They said they would not be deterred by the weather. Given the nature of Saturday’s storm, the Occupy Hartford bunch may have had a few advantages over the rest of us: no trees overhead and they already adjusted to being without power, aside from what the small solar panel could supply.
Early Sunday afternoon, activists were shoveling paths through the camp, but snow was already melting off quickly.
Once again, the majority of activists in the group had rotated. One of the consistent activists at the site, Marla, needs to leave for her annual trip to Ghana, but she has found someone willing to step up and take over some of her duties.
On a day when the internet was abuzz with complaint-after-complaint about the weather, Occupiers were downright cheerful. That is the direct outcome of proving wrong those who assumed activists would pack up and leave at the first sign of frost.
Several Occupiers held signs near the street and received a surprising amount of honked replies for what should have been an otherwise quiet weekend day.
While activists made it out of the storm unscathed, a few tents were damaged. Right now, Occupiers are requesting some extra boots and mink oil for waterproofing them.
The group now has a library on site, located in a dry, warm shelter. In preparation for the storm, activists stored books in plastic bins so that they “wouldn’t get wet and freeze.”
On Saturday, Occupy Hartford will be taking part in Bank Transfer Day, an action that did not derive from the Occupy Wall Street movement, but which is supported by many involved in it.
Richard
Another great essay Kerri. They say a picture is worth 1,000 words but as we all know that would not be so kind to your blog. So I will try not to be long winded here, state my piece and move on. I wondered when the head of reformism would rear up over Occupy Hartford putting aside any notion that the groups of folks sleeping in tents and gathering in TTP were really revolutionaries. We see by your photo, these are folks that may be seeking just liberal reform of the Capitalist System.
Up with Old Gory high on a snow brick, telling all that we don’t want to move too far away from the way things are now. OH issues patriotic appeals to this country’s purported democratic values raising slogans like “We are the 99%” (another issue here would be does this monster that folks fight only have a head? I am sure the enemy is far bigger than 1%, don’t you? “Tax the Rich” (will need far more than that.) and “The Banks got Bailed Out We Got Sold Out.”(so move all your money out of the BOA even if most of you live paycheck to paycheck. Appeal to who??) What really is being heard and seen is just more defense of liberal bourgeois democracy. Old glory, the blue, the white and scarlet hypocrisy, the flag that symbolizes what the U.S. has always been an expansionist and oppressive empire that started in slavery and genocide and has prospered through brutal exploitation, global war and domination now flutters freely at Occupy Hartford.
Retake the flag, you can’t. Who would want to? The flag that bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the flag that napalmed the children of Vietnam, the flag full of blood and tears of Sand Creek, the Long March, the battles with workers and a long recent list of war and more war. Is not patriotism and flag waving just another way that the 1%, the political parties, the armies, the cops, keep and continue to keep us all down? Isn’t this patriotism just an invention of the ruling class? To me flying the flag of the enemy is counter revolutionary for anyone who purports to be seeking another way. Unless of course we are talking about tucking and tweaking Capitalism. Deep in my heart I know that the most Occupy folks are really incapable of offering an alternative to Capitalism. I can not for the life of me believe that any protest movement will convince the capitalist ruling class to change its stars and stripes and to begin to act in the interest of the people.
High hope were held in many quarters that the Occupy movements would be able to move beyond bourgeois nationalism and into the sphere of Internationalism with all the oppressed of the world. I guess that dream just isn’t possible when well fed children of the bourgeois try to lead while raising the flag of the enemy.
Roze
We fly the usa flag to pander to those afraid of our rhetoric. Most days there is an anarcho syndaclist flag beside it. Using the flag to pander was an idea by a communist named Rob on day three of wall street occupation and it has served the movement well
Richard
Yeah sure. Thanks for the laugh, oh when I was 10. I guess that is a good excuse as any. Please go back and re-read my comment you have missed the point of it. Oh, let me ask when you are done pandering the people will you and the communist name Rob jump out and shout boo?
Another suggestion please find and read what some of the communists of today are saying about the flag at occupy where ever. Quite different than your thinking or so called Rob.
Roze
Youre one more hating critic on the internet. You people are an endless nuisence. Kill your pc and occupy your way if you think you can do better. There was no hope before Occupy and now there is some. So please take your opinion to TPP or shove it.
Kerri Provost
Roze, Richard has spent a lot of time at the site. He has served food to activists.
Richard
You speak too soon Roze not knowing what you speak about. That is a big danger when the wheel is still in spin. Lesson 1 of any awakening. I can add a long list of what I have done at TTP but why. You don’t even sound worth the trouble with your childish dribble.
Kerri Provost
I agree that the numbers don’t add up. Maybe 1% control most wealth, but a larger number enable this.
In all of the rhetoric being spewed forth, on all sides, I have yet to hear, when people say “another world is possible,” what that world is like. Would love for someone to expound on that.
Roze
Nobody knows. We can only do our best.
Richard
I would love to know also. I am so busy trying to shake off this one and with each shake I feel better and better. I use to think that I knew what type of world was possible but have gotten rid of all my old ideas and wonder now wandering.
I know a new world isn’t possible by using and clinging to symbols of the ruling class and will never happen by loving the master and joining with the enemy. When a person does so he or she is stunted in growth and makes another world not possible. When he or she does they become bogged down in believing that one of the two parties or any party for that matter can deliver them. We must always remember that change real change never comes from above. Within the movement we want no condescending saviors such as those who pander the people. That would be a terrible mistake that would lead history backwards not forwards. So give me a year or two, maybe then I can tell you what another world is like and not sound like I just got up out of bed or have been smoking too much weed.