That’s one of the chants of about 200 people who marched down Pennsylvania Avenue on Oct 6, toward the end of day 1 of the October2011 protests for human needs and against corporate greed.
As Food Not Bombs D.C. and other community groups provided pizza, bananas and vegetables, and as David Rovics lyrically counterspun American history and current events for the couple of thousand or so gathered in Freedom Plaza, a somewhat different event was taking place down the road at the Newseum: the 2011 Washington Ideas forum.
That’s where the 200 or so marchers gathered for about 20 minutes. They banged drums and chanted “we got sold out, banks got bailed out,” and “arrest Cheney now.” The former vice president was listed as one of the speakers at the exclusive event.
An activist and a few others unrolled a long sheet of brown paper. “This is where the elite meet to discuss the future of America without any concern about what the American citizenry wants. So we’re putting this out to invite people to write down their ideas. ”
Over a month ago, organizers for the civil disobedience against the Keystone XL Pipeline urged protesters to dress as if they were going to a business meeting. Not so with this march.
Whether making it a point to dress in business attire lends credibility to a protest or involves the hypocrisy of trying to promote justice by catering to class prejudice might depend on how you look at it.
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A young man with long hair and a scraggily beard lead a call-and-response: Whose D.C. ? Our D.C. ! Whose America ? Our America ! Whose country ? Our country!
Maybe the exhilaration of a crowd such as this may help some of us over the hump of being too afraid or too cynical to intensify our activism.
Some onlookers smiled while others lifted their chins into the air, while some passersby in business suits walked stiffly past. Other onlookers and passersby seemed oblivious to the noisy march, maybe because protest is part of the D.C. routine. But that didn’t stop news crews from other countries or the ubiquitous citizen reporters with phone cameras and camcorders from taking an interest.
Most of the marchers appeared under 30 and White, though there were some people who appeared to be in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and up. This was yet another protest at which people of color were under-represented.
A taxi cabbie and a city bus driver honked their horns apparently in support of the march. People dining in the open fronts of restaurants and riding in the open top deck of a red bus didn’t respond as marchers waved and called out to them.
Some of the marchers rushed up to onlookers and handed them post-card sized flyers for upcoming events for the ‘occupation’ of D.C. Men in blue wore guns, badges, and straight faces.
“Some of them (cops ) know what’s up. In New York they do,” said a woman who agreed that some cops recognize the class war against the middle and working classes and the poor targets them as well.
The marchers chanted “occupy Wall Street, occupy K Street, occupy everything, and never give it back,” as they left the Newsuem on their way back to Freedom Plaza where a ‘people’s assembly’ opened to anyone in the crowd deliberations about whether to sleep in the plaza---a federal park--and how to go about doing it.
That is a welcome change from activist events that involve masses of people standing around for hours listening, often passively, to long speeches from a select few leaders in our movements. People were being encouraged to come to the stage with their statements and questions. Many came.
As for whether to sleep in freedom plaza, some people were concerned that arrests arising from doing that would jeopardize the permit for the entire event. That concern was eventually laid to rest.
One of the final points of the open deliberation was that one way or another, protesters needed to keep as many people in Freedom Plaza for as long as possible. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be much of an occupation.