In The Streets

Protesting — public demonstrations, large and small — is the language of my own political dissent. I learned how to protest as an adult at Occupy Oakland, a radical and regularly violent protest against inequality.

Protesting in Oakland was the best education I could have received in collective action. I was radicalized by witnessing the desire of the institutions designed originally to protect us to crush the spirits and unity of a defiant community. At the Occupy base next to City Hall, I watched a raw form of democracy develop. Every community has hierarchies, even ones that are protesting the cruelties of them. In this one, a diligent, focused group of people designed the methods of revolt and how to best utilize the mass of people who wanted to create change.

The only time I have ever been teargassed is by the Oakland Police Department. I was kettled in one city block and alleged members of their own community used detention, intimidation, and violence against us to retain their dominant status. They had weapons, we had will.

I was, and am, grateful for the organizers of Occupy Oakland for their knowledge of solidarity and how to create legitimate pressure against a broken system. The system remained broken, once again fracturing the optimism of Americans who believe that the government is meant to serve its residents, rather than the whims of selfish ghouls or foreign powers.

Yet in that experience, I learned how to use my body to speak up against injustice. Physical protest is not the only way to kick back at systems of injustice, but most reliably, it is mine. Liberty is not going to be obtained by individuals. Coalitions — of the working class, of lawyers working toward establishing increasingly disregarded precedent, or even amongst elected officials — is the only way forward.