A Crack In The Tower

Tonight I went downtown to get some exercise in the cool night air, and I naturally gravitated to the Occupy Philly encampment. I saw a few friends there and learned of a meeting of anarchists that was about to begin. Twenty-two years in the movemnt, my days of meetings are some years in the past. But these are important days and I was interested in knowing how things are going, from activists who speak my language.

Yesterday police raided the Occupyers in Oakland, where serious violence was used in ways that have already ruined that city's government in the national press. They've landed a US Marine Corps veteran of Iraq in the intensive care unit with a rubber bullet, and the mayor says she was only superficially aware of the operation. Her oldest friends say that she's betrayed them. The protesters regrouped, tore down a fence, and took back their camp while the police did not interfere. The mayor has one foot out of office and the other foot on a banana peel.

Meanwhile, back in Philly, the city has been planning a multi-million dollar renovation of Dilworth Plaza (at right, background at the base of City Hall) where the encampment is, and construction begins on November 15th. So a move is inevitable, probably to Love Park (where I'm standing) or Thomas Paine Plaza (other end of the street at left). What to do?

I was quite impressed by the calm & mature process, the amount of work that was accomplished, and the intelligence of the 25 or so people in the circle. To the right of the picture, one working group is still meeting. The effect on me was like being converted to a cult that I already belong to. My task is to research the funding needs of the city's starving library system as part of a set of demands to make to the mayor in exchange for surrendering the plaza, which will be turned into something that does nothing whatsoever for the city's homeless, its unemployed, its human services, its schools, its fire department, and so forth. It will make it more suitable for privileged persons to travel through and to skate upon in a private rink.

The scene is Love Park, famous for its quality as a skate-boarding ground. To me, this image holds a moment of History: City Hall looms clean and bright with William Penn's hat highlighted at the top, but a few months ago there was a minor earthquake that left a big crack inside it. At its base the people demand all of the things that make us human. Closer to the lens, my gang conspires for a better world, and front and center, boys play.