Across the country, Occupy movements have generally coalesced in a central location — New York’s Zuccotti Park, say, or the plaza outside Philadelphia’s City Hall. But in Washington, the movement that preaches solidarity for the masses is, at its core, a tale of two protests trying to coexist, sometimes with mixed results.
Protester Alex Wiseman, 18, of Springfield, says he sleeps at the Freedom Plaza protest site but visits the other Occupy DC protest at McPherson Square to “party.” He says he enjoys both camps but that there’s no love lost between some protesters at the two sites.
“[At McPherson Square] they say Freedom Plaza is a bunch of old hippies,” he said. “[At Freedom Plaza] some people think McPherson is the place where all the druggies and crackheads hang out.”
The Occupy camps in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza are quick to say they respect each other and collaborate occasionally on marches and rallies. Despite their mutual ties to the Occupy movement, however, they also insist they operate as separate organizations.
McPherson Square protesters, who typically cater to a younger, rowdier crowd, rally under the Occupy DC moniker. Freedom Plaza organizers, generally older protesters with long histories of activism, refer to themselves as the Occupy Washington DC movement. Some McPherson Square protesters go so far as to claim that Freedom Plaza isn’t even part of the Occupy movement.
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“They’re a great movement, but they have a different objective,” said Tim McFallon, 21, a protester from Boston camping in McPherson Square. “They have a far more specific agenda.”
Protesters in Freedom Plaza planned their protest — originally called Stop the Machine — for six months beforehand, and, in July, joined with the Occupy Wall Street movement that eventually set up camp in New York. But Freedom Plaza organizer Kevin Zeese says his group’s goals — human needs, environmental protection and ending corporate greed — have always dovetailed with Occupy’s and that the only difference between the two camps is the four city blocks that separate them.
McPherson Square protesters were directly inspired by the occupation in New York and set up camp in early October with little advance planning.
Freedom Plaza protesters speak proudly of their organizational tactics — they require each camper to sign an intake form and a pledge to adhere to camp principles — and secured a permit to protest in the plaza months in advance. McPherson occupiers, protesting in the park without a permit, scoff at such formalities. They say their camp is open to everyone and doesn’t need to register inhabitants.
Still, protesters in both camps say, they do share some common ground.
“[Freedom Plaza] is no better than here,” said protester Saleem Bid, collecting donations under a tent as rain pelted the tarps in McPherson Square on Tuesday afternoon. “All of us are boxed in like sardines.”
