Occupy D.C. and allied but separate protest group October 2011 continue their modest presence as the month winds down. A comparison to the vastly larger and more dynamic OWS event is inescapable. One can’t see Princeton professors trying to get stunt arrested here. Or Naomi Wolf. Not necessarily a bad thing, of course.
Oh wait. Cornell West was arrested outside the Supreme Court (?) last week.
There are 20 tents or so, adorned with colorful banners. The organizers have good organization, ranging from an eclectic library to kitchens and a media savvy information table. The library carried every thing from Nation style readings to Foreign Affairs. Signs along the park’s railing convey the OWS messages as well as locally tailored banners such as ‘K Street workers support Occupy.’
Although Obama and Congress are directly complicit in many of the Occupy issues, protesting in Washington, D.C can’t seem to galvanize the broad segments of the population seen in the City. The region’s still palpable affluence might have something to do with that.
As with all the Occupy presences, ‘General Assemblies’ are called at specific times to shepherd all the cats. Absent a specific program or assembly the D.C. Occupy can appear more like an empty KOA campground. Stuff’s still going on. There’s apparently a growing strain between Occupy D.C. and the separate October 2011 group.
According to one report to the Stiftung, some members of Occupy D.C. want to cease collaboration. There are apparent differences in strategies and tactics. In one sense, tensions do not bode well for the overall OWS-type effort in D.C. On the other hand, managing one ad hoc ‘occupy’ presence is tricky enough for anyone, let along coordinating with others. The two groups are about 6 blocks apart: Occupy D.C. maintains its tents in a park along K Street, October 2011 camps out along Pennsylvania Ave.