Occupy Oakland -- Re-Occupying Oscar Grant a.k.a. Frank Ogawa Plaza

The redwood occupations of Judi Bari and Running Wolf? Really? Judi Bari did ground breaking work building coalitions between loggers and environmentalists. Running Wolf took over the oaks grove tree sit then climbed into a landscaping tree on 14th St. RW is mighty good at occupying the spotlight, but redwoods? The man is a liability to our movement, and its an insult to combine his name with Judi's.

Dishonoring activists because they do different actions, some of which you clearly disapprove is a way for agency planted commenters to sow divisiveness.

Who's side are you on?

While we, the 99%, sympathize with the anti-capitalist position of these Occupy groups, for many of us, the concept of tents makes no sense to many of us. After all, being poor by definition is to be in a perpetual state of camping. The Occupy groups must do what they can to improve the lives of the poor, starting first and foremost with taking over empty buildings, which are everywhere, and if the city objects, demand that the city take over these buildings by right of eminent domain and house the thousands of homeless who camp out daily and nightly, everywhere. With all the money you spend on tents, which are then stolen and thrown away by the police, you could even pay rent, or better yet, pay for whatever amenities you need. Buildings have toilets, electricity, hot and cold running water, and if any of this is turned off, you can demand that it be turned on, or have your construction friends turn it all on.

In addition to demanding the city exercise its right to eminent domain, you can demand that the Occupy groups be made part of the food distribution programs to the poor, and your food distribution efforts should include going to all food markets and restaurants and asking for all food that they intend to throw away that is still edible, which is most of it. Whenever bread and butter is put on a restaurant table but not eaten, it must be thrown away as it techinically could have been touched by anyone. That food is very edible. Supermarkets are throwing away whole turkeys that they cannot sell; that is certainly edible. Canned goods that have dents are thrown away and all of that food is edible. Day old bread and pastries at bakeries and stores is often not bought by anyone and thrown away; that is edible. As you organize your food collection, you will find out much more is thrown away and when you can pick it up, take it to your building for daily distribution or go to the workingclass communities to distribute it. We are facing mass starvation in this country as it is downgraded to another Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, with very low wages.

Then there are clothes collection and first aid medical supplies that could be collected and distributed. The shopping fixation in this society has created a large surplus of clothes in people's homes that they do not need, but the poor do need it. The clothes horses will part with it if asked, gladly. Medical people routinely receive all kinds of free samples of everything from band-aids to ointments, and more.

Please use your imagination and demand the city support your taking over of empty buildings to house yourselves and the homeless. The housing crisis is going to get much worse and we the workingclass need housing, food, clothing and medical care now for our survival.

Having LIVED up at Headwaters Forest for two seasons, and talking to others who were there much logner, the name Running Wolf did not come up in conjunction with saving Redwoods. Running Wolf seems to insinuate himself in situations claiming credit for the hard work of others. He may have done some good somewhere but not saving Redwoods. It is the duty of the movement to tell the truth.

The US might be messed up but it's not facing mass starvation. I suggest you put down the bong and get back to reality.

We have 45 million people in this country of 310 million on food stamps; 50% of American adults have no personal savings and cannot come up with $2,000 for an emergency within 30 days; 70% live paycheck to paycheck, half of California public school students qualify for free lunch as their parents make insufficient wages to feed them, the total public school Cal students being 6 million; teachers at all workingclass schools report bringing food to school to feed their starving students so they can sit up and try to learn something. Feeding America, a food bank, feeds 37 million people a year. 25% of Americans depend on federal food progarms to survive; that is 77,500,000 people. There are officially 60 million hungry people in the USA. 1/3 of American are 1 paycheck away from homelessness, which always is accompanied by hunger. THESE ARE JUST THE OFFICIAL STATISTICS. The problem is always worse than on record.
See
http://wsws.org/articles/2011/nov2011/hung-n24.shtml
http://wsws.org/articles/2011/nov2011/pove-n04.shtml
http://wsws.org/articles/2011/oct2011/hung-o17.shtml
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/16/local/la-me-summer-meals-20110616
\http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26952
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26107
http://www.edsource.org/sys_students.html

