On a muddied West Front of the U.S. Capitol on a warm and rainy day, a few hundred members of the Occupy movement from around the country are rallying for Occupy Congress, a national confab of the income-inequality movement.
Like most every other Occupy event, it seems there are nearly as many viewpoints as there were protesters. Messages ranged from signs declaring “I pledge allegiance to the earth” to, well, much more pungent exhortations about the state of things in our government. At the top of the sodden knoll stood two protesters hoisting a large banner proclaiming “Fuck You McCongress,” a trenchant, but effective reminder of the day’s mood.
Despite the somewhat underwhelming turnout—though some found it reminiscent of President Obama’s inauguration—Occupy Congress has succeeded in bringing in a geographically diverse swath of activists.
Dick Eiden, from Orange County, Calif., stood apart from crowd, waving a sign in support of his independent bid for the House seat currently held by Republican Rep. Darrell Issa. Eiden, who said he was a lawyer before becoming a full-time activist and poet, said he had been scheduled to meet with Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), but that U.S. Capitol Police would not allow him to bring his sign inside the Cannon House Office Building. Eiden said his campaign platform—he lives in a district with a large population of members of the Armed Forces—is largely about de-militarization.
“My slogan is ‘End war, rebuild America,’ ” he said.
Tony Zilka, 20, came in from Portland, Ore. He said before joining his local Occupy movement last summer that he had worked eight months on a cruise ship as a singing server. The pay was good, but unrewarding. “Money was my entire life,” he said. Since joining Occupy, Zilka said he lives on a barter system and doesn’t use currency at all. He wore a lapel button that read “Unfuck America.” He was just as direct as his accoutrement in describing what needed to be “un-fucked.”
“There is a giant fist up the ass of the United States government,” Zilka said. “This fist is the corporations that are controlling everything. ‘Unfuck’ means un-control me.”
The Capitol Police, for the most part, have had the protesters penned on the West Front. A large “general assembly” is holding court in the center, “mic-checking” directives about various breakout groups. Protesters who have tried to jump the stone wall between the lawn and the Capitol steps have been taken down promptly. Yahanna Smith said she distracted officers with “funny questions” such as “Why don’t you smile?” as her boyfriend, Nathaniel Schrier, hopped over the fence. He was quickly tackled by six or seven officers and arrested.
Occupy Congress got a whiff of hero worship when Ray Lewis, a retired Philadelphia police captain who was arrested last November as part of Occupy Wall Street, arrived wearing his old uniform and started to walk across a section of lawn Capitol Police had barricaded shut. Officers stopped him and appeared to begin cuffing him until chants from the crowd—some of Lewis’ name, others of vulgarities directed toward law enforcement—appeared to convince them otherwise. He then joined the larger crowd.
The protest is still going on, and organizers of Occupy Congress say they are staging a larger rally at 6 p.m. Most tweets about today’s event are being catalogued under the hashtag #J17. You can watch some of the livestreams here.
