Cities across the country have shut down Occupy camps over the past several weeks. Among the most recent is Occupy Baltimore. So, where does that leave Occupy Charlotte?
The local group is a little different. What the camp here has that the others — except Occupy Tampa — don't is a reason to cling. Both cities have major political events — political Parties as well as regular old par-tays — scheduled for next summer as the Republican National Convention rolls into Tampa and the Democratic National Convention comes here.
Currently, Occupy Charlotte is facing an impending eviction threat from the city council, which will review an ordinance, drafted by the police's lawyers, in January.
Meanwhile, In These Times magazine is postulating about what's next for the movement:
What was missing, as it turns out, was not some messiah, but the people themselves. After the election of Obama, millions of his supporters demobilized—both because they were tired and because the administration apparently didn’t realize the importance and value of citizen organization. Into that breach stepped a well-organized reactionary GOP machine, ready to sacrifice the nation’s well-being for its own political gains. And they, by the way, understood the issue, spending the last year working to pass legislation that would exclude and disempower the young, the old and the poor from the voting process.The result was a sense of despair about the possibility of real change. The Occupy movement has changed that perception. The protests have pulled away the wizard’s curtain, allowing the articulation of the real forces at work in America, and stirring the consciousness and passions of the many. Protest has led to awareness and has changed the political calculus. This is what power, of and by the people, looks like.
The Chinese have a saying that a man (read: person) must walk with both feet. That should be a lesson to us. We do need to Occupy—but not only Wall Street, Main Street or any other street that is both symbolic and handy. We also need to Occupy Congress, the White House and the voting booth. Each has its value; each its limitations. But taken together, like thumb and fingers, they yield a mighty fist.
Read the entire piece, by Marilyn Katz, here.
As things go, the occupiers are already on that: Occupy the Federal Reserve is scheduled for Jan. 16, Occupy Congress is scheduled for Jan. 17, and Occupy the Courts for Jan. 20 — all in Washington, D.C.
From attending Occupy Charlotte's general assembly meetings, I understand that some occupiers from Crown Town are thinking of heading to the nation's capital to participate in those protests. Of course, that might depend on how threatened the Charlotte protesters' own camp is that week.
From Occupy the Dream, which will be held in Washington D.C. in April: