I guarantee we will keep going. Citizens have been prevented from exercising their right to peacefully assemble. The use of violence against peaceful protesters only galvanizes them.

 

We’re planning a major protest on Wall Street on November 17, but Occupy Wall Street also exists off the street now. We’ve set up working groups to tackle different problems we want to see resolved; we’ve built an entire communications structure; we’ve got developers creating software that allows us to express our creativity and find common solutions.

 

To me, Occupy has already been a success, in the sense that it’s spawned a host of other movements across the country. There is clearly a co-ordinated effort on the part of law enforcement nationwide to stamp us out. But we’re already seeing other Occupy movements in different cities spring back up after being raided.

I started going to Occupy Oakland on day one. It feels like so long ago, but it’s only been a month. Since then we’ve been evicted from our plaza twice. During this second eviction, on Monday, we saw that the police learned from some of their past mistakes: this time they moved slowly, took their time, did not use tear gas, and everyone was much calmer.

 

Now, Occupy Oakland people are trying to figure out what to do. I don’t think we can go on getting regularly evicted like this. Occupy Oakland needs a long-term strategy. Maybe that means thinking about what Occupy Oakland can look like without the tents. We have had conversations about whether people will continue camping out in the colder winter months, or whether we could occupy a nearby building, for example. But some people want to stick to the original plan and go back to the plaza. So everything is still up in the air and moving a mile a minute.

We were given an eviction notice Friday and got evicted Saturday afternoon, when we had about 1,000 supporters with us. We went to another park for a day, then moved back into our original park. The police had destroyed everything we had there, including our sleeping bags and tarps; they left us nothing.

 

We’re regrouping and reorganising. Now, during the night, we rotate shifts as sentries to make sure the police don’t try to move in on us while we’re sleeping. Last night there were 28 of us sleeping in the park; 16 police patrol cars were parked nearby. That seems a bit excessive. I would much prefer that my tax dollars go to the school system.

 

In the beginning, eight weeks ago, we had a medical tent, a food tent, and a hypothermia tent to make sure no one got sick. But two weeks later, the police took the tents down. As a nurse, I find it to be an abomination that the mayor of this city would allow citizens to face getting ill when they are just trying to exercise their right to protest.

 

Personally, I don’t plan on leaving until the constitution is amended to say that corporations are not people. I think that’s the first step toward regulating Wall Street and bringing about economic justice. I understand that could take a very long time, but I’m prepared to spend years in this movement. The civil rights movement did not end in two months. Neither will ours.