I remember receiving the text from my brother. It said that there were strangers breaking into our house. I raced home to find that a mob of armed thugs, in matching gang clothing, had kidnapped and beaten several members of my family, and had stolen a bunch of our things. They were threatening the rest of my family with violence if they didn't leave immediately.
It happened here, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Except the thugs were the Halifax Police Department, so the violence was state-sanctioned. Occupied Parade Square (and later Victoria Park) was my home, and my fellow occupiers were my family. I still haven’t seen many of them since last Remembrance Day, when the Halifax Police, working on orders from the mayor's office, violently dismantled Occupy Nova Scotia.
After the eviction I fell into a deep depression. I've had trouble sleeping. For a time I barely ate anything, and I drank to excess. My support system was cast to the wind and there remains a sense of dispossession with me after nearly 3 months. Every time I walk through Grand Parade Square, I have to curb the urge to stand on the ground where my old neighbourhood (lovingly referred to as “low-income housing”) used to be and cry.
All the effort that went into building the Occupation, which to me suggested a world full of possibilities, seemed to be for nothing. I had unresolved questions that kept me up at night. So I decided to seek out some of my fellow Occupiers, now scattered, and talk to them. I needed to reflect on what the Occupation meant, what we learned from it, and where we’re going. To that effect, I interviewed:
Billy Lewis, a lifelong activist and Mi`kmaq elder.
Robbie White, a conservative party member turned libertarian socialist who somehow still has a stomach to watch mainstream media (zing!).
Gnat Narvey, an indigenous activist and young mother who was a regular at the site with her son Atilla.
Leana Fournier, a YMCA youth settlement worker who spent several weeks coordinating 'free- school' classes for the occupation.
Ian Matheson, an organizer who was there from day 1 of the planning stage, and is still heavily involved in organizing with Occupy.
Let's get started....
Fresh Start
Each person had their own story of what Occupy Nova Scotia meant to them. But all seemed to share one common experience – that of being part of a passionately universal community where all the thoughts and feelings that society has taught us not to speak were given free reign.
“I found it exciting and interesting that that many people could rally around a fairly simple proposition regarding the people who control things and for the first time see people honestly putting it on the table that it was a systemic thing. It was capitalism.” says Lewis. “A key part of it was not just solidarity, but learning what it takes to build a community. It wasn’t about tents, it wasn’t about camping. To me, community was what it was all about.”
The Occupation was also the catalyst for the involvement of a group of people who had no previous experience in activism. It served as the fire that forged them into confidant and able activists and organizers. Also, in Halifax, we had a gradual involvement of street youth who gravitated towards the camp.
“There were the homeless, and this political notion of the 99%. They knew what was up, and they picked that up pretty quick” says Lewis. “They haven’t gone anywhere.”
Street youth were literally kicking drug addictions at Occupy Nova Scotia. There was mentorship, and social work, and any number of services being provided. And through that, people who were for the most part apolitical gradually took on roles in the community. They started involving themselves in General Assemblies. They taught free-school classes, and cooked meals for sixty at the food tent. It was a home that many of them had never known.
From our standpoint, the spirit in which decisions were made, and conflicts were mediated, reflected a tacit understanding that we would be ill-suited to reconfigure human relations if we couldn’t get along with one another in the process.
“We were all coming from different places, but were willing to go through the problems together and solve them together no matter how frustrating it was at times.” Narvey says. “When it was a good situation it was so comfortable to take Atilla there so he could see people working together to build a community”.
Growing Pains
Having been reared on alienating concepts of hierarchical social organization and top-down decision-making, which seem to be endemic to a life under capitalism, it took time for many involved to learn the politics of consensus, and horizontally-based community building.
“It took some of us a little while to figure out how the fluttery hand signals worked, but people learned and they also learned that there’s more than one way to come up with a decision with a large group of people.” says Lewis. “The decision making process was important not just in how we made decisions, but also how you raise awareness and people’s understanding of how and where you do something and why you do it.”
Of course, nothing is perfect. There were inevitable ideological battles and ego clashes, interpersonal conflicts and organizational mistakes. But these problems are ones seen not only in other social movements, but in society at large as well.
“I think that a lot of the problems that were happening at the occupation needed to happen and that we needed to run into those bumps in order to know that something is wrong and that we need to work together to fix it.” Narvey says.
Organizing under constant surveillance by police, and constant scrutiny from the public and mainstream media, and negotiating bad weather, irregular sleep, a staggering workload, and the ever present possibility of violent eviction, were heavy burdens to bear, but ones which were borne together. Many an occupier, myself included, experienced physical and mental breakdowns caused by stress and overwork.
The Eviction
On the afternoon of Remembrance Day, during a rainstorm, and without any previous warning, the police moved in and began taking down tents. 14 people were arrested, many violently. One occupier was rendered unconscious from a police officer's knee to the neck, and suffered dislocated shoulders when he was dragged away through the mud. Another occupier suffered a chipped tooth and severe bruising on his back.
Many have had difficulty coming to grips with the senselessness of the eviction and the arrests. The psychological fallout from the shock of the eviction has led many, myself included, to depression, rage, substance abuse, overwork, paranoia, and other stress-related ailments.
“When you are fighting with the motivation of love for humankind and you see that your efforts don’t come to fruition it can be very disheartening,” says White, “After [the eviction] I was pretty depressed by it all. I didn’t really know where to go after that”.
“I felt it was a violation of my right to protest.” agrees Matheson. “The event itself was almost traumatizing and stayed with me for a while.”
Most of us knew that sooner or later a confrontation would happen, but the naked violence of the police sent a clear message to the occupiers.
“The people in power who have a monopoly on the use of violence are willing to use it to put down any kind of citizen-based engagement with the political discourse,” says White. “I have to say that I was very naive going into Occupy because I thought that if the cops didn’t come down hard on October 15th that they would leave us alone or that there would be negotiations.”
The naivety with which many of the occupiers conducted themselves was perhaps conscious, in that it was necessary for them to function while living under such stressful conditions. All the same, many occupiers have had a difficult time going back to the banality, isolation, and alienation of life outside our little community.
What Now?
As a result of the lack of physical space, many of the occupiers have turned their attention to specific issues. Occupy NS pushes on with a 'New Year’s Revolution' campaign. Events have been organized for every day in the month of January. Weekly film screenings, a no-electronics nature hike and a parade of rallies, marches, workshops, and talking circles have been tackling a broad range of topics, from “fracking” and prison solidarity, to mental health and urban gardening.
But where does Occupy go from here?
Some have suggested it become an umbrella group. Some have suggested occupying another
site once the weather gets better. Some have suggested community-based organizing and network building as the best strategy for the future of Occupy. There truly is no way of knowing what will happen.
“I do think that it is the beginning of the end of ‘protest’ like we were used to before Occupy. Occupy brought a new light on how to do stuff.” says Fournier.
The movement cast into sharp relief the difference between one-off rallies on one hand and occupation as a sustained challenge to daily life under capitalism on the other. It happened organically and spontaneously and it happened every day. Whenever it comes back on the scene, and in whatever form it takes next, there will be people ready to fight for the better world that Occupy showed us was possible.
“Expect the unexpected. Then think again.” says White.
Stuart Caldwell is an activist living in Halifax, Nova Scotia
