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| on death ave tour the author and owen by Jennifer Davis  |
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| could have been me you or any of us. by e mcgregor #FreeCecily #Justice4Cecily |
Mayday always comes as a surprise. Each year, it brings something to my life marking a convergence
of bodies and movements, spring flowers and urgent cries. We want it to be there, wondering how it will
happen, but it always does, reminding us of cracks n history between
anarchism and public spaces, global movements, labor crusades, and immigrant struggles.
We fight
over what it means, but it still reminds of a history
of social movements.
“What is anarchism?” wonders friend Scot Crow.
“Yes, we can debate the minutia, the labels, the histories, words
influences…does it really matter?
People often internet-fight like
our lives depend on it instead of letting
anarchy be the fluid and dynamic
ideal that it is…[A]narchy offers a crack in history to revisit long forgotten
paths. And enables us to forge new ones daring us to take risks for ourselves and those
around us. Until we are all free.”
This year was no different, reminding
us that the streets are open for a different kind of history for us to be a
part in.
By midnight, we were munching on
snacks from the dumpsters and dancing to Sweet Jane as she remanded us Mayday
rocks. Feeling a bit of that joyous abandon,
those familiar lyrics filled the village streets like an old friend we were
just getting to know anew.
Standin' on a corner,
Suitcase in my hand.
Jack's in his car, says to Jane, who's in her vest,
Me, babe, I'm in a rock n' roll band.
Ridin' in a Stutz Bearcat, Jim,
Those were different times.
And the poets studied rows of verse,
And all the ladies rolled their eyes
Sweet Jane, Sweet Jane, Sweet Jane
Suitcase in my hand.
Jack's in his car, says to Jane, who's in her vest,
Me, babe, I'm in a rock n' roll band.
Ridin' in a Stutz Bearcat, Jim,
Those were different times.
And the poets studied rows of verse,
And all the ladies rolled their eyes
Sweet Jane, Sweet Jane, Sweet Jane
Through the days before and after
Mayday the city was cracking with energy, poetry marches, labor rallies, worker tours
of sweatshops, renegade bike rides, and Jane’s walks throughout the West
Village reminding us of her struggles vs. Robert Moses, and our battles against
pipelines for a better world.
I rode between downtown Brooklyn
and Mayday rallies all day long on Mayday.
My first stop was at Washington
Square for the 99 pickets immigrant Justice Worker Tour
Español Abajo
May Day is fast approaching, which means its almost time for the 3rd Annual Immigrant Worker Justice Tour!
RSVP on FB
Join Immigrant Worker Justice and 99 Pickets to march on International Workers Day as hundreds of us take to the streets of NYC to demand dignity, justice and respect for workers and immigrants everywhere. This years tour will be highlighting struggles throughout NYC, as well as those of our sisters and brothers across the US and around the world.
Meet up is 12:30PM at Washington Square Park (by the fountain), where we’ll head off to over a dozen targets throughout Lower Manhattan to demand an end to wage theft, exploitation, inhumane and unsafe working conditions, privatization, the deportation, detention and criminalization of immigrant communities, and attacks on people of color and the poor both here and abroad.
After the tour wraps up, we will join our comrades from the May 1st Coalition in Union Square!
SEE YOU IN THE STREETS!
Dropping by, I said chatted with friends from
movements over the last fifteen years, from my union, Occupy, global justice
and countless struggles in between.
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| Along friends at Mayday by Stacy Lanyon |
Between meetings and work stuff, I snuck out for the
labor rally, joining friends from the Lower East Side Collective, who I now work
alongside within
the CUNY Professional Staff Congress.
After a six PM class,
I jumped on the bike for my third trip Into Manhattan of the Mayday. I would be meeting the Public Space
Party Mayday Dance Ride.
Join Public Space Party for a Dance Ride to
Celebrate International Mayday! Let's end May Day, International Workers' Day,
in the streets, dancing together with tunes from our favorite sound bike. Dress
Festive.
Everyone was hanging out In
Tompkins Square Park. There, a few
crusty punks had joined us for our ride.
We’d rIde and hang out in Washington
Square Park into the night, talking with others who’d been out all day long,
remembering the year before, dancing and chatting.
