Defund the Police Oakland

Black Lives Matter

Defund the Police

Restart the General Assemblies


From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who has been out in the streets the past three weeks since George Floyd Was lynched by the police: your bravery in direct action has forever, irrevocably shifted the way the USA thinks about the police and the injustice system.  We are changing the world. 

As an Oakland street activist from the Oscar Grant Uprisings in 2009, to Occupy in 2012, Black Lives Matter in 2015, up to this day, my hard earned experience leads me to believe a crucial next step forward is for urban hubs around the country to have public General Assemblies. This is so we can better strategize and coordinate our next efforts, get more community engagement from people who can’t be at the barricades night after night, and have direct democratic decision making and accountability in how our movement resources are spent moving forward.

And as an Oakland blue collar union worker I strongly believe the tactics we should be collectively organizing towards are series of sustained solidarity General Strikes, wildcat or otherwise: in other words, to withhold our labor to shut the system down until our demands of Defunding the Police State are met, and how we can together think about what kind of just world we want to refund and build in its stead.

…

Some people remember General Assemblies from Occupy Wall Street.  Let me be clear, I’m not advocating we bring back Occupy, as that movement had many flaws that we don’t need to repeat.

But:

At Occupy Oakland’s best, I remember activists, organizers, union workers from longshoremen to teachers to nurses, and community members numbering in the thousands rallying at Oscar Grant Plaza for General Assembly after Scott Olsen was near-fatally shot by police during a protest, and we all participated in direct democracy in planning our next steps.  Withins short hours, we collectively voted at 98% in favor of shutting down the Port of Oakland in response.  Within six days, 100,000 of us marched and shut down the port in a sort of General Strike, the first of its kind in the USA since 1947.  We can achieve that level of action again; we can do even better.

And while we are talking about past movements:

Black Lives Matter.

As a slogan, it’s beautiful.  Shout it in the streets.  Shout it from the rooftops.  Over and over again until white supremacy crumbles.

As a tactic, Black Lives Matter meant responding to another police lynching of a black person by marching onto a local freeway… and wait for other unelected movement “leaders” to negotiate with politicians about the same tepid police reforms that haven’t worked for decades.

As a call to action circa 2014-2016, Black Lives Matter was unable to pivot to support Indigenous, Hispanic, or victims of other ethnicities who were murdered by the police..  Such was the level of discourse.  We can do better.

As a movement (and as a brand), Black Lives Matter saw a tiny handful of leaders elevated to a position where they could regularly be seen on TV, other activists secured jobs at nonprofits, a handful of grifters took the money and ran; most of the street activists who propelled the movement forward beyond a hashtag saw little to no financial support.  This was very poor for morale and tensions and discord grew.  We can hope to do better.

Black Lives Matter didn’t have General Assemblies to have a more horizontal leadership and transparent democratic decision making in who got the funds.


Occupy Wall Street, depending on which of the at one time 19,000 encampments across the country under its banner, either had no demands, or activists started making a list of every injustice in this country until the scope of the problems and injustices became so unwieldy people just fell back on a catchall slogan of “Shit is Fucked Up and Bullshit.”


In contrast, Defund The Police has a very specific, actionable goal AND IT’S WORKING!!!

Defund The Police General Assemblies can meet once or twice a week and connect various activist and community groups, and plug people into a movement who can’t otherwise engage in street protests.  These GAs don’t necessarily have to be tethered to Autonomous Zones or Occupations (in fact it may be safer if they aren’t, for now).  Like Occupy Oakland and other Occupies, each Defund The Police chapter can connect to a local 501c3, so donations can be transparent.  The GAs can then collectively, democratically vote on how the funds are allocated to various committees and working groups.

Some ideas of DTP working groups:

Labor Solidarity groups that connect with workers, unionized or not, to plan for walkouts, work slow-downs, sick-outs, strikes and solidarity strikes, etc.

Art Committees to make DIY posters and banners.

Livestream Committees to coordinate and support activists who show up night after night to broadcast protests.

Food Committees to not only feed people at GAs and protests, but the underprivileged, connecting with existing groups and building new ones.

Trauma Support Committees:  working groups to help activists deal with the stress that comes with facing police terror in the streets

And so on.



Occupy and BLM unfortunately built more cliques than community, and I hope we can do better moving forward.

I hope people can see General Assemblies more than just long boring meetings with funny guidelines, but instead as a movement building tool so more people can participate in empowered direct democracy: this time with a unifying clear winnable goal of Defund The Police.  And then whatever may come after.


And wrapping this up on a personal note:  I’m a survivor of an abusive household growing up.  This is a matter of public record, as the police got involved many times.  And they never made the situation better, but always violently worse.  So you could say I’ve been on Team Fuck The Police for a while now.

Solidarity to all victims of police violence, and for those who are committed to fighting for a better world.

I yield my time.