Occupy Your Block: Protest Without Ever Stepping Foot in Zuccotti Park

Occupy Wall Street has spread in a few short months from a small protest in the financial district to a global movement. But as the weather gets colder and stories from Occupation Camps (which actually is a terrible name for them, now that we see it written on the screen) include violence, homelessness, sexual assaults, and suicide attempts, you might be wondering if there is a way to take part in the movement without leaving the comfort of your neighborhood and putting up a tent in Hooverville 2.0. (Better.)

Thanks to OccupyYourBlock.Org, that option is now available.

Using New York as an example, Occupy Your Block is spending the next two days holding sit-ins, indoor G.A. training sessions (so you can start your own horizontal-democracy at home!), and classes on organizing techniques in places as far-flung as Far Rockaway.

From Occupy the Block’s website:

The Occupy movement is more than a physical occupation. This movement is in each one of us; in our will and determination. It is in our local community organizations, religious groups, schools, and neighborhoods. To bring attention to this, Occupy Wall Street is calling for the winter months to be a time of teach-ins, open forums, potluck meetings, discussion groups, local general assembly meetings and community building projects.

This is actually a very clever move on OWS’ part. As the movement’s grown, clashes between protesters “occupying” public spaces has led to never-ending pissing matches with local government. In the event that Mayor Bloomberg is eventually able to shut down Zuccotti, these mini OWSs will be in place as a safeguard that the movement doesn’t end just because a physical occupation does.

Check out the schedule of events planned for OccupyYourBlock in New York, and even though it’s not listed on the site, please try to attend the Occupy the Staten Island Ferry meeting tomorrow at 1:00 p.m., because we really want to see how that one turns out.