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| Black Flags and Citibikes in Washington Square Park |
We’d go dumpster diving, drinking
cheap wine listening to the stooges, I
Wanna Be Your Dog, and 1969
1969 by the Stooges
Well it's 1969 okay
All across the USA
It's another year
For me and you
Another year
With nothing to do
Last year I was 21
I didn't have a lot of fun
And now I'm gonna be 22
I say oh my and a boo hoo
And now I'm gonna be 22
I say oh my and a boo hoo
It's 1969 okay
All across the USA
It's another year
For me and you
Another year
With nothing to do
Another year
With nothing to do
It's 1969
All across the USA
It's another year
For me and you
Another year
With nothing to do
Last year I was 21
I didn't have a lot of fun
And now I'm gonna be 22
I say oh my and a boo hoo
And now I'm gonna be 22
I say oh my and a boo hoo
It's 1969 okay
All across the USA
It's another year
For me and you
Another year
With nothing to do
Another year
With nothing to do
It's 1969
Listening, we drank cheap Merlot and enjoyed
thrown away food.
“Mayday is just beginning,” noted my friend Dave
on the way to another party in Bushwhch.
the strike will last for the rest of your life.”
We’d stay up for hours before my
final ride home for the night.
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| Friday fun at home with baby c by barbara ross |
Saturday and Sunday, the vibe only
continued.
I wrote a note a note on facebook.
Join me for two wonderful community
events today. At 1:30, I'll be riding with Wendy Brawer on
her amazing tour of experiments in urban sustainability in New York City.https://www.facebook.com/events/683326981714302/?source=1
We hung out n the streets of the Lower East Side, for hours, a sojourn to Lower East Side
Harm Reduction.
From there, a bunch of us plan to
take part in Jane’s Walk at 5 PM at 9th and 14th.
The next day, Wendy lead a Janes Walk tour through the Lower East Side.
Join this resiliency-related Jane's Walk cycling tour with guest speakers including Benjamin Shepard of CUNY/Public Space Party and Green Map's Wendy Brawer - with 2 optional parties! All details herehttp://www.janeswalk.org/
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| Scenes from Janes Walk Saturday Performance |
Join this resiliency-related Jane's Walk cycling tour with guest speakers including Benjamin Shepard of CUNY/Public Space Party and Green Map's Wendy Brawer - with 2 optional parties! All details herehttp://www.janeswalk.org/
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| Wendy's sustainability tour and Sadat Iqbal's community resources guide for Crusty Community, as well as photos on the history of syringe exchange at Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center. |
Fnshng the tour i rode up to 14th street for the Sunday Janes Walk.
Erik Mc Gregor Occupy the Pipeline's Annual Jane's
Walk 2014
Date: Apr 27, 2014 12:55 AM
Do you know who Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses are? Aside from MANY other
things, Jane was a woman who created a movement against Robert's plan to wipe
out lower Manhattan neighborhoods with a highway (bye bye Washington Sq Park)
She was incredibly bright, tough, visionary and her movement succeeded.
The Village today is the most darling area of NYC for a stroll. The Municipal Art Society of New York's
program "Jane's Walk" -- happens all over North America in various
cities the first wknd of May. This gives regular citizens the
chance to create a walking tour of what they love about the place
they live. Our group, Occupy the Pipeline, was selected as a
*featured tour* this year for NYC since we had such a successful tour last
year. It is theatrical, funny, curious and scary. Called "The Secrets of
Death Avenue" We take you on a historical walk of the West Village
(complete with NYC Cowboys protecting you from killer trolleysbefore The High Line was built) up until
the modern day Death Avenue where terror lurks below the brand new Whitney Museum of American Art being
constructed in the West Village. You will hear from the actual works of art
in the Whitney permanent collection who are now an endangered species, you
will get to see Jane and Robert have a boxing match on the cobblestone
streets, and you will leave feeling educated, revived, hopeful and interested
in building a city that makes our lives beautiful and easy. Come join the
fun. We are offering two tours next weekend (and the costumes we are making
are super awesome)
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| photos by e mcgregor |
I would
end up playing Bloomberg, condescending and bragging out his power broker
role and the ways the art world has seemingly gone to sleep while the spectra
pipeline creeps below their new building, bringing fracked natural gas.
