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For May 1st, 2012 Occupy Los Angeles is organizing around a “4 Winds” People’s Power Car and Bike Caravan through the urban sprawl of Los Angeles that will culminate in Direct Action in and around the Financial District of downtown LA. People from all sectors of the city will have a chance to plug in to the routes from any corner of the city, helping to shut down the flow of capital while addressing the 99%’s major grievances.
These 4 caravans, beginning in the late morning, coming from the North, South, East & West, will be an amalgam of cars and bikes, occupiers and unions, community organizations and organic communities — taking over our streets on routes designed to bring to light to societies ills, past and present, and engaging with residents and workers as we connect the disparate voices, races, classes and nationalities that make up Los Angeles. The caravans will stop at flashpoints along the way. Flash occupations, food giveaways, and other direct actions targeting the foreclosure crisis and police brutality will be undertaken at these flashpoints on our slow, city-paralyzing, carnival-esque descent into the center of the city.
The convergence point at 6th & Main streets, at 2:30 PM, will have the People’s Print Lab, the Welcome Tent, the Wellness Tent and will be focused on shining light on LA’s homeless issues, feeding the people of Skid Row and raising awareness of social and economic inequality, including the brutally ineffective Safer Cities Initiative that criminalizes the homeless population while doing absolutely nothing to change the systemic problems that make LA the homeless capital of the country. At 3 PM, we will mobilize direct actions in the financial district of downtown LA.
The West Wind: Rally:
10 AM — Wilshire & Ocean
Caravan begins: 10:30 AM
1st Flashpoint: 11:30 AM — Wilshire and Federal (Veterans Affairs, Federal Building, UCLA)
2nd Flashpoint: 12 PM — Rodeo Dr & Santa Monica Bl.(Beverly Hills)
3rd Flashpoint: 12:30 PM — Wilshire & Labrea (Bank of America)
4th Flashpoint: 1:30 PM — 6th St & Alvarado (MacArthur Park)
March to Convergence: 2 – 2:30 PM 6th St & Main St (border of Skid Row)
The East Wind:
Live video for mobile from Ustream
10:00am: Gather at Chavez/Atlantic, Hold speak out and discussion on Police brutality in the community. 10:50–Walking Procession Past ELAC to Belvedere Park where we Mount Vehicles
11:30am: Depart from Belvedere Park in Cars/Bikes/Trucks and proceed along Chavez to Obregon Park (Making a loop past Esteban Torres High School)
12:00 – 12:30pm: Education Speak-Out/Discussion at Obregon Park
12:30pm: Depart along 1st street to the West heading to Mariachi Plaza
1pm – 1:30pm: Mariachi Plaza–Drop off People, parks cars on street–Rally/discussion on Healthcare–
1:30pm: Load onto Metro (Bikers probably will head via streets) to Union Station
1:50: Gather at Park across from Union Station/Placita Olvera, Marcha to 6th and Main Convergence point by 2:30pm
The South Wind Rally:
10 AM — CSU Dominguez Hills
Caravan begins: 10:30 AM
1st Flashpoint: 11:15 AM — 112th & Central (near Maxine Waters Employment Prep Center)
2nd Flashpoint: 11:45 AM — 103rd & Central (Ted Watkins Park)
3rd Flashpoint: 12:30 PM — 41st & Central (historic BPP shootout w/ LAPD)
4th Flashpoint: 1:30 PM — Figueroa & Washington Bl (LA Trade Tech)
Park & March to Convergence: 1:45-2:30 PM 6th St & Main St (border of Skid Row)
North Wind Rally:
7AM – Panorama High School
8AM-9AM – Hermandad Mexicana (7915 Van Nuys Blvd.)
11AM – Van Nuys Civic Center
12:30PM – Orange Line (Van Nuys & Oxnard)
1:45PM – Placita Olvera
2:30PM – 6th & Main
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May Day is Have A Say Day for the 99%!!!!
Was thinking of doing a separate diary, but I’ll just post here; if it’s too long, I suppose it can be moved.
I was part of a group that met at Skylight Books in Los Feliz; we then walked down Vermont Avenue to Sunset and took the Red Line Metro to MacArthur Park, where we linked up with a group that was part of the West Wind contingent.
