Among the 8 people at the morning meditation under a portable awning common in encampments of people with access to resources, though perhaps not common to the makeshift communities of destitute people living in wooded areas near cities, was attorney John Feeney, and Rev Bruce Wright. Feeney is providing legal help to the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign.
“There is more of a focus on love and justice on the political left. The right talks about it, but it’s not morally credible,” Feeney said.
When Wright announced the morning meditation, he said training on direct action would follow it. I don’t recall that taking place. Instead, he gathered what he said were several people at the camp he could trust, saying that there were at least a few police informants and provocateurs at the encampment.
After a disrespectful exchange between Wright and 3 police officers on bikes, a city service vehicle arrived to shut off a dripping hydrant we were using for cooking, cleaning, showering, and hand-washing for the kitchen line.
A few others and myself went to the back corner of the Romneyville encampment for what he announced as “morning meditation.”
I asked Wright about the role religion plays in activism.
“No movement has changed the course of history without religion, whether it’s been Moses, Jesus, Mohamed, Gandhi, King, or Harriet Tubman, or the women’s rights movement. The movement to end slavery in the 1800s and child labor in the early 1900s were rooted in religion.”
Wright stood up to look for something inside of a large plastic cooler and then asked, “How many atheists start soup kitchens?”
Wright said he went to the American Humanist Association meeting in June.
“I saw a lot of bickering there about religion.” [[ In the animal liberation community which is part of the ecology movement, some folk talk about ‘post-humanism, and cite the limits of secular humanism. To compare notes, thru my involvement in the ecology movement, I have found a type of spirituality that is non-religious and has helped me as an activist.]]
[To what degree have you sought common cause between your social justice work and those working in ecology movements, which includes but is not limited to animal rights?]
[Maybe a key ingredient to the success of social movements is love, not religion per se? In other words, spiritual love tends to involve religion, but not necessarily. The heated disputes and alienation I saw at Romneyville and in Charlotte reminded me of the importance of love. ]
After reading Bible verses and leading some call-and-response prayers, Wright talked about the activism for which Romneyville was the logistical base. He said he had serious disagreements with people working with Occupy Tampa and with Occupy in general.
“Wannabe anarchists are counterproductive. Being an anarchist is not about being disorganized. I don’t consider myself an anarchist. Maybe I’m an anarcho-communist.”
Referring to the nonverbal signals, the twinkle fingers, used at general assemblies in Occupy, Wright said, “I don’t like all those curly fingers.”
[[What don’t you like about this? Seems a way to reduce the incidence of people interrupting each other? In fact, to what degree have you considered counter RNC and counter DNC actions might have been more organized and effective at communicating a clear message during our marches, had we done daily GA’s? ]
Wright said, “someone needs to write about how Occupy has become full of Democratic operatives and police infiltrators.”
“This has got to be an honest movement, where we’re able to say how we’re having conflict with each other,” Wright said. He then stood up and walked toward one of the entrances to the encampment after someone called out for him, “Bruce. We need Bruce. The cops are in the camp.”
I followed a little behind, finding Wright talking firmly with a police captain who appeared to be pressured by Wright’s tough talk as two or three subordinate cops stood next to him. I suspect the supervisor cop was concerned about losing face.
“Do you have a warrant? This is private property. You can’t be here without a warrant,”
Wright said as the supervisor’s face reddened and two of his subordinates winced.
As Wright continued, the police captain kicked a patch of grass, looked in the distance and then back at Wright then said, “Would you be willing to talk if we stepped off the property?”
Wright agreed. Interestingly, within about 30 minutes, police in special purpose vehicles, Gators made by John Deere—kind of a cross between golf carts and dune buggies—-appeared with about 100 sandwiches and as many bottles of water, left over from what the large numbers of police from around the state didn’t use. Many of us thanked the cops and applauded, though at least one person said flatly “Are you going to eat that cop food?”
I asked Wright about this later that day and he said, “ I had to play good cop and bad cop all by myself.” It seems he took the approach of being tough with the captain and then lightening up so as to negotiate.
In light of the roles Wright, Whittaker, Fillipe Chavez, Curtis Hunt, Noble, Honkala, and many others played at the Tampa encampment (perhaps to a lesser degree at the Charlotte encampment ), I have serious doubts about the idea of a leaderless movement.
It might make more sense to say, as someone already suggested, Occupy and other movements are ‘leaderful,’ not leaderless, in that there is an ebb and flow of various people taking the lead and stepping back depending on the situation.
If Occupy and other social movements that emerge to address ecological crises and the concentration of power and involve leaders who communicate via mass media to the general public, can these movements be more democratic and horizontal, perhaps, than preceding movements?
To what extent does social media affect things such that social movements are more ‘horizontal’?
Romneyville is on a piece of private property next to an Army-Navy surplus store. Some folk with Occupy Wall Street joked that they were refused when they tried to buy brass knuckles, pepper spray, and grenades. [[[[Do surplus stores sell grenades? ]]]]
I asked Wright what he thought was going on in terms of the relatively good relations between protesters and the police in Tampa. He said at least part of it might be that the chief of police is openly lesbian, somehow contributing to a more progressive attitude on the force.
Wright said booze, drugs, and violence could get Romneyville shut down.
The site for Romneyville/Obamaville is leased until Sept 17. What is planned for later ?
[[[[As for the mistrust that existed —well-founded and not so well-founded—- between Wright and some others at the encampment and among others, what can we do about this ? ]]]]
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