiful event to witness, and always brings a welling of tears to my eyes because it is the creative moment that is the birth of conceptualizing the new society we are building. It is how we become the 99%.

All of the outside social problems afflicting Liberty Park and the Occupation of Wall Street are important aspects of the movement, and are problems we need to have solutions for when we have moved out of the parks and into the neighborhoods, but are not what OccupyWallStreet is about. What goes mostly unreported, even though sometimes it seems the press outnumbers the occupiers, are the countless daily acts of kindness, care and solidarity by the occupiers to each other, to the thousands daily who come to gawk, and even to the local and federal police charged with harming us. That outpouring of love has changed the attitude of the local police -- who were totally non-communicative and undeniably hostile when I first arrived, to the situation now where except for a few individuals the police are now seen to greet us with smiles and conversation even though they still accept money to surround and menace us. They are beginning to get it -- we are the 99%, and so are they. Soon they will reject those 30 pieces of silver, and join us. That is what OccupyWallStreet is about: enabling an awareness of how all the disparate groups we have been divided into by the 1% are the 99%.

I have been moved to tears almost daily by the joy, love and exuberance the occupiers are living life. Even though we live in a park carved out of solid rock, with no soft soil or grass to rest upon, hearts full of love cushion our existence and soften the harsh realities of living in a toxic urban environment. The river is only a few blocks away, and the view of the Statue of Liberty is inspiring, but the utter lack of water birds or of any kind of life except the blind shuffling of zombified pedestrians tears at my soul. This is Ground Zero. Yes, the Twin Towers once stood here, and the new abomination taking their place rises above Liberty Park and serves me as a landmark to find my way back home, and to remind me of the disconnect between the 1% and the 99%. Despite this, and more, the myriad, spontaneous acts of kindness by one occupier to another wipes away all the hardship for me. No matter the time of day or night there are people helping people throughout the park. We depend upon each other, and we continue to be strengthened by our love of each other. That love transforms us. This is what I have been waiting for my entire life.

Many of us come to the park trapped in our old habits, by our old ideas, and with our old possessions. Living in Liberty Park changes our habits, our ideas and our possessions. This is the revolution in action. This is the new Ground Zero.

All of us here at Liberty Park are dedicated to fighting the global power structure -- the CEOs, the bankers, the politicians. We will remain relentless in our demands of the worlds billionaires -- the thieves, rapists and murderers of millions around the world. The Occupation Movement at large is not about Wall Street. It is about your neighborhood -- whether that is in Oakland or Bangor, the United States or Palestine, the middle of Asia or the middle of the Pacific -- what matters is your neighborhood. We march against the billionaires on Wall Street so that you can peacefully occupy your own neighborhood, so that you can peacefully assume political power in your neighborhood, so that you can become sustainable in your neighborhood. Please don't let us down. Occupy Everything!

               
Kanye West said it best: "Don't be afraid to say the word 'revolution'."

It is revolution. It is exactly what the Declaration of Independence promised, but was never delivered. Now is the time. We are the 99%, and this is what democracy looks like on our streets all day and all week.

Please email me your questions and I will attempt to answer them in future communiques. Thank you all for your support, I am very grateful to be associated with the people of Unity College in Maine. 


Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
 and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
             will we realize
      we cannot eat money."
  
            -Cree Wisdom-