Forum Post: REAL Numbers at occupy Oakland general strike and Media blackout.
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 6, 2011, 1:15 a.m. EST by dewitback
(63)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4jYdCaHrjQ
It seems also that Greece had a general strike that was widley censored.
So, just how many people were at the general strike this november 2nd? Media outlets are painting a story that the occupy oakland general strike had no more than 3,000 people. As discussed in the forum, there may not be 100,000+, but at least 10,000. The news often talk about everything else except for the facts included in the video. If you mathematically approximate by counting roads you can see that there is easily more than the amount being reported. Also keep in mind that the video doesn't specify where the protests started and ended, and that people stepped in and out of the walk.
If you google "general strike Oakland" the first two pages of news is form the guardian. Take a look at their news. Its all about avoiding the main topic and boring readers to discontinue reading. They have a voice of apathy and jest to place in the minds of readers the embarrassment of the "small" protest.
Also, the news concentrates on the violence of the protests, which was created by 1% of the people who were there. The movement consisted of Doctors, Nurses, Veterans, Students, Workers, Teachers, who all report that the time there was peaceful and enjoyable.
This is proof that there are facts being hidden from average americans who don't have time to find out the real news.
Occupy Oakland general strike was censored, and I'm calling America out on it.
A comment I would like to highlight from FreeOWS.
"True, there were about 10,000 people but not exactly at the same time frame and same spots. People have been engaged in different actions across the city. These protesters were great! Bold, provocative and creative. All came together in different actions but spreading out the same messages - fighting against political corruption, social injustice and economical inequality!! I have seen so many fantatic breath-taking pictures. MANY of them will be the icon pictures in American history gallery. Never forget this day - Oakland General Strike on Nov 2, 2011. And it was very possibly the first ambicous move to kick off the general strikes of other cities across the nation. Media can blackout because this movement is contagious. I predict marching to surround the big media buildings is one action to come eventually. Salut to our brave Oaklanders!! See if you can view the pictures in this photo gallery"
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/02/4025216/occupy-oakland-protest.html
I'll grant there were a lot of people but from the videos I saw it didn't look anything like anywhere near 100,000
I agree, maybe 3000-5000 in that video. 100,000 is something different. I've actually walked on that road so I know how big it is.
funny, someone else said the exact thing about being on the road with 100k and that it IS similar to this... Who is correct?
Yeah, no, it's not anywhere near 100,000 people. It COULD be 10,000. Pause the video, count across one average-looking row, then count rows. Multiply for a rough estimate. That will get you to within 1,000 of the right answer.
10,000. still the most we've seen so far.
True. And BY FAR the largest march to the port of Oakland in history.
Still, whatever the number we can see that this is proof of a growing movement.
The media has been advised (my opinion) not to produce too much coverage on OWS and to appear is though not many people are involved in the movement.
They do not want it to gain popularity for fear of a revolt from the masses.
I think this happens. I saw it at other protests, the numbers I saw were huge, and the media made it sound like there was a small handful.
Also noticed the NYT had absolutely no coverage of Bank Transfer Day. A million people changed banks in protest this month!
exactly I think. Look how much the movement has grown since the very beginning. The lack of media coverage is trying to slow the growth. This movement started in New York, was based in Vancouver and now is largest at Oakland.
The people that are threatened by the movement will try every tactic possible to stop this movement. The movement should try to send out as much information to every household in America. Its going to take alot of people to make this work effectively. The sooner most are educated on this issue, the greater the impact this will produce.
I have a feeling it will slow down before it speeds up again, with the winter coming soon. But there is definitely an undercurrent. I say that let the households in America awaken themselves or at least realize the fear that is looming.
The households of America cannot awaken themselves without some help and the media is not effectively doing that. It is mostly people that are not blind to what has been happening in political corruption, realized long ago when the jobs started moving overseas in the beginning and knew of what that impact was going to be, victims of the system that effected them directly from the greedy and corrupt officials.
I did not trust the media to inform me of the facts, I had to do some research on this movement myself. Many people do trust what the media presents to them and do not question its accountability.
