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Occupy The Family Vacation

by Ruth and Herb Gamberg

Occupy Naples, Nov. 26th, 2011
Occupy Wall St., Nov. 17, 2011
Occupy Wall St., Nov. 17, 2011
Occupy Wall St., Nov. 17, 2011
Occupy Wall St., Nov. 17, 2011
Occupy Wall St., Nov. 17, 2011
Occupy Naples, Nov. 26th, 2011
Occupy Ft. Lauderdale, Nov. 30, 2011
Occupy Ft. Lauderdale, Nov. 30, 2011
Occupy Ft. Lauderdale, Nov. 30, 2011
Occupy Palm Beach County, Dec. 2, 2011
Occupy Palm Beach County, Dec. 2, 2011
Occupy Palm Beach County, Dec. 2, 2011
Occupy Ft. Myers, Dec. 8, 2011
Occupy Ft. Myers, Dec. 8, 2011
Occupy Ft. Myers, Dec. 8, 2011
Occupy Ft. Myers, Dec. 8, 2011
Occupy Ft. Myers, Dec. 8, 2011
Occupy Ft. Myers, Dec. 8, 2011
Occupy Wal Street, Dec. 8th, 2011
Editor's Note: Occupiers Ruth and Herb Gamberg undertook a magazine distribution/visit the grandchildren/fact-finding mission to New York and Florida in late November-early December. The following is a brief photo montage and recap of their excursion. 
 
 
 
OCCUPY SITES VISITED—NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 2011

Ruth and Herb Gamberg

 
 
Everywhere we went, without exception, the occupy people were incredibly welcoming and even excited that people from Canada were visiting them. They were all extremely impressed with the “Occupy NS” magazine, and in a couple of instances, said they’d like to produce something similar to it. We found the experience of meeting, talking and marching with occupiers from other places to be exhilarating.
 

Nov. 17: Occupy Wall Street, New York

 

Zucotti Park: About 150 people here and there, lots of abandoned signs. Not many people around because they were occupying subway stations where they held rallies and did educational work.

City Hall (very close to Wall Street): about 250 trade unionists and others demonstrating.

 
* No “Occupy NS” magazines distributed as it wasn’t clear who to give them to.
 
 

November 26: Occupy Naples, Florida

 

 About 15-20 people with signs at a busy street corner on a Saturday morning.

 Attended their meeting in a park (no tents) mid-afternoon. Discussion centred around holding a joint march with occupiers in Ft. Myers, some 30 miles away, making occupy T-shirts, communications and outreach issues.

 
* Distributed 6 “Occupy NS”magazines. Gave them to the media guy in the morning and by the time they met in the afternoon, he had put it on their website.

 

 

November 30: Occupy Ft. Myers

 

 Visited occupy site, which was several miles from the city with no public transportation. They had been evicted from a site in the city, and the Unitarian church, which is out of town, had welcomed them to their grounds. The area was very large, and the tents were spread out. There must have been 20 or 30 tents. Only a few people were there. The rest were on a march in the city.

 Joined the march in the city, which had started just before we arrived. About 25-30 people marched with signs through the city to the Court House and then spread themselves around the 4 corners of a busy intersection displaying their signs. Ft. Myers is a working class town and there was lots of horn-honking.

 
* Distributed 6 “Occupy NS”magazines.
 
 

December 2nd: Occupy Ft. Lauderdale

 
-- Visited the site, where there were 8 tents. Being a weekday, there were very few people there, but they said that about 100 people a day drop by. They had been told that they would have to move soon and were trying to find another place to locate.
 
* Distributed 4 “Occupy NS” magazines.
 
 
December 8: Occupy Palm Beach County
 

 Visited the site, where there were 22 tents. The 4 people who were there said that 12 to 20 people sleep there every night. They will have to move to another site, but they said that the mayor, who is sympathetic to the occupiers, is helping them find another appropriate place that is well located. About 60-120 people attend their weekly meetings, and about 200 come to the events that they hold on Saturday’s. (See pink paper attached.)

 
* Distributed 6 “Occupy NS”magazines.
** They gave us their documents: “Proposed Declaration of Occupation of Palm Beach County” and “Why We Are Here.” Also a copy of “The Occupied Wall Street Journal” (November. 2011, issue 5.) (All are attached.)
 
 

December 8: Occupy Wall Street, New York

 

 Zucotti Park was pretty empty when we arrived (except for police all around the area), but there was an impressive schedule of the day’s activities. We decided to attend a meeting of the ComHub (sp?) work group to be held about a block away. From what we understand, this group coordinates and disseminates information from different work groups. (However, we’re not very computer savvy and so don’t take this as gospel.) While we were there, there were15 to 20 people present, including members of other working groups and visitors from France and Colorado. Discussions focused on standardizing lists on the internet that are coming from lots of different working groups, and on trying to define “group”since there are many different kinds of groupings springing up that want or claim to be part of the Occupy Movement.

 
* Distributed 12 copies of“Occupy NS” magazines. Please note, that my brother, who lives in New York and visits OWS frequently, said he would distribute the other 12 to appropriate people. (Update December 28: He has since done that.)
** They gave us flyers announcing “Occupy Earth Summit” events to be held on December 16. (See attached.)
*** During the meeting, a representative from the progressive radio station,WBAI, who was present, announced that WBAI would like to make their services available to OWS Mondays through Fridays from 6:30 to 7:00 pm for interviews, announcements of OWS events, etc. This was met with tremendous enthusiasm. Rightly so.
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