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.
Showing posts with label eviction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eviction. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Peaceful sit-in at Harbourside Park May 16th, 8 AM
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.
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.
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Monday, May 14, 2012
Occupy NL Eviction in the news...
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
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.
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
CBC's Here and Now (video): Eviction tonight?
CBC News: Here and Now - May 15 (video) (2:22 - 3:14) and (11:17:30 - 11:19:20)
Telegram: Occupy NL eviction loomsNational 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.
CBC: Occupy NL removes camp before St. John's deadline
CBC's Here and Now (video): Occupy NL Moves
The Telegram: City thanks Occupy NL members for removing camp
The Vancouver Sun: All-winter Occupy N.L. campers leave St. John's park cleanly, quietly
The Telegram: City thanks Occupy NL members for removing camp
The Vancouver Sun: All-winter Occupy N.L. campers leave St. John's park cleanly, quietly
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Sunday, May 6, 2012
The future of Occupy NL
**Join the Facebook event here!**
GLOBAL CONTEXT: May 15th is a global day of action for the Occupy movement. The Indignados from Spain are celebrating their one year anniversary and hundreds of thousands of people have re-occupied squares all over Spain and continue to hold the space. Occupy Wall Street and a broad affiliation of organizations will join together for a sit-down strike and mass assembly in Times Squares at 6 PM.This action will focus on the Banks and their role in the Global Economic Crisis. Occupy NL stands in solidarity with the global movement against austerity and seeks to move towards economic justice worldwide during this day of global action.
***
We will be evicted from Harbourside Park today, May 15th. Despite all odds, Occupy NL has lasted through the winter, but now that Spring is here the City of St. John's is preparing for tourist season. Read another important blogpost on the subject.
GLOBAL CONTEXT: May 15th is a global day of action for the Occupy movement. The Indignados from Spain are celebrating their one year anniversary and hundreds of thousands of people have re-occupied squares all over Spain and continue to hold the space. Occupy Wall Street and a broad affiliation of organizations will join together for a sit-down strike and mass assembly in Times Squares at 6 PM.This action will focus on the Banks and their role in the Global Economic Crisis. Occupy NL stands in solidarity with the global movement against austerity and seeks to move towards economic justice worldwide during this day of global action.
***
We will be evicted from Harbourside Park today, May 15th. Despite all odds, Occupy NL has lasted through the winter, but now that Spring is here the City of St. John's is preparing for tourist season. Read another important blogpost on the subject.
Read more »
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Monday, April 30, 2012
Confrontations
At what point does power restrict freedom? My area of research has to do with mental health care and the law. I look at what points people who are considered to have lost their grip on consensual reality have their rights and autonomy taken away by the state.
Here with an impending eviction of Harbourside Park we have a conceptually similar situation. A group of people who are perceived as not adhering to a normal way of living are going to be soon faced with a decision. Leave the park, ie normalize, or be confronted with the law and the restrictions that follow from that.
The decision to restrict freedom seems easier to make when a group has been categorized as other; different or abnormal in some way. I think there is something abnormal about what is happening with the Occupy movement. I also think we are at the point where it might be time to consider the virtues of abnormality.
I understand not wanting to participate in Occupy, or ignoring it altogether. We are free to choose. My question is, what is there about the movement to not support? Here as elsewhere, (and I have been to the encampments at Dewey Square in Boston and the womb at Zuccotti Park in Manhattan), I have seen a lot of things. I have seen people motivated to contribute their time and energy to provide food, shelter, and camaraderie in a virtually judgement free setting. I read from Joel Hynes' Straight Razor Days at the Zuccotti Park library. I was violently chased through Manhattan by the riot police for my efforts. Hynes does have a gift for antagonism.
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