It is these people that OWS must focus on to educate them properly so the movement can grow. Winter is coming soon and this is a perfect time to begin going door to door and speaking to them or providing them with information. Another suggestion is get a spot on the radio to air your concerns.
Gathering in the streets is what Protests have always done and while this is effective, it can evolve into more sophisticated methods of our era to get the message across.
Gee, dewitback, this is a great youtube that first time I saw!!! Wow, according to this youtube, there could be the possibility of 100,000, I guess?? Like I said, people did spread out to different areas taking different actions and doing different marches as it was no way to act like one with such a huge number. Boy, I am so inspired watching this video :-)))
So I guess you want to see more children go into labour? I see that you like to see inequality. I understand that you don't hold humanitarian values.
No doubt, but 100 thousand or even 50 does sound like a bit of hyperbole, or perhaps wishful thinking. I think it is most important to be honest with ourselves, especially about how pathetically small our movement now is. Only on the basis of such honesty will we be able to win over the millions we will need if we are really going to be successful.
You know how much the movement has grown since the beginning though? I say slow but steady.
Sure, but most estimates would not put the movement now at more that 200 thousand. That is a drop in the bucket compared to the millions we need even to be a minority mass movement.
There have been many movements in the past that change the course of history, even small ones. It all contributes. If I believed what you said about the fact that 200 thousand is a drop in the bucket then why should I vote for my leader? Why should I donate to a cause I believe in? If you believe in something, it will be known.
My only point is that we are a very, very long way from being of any real consequence even though very clearly we have already changed the nature of the national political discourse. But if we really want to change society, or for that matter only actually occupy Wall Street, we will need expodentially more adherents.
I think we are all going to be in for a surprise. True that we may be long from making a consequence, because who knows what the future holds. But at this time in history we are undergoing SO many pivitol changes in global society that we've never seen or had to deal with before. I think its inevitable for something big to happen that we must work together to have to achieve the next step for humanity.
I think we need to be very patient, which is not a quality that most reformers have, though it is a revolutionary virtue. We need to be in for the long haul. The transition from feudalism to capitalism took 1000 years. The transition from a corporate dominated society to a truely democratic society may well take that long.
Who knows, but I'm not willing to wait that long. Here in Canada we already are ahead, and the US needs to catch up. Free health care. Universal Marriage rights. 1 yr long paid maternity leave. These are all things that we already have.
True, there were about 10,000 people but not exactly at the same time frame and same spots. People have been engaged in different actions across the city. These protesters were great! Bold, provocative and creative. All came together in different actions but spreading out the same messages - fighting against political corruption, social injustice and economical inequality!! I have seen so many fantatic breath-taking pictures. MANY of them will be the icon pictures in American history gallery. Never forget this day - Oakland General Strike on Nov 2, 2011. And it was very possibly the first ambicous move to kick off the general strikes of other cities across the nation. Media can blackout because this movement is contagious. I predict marching to surround the big media buildings is one action to come eventually. Salut to our brave Oaklanders!!
See if you can view the pictures in this photo gallery
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/02/4025216/occupy-oakland-protest.html
Great Pictures! I'd say that this is the biggest movement so far.
Wow, look at the 3rd picture! Don't know and don't care about you, but I love it! Okay, spank me ;-)
Yeah, its a picture of 2 or 3 people breaking a window. Did you see the pitcure of the people in the neck braces because a car allegedly ran into the protesters on purpose?
On purpose, very possibly. With this crowd, how fast one could drive and run into somebody?!!
OMG! I guess cars are the sovereign being!
So I guess its all in the eye of the beholder because I'm getting mixed reviews. Some say 3000, some say 50,000. Apparently there is no official number because no one is officially releasing any official numbers...
Wow. Nice post. I heard 4,500 today. What a bunch of baloney. There's at least 50k in that video. And it didn't even show the whole scope of it. Chomsky was right.
What did Chomsky say?
The media is a tool of government and the elite. Not in the obvious sense, but in a completely complicit sense. To be more descriptive, its a weapon employed against the public for mind control.
In a general sense yes. The thing is the average person doesn't think twice about it.
Yes. Its very effective at framing the narrative. Until the 1920's, the US media operated more or less in opposition to the western banking cartel, which was considered a force of European corruption. Ever since this time the media has merged with big business under the guidance of the western banking elite.
