When I first received an email from a friend asking to help organize the protest called Occupy Wall Street, I never knew it would evolve to such a global revolutionary movement. Every event that was part of the Occupy Wall Street movement led us closer to our goal of making a global, positive change not just for all Americans, but for the world. I attended a workshop early on that trained us how to properly conduct civil disobedience, and we practiced everything from how to correctly handle police encounters, to what to do if chemical weapons (like tear gas or pepper spray) are deployed as crowd control measures. All in all, I could tell from the start that everyone who was part of getting this movement started meant serious business.
I joined the movement because I felt I could really apply my technical expertise in the field since most of the protests that have been previously organized lacked organizers or members who held a high level of knowledge in a technical field like information security. I was just really glad to feel so helpful to the movement even before its inception on Sept. 17. I was involved with coordinating the media, Internet, and tech teams, since we were lacking so much manpower between those committees.
During the first few days, tensions were high, and we had to maintain a strong presence on the Internet as well as in Liberty Park if we were going to continue to occupy the space. Every moment during the first night of the occupation on Sept. 17th was so filled with tension that everyone was running around chaotically trying to maintain the flow of truthful information so that we could act decisively.
The movement has gained so much steam that we now have a site (http://www.occupytogether.org/) that is dedicated to mapping out and coordinating all occupations that have been springing up in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. Currently, as listed on the site, there are occupations across 1,403 cities in the globe. Part of what also made this movement so powerful, and also something that is overlooked or taken for granted, is the strength of our media, Internet and tech teams. Without them, we would never be reaching our goal of broadcasting to a global audience.
During the third day of the occupation we had around six thousand viewers of our live stream; that number only got bigger after each major march we organized.
We peacefully marched our way through the streets towards Union Square and got corralled like animals. We peacefully marched our way across the Brooklyn bridge and got mass arrested. We peacefully marched our way right up the barricades at the NYSE and got beaten with batons.
The people who are out there peacefully marching for the cause of making our voices heard are there for everyone and we will not give up until we see real change.
