A Modesto View from Reclaim the Streets SF

A View from the Reclaimed the Streets San Francisco Pictures at: http://www.indybay.org

Being that I am from a mostly isolated and small town in the Central Valley, I usually watch sf.indymedia and indybay.org with longing eyes. But when the organizational collective for "Occupied Territory" I work with called a meeting before "Reclaim the Streets", I knew that I had to go, (no literally, I HAD to go).

Arriving at the edge of Golden Gate park at around 12 noon, at the complete end of Haight Street, I saw about only 50-60 people. Many had took the call for pirate wear, and a festival of "reclaim the streets, reclaim your heart arrr!", to 'heart' and come in full pirate gear. Stilt walkers, scally wags, and a couple of pirate ships with cannons appeared to the delight of many.

By the time that SF Food Not Bombs started feeding around 12:30, about 200 people had assembled. The crowd was mostly young, I would guess between 17-20, but a fair number of older people with smiling faces were also in the group. Organizers passed out booklets on what Reclaim the Streets is, and also information about the police. A flyer was also handed out asking for those who wished to show solidarity with anarcho-feminism to please march under the black flag with the (A) and female symbol. Gay Shame, a anti-capitalist queer group was also out in force with a large banner that read something like "Queers Revolt Against Consumer Slavery" (or something to that affect).

At the time that a contingent of people called for a meeting for anyone interested in breakaway to Safeway to support the workers, about 400-500 had assembled in the park. Black anarchist flags (many with hearts on them), were to be seen through out the park, and there was no mistaking that this was largely an anarchist event. About 1/3 of the crowd appeared to be masked up or in black bloc, about another 1/3 was in pirate gear, and another to have no fashion affiliation. I would be lying to say that the majority of the people participating were not white, but there seemed to be a good amount of POC and womyn. I also witnessed a mother drop off three younger women, I replied, "Only in San Francisco can a mom drop her kids off at a protest"..."If you smash any Gap windows make sure you clean up the glass"...

At 1pm we were off! About 10 motor bike cops appeared, and without much concern rode ahead of us. On lookers look on, and many of them asked, "What is this for?" Some joined us, and as the hundreds poured into the street, Haight became shut down. A huge sound system, pumping out high energy techno was being pulled by several DJs, and paused for a moment about a block up. A few chants were started but hardly anyone could hear over the sound of the music.

According to indybay.org, the GAP store a couple of blocks up was splashed with paint, and a chant was started, "Come off of the sidewalks, and into the street!"

At this point I was pretty close to front of the march, and I could see up ahead that a beat up looking "hippy" bus was now somehow in the middle of the street. Later I learned that probably someone put the bus in the middle of the street at just the right time. Several people climbed atop the bus and waved black flags with hearts on them, and a banner was placed on it that read, "Reclaim the Streets". Now stopping around the bus, the cops now had us pretty well contained. We were blocked off about 100 feet in front of the bus, and about 100 feet in back of the bus.

Radical cheer leaders started different cheers with their red and black pom poms, and a Reclaim the Streets marching band began playing. Chalk was distributed, and in a matter of minutes the streets were covered with colored fossilized sea creatures. Several streets signs were placed in front of the bus, with RTS stenciled on them. A huge banner, spanning the width of the street was almost placed in between two poles reading, "Reclaim the Streets", but was foiled by SFPD. Many shoppers and onlookers simply sat down on the side walk to observe or went into the crowd and enjoyed themselves. Derek Grey on indybay.org wrote about the Haight St. shutdown and said this:

"At least three outbound #7 buses were stalled at Haight and Masonic unable to proceed further. Both the #6 and #43 buses either maintained their routes or found alternates. The #43 is an especially important lines for communiting health care workers and patients of UCSF Medical Center."

