OCCUPY WALL STREET
Fall of 2011 was a very hectic time. Occupy Wall Street began on September 17th, but I didn't actually know what was happening until about halfway through the semester. From then on I went down every break throughout the year, and ended up getting pretty integrated into the movement.
Once I had started getting involved with Occupy, beginning organizing Occupy Hampshire and planning the November 17th Day of Action which was a Walk-Out, Speak-Out and Teach-Out rooted in Occupy Colleges which was orchestrating nationwide calls to actions so that colleges could still be a part of the movement.
Flyer for the Decolonize/Occupy Hampshire
College March 1st Day of Action
Decolonize/Occupy Hampshire Teach-in
Occupy UMass Amherst Bank of America
Shutdown November 17: RAW FOOTAGE
Decolonize/Occupy Hampshire Occupies PVTA
Decolonize/Occupy Western Mass Speaks-Out
in front of Amherst Bank of America
More videos:
Participating in Occupy Hampshire was kind of my method of staying in school at a time when it had become so difficult to do so knowing that something like Occupy Wall Street was going on internationally. I was so jealous that I couldn't be living there full time right in the middle of the action. So I followed it I followed every single thing every single day. I was taking six classes and auditing a seventh and yet, Occupy Wall Street still became my job.
I started a blog called The Enhampment, a twitter account and Facebook account in addition to bringing together those interested in Occupy from the five colleges.
And I put everything into it. At first organizing with Occupy Hampshire was wonderful because for the first time I saw all of the activist groups on campus in one room. Every group: the International Socialist Organization, the Anarchist Network, environmental groups, Students for Economic Justice... It was just so beautiful and it would have been wonderful it it had been able to continue.
I was the type of person who had always dreamt of this type of social movement occurring but never actually thought it possible. Even my college applications were about the fact that I never thought that my generation could care about anything at all ever again because in my experiences (particularly during high school) I was so aware every day that we were a nation at war, and I just couldn't understand the lack of awareness and anger regarding that.
At the time I considered apathy and ambivalence to be a hinderance to a potential movement that was actively opposing the continued historiography of the current post-Racial climate of our society which challenged potential alternatives to America's current status as an intentionally segregated superstructure.
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