Greetings:

My wife Marilyn and I just got home after spending part of four of the past five days at the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Liberty Plaza (Zuccotti Plaza) in New York City. Most of the time I have been singing, mostly Woody Guthrie songs but also a few of my own and a couple of labor union standards such as Which Side Are You On? Other times I have just been wandering around, listening to speakers and performers, or talking with people.

At one point this past Tuesday, Ron Jacobson, a libertarian reporter, interviwed me. Here is a clickable link to a video of that interview. For some reason Jacobson identified me as a union leader, although I had told him that I was never more than a rank and file member.

My overall impression is that the Occupy Wall Street encampment is an incredibly well organized event, considering how many people are involved. The system of leaderless horizontal democracy is working very well. Food is plentiful, nutritious, and tasty. Warm clothing, socks, hats, tarps, blankets, sleeping bags, etc, are freely available. There is a library, a media center, child care, a communications center, all sorts of training, and more.

What is especially impressive is the method of public speaking without electrical amplification. The speaker says one short phrase at a time, and then everyone in the crowd near the speaker repeats what he or she just said. It's instant human amplification. What a brilliant idea!

Let me just add that I haven't felt this optimistic in a long, long time.

--- Steve Suffet