Saturday’s Oakland protestors filling the streets — video
on October 22, 2011
Speakers rallied the crowd in front of City Hall before Saturday’s march, decrying the closing down and privatization of Oakland schools and making reference to Oct. 22 as National Anti-Police Brutality Day. “This is about a peoples’ movement and a peoples’ agenda,” said Clarence Thomas of the International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union Local 10. “I call upon all labor to stop the eviction of Occupy Oakland.”
The march lasted about three hours and remained peaceful. It appeared to span a wide range of age, race, religious and political differences. When asked about the possibility of eviction, one man, who only gave his first name Ethan, said, “I’m not going to fight them, but I’m definitely not going to leave.”
The march concluded back at Frank Ogawa Plaza (which demonstrators re-dubbed “Oscar Grant Plaza”) with an afternoon open-mic session. Local hip-hop artists, popular Bay Area indy musician Lynx, and other members of the community took turns playing music and reciting spoken word.
You can see Oakland North’s complete coverage of Occupy Oakland here.
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