Occupy Portland “by far the largest”

On Monday, Nov. 1, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore visited the Occupy Portland movement at Terry Schrunk Plaza, telling listeners that of all the Occupy movements he’s seen, Portland’s is by far the largest.

While reminding the audience that he was just one of the 99 percent, Moore fired up the crowd by thanking them, and saying how inspiring the movement is.

“This movement, which is only six weeks old—it’s just spread like wildfire across the country,” Moore said. “Last night I was in a town in northern California, a town on the Nevada border—there’s probably only a few thousand [people] that live there. Last week they had 400 people to occupy Grass Valley.”

Moore continued to say that this movement is sprouting up everywhere and that it will only continue to grow.

Moore was scheduled to be in town signing books at Powell’s before he took a detour into downtown Portland to visit the movement. In shorts, a hoodie and a baseball cap, Moore modestly took the microphone in the center of the outdoor brickyard and spoke to a crowd of around 200 people.

While Moore said he felt inspired by what he had seen in Portland, he said he hoped to in turn inspire the occupiers themselves.

“It’s important to remember that the majority of the country you live in is with you,” Moore said. “This is what America looks like. The majority of your fellow Americans now come down on many issues that you have fought and struggled [against] for many years.”

He continued to say that most Americans want the United States’ current wars to end, that women should earn a salary equal to men’s, that taxes on the wealthy should be raised, that environmental laws should be tougher and that gay marriage should be legal.

“That’s the country you live in,” Moore said.

During the day, the federally-owned Terry Schrunk Plaza served as a backdrop for the crowd listening to Moore. But even then, campers were already setting up tents for the night, despite warnings that they would be arrested for camping on government property.

Kristin Jones, a graduate student at Lewis and Clark University, set her tent up last Monday in an autonomous move to protest the federal government.

“Why are we occupying public space? Let’s occupy government space, that’s why we came here. Even if we do get arrested, it’s a book and release, and I’m going to go right back and put my tent here,” Jones said.

On Tuesday morning at 3:45 a.m., federal Homeland Security Officials arrested 10 people. Occupiers were skeptical of exactly which federal law they were violating, and were arrested for failing to comply with a lawful direction; they have since been released.

As of Sunday morning, eight people had moved back into Terry Schrunk Plaza. Rather than camping under a tent, two protesters had chained themselves to a cement barrel and five others were chained to those two using bike locks. One protester, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “This is apparently what you have to do to exercise your first amendment rights.”

The Occupy Portland campaign recently voted to create a spending committee, which will require 90 percent of votes to approve any spending items. Anything on the budget over $750 will go to the general assembly for a second vote.

Among the spending committee’s operating concepts are creating self-sufficiency for the camp and “sharing the wealth” with all the camp members.

Imre Ilyes, a PSU alum, works with media relations for the Occupy Portland movement and said that the spending committee will “operate in a transparent and collaborative way in how they deal with finances.”

Tonight the movement is holding a fundraiser at Southeast Hawthorne’s Bagdad Theater. Tickets are $10 and the event will host a silent auction at 6 p.m., a comedy show at 8 p.m. and a showing of Howard Zinn’s documentary, The People’s Story, at 10 p.m.