We walked downtown along Sixth Street, breaking up into smaller and smaller groups as we went; there was a bit of entropy at play here. As soon as we crossed the Harbor Freeway into downtown, there were people, protesters and police everywhere; it was noisy and oddly carnival-like.
The convergence point for all four Wind contingents was supposed to be Sixth and Main, but when we got to Sixth and Broadway, two blocks to the west, it seemed like that was the epicenter of the action, so we stopped there. And there I ran into David, a good friend of mine. We’d been planning to meet at Sixth and Main, but there he was.
Broadway, like many downtown streets, was shut down. Some clever and enterprising person had set up large scale elements of a Monopoly board around the intersection; instead of Ventnor Avenue and Boardwalk, though, the spaces were labelled “ALEC,” “Koch Brothers,” “Bankers,” etc. Someone said they were going to be dropping play money out of a helicopter there, but I don’t see how they could have done that; there were five or six helicopters overhead (hard to say how many of them were media, how many police).
While we were there, an immigrant march arrived, I believe from Olympic and Broadway, a little south of downtown. One of the things that was so remarkable about today was the three-ring-circus nature of events; every time you turned around, there was something going on somewhere.
There was another friend of mine, Kirk, I’d been hoping to link up with, so I suggested to David and one of the people from Skylight Books that we go over to Main and look for him. He wasn’t there, but I was amazed to see that Main was just as packed with protesters as Broadway had been. There was a booth where free food was being dished out — mainly rice and beans, I think, nothing fancy, but still, free food is free food — there were gay groups, Brown Berets (Chicano equivalent of Black Panthers, I think), a good musical group playing, incense in the air, people in Matrix masks on top of a construction scaffolding.
Another march arrived, this one from the east. Not long after that, we marched on the financial district up on Bunker Hill. At the corner of Broadway and Fourth, I think, one group was coming north on Broadway, another going west on Fourth. They converged and headed for the financial district. It was like seeing one river flow into another.
We circled around the Financial District, then doubled back, heading for Pershing Square. A block before the square, there was a minor incident — the police were blocking the street (but not the sidewalk) and some idiot apparently threw a water bottle at them, causing one or perhaps a few of the police to go apeshit and start swinging their batons. A young Hispanic woman I talked to afterwards when I got to Pershing Square took pictures of those police; she said that her camera was struck by a baton and she lost her lens cap. I really admired her — she was a cute, teeny-tiny little thing, but she held her ground at the epicenter and got good photos of the police involved. Apparently there were no arrests.
Speaking of arrests, I heard that 10 people were arrested out at LAX Airport this morning — some sort of civil disobedience; they apparently wanted to get arrested — and there was supposed to be a group who were going to get arrested at a Bank of America. Which branch? What time? I don’t know. A variety of groups organized this day’s actions, although “organized” isn’t exactly the right word. As such, there wasn’t always a good table of contents for what was going on.
On the other hand, given the number of groups involved and the whole “Four Wind” concept of plumes of people coming from different directions with tributaries feeding into them, it was difficult for the police to mass all their forces in any one place. In pro football jargon, I think this is what you’d call “spreading the defense.” I don’t know if that was the design, but it was a very effective tactic, whether planned or not.
In Pershing Square, I was walking around and ran into Kirk. Small world! A march was leaving from the Square — it was going to head toward the south edge of downtown, join another immigrants’ rights march and come back to Pershing Square. I asked Kirk if he wanted to go, but he indicated he’d already done a good deal of walking today, so we stayed put.
Which turned out to be a good thing, because this remarkably talented young band named Outernational played. Really a very tight, driving band. They’re playing tonight at the Echo on Sunset and I was thinking of going, but hell, I’m 60 years old and I wanted to write this post and now it’s too late, but mark my words, they’re going to go places.
A little while later, six hours after the day had begun, I took the Metro Red Line back to my neighborhood, walked up Vermont Avenue, had dinner at a local restaurant and walked home.
I had been very apprehensive about how this event would play out, but it exceeded my wildest expectations. The fact that it gummed up the entire downtown and financial district for a week day rush hour I think is extraordinary. Saturday marches are nice, but inconveniencing these people (the 1 percenters) in real time in their lair is, in my opinion, the way to go. I thought it was a very successful action and hope to see more of its like.