I do not speak for Occupy Portland, or for any other occupation. I speak only for myself.

It is often said that the kind of mass protest movements like the one that is currently spreading throughout the United States do not actually bring about any change. Apparently the Arab Spring and the few governments that some of those mass protest movements have recently, and relatively quickly, toppled are to be ignored. Nevertheless, mass movements absolutely can and do bring change. However, when they do create change that change is often not immediate. These movements are very hard work. It is long and slow process to create the kind of fundimental change for which we advocate. These movements are exhausting. They are frustrating. We work by consensus, and so General Assembly meetings often run for hours long after an already long day of meetings, networking, and protesting. We cannot, or rather we do not just take a vote and make decisions based on a slim majority. We must learn to dialogue, to get along, to work together, to come to mutual decisions as a whole rather than simply arguing, fighting, calling names, and going to the polls. We are actively engaging ourselves in creating solutions to the problems that we see in our society. It is very long, hard, difficult, ardous work.

Due to the nature of creating such institutional change as opposed to simply making demands of the current and corrupted system, those of us who are involved in these occupations need to be willing to carry on a sustained movement and occupation in terms of both time and numbers of people if we are to be successfull by any noticealbe social measure. Anti-Vietnam War protests were sustained in both frequency and size for years. Mong other considerations, that mass movement absolutely played a role in the decision to withdraw U.S. troops from that failed and unjust war, even if they were not able to bring about a more rapid shift in war policy. Furthermore, to this day many conservative politicians and commentators who refuse to recognize the desire for freedom from colonial occupation, the resistance, the strength, and the determination of the Vietamese people themselves, continue to blame the US defeat in Vietnam on all those "lazy, unpatriotic hippies." This is why the "revoloving door" nature of the occupation in Portland, Oregon is, and will be so vital to its success. It allows a strong and sustained presence, while it also means that people are leave, relax at home, get a good night of sleep in one's own comfortable bed, go to work, return when you are refreshed and strong without worrying that occupation is going to fizzle and die. When we return we bring supplies: blankets, tents, sleeping bags, jackets, food for the camp kitchen, and any other things that are necessary to sustain an occupation.

The occupation in Portland, only in its third day, is still very young. So far the movements we are seeing in places like New York and Chicago have done a great job of sustaining themselves for weeks, even in the face of constant police harrassment and brutality. Here in Portland there is no intention of ending our occupation any time soon, not only because that is how these things become effective, but because we are doing more than simply trying to formulate "demands" and wait for answers from the corrupt political leaders who collude with criminal bankers to keep the 99% either in poverty, or else living a paycheck-to-paycheck "middle class" life. Portland is not a hostage situation. We have objectives, not demands. We are actively building an intentional community of voluntary association, one in which decisions are discussed and reached by consensus through a process of direct democracy, rather than through the representative process that has clearly failed to create an America that is prosperous and free for all its citizens. We are creating a microcosm of the way in which we want to see our larger society organized, of the way we think society will function best in terms of creating equity, fairness, and equality while at the same time preserving and maintaining personal liberties. It may be very time consuming and difficult work, but the revolution must be sustained.