Occupy Sydney - Day 15 - Penrith, flash mob, conversations
Yesterday, K, H and I went to Penrith to talk Occupy Sydney. Penrith is a large suburb outside of Sydney, about an hour west on the train. I used to live there in 2004 when I was still at university. Other Occupy Sydney peeps went to Glebe, Lakemba, Maroubra, Parramatta, Marrickville etc etc. The idea wasn’t to preach, but to listen to people who wanted to talk.
Here are some of the things people told us:
- H spoke to a lady who got fired from the bank after she had a stroke. The bank wouldn’t renovate bathroom to accommodate her.
- A young man spoke to me about his parents. both work as casual custodial and policy officers at a local Gaol. There are open full time jobs but the gov has a hiring freeze while they look to privatise the gaol. His parents just bought a house down south and are nervous about their job stability. The gaol will not let them transfer or move to a permanent position.
- One man said people are not given the facts on how to invest money. The banks keep this process deliberately mystifying. Also said even if he knew - he has no capital. If given $5,000 today he would not be able to invest as bills would need to be paid. He is a small business owner and after three years he hoped to have capital but its just not coming.
- A man recommended Ry Cooder new album which has songs about the US Banks.
- One man spoke to us about having his house almost repossessed and common law tactics he was trying to use to fight it.
- A 75 y/o armenian woman on the train was fascinated by our sign. I spoke to her for the hour back to Sydney. She has a community garden in Redfern and works for change for older people in her community who “are not listened to” and “can’t wait for 20/30 years for master plans for the city’.
- She also said ‘people should have more courage’ and ‘change starts in communities’. She said she wanted to bring her community groups to protest on November 5.
- One woman stopped to tell us that occupy ‘is so important’. She left and returned later with chocolates for us. We shared them with people on the train-ride home.
Last night at the GA, there were the usual logistical issues, though many new people got up to speak. One guy living homeless, B, said he had been occupying Martin Place for about three years. He thinks there is something in it. He said he thought it was ‘ironic’ that when occupysydney was evicted the cops knew him and left him alone. He says its funny that some ppl can stay in Martin Place all day and ‘drink good and smoke spliffs’ but as soon as you guys get here, there’s cops all around.
I spoke to more people about building our unity together. Like a few places there are tensions between some people about the ‘socialists’ who wave their banners and sell their merchandise. We can’t however, get to a point where we suppress their voice. The need then is to make the occupy voice stronger. I hear a media skills workshop yesterday was great, helping people develop skills to speak with confidence.
What I find, and speaking to others, is that the GAs are an important process, but the real inroads comes from being in a space and talking. thats where the real information and stories come out. Where relationships are build and action is developed.
Here is a video of our flash mob we did on thursday. We need some polish so will be arranging another one. Thats F at the end talking, you can also see R with the bell, who is in a Latina feminist collective in Sydney called Colectivo Mujer - they are amazing. In the mob are students, queers, full time workers, small business owners, Indigenous, unemployed, young, old, men, women.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/PyXKLQjId7A
Got my letter of redundancy in the mail yesterday.
Next big rally is 12 noon, Town Hall, 5 November.
