Below is a report from www.occupysydney.org.au on Day 4
Day 04: End of Day Report – Lord Mayor Endorses Occupy Sydney
October 18th, 2011 · jono ·It’s been a good day for the Sydney Occupy movement. Our process for decision making at the general assemblies is getting stronger every day. Our little village of people who were, until recently, mostly strangers is still in infrastructure building mode. We’ve been forming working groups and developing strategies for things as diverse as occupation sanitation to future direct action protest campaigns.
Press:
Overall our press coverage has been well considered and balanced. Some in the mainstream media did however point out that numbers diminished dramatically from the thousand strong crowd of saturday to crowds numbering more like a hundred during the week. Terms like ‘fizzled’ were thrown around while others suggested we should go get a job. Where do they think those thousand people went on monday? And did they suddenly stop supporting overnight?
Support & Donations:
Support is indeed growing. Weekday numbers expanded in the last couple of days and donations are coming in steadily. Last night we had a family of signwriters show up with a huge sign to contribute. Sadly Police made us move the sign and move it we did.
Today we secured a 4G connection to get our livestream channel up among other donations and children were bringing us lamingtons.
Getting Organised:
Much of our time has gone into simply assigning tasks and rostering, as well as setting up systems for things to run more efficiently.
The media team pushed hard with around 8 people for the first few days, and after a call out for volunteers has expanded in size to more than 20. We’re wondering if there’s a news organisation in this city with a team this size focusing on one issue around the clock. Once the media team consolidates all the new roles you can expect the return of the strong presence we began with.
‘But what is the message?’
Once we get through this initial period of logistics and learning to work together, we’ll get to that.
Oh and one other thing. Clover Moore says hi.
Jono
Below is a report from the Sydney Morning Herald which posting daily reports on Occupy Sydney on its website
Resentment, disappointment and frustration, but also hope and optimism. Those are just some of the emotions experienced by participants of the "Occupy Sydney" protests in Martin Place.
Five days into the camping protest in the heart of Sydney's CBD, campaigners said the positive and negative views about the movement and where it was headed reflected the diversity of the people involved.
"No one is in a position to tell someone what to do, so that makes organisation extremely difficult," Matthew Kiem, 26, said.
"Everyone here understands this is a resistance movement and we are still trying to work out what that means and how we want to use this space. It's an experiment in direct politics."
A poster with the slogan "We are the 99%" at the campsite.
A poster with the slogan "We are the 99%" at the campsite. Photo: Glenda Kwek
The "Occupy" movements across the world aim to step away from the hierarchical decision-making process they believe is one of the flaws of today's societies. As such, the movement is described as leaderless and without a list of demands or a manifesto.
At the Sydney campaign's "General Assembly" (GA) meetings every evening, similar to those being held at "Occupy Wall Street" in New York, how the movement is organised and where it is heading are key parts of the agenda.
"The GA is used as a democratic platform to make decisions in a consensus model," Mr Kiem said. "We talk about practical, day-to-day things, and less on the bigger topics.
One protester asleep at the Martin Place camp this morning.
One protester asleep at the Martin Place camp this morning. Photo: Glenda Kwek
"There's resentment, disappointment, frustration, but also real will to make it work. We are not getting it right yet."
Matt Mytka, 32, who had been taking part in the protest since it began on Saturday, said there should be less control from above.
"There's too much control being imposed on how we organise ourselves here," Mr Mytka said, adding that he was speaking only for himself.
"In saying that, many people involved here are raising their concerns at the GA.
"The decision-making process can be pretty boring [but the key is that] people continue to have a consistent and determined attitude to making it work."
The lack of a clear goal has been one of the criticisms levelled at the New York movement.
On Late Show with David Letterman last week, former US president Bill Clinton praised the "Occupy" campaign, but said the protesters needed to come up with a specific message.
"Essentially what they are saying is that America - a) has become too unequal and b) that some of the people that caused the problem are in good shape today and a lot of them aren't.
"I think that on balance this can be a positive thing, but they're gonna have to kind of transfer their energies at some point to making some specific suggestions or bringing in people who know more to try to put the country back to work," Mr Clinton said.
"They need to be for something specific and not just against something because if you're just against something, somebody else will fill the vacuum you create."
Mr Mytka said the lack of specific demands had not stopped people from dropping by Martin Place to chat to the protesters and express their support.
"A woman I spoke to this morning ... was redundant from [an airline]," he said.
"She now works for a bank here. She can't make her position [of support] public but she can support us by talking to her family and friends and telling them the people here aren't hippies.
"She said, 'The reasons they are here aren't easily understood.'"
Meanwhile, the mobilisation of support for the global movement has continued through the internet - largely through Twitter, Facebook and Meetup, Reuters wrote in a feature article yesterday.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/occupy-sydney-day-5-20111019-1m79u.html#ixzz1b...
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