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After much resistance, the Occupy Philly movement has officially left Dilworth Plaza.
Nov. 27 was the deadline given to the encampment at Dilworth Plaza. The leadership of the movement was given an eviction notice by the city and was expected to be cleared out by 5 p.m. The area was not vacated until the morning of Nov. 29.
The Friends Center, located in Center City and home to a number of Quaker-based organizations, has offered up building space for the use of the Occupy movement.
“They contacted us because we have a history as being a place where groups come to resolve issues,” said Patricia McBee, executive director of the Friends Center. “This is kind of a neutral, calm place for people to come together to resolve issues.”
The Friends Center serves as the headquarters for the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that works toward improving social justice issues. Founded in response to mandatory involvement in World War I, the AFSC now focuses its efforts around four major issues: peace building and conflict resolution, human migration and mobility, healing justice, which they describe to be a more humane criminal justice system, and economic justice.
“This [Occupy] movement is explicitly nonviolent, that is very important to us, and it is raising issues that are very closely connected to us,” said Tony Heriza, director of educational outreach for AFSC. “We’re looking for places of connection and supporting the right of young people to participate in the democratic process.”
Working in conjunction with other nonprofits that operate within the Friend Center, McBee and Heriza made the decision to open up part of its facility to the Occupy Philly movement. The organization provides free meeting space, computers with Internet access, a copy machine and the kitchen.
Along with providing hospitality, AFSC has involved itself in every way possible to try to understand the inner workings of the operations at Dilworth Plaza. After deciding it was not enough to sit in on meetings and return to the comfort of their own homes each night, Heriza and a colleague spent the night at the encampment, attempting to grasp the culture of the movement.
Like many others, Heriza attempted to define the goals of the movement.
“You can listen to a lot of voices and you get some connecting threads that people feel our democracy and our economy have gotten more and more shifted towards favoring the wealthy and the ultra wealthy,” he said. “We have a government that’s supposed to act on the consent of the governed, and this is people withdrawing consent.”
Darryl Jordan, director of the AFSC’s Third World Coalition, has spent time working with Occupy Philly’s People of Color Committee. His goal is to bring to light many of the issues facing people of color in the community, such as mass incarceration and the need for immigration reform.
“The issue is to reach out beyond that little plaza over there and to reach into our community and work with some of the folks who are already dealing with those issues,” he said. “These aren’t new issues and we aren’t hearing them for the first time.”
On Nov. 25, 51 days after the encampment began, Mayor Michael Nutter held a press conference announcing the impending shutdown of the occupation. Nutter explained that this administration shares many of the goals of the Occupy Philadelphia movement, but the 27-month construction project for improvements to Dilworth Plaza, which began Nov. 28, has left the city no choice other than making Occupy supporters leave City Hall.
The city offered a new permit for the encampment at Thomas Paine Plaza, but will not allow overnight camping or the erection of tents.
The protestors remained at Dilworth Plaza until police closed off the area in the early morning on Nov. 29. A total of 72 protestors were arrested, and the District Attorney’s Office has charged 52 people with conspiracy, failure to disperse and obstruction of justice.
“I hope it is not over and it grows into something else and people get involved in a grassroots level, or an active protest level saying to banks or politicians that we want something different—we want a democracy that includes everybody,” Heriza said.
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