Occupy Santa Cruz: Two Months Down...

After Two Months of Occupation the County Office for Santa Cruz is alive and well. I went down on November 17th to check it out and document my experience with some photos and video. 

The assembly outside the County Court

Self-declared members of the "99%"

     I had to park far away from the actual occupation site and as I walked over the bridge along the main road through Santa Cruz I met some people holding signs towards oncoming traffic. The first people I met were a elderly couple who have lived in Santa Cruz for the last twenty years. The woman on the right was an out of work merchant, who was trying to start a career in teaching. While her husband on the left, currently works as a grief counselor. Both were very passionate about the occupy movement. It was surprising for me to be reminded that this movement was so wide spread in terms of demographics within society. The fact that an elderly couple were out in the cold waiving pickets signs has to say something about the condition of our nation. 

     Approaching the front of the court house, there were several tents and makeshift shelters set up, but not too many people around. I could hear the sounds of a crowd near by and went around the corner to find a large group of people coming my way.
   Some had candles, others just had lights, but they were all headed towards the steps of the court house building. Looking at their faces I saw a range of different races, ages, and social groups. As I walked with them, I found out that they were all headed to the steps for a General Assembly Meeting.

I had heard the term general assembly used before, in description of Protest movement organization, but Id never seen it in action. To my surprise it operated in a very democratic and organized fashion.

The agenda for the meeting was written on white boards and placed by the large lit tent. There was also a sign up sheet for speakers in this area and people were encouraged to sign up to speak if they had something to say.

 Looking around the assembly's members was another interesting sight.The group was very diverse. With homeless type people peacefully mixing in with hipster type young people.

I saw groups of average looking persons next to people who looked like my grandma and grandpa.

 

In addition to the different social groups I saw in the assembly I noticed and young boy reading while his mom talked politics with a fellow assembly member

     The assembly of mostly older looking adults, was being led by a young college student with a megaphone. She mentioned that she was mediating the discussion tonight, which made me wonder how it is decided who gets to mediate the Assembly meetings.

     For whatever reason, she was leading the Assembly meeting and it was actually very organized and civil. From the beginning she set the ground rules of how Assembly member could have their voice heard, while retaining order in enough where their weren't fights or arguments. To this consequence, they had rules set up based around hand signals. Thumbs up was yes, thumbs down was no.  Crossing arms was extreme disagreeing. Pinky up was a form of answering or correcting a comment or question that a speaker made. All these ground rules were placed in order to maintain a civil atmosphere, while still allowing for discussion of ideas.

 Leaving the meeting, I was struck by how organized the occupation was. With tents and food dispensaries in the general camp, the Occupy group functioned as a livable area for many people. My second most striking realization was how diverse the group was. I could honestly say that over 70% of the people their were above the age of thirty. with 40% over forty five. With that it mind, I couldn't help but be a little angry with the portrayal of Occupy Wall-street being largely made up of whiny hipsters.  The generalization is harmful and doesn't give justice to the significant claim these "Occupiers" have. The presence of older more mature members of society should offer a sign to how important corporate/ government reform is to America. The question is whether America can see past the drum circle, hipster scarf image and understand the motivation behind the Occupy movement.