No Sleep 'Til Justice

Over the next few weeks after the meeting of the nascent volunteer coordination committee, I went down to the occupation nearly every night. I would  sit & talk with the gutter punks, attend the General Assemblies and guard our new Volunteer Tent. Occasionally, I would get swept into an impromptu march, only to be met with the corresponding riot police.

When I was unable to bike the 5+ miles downtown, I would review the volunteer applications that were coming in through the web-site. Each person writing us had so much energy, excitement and hope in the work & activism that was finally happening. Students, doctors, lawyers, plumbers, teachers, so many different kinds of people looking to donate their time to the cause.

I didn't want people to have my phone number or to know my full name, so I just sent e-mails to people that applied.The problem was, I didn't have all the information that I needed to properly inform prospective volunteers. I would send them on a wild goose chase to find some guy named "Bucket" or something silly like that, and when they wouldn't find them they would turn around and be mad at me.

I had to try to track down committee heads and convince them that they needed a simple way to for new volunteers to be incorporated into their working groups. Trying to implement (suggest, really) a structure on a movement that sought to overcome oppressive structures was not exactly easy. Some committees were extremely responsive, some were no where to be found, all of them, however, were incredibly busy.

I have no idea where this idea that Occupiers were lazy came from, really.

It felt like I had two full-time jobs, and I was getting very tired. Very tired, indeed.