Force Change, Boycott Capitalism
We know what the problem is, let us fix it and move forward together.
When you look at a republican or democrat, congress or FDA official, Judges and Justice Department, you see criminals.
Our corruption dates back many years to when those, who in trying to preserve slavery, had to find new ways to preserve it and so created a scientific and advanced form of slavery.
Only two components were required -- the illusion of freedom & choice and the taking away of the freedom to live off the land.
This is how to get people to submit themselves to exploitation, mind numbing or degrading work, fool and oppress them into it.
Our current system is rooted in corruption and every attempt in preserving it involves manipulating human thought and turning people against one another.
In America the population has been transformed into two major voting groups but they only have one choice.
They had been distracted up until now with television and American culture which prospered through the oppression of other nations.
Americans allowed themselves to be fooled into using their military and economic dominance to seize resources of other nations and create expanding markets for American profiteers.
Now that technology, competition and conscience have evolved Americans are realizing that our current system of government is damaging and unsustainable.
Our government officials have allowed private profits and personal benefits to influence decisions that affect the health and well-being of people all over the planet, not just in America... how much longer will we allow them to rule over us??
Occupy Washington and demand that government officials resign their posts.
We will setup new online elections with a verification system that will allow us to see our votes after we cast them, put our new officials in office and work toward rebuilding our country and our world.
Pass this message along to any and everyone, we already occupy the world, unite.
Occupy Washington, Boycott Capitalism, Force Change --
http://wesower.org
But, capitalism is not the problem.
there's a lot of cleaning up to do, from the financial sector to the food and drug administration where big pharma writes our bills, energy, where energy companies write our bills, to weapons and manufacturing who fool us into war, drug enforcement which funnels money to weapons building and throws kids in privately owned jails for smoking a joint while letting the entire nation get hooked on pain killers, anti-depressants, pressure & cholesterol and most alarmingly children on behavior modification drugs. - "they" have wedged themselves between us and our freedom to live.
to go against them or the capitalist system they head would mean death.
this is a crime, the system for the exchange of goods and the system of government by and for the well-being of people should always be seperate.
this new form of slavery must end.
I think that we need to start working together on a global scale to get things done. But the power of the people is still so feeble. Just have patience and soon we'll be without the oppressive forces that create the sadness in the world.
That's great. Much more than 3,000. but less than 100,000. This still shows that the media doesn't cover the news. I mean how did they forget that several thousand people were protesting?
They decided they didn't want to give attention to them anymore, and I guess its that easy.
Thank you
I never seen the video. Share...
See for yourself. And notice in the video stats that its most popular in canada. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4jYdCaHrjQ
Second biggest gathering so far. The only one bigger was when the unions joined New York for a day. Maybe they were equal in size. Good crowd though. Props to Oakland they are by far the most resilient of all the occupy movements. They have faced off with the police from day 1 and they kept on fighting. I hope that dont upset anyone.
I hope so too.
It looks like a giant music festival just finished. I guess closer to 15-20 thousand. There was about 5 thousand in the video. 100000 people would have brought the city to its knees. The media was lying about the numbers. I saw on the news that the protesters numbers were in the hundred of coarse we all know that is false.
Where did every body go?
Ha....pathetic.
Do you know what is happening with Greece and the Euro right now?
Yes...to such a degree that I must wake early enough to hedge on televised European edicts (stupidity) before I set my trades....well versed.
The states is in larger debt than... well, you know. So maybe some pathetic people are trying to have a say about it.
That's cute...but when there are global implications which influence granny's ability to survive and the teachers pension fund and everything in between...all of the sudden, wall street is an important entity..........
I think people are looking for a way to not be ambushed by McDonalds signs every 5 minutes on the highway or be ripped off by their institutions by hidden fees that take advantage of the niave. And I think people want to receive free healthcare and universal marriage rights and better education. And so by searching for these freedoms there have been several attempts to break away from society, which is normal and historical. Did you know that NESTLE demolished several rainforests and evicted families of orangutans out of thier homes just to cultivate a certain oil? People are mad about this kind of stuff! Cant you see, and this kind of stuff is affected from greed. People see greed from money, and people see money from wallstreet.
