We are living in strange times. This is an empirical fact. For confirmation go to Google images and turn safe search off. Type in anything. Note the results. One of the things that makes it all strange is the underlying value system of our current milieu. Late capitalism dictates that anyone can succeed. The missing second part to that dictum is that anyone can succeed, but not everyone. One person’s success is another’s failure, financially. Late capitalism’s sine qua non is that it necessarily produces inequality: poverty, homelessness, addiction, mental health crises. We know this. The people who have the power to change things clearly aren’t interested in changing it, and the people who might desire change are by and large too busy to be able to do much about it.

Once in a while though, in a synchronous tingle through the matrix, a movement happens; the miraculous. A group of people crystallize who are able to navigate each other and make an effort to help, to make up for where our system fails. They volunteer their time and energy and are willing to do what many are not, to navigate the world with less fear, to be open to anyone, to live with less, to make a difference. To make a fucking effort.

I am not one of those people. I walked away, I didn’t have it in me. I got rattled after the Zuccotti Park eviction. Ken Canning on the other hand has been living at Harbourside Park for seven fucking months. I complain about the drafts in my apartment.

Tonight's General Assembly reached total consensus on what to do about the looming eviction deadline of May 15th midnight. We all agreed to take down our last remaining symbolic tent and leave the park cleaner than when we arrived on October 15th, 2011, as part of the global Occupy revolution making its way to Canada.

Join us at 8 AM tomorrow morning, May 16th, at Harbourside Park for a peaceful sit-in on the space where our tents used to be. Our camp is now gone, but sit with us tomorrow in a show of solidarity, in recognition that the loss of our physical encampment does not signal the end of our movement. This is just the end of a beautiful and inspiring prelude. Join us for phase two and beyond.

Read more about the media coverage of OccupyNL's eviction here.

Prior to May 16th:

Adam Walsh interviewed three occupiers on May 14 down at Harbourside Park about the looming eviction on May 15th. Have a listen here.

Also, check out these articles:
CBC: Eviction day for Occupy NLers
Telegram: Occupy NL eviction looms
National Post: Occupy stalwart St. John’s, NL, to be kicked out by midnight
Globe and Mail (video): After Eight Months, St. John's Occupy Protestors Pack Up
Calgary Herald: After long winter, Newfoundland Occupy diehards told to pack it in
NTV: OccupyNL packs up its tents

May 16th:

Occupy NL's resolution to have a peaceful sit-in.