{"id":9290,"date":"2011-10-21T10:53:03","date_gmt":"2011-10-21T14:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=9290"},"modified":"2011-10-21T10:53:03","modified_gmt":"2011-10-21T14:53:03","slug":"occupying-the-city-of-oaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2011\/10\/21\/occupying-the-city-of-oaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Occupying the City of Oaks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just under a dozen Occupy Raleigh protesters braced themselves early Thursday morning against the chill in front of barricades surrounding the State Capitol, days after the first protest led to the arrests of 19 people<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Occupy Raleigh\u2019s first rally Saturday consisted of soapbox speeches, signs such as \u201cI won\u2019t believe corporations are people until Texas executes one\u201d and energized marches down Fayetteville Street.<\/p>\n

But, that was just the beginning. Tuesday night, a group of about 20 people continued to stand outside the Capitol. About a dozen remained on the sidewalk even as temperatures dropped overnight Wednesday.<\/p>\n

They are not permitted on the state-owned park around the Capitol, but the sidewalk is city property.<\/p>\n

Eddy Samara, one of the protesters arrested Saturday, said it\u2019s \u201can ongoing occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

An Occupy Raleigh protester wraps up to keep warm Thursday. Photo by Will Huntsberry.<\/p><\/div>\n

Seeds of Occupancy
\n<\/strong>Occupy Raleigh began as a Facebook page and has, at last check, more than 4,600 \u201clikes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stacie Borrello, who started the Facebook page, said Occupy Raleigh is a \u201cgroup of concerned citizens\u201d who are aligned with the national Occupy movement and whose chief concern is economic justice.<\/p>\n

Borrello said the local movement got started because people here \u201csaw [Occupy Wall Street<\/a>] happening and they were waiting for something to come up in [Raleigh.]\u201d<\/p>\n

The Facebook page led to boots on the ground. The first general assembly was planned and people started self-organizing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe word\u2019s getting out, and people are finding out about it in ways other than the Facebook page,\u201d Borrello said.<\/p>\n

The discussion on Twitter<\/a> is constant using the hashtag #occupyraleigh.<\/p>\n

Finding its Voice
\n<\/strong>The aim of Occupy Raleigh \u201cdepends on who you ask,\u201d said occupier Erik Johnson.<\/p>\n

For many of the protestors, eliminating corporate personhood, taxing all income (such as corporate profits) as ordinary income and putting a moratorium on foreclosures are just a few of the top priorities.<\/p>\n

For Johnson the goal is much broader.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you ask me, the most important thing that can happen here is that people who are feeling frustrated and want to do something about it do get involved in direct action because it is so broadening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Many protestors say the movement transcends the notion of political parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t a Democratic Party movement; this is a people\u2019s movement,\u201d Borello said.<\/p>\n

But so far it\u2019s a movement that hasn\u2019t agreed on a list of demands, which Borello attributes to the lengthy process of achieving consensus.<\/p>\n

Leaderless Occupation
\n<\/strong>The movement is structured through a \u201cdemocratic process, where there\u2019s no kind of C.E.O. or executive that says \u2018This is how we\u2019re doing it,\u2019\u201d Borello said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have equal voices and have the opportunity to object to things or to put forward new ideas,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But that means everything comes to a vote, which can lead to frustration and confusion.<\/p>\n

Occupy Raleigh voted during an Oct. 9 general assembly meeting to align itself with the Occupy Wall Street movement, prompting some to walk out frustrated with the process.<\/p>\n

George Gulino, another protester, expressed doubts about the group remaining leaderless.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got here. They said there was no leader, but now there seems to be a golden circle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But, 27-year-old Will Carroll said he believes the leaderless framework is effective.<\/p>\n

When asked if getting things done is harder, he said, \u201csurprisingly no.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, there was a little bit of confusion at the first couple of assemblies, but now that everybody understands the process, it\u2019s kind of gone a lot more smoothly,\u201d Carroll said.<\/p>\n

Mary Stephenson, 41, who\u2019s been unemployed since April 2009 added, \u201cWe do argue. We need to get better at that.”<\/p>\n

Erik Johnson said the confusion in process doesn\u2019t make the group disjointed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis guy has different goals from me. We obviously share some goals because we\u2019re both out here, but we don\u2019t want exactly the same thing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want two different lives because we\u2019re two different people. We just happen to believe that we could maybe live those lives better by joining together and working in solidarity to accomplish goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The crowd marched past the Bank of America building on Fayetteville St. in downtown Raleigh. Photo by Karen Tam.<\/p><\/div>\n

What\u2019s Next
\n<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cFor right now, the plan is that we will stay here,\u201d said Eddy Samara, pointing to their line of chairs and supplies on the Morgan Street sidewalk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were here last night [Sunday] even though they continued to make us stand and be awake,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople continued to occupy here and on the other sidewalk, and the plan is to continue to stay here tonight and be here in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samara believes Occupy Raleigh members will continue to march on banks and \u201csend the message that it\u2019s not okay to bail out the banks when people are being asked to be subject to austerity measures, and this is really inhumane.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if they were planning more civil disobedience, Samara and Josh Harris, another of those arrested, said not at this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have 19 people arrested on the Capitol grounds in one action is pretty amazing to me,\u201d Samara said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to see what the ripple effect will be,\u201d added Harris, a former financial advisor.<\/p>\n

Those in the group mentioned plans of parking deck sit-ins, appeals to legislators, newsletters and a general education plan, but for now Occupy Raleigh remains a dedicated few clinging to the sidewalk outside the old State Capitol.<\/p>\n

The group doesn\u2019t \u201chave too much of a what\u2019s next plan, unfortunately\u201d said occupier Harrison Savage. \u201cI think it\u2019s really more of a regrouping period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will Huntsberry and Chris Cioffi contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Occupy Raleigh, a part of the larger national Occupy movement, held its first rally on Saturday at the State Capitol. They remain camped out on the sidewalk near the Old Capitol building. The Record takes a look at where the group stands a few days out from its initial rally and where it plans to go. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24038,"featured_media":9291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9290"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24038"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}