So many avenues with rather ambitious areas to cover.....where shall we begin? Here is what O W S fails to recognize......A man said to the universe: "Sir I exists!" "However," relied the universe, "The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation."
Stephen Crane voiced his OWS opinion, anachronistically, in 1899.
So I guess we all just let whatever happen then, because its too big for us.
Very true no matter how sad it is to reflect.
I don't agree with that. I'm sorry. As a human I have come to believe that society needs to step up and take responsibility. We will say no to the destruction of our earth, we will say no to sweatshops and child labour, we will say no to over consumption and degradation of human rights. If the world thought like you we'll end up in another dark age, which I'm so very afraid they do, Joyce.
Because that video shows nowhere close to 50,000 - 100,000 people. lol
For a good comparison, go look up a similar arial vid from the NYC or Boston Marathons. They typically have ~30K - 40K people participating. It makes this look like nothing. Actually, it makes it look like the ~5,000 or ~6,000 people as was reported.
Or if you want to stop the vid and grid it off yourself and count a sample and them extend that back, you'll very quickly see that it's not even close.
Are you blind or part of the media trying to black this out? I've counted systematically. If you take a row of people horizontally (around 16) and then multiply that roughly with the amount of people vertically (basic math) you will see for yourself that there is more that your estimate of 6,000 people. Don't try to fool anyone.
No, I just don't buy BS.
Yep, just as I said, you can take a sample and count and then extend that back through the length of the street. While you might come up with more than 6K depending on how accurately you do it, I don't care how you count you're not coming up anywhere even remotely close to 100K. Sorry bud. I know what a crowd of 100K looks like and that ain't it.
Like I said, go check out a vid of a marathon that compares well with this given the same type of people-on-a-road layout and you'll very easily see the difference both in density and in length. And you'd even have to more than double or triple that to get to 100K.
well weather or not its 100K I know that its a lot more than most Main Stream Media were letting out. The media made it look like an embarrassing few numbers when in actuality we really haven't seen this type of protesting for a while.
Plus, the movement had strong numbers throughout the day, not just in this 4 minute sequence.
Eh... You get 50K - 100K out for a single college football game every weekend. 60K for Nascar races. That's really not a very big crowd in that vid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sports_attendance_figures
Well I beg to differ. It happened All day long with people stepping in and out. You can see in the video there isn't a definitive beginning or end. And actually only 17k to 60k regularity attend the MAJOR league games, not really a single college football game every weekend.
Well, you'd be wrong. lol
"The University of Michigan footbal team has played 230 consecutive games in front of crowds in excess of 100,000 through the 2010 season. The last time The Wolverines did not have 100,000 in attendance was Oct. 25, 1975 vs. Indiana when a crowd of 95,857 was on hand for the 55-7 Michigan victory."
MI is huge, but there are plenty of others with easily half of that or more.
"According to NASCAR estimates, attendance has dropped in 14 of the first 19 races of the season, and the average crowd of 99,853..." and that's after a drop of 14% in attendance and includes some that get +150K. Indianapolis holds 230K.
But regardless of all that, again, that vid is nowhere even remotely close to 100K.
Okay, I am willing to hear your numbers. The Nascar estimates are the same as mine. Can you site your sources so that everyone can see?
With all that aside, this is still just a 4 minute clip of an all day-long event. The numbers of the movement are growing, and the media seem reluctant to expose any of it. I'm from Canada where we receive free healthcare, universal marraige rights among many other benefits and I can look at the states and see where the desperation is coming from.
Any of my misjudgment of calculations may derive for my bias for the good of the movement, but I would like to stay as objective as I can.
From the Univ of MI's athletic dept. site:
http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/stadium/stadtext/mattend.htm
From the NCAA 2010 attendance report (see top of page 2):
http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/d47a560045aad7aab88ffc9080650d5b/2010_Attendance.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=d47a560045aad7aab88ffc9080650d5b
Rank School Average
The reason that the average in Wiki may be lower is because there are a ton of small schools that bring the overall average down.
Thanks for Clearing up the facts.