Occupy Greensboro:Report from a Southern City

Occupy Greensboro began last Oct, like so many other occupations around the country. Using innovative tactics combined with regular long term strategizing, Occupy GSO has sustained itself and grown, securing an indoor meeting space and vastly expanding the number of working groups. While our success is not unparalleled around the country, Gso, with a population of around 250,000, has been incredibly successful in avoiding sectarianism and in sustaining a high pace of activity without burning out activists.In addition, it is critical to integrate the narrative of Southern occupations with the overall narrative of Occupy. Despite the long radical traditions of many Southern cities, activists in other areas of the country often look to the South as a backwards and reactionary region. The success of the Occupy movement is contingent of the deconstruction of such notions. The South, which because of low levels of unionization, right to work laws, and the persistence of racism, has the lowest wages in the country and is industrializing. Already it is showing signs of dramatically increased struggle—from fighting racist immigration laws, to labor and student struggles, to the upcoming party conventions—with Occupy being the link that holds all together. A South that propels the movement forward drastically changes the national narrative about what is possible which makes a panel discussing the roots, reality, strategy, and politics of Occupy GSO so pressing.