This writer can remember when a family of four lived on 1 person's unemployment check in the 1950s, when there was no homeless crisis which started under Democratic Pres Carter in 1980, and when the mass begging, digging in garbage cans for food, and scrounging for cans and bottles for the pennies from recycling that we see now routinely everywhere did not exist anywhere. The crisis is worse than ever and getting geometrically worse. I suggest you put down your bong and do your homework. Carefully clip all the articles on this subject, look around any commercial area in any city every day to take note of the begging and scrounging in garbage cans, go to your nearest workingclass public school and ask the teachers how many children they feed, call your local food banks and ask how many people they feed, call Glide Church and St. Anthony's in San Francisco and ask how many thousands lined up for hours for their Thanksgiving meal, as thousands do just that annually, and the numbers increase annually. Glide is reporting 5,000 this year for T-day and they served 1 million meals last year. At St. Anthony's, they were prepared for 4,000 for T-day. See
http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/glide-memorial-church-preps-massive-annual-thanksg/nFmGB/
http://www.bizjournals.com/prnewswire/press_releases/2011/11/18/DC10151

If you think going to these cities is effective you should initiate organizing such a move. But I get the feeling you're just a clown in the peanut gallery talking smack who won't lift a finger against the 1%.

As to the eminent dude: Mass starvation is not about to happen in the us no matter how many links you put up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_v._C.C.N.V.

......
This wikipedia article
explains the US Supreme Court decision
[circa 1980s?]
which allows a 24/7 vigil;
aslong as
nobody sleeps...
..
!!!!????

Liability. Nice attitude. He does much of the ground work for smaller scale protests all over the bay area, constantly, and thats gratitude. You are right though, and wrong. It WAS the Oak Grove, which actually had a few redwoods, sequoias I imagine. And you are also SO wrong, he was the first protester in the trees at the Oak Grove in Berkeley, which still is the worlds longest running urban tree sit protest of 648 (or 9) days, and he does ground support for these projects constantly also. He should be mentioned as a (infamous?) instigator and co-organizer, if we are to be very specific, which this article was not.

One of the reasons the LEFT is so weak in this country is attention hungry idiots like Running Wolf and his minions. Too many activists are more concerned with youtube.com hits and web props that they lose focus on why they are doing the political work in the first place, to affect change. Instead it's become "activist one ups-man-ship".

A perfect example of this was Occupy Oakland where people said things like "unlike the other occupy mov'ts occupy Oakland is embracing and creating leadership roles with the homeless and street populations." Can people just do the political work and stop worrying about their egos? Stop tooting your horns before you've had a long lasting victory.

It's all Burning Man voyeurism. No thanks Walking Dog, Julia Moth Ball Mt, and Stupid Hawk.

What does the tree sit have to do with the challenging the 1%? It is completely ineffective, pointless and does nothing to help the movement. It's mostly about Mr. RW's narcissistic ego and unfortunately there seems to be a steady supply of clueless enablers like Darin who think sitting in a tree is some sort of revolutionary act.

Admittedly, the thought of Running Wolf staying up in a tree for a very long time has it appeal. Then we wouldnt have to deal with his jackass antics like constantly threatening people and calling his opponents "racist" and his general ability to add idiocy to any situation.

As far as I know, the Long Haul, which could be considered wing-nut central, has only 86ed two people in over a decade of being an activist space. Running Dog is one of them. Allegations of drug abuse, domestic violence, as well as his actual practice of racist-baiting have alienated so many local activists that I agree that him being up a tree for any period of time is a boon for folks serious about social transformation in a direction that does not include enabling male domination, drug abuse, and some kind of competition among oppressed people.