Disunity. How do we overcome divisions?

I went down to the General Assembly at Occupy Austin tonight. There is a lot of dis-unity going on in the movement.

A few weeks ago the police arrested 38 Occupiers and charged them with Criminal Trespassing at City Hall. This charge means that if they return to City Hall property they can and will be arrested again. This was a very strategic move on the part of the City. They wanted to prevent these people from participating in the movement. The Occupiers reaction was to move the GA just across the street from City Hall to a public park. This property is public property and all the Occupiers are allowed to be there. However, when this happened many of the people who camp out at City Hall stopped coming to the GA's. They wanted to stay with the food or stay with their stuff or were not willing to cross the street for whatever reason.

In reality, moving the GA did not create the division of those that have a place to a sleep at night and those that do sleep at the City Hall. Moving the GA has helped to exacerbate the situation.

Tonight the GA was out of control. There were about 40 people on the 'island' as it is affectionately referred to. There were about that many still in front of City Hall. The ones by City Hall even held their own GA. (reportedly, I did not actually see this happen). Most of the 'announcements' made were about the division that is becoming more palpable by the day. During the course of this GA I saw two people leave for good. This division is becoming something that threatens to destroy Occupy Austin.

There are those people that are living at City Hall. They are giving our movement a sense of credibility and visibility. People see Occupiers every day, all day, holding signs and chanting and reminding the City that Occupy Austin is not going away. The people living at City Hall are Occupying Austin.

There are those people that come after work or between class and work or before work or in between work and school and kids and volunteering and whatever it is that fills our time. Generally, these peopel are the majority in committees and in the working groups. These are the people that are facilitating the GA's and running the media group, the finance group, the info table and organizing the food. These are the people that are providing the structure of this Occupy Movement. (Obviously there are some people that are living at City Hall that are working to maintain the structure, but they are the vast minority).

I'm not sure what the solution is to this division. I have an idea that it starts with mutual respect for the role that both sides are playing. The second step is blending the two roles so that some of Occupiers that are living on site are playing a move active role in creating the structure of the movement. If things do not change within the next week (or two) this movement will die. We will just prove to all those people who think that change is impossible that they are right. We will prove to all those cynics that in fact democracy of the people is a failure and always will be.

I hope that we will not prove those things. I hope instead that this movement will learn and grow stronger by overcoming these struggles. The struggle here is not an ideological one. It is simply a practical one. We have physically divided ourselves and that has created an emotional and structural division. This Occupy movement needs to work on Unity and respect.

I hope, and pray, that this movement will find a way to move forward so that we can be a unified movement that makes a difference here in Austin and around the world.

Disclaimer: This blog is simply a reflection of my individual thoughts and ideas. I do not in any way represent the Occupy Movement or Occupy Austin specifically. If you want to know more please join us for a GA across from City Hall on Cesar Chavez between Lavaca and Guadelupe at 7 pm every night.