Cecily
The good feeling of Mayday did
not last long, however, when we heard about the convection of Cecily M, an OWS activist
arrested for pushing back as a police officer raided the park and grabbed her
chest two years ago during yet another police raid in Zuccotti Park. Pushing back, she was charged with a felony
for attacking a police officer and subsequently charged with a crime.
According to http://justiceforcecily.com/:
Cecily McMillan, a 25-year-old organizer, and has been politically active for over a decade — most notably in the Democratic Socialists for America, the anti-Scott Walker mobilization, and Occupy Wall Street. However, on March 17, 2012, Cecily’s attendance at Zuccotti was a point of party, not protest. It was St. Patrick’s Day and as a McMillan, she vowed for this one occasion to put down the bullhorn and pick up the beer. Cecily swung by the park to pick up a friend on her way to a nearby pub. Minutes later, she was sexually assaulted while attempting to leave Zuccotti in compliance with police evacuation orders. Seized from behind, she was forcefully grabbed by the breast and ripped backwards. Cecily startled and her arm involuntarily flew backward into the temple of her attacker, who promptly flung her to the ground, where others repeatedly kicked and beat her into a string of seizures. In a world that makes sense, Cecily’s attacker would be brought to trial — but unfortunately, her attacker turned out to be a police officer. To add insult to injury, Cecily is being accused of Felony Assault of a Police Officer, a charge that carries up to seven years imprisonment. Two years later, the trauma continues as the constant string of court dates have all but reduced her life to trial and the hope for vindication. This website is dedicated to making sure Cecily gets the justice she deserves.
On Monday
Cecily
was found guilty, noted http://justiceforcecily.com/:.
We are devastated by the Jury’s
verdict today. It has been clear from day one that Cecily has not received a
fair and open trial. The job of a judge during a jury trial isn’t to guide
the verdict to fit his opinion. Judge Zweibel, who consistently suppressed
evidence, has demonstrated his clear bias by consistently siding with the
prosecution. In addition to suppressing evidence, he imposed a gag order on
Cecily’s lawyers, which is a clear violation of their 1st Amendment Rights,
and placed the burden of proof on the defense, not the prosecution. He is
rightly known as ‘a prosecutor in robes’.
The night of the verdict activists
met at ZuccottI to peacefully speak out.
Eric McGregor posted some photos from the speak out.
#FreeCecily #Justice4Cecily gathering
at #LibertyPlaza
Join us tonight at Liberty Plaza (Formerly Zuccotti Park) to protest the OUTRAGEOUS, LUDICROUS AND UNJUST verdict of 2nd Degree Assault against #OWS activist and #NYPD POLICE BRUTALITY sexual abuse victim Cecily McMillan
Join us tonight at Liberty Plaza (Formerly Zuccotti Park) to protest the OUTRAGEOUS, LUDICROUS AND UNJUST verdict of 2nd Degree Assault against #OWS activist and #NYPD POLICE BRUTALITY sexual abuse victim Cecily McMillan
Eric McGregor
I thought after the Rodney King
Episode in 1992, when police beat him were not found guilty, that we had
turned a corner. But the beat goes on and on and on. Makes me sick to think the
system which attacked her now charges her with a crime. The system continues to support violence.
The next day, we went out to Walking
through Ells Island. Looking at the photos
and stores of those who had crossed through this threshold to make t here, was reminded of the age long struggles of immigrants’,
of laborers, anarchists, abolitionists, and regular people to create a better
world.
On the way there, thought of the day two years ago when Cecily was assaulted during the
March 17th 2012 raid. The day after Erik and I visited
the Statue of Liberty during Times Up! Peace Ride, wondering if
Emma Lazarus' words still meant anything anymore, i f they still rung true..
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| this writer looking and wondering march 2012 by e mcgregor |
These words ran through my mind today, looking at the statue, wondering if her words still rung true.
Its hard to imagine so right now
as Cecily sleeps n Rikers island.
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| Ellis island |
…[A]narchy
offers a crack in history to revisit long forgotten paths…
We had a talk about rape and sexual
assault in class today.
Over and over, the system places the burden of blame and evidence on
those who have been attacked, marginalizing those fighting for a better world.
Cecily's sentencing s May 19th. Activists citywide will be out n the streets,
regardless of the sentence.
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