CHICAGO, IL — At Congress Plaza, just a few blocks down Michigan Avenue from the sparkling headquarters of President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, the General Assembly of Occupy Chicago huddle on a chilly, wet, October night to go over the mundane business of running their movement. An organizer reminds the crowd to keep drugs, alcohol, and vulgar language away from the movement, carrying an adorable puppy whose owner was arrested for public drinking to bring home the point. A man offers service as a professional mediator for intra-protest disputes. There’s talk of a protest at an Eric Cantor speech at Northwestern that week.
Ask staff at the Obama campaign about the goings-on directly outside their office, and you’ll hit a brick wall. Aides uniformly refer to the president’s broad remarks on Americans’ frustration and then quickly change the subject.
“I’d just refer you to what the President said a couple weeks ago,” they told us — basically to a person — before moving on to something else.
Down at the General Assembly, people were a little more forthcoming about their view of Obama. But even they couch what they say, with “Sugar” (real name Cathy Russell) saying she’s personally over Obama — but stressing that she wasn’t speaking for OWS.
Sugar told TPM that she worked to elect Obama in 2008 and “froze my rear end off at inauguration,” only to feel let down three years later. She cited civil liberties as her chief complaint, but it was more than just policy.
“I’m very disappointed on a political level, that I don’t feel like he’s really been a leader of the Democratic party,” she said. “I don’t associate with any parties anymore, I now consider myself bipartisan — like this movement is.”
Obama’s 2008 campaign, led by a former Chicago community organizer, was built as a national grassroots movement for change that demanded more than just American’s — especially young American’s — votes. Yet just a few blocks away from the headquarters where campaign staff are trying to refocus the energy they had four years ago, the current movement pushing progressives and youth into the streets is largely disconnected from their efforts.
Kalidu Thomas is working on a masters in sociology after trying without success to find work. He’s also spending time these days trying to organize people in some of the same impoverished neighborhoods Obama did, hoping they’ll push the middle-class focused Occupy movement to address poverty issues as well.
“My thing with Barack Obama is, look, for one we need a fairness agenda,” he said. “Of course we need a black agenda, but we need a fairness agenda first and foremost. If you’re not with that — regardless of how silly the people that are running against you may be –you wont get my vote. I will no longer participate int he process if you don’t come with something fair.”
Jesse LaGreca, who became an Occupy celebrity in early October when he sparred with a Fox News producer, happened to be down at the Chicago general assembly when TPM showed up. He had this to say about Obama: until the president condemns police actions that have injured some protesters, LaGreca doesn’t have much interest in what the White House has to say about the movement.
“I don’t want to hear about your support until you start coming out and saying, ‘I will not let Americans get fired at with rubber bullets,'” LaGreca said.
Here’s some video TPM shot at the Occupy General Assembly in Chicago:
