Building Everett’s Occupy movement

THE OCCUPY Wall Street movement has spread across the U.S., to cities and towns, large and small.

Everett, Washington is a city of approximately 30,000, located about 30 miles north of Seattle. It is the home of one of the largest factories in the world--the Everett Boeing plant, which has produced the Boeing 747 and now the Dreamliner. The plant is organized by the International Association of Machinists District 751.

Everett has a rich labor history.The IAM has had several strikes against Boeing in recent years. In 1916, the ruling class of Everett organized an attack on members on the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) coming to defend the right to free speech and labor organizing.

In recent years, grassroots left-wing organizing hasn't been that prominent in Everett, but Occupy Everett is beginning to change this! I am one of the central organizers of Occupy Everett would like to explain how it developed and our plans for the future.

On October 18, a few members of the MoveOn Council of Snohomish County called a meeting to discuss the possibilities of starting an occupation. While the folks who started organizing for this meeting are associated with MoveOn, they were, from the start, very committed to keeping the movement independent of either major political party. They reached out to the general public and asked me to facilitate the Occupy Everett organizing meeting.

The meeting was held at a local coffee shop, Firewheel Books & Beans, and was very well attended. With over 100 people in attendance, the shop was standing-room only, with an excited and diverse demographic. Discussions were respectful of each other's viewpoints, and ranged from discussing what is the Occupy movement to when do we start the camp.

When the meeting was adjourned, there was an agreement to have at least a basic code of conduct ready for the first general assembly, and a start date of Friday, October 28.

The first General Assembly was held in the plaza of the Snohomish County Courthouse, which, coincidentally, happens to be at the intersection of Wall Street and Rockefeller. To the group's surprise, a permit issued by the County was presented, giving the occupation authority to establish tents without a curfew, and no specified end date on the courthouse property. While setting up tents was controversial at first, the permit sealed the deal to move forward with setting up tents the very next day.

The GA's have been held ever since at 7 p.m. on a daily basis. The number of people in attendance has varied from high of about 45 to as low as 10-12. Typical attendance for the GA has been in the 20-plus range.

The recent downturn in the weather has been suspect in keeping possible attendees away from the occupation. There has been a small number of people staying overnight at the camp, with most rotating in to stay as they have time available. The majority of "occupiers" at Occupy Everett are currently employed and have family obligations. Others are students who are often pulled away by class requirements.

Many of the core people involved with OE are not "occupiers" in the sense that they are not staying the night at the camp. They are, however, heavily committed and seem to work full time on the occupation beyond their personal life responsibilities. The working groups are made up of various collections of people that are both acting on a very high level such as the core group, and those that are only able to provide limited but meaningful support.

There has been a wonderful amount of community support since the start of the occupation. New faces stop by the camp on a daily basis to find out how they can help, what supplies are needed, or just to let us know that they support us in spirit.

The people that stop by in this way understand that the occupiers are putting up a broad-based fight against the 1 percent, and that they are not following a specific ideological framework or direction from a political party, nor are they being funded by corporations as some kind of "astroturf" movement.

Occupy Everett is just starting to mature beyond a stage of basic camp building. Accomplishments in this regard include the immediate adoption of a code of conduct, emergence of a strong logistics working group, a small sanitation team and implementation of a daily camper welfare check-up. The check-up is implemented with low-cost survey flags being placed outside of occupied tents at night. Tents who still have their flag up the next day are checked to ensure the safety of the occupant.

The discussion at GA's regarding camp policies and practices are sure to continue, but the energy of the occupiers is now starting to focus on what to do next. In the immediate future, a couple of those next steps include participation with "Occupy the Capitol" a fight against budget cuts in Washington State on November 28 at the state Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Community outreach to local colleges will start up in earnest to attract students to a December 3 "Rock-upy" music event with guest speaker Dorli Rainey, a life-long activist who was recently pepper sprayed by police at Occupy Seattle.

Demands and goals are starting to rise on the agenda as well. Some folks have broad visions of developing the local communities to become more involved with the occupation, while others have discussed creating a demand list or adopting demands that have bubbled up out of other occupations. An idea was floated the night before this writing which seems to encompass both of these lines of thought.

There are barriers of legal entity and financial burdens put in place around the use of public meeting rooms in public facilities, effectively limiting our right of assembly and free speech. While the details of this are being polished, it is likely to emerge as a solid demand, centered not only on reasserting our rights but also on opening an avenue for communities to freely develop their own forums to discuss issues and solutions.

Overall, Occupy Everett appears to be doing well for being in a much smaller and conservative part of the Pacific Northwest. Outreach is gearing up to attract students and the county labor council and the carpenter's union local have endorsed the occupation. Upcoming events are being supported and developed. The consensus model being used has not impaired the ability of the GA to move forward yet, but there is a sense that, as we grow, a consensus model will need to be re-evaluated. Before this, there was no activist group with a strong standing or established base in Everett--but there is now.
Jim DeCaro, Everett, Wash.