Occupy Oakland: Where Free Speech, Small Business, Labor and the 99% Collide

Occupy Demonstrators Exercise Free Speech Rights in Oakland

When the Occupy Oakland leadership  announced a general strike, we took to the streets to get a sense of what was going on, how much is a stake and what affected citizens think about the leaderless movement. You can see our Occupy Oakland Photos here.

Oakland is one of the most active and, often volatile of the “Occupy” action centers springing up world-wide, since the original occupation of Zuccotti Park, in New York City.

According to protest organiser Louise Michel, the strike intended to disrupt operations at the nation’s fifth busiest port, because “we know that the wealth of the 1 percent is produced by the work of the 99 percent.”  After a mostly peaceful and in some ways festive day of speeches, music and camaraderie that is evident in the photos we took in downtown Oakland, a collection of marchers did head to the port and manage to disrupt operations.  At the same time, hooded vandals engaged in destruction of property, like this footage of a Bank of America location.

As we pointed out last week, the “we are the 99%” angle has captured the attention of supporters, opposition and the media alike. This catchphrase dramatizes the shifting distribution of wealth that has led to the top 1% of earners and owners gaining income and assets at a rate that exceeds those of the other 99%.  Evidently, as we saw in Oakland, the Occupy movement is now gaining steam beyond the original constituency of anarchists into an alignment with organized labor, environmentalists and potentially other groups.  If that continues, Occupy may in fact survive the coming Winter and emerge as an ongoing political phenomenon.

While we were out and about, we spoke to a trade union representative who helped to unravel the “general strike” announcement, and explain the involvement of organized labor. We also spoke to some small business owners who have been lucky, brave or determined enough to stay open during the protests.

Labor on strike?

Dave Connolly was busy getting the labor message across

President of the Alameda Labor Council, Dave Connolly, confirmed that a general strike for unions is a “very technical term” with a response to strikes that is very formal and “that is not this.”  He continued to explain that “there is no strike sanction, and none of the unions that I’m aware of has endorsed strike sanction.”

What this is, he explained, is “the 99%.  Everywhere you look, you see nothing but diversity, people from all walks of life, all different backgrounds, and lots of union people as well.”  For the union people, as he calls them, this is “a day of action,” not a general strike for labor.

When we asked him what he hopes to achieve, Dave explained that he is representing “union members that have been disadvantaged by the economic malaise.”  Wages are being cut, benefits are being rolled back, union membership is down to single figures, 25 million Americans are out of work, 5 million Americans are without access to health care and one in five children is born in to poverty – “that’s what we would change.”

According to Dave, a fault-line in the national dialogue has been exposed and finally, “the people” are joining organised labor and organised labor is joining the people in the pursuit of the same goals.

But what about small business owners? Where do they fit in between labor and the people?

Small Business and the 99 percent

Fasil took the time to tell us about his business and the difficulties he faces

Small-time shop owners are very much a part of the 99% says Fasil, owner of De Lauer’s News Stand on Broadway.  But with signs in his window expressing solidarity, Fasil, who cannot afford to shut his shop, is still trying to prove his membership. It is the “death is capitalism” sentiment, displayed on one of the largest banners, that seeks to exclude small business owners from the movement.  It stands to reason that if  “Occupy” means “death to capitalism,” then there is no place in the movement for entrepreneurs.

As we saw with the “shopping riots” in London this August, the youth, the unemployed and the disillusioned targeted the small news stores and food shops alongside the Foot Lockers and the electronics stores, with acts of vandalism and theft that defy conventional connection to political ideas.  But hard-built family livelihoods, that men died to protect, were destroyed in a number of hours. Let’s hope that this is not the direction of things in the Occupy movement.

Life is hard for small businesses too Fasil tells us. And he is, after all, running a store with insufficient access to credit and working capital.  As he said, it has been tough for him to find more than $5000 in credit since the lending melt down in 2008.  Yes, this is powerful evidence that Fasil is indeed part of the 99 percent.  But, it remains to be seen whether “Occupy” will embrace greater access to entrepreneurial capital as one of it’s goals.

Get Back to Work for the American Dream to Thrive

Usoro and his Flower and Errands injects optimism into the US economy

Usoro, owner of Flowers and Errands, a small location at the edge of the Frank Ogawa Plaza explains that he had to shut his stall a few days ago “when the tear gassing was going on,” but otherwise he has been open.

Usoro is an example of a small business owner that understands the grievances of the protesters, but just wants to get on with building his year-and-a-half old business: “I don’t fault anyone for being successful, that’s what we all go in to business for.”

Keen to distance himself from the wasted man-power he sees in the square, he told us that he didn’t want to be in any groups or cliques: “I’m an individual…I’m not a one-percenter, I’m not a ninety-nine-percenter, I’m a flowers and errands guy.”

So, it seems the American Dream is alive and well in the Flower and Errands shop: “This is America…people fly into this country every day for opportunity…you make your own life,” Usoro tells us.

He believes that there is a destructive mind-set taking hold, one that makes it okay not to work, not invest time and energy in something of worth, something to trade.

“It’s just determination, people have to be determined and have a goal and just go for it. Don’t point fingers.” He continued to explain that a recession is no time to be laying blame or crying, but in fact the best time to “get out there in the workforce and add to the economy.”

Out in the sun and the rain and the wind and the sleet, Usoro sells flowers and can talk about what he has built and what he believes.  He puts his energy into productivity, not yelling and screaming at the sky.  We have to expect that it is people like Usoro who will jump-start the economy again.

He goes on to tell us that things are “not as bad bad bad as people think it is,” and the longer these protests go on, the more it will “hurt business and the smaller people.”

We will return to political speech throughout this election year to understand the relative influence of the 99% and the 1% on our democracy.  Stay tuned and tell us what you think.