After about an hour of standing in one place, I was starting to wonder if just reclaiming one block was the best we could do. According to others, the cops had stated that if the party moved up or down the street people would be arrested. While it's nice to be in a town that will allow you to freely interact on a part of a street, but if we were going to go a couple of blocks and stop are we really accomplishing that much? Some people that I encountered by about 2pm were saying things like, "Time to get fucked up and drunk!", and "Where's the weed". This is fine, I’m not on the sXe jihad but my own personal feelings about connecting with public space do not included getting messed up, but to each their own. Myself I had driven over and hour for this, and wasn't going to end this experience dazed in a gutter and singing garbled versions of "Against Me!" songs.

At around 2:15 however, activists representing "Direct Action to Stop the War" passed out flyers for a breakaway march to a "near by" Safeway to support the striking workers in Southern California, and the non-striking workers in Northern California. After the music was turned down, some people spoke, including myself because they shoved a megaphone in my hand, and in a couple of minutes we were marching again. If my memory serves me, I asked for people to take the march to Safeway and something to the effect of “We’ve Reclaimed the Streets, Now let’s reclaim the means of production!” While a Safeway store really isn’t an place that actually produces things, people seemed to agree and cheered, and/or said “Aaarr!!!”

About 2/3 to 1/2 of the party was in tow, including most of the black bloc looking anarchists, and the marching band was soon striking up a tune. As the band began to play, a rousing chant of "The Boss Needs Us, We Don't Need the Boss" began, to which some people on Haight started cheering. One stilt walker and several bikers/skateboarders zoomed ahead us the march at various times. The police who looked as if they seen it all, acted as if they expected this to happen, and did their best to stay ahead of us and make sure traffic was blocked.

We hit the end of Haight Street and started towards Fulton. Chants of "Who's Streets..ARrrrr Streets!", and "Make Capitalism Walk the Plank!" were screamed in full pirate fashion. Once on Fulton, four lanes were taken over, and pro-strike and anti-Safeway chants were chanted, along with the classics eluding to class war, revolution, and state smashing. Some people honked their horns in approval, some rolled up their windows, while more rolled their eyes.

Approaching the Safeway on 7th Street, it was clear that it wasn't just us who had decided to crash Safeway's party. About 10 cops lined both drive ways, and more were up at the entrance of the store. As the sounds of "Safeway - No Way!" grew louder and louder as we approached, the manager(?) came out with the "Fuck not again!" face that only bosses can give.

With the cops not approaching us, or making us leave, but obviously not allowing us to enter the store, we were at a standstill. We also had to keep in mind that the workers inside were not scabs, but non-striking workers, so our tactics had to reflect this. People representing Direct Action to Stop the War grabbed a megaphone and talked about the conditions of the strike, the threat of lost health care of the workers in the Vons/Safeway/Albertson's chain, and the Walmartization of America's workforce. They also presented several Valentines Day cards made for Safeway workers that read, "We Support You", and one for management reading, "Safeway! - You're Breaking Our Hearts!" Various other speakers took the mike, and after one masked spirited individual finished talking, asked if half of the crowd could block the other side of the Safeway entrance. About 40 people took action and soon the entire Safeway store was blocked off.

At this time, I had to start my long walk back to the Market St. BART, and had to leave. As myself and my friend headed back, we came across the rest of the RTS party, still about 200 strong marching back down Haight street. According to one participant they were marching back to the park to party in the park. According to the indybay site, the Safeway contingent stayed for about an hour more, and then marched back to the park themselves.

All in all I would say that RTS! was very successful. The organizers were up against odds of police harassment got together a pretty large street party simply with the help of flyers, indymedia, and through friends talking. While it would have been nice to continue the party further, it was encouraging to be in a place where the cops had made the decision that it was better to basically let the protestors have the street that to get us off of it. Also, my hat goes off to DASW who organized people to take the heat to Safeway. Although RTS! is made to be a celebration, and not a protest per say, it was nice to make something out of the celebration and show our solidarity with workers in struggle. It was also nice to allow free association and have two street parties go on, which I'm sure the cops did not expect, (or did they?...).

As I drove home I went over the days events, smoking a fatty, driving recklessly into other lanes, and singing in a slurred voice, "If Florida takes, ...we're taking everyone down with us..."

Link: http://www.indybay.org