Occupy Lincoln holds strong, despite evictions across the country

Today marks the 100th day since Occupy Lincoln protesters first marched through downtown and set up camp on Centennial Mall. That camp has outlasted the original Occupy Wall Street in Manhattan, along with dozens more across the country.

On Saturday, they marked the occasion in a way befitting the movement that mobilized last September to fight money's influence over politics: They held another march.

It may be one of the last that launches from the Mall campsite. Earlier this month the city ordered the camp to leave by March 1, making way for renovation work on the green space that might begin this summer.  

"The city has given us an eviction notice," read a flier posted at the camp during the weekend that asked for support more psychological than material. "They say no one supports us. Prove them wrong."

Protesters bustled around, preparing for the march and cooking lunch as more walked over.

"Soup's ready!" called out William Matchett, a 30-year-old handyman and poet and constant fixture at the food tent, steam from chicken soup billowing around his ginger beard.

The 20 or so marchers, drumming and chanting, made a small contingent. But the group's route up and down O Street echoed the drumbeat and chants of the past several months.

The nearly 500 Lincoln residents who turned out for the first march Oct. 15, for example, brought together by a wish to reform a political system they see as stacked against them by wealthy interests and corporations.

Or the demonstration Nov. 5 at Wells Fargo, in protest of the federal bailout the bank received, that led to the Lincoln protest's only arrests. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a civil rights icon, visiting the camp a few weeks later.

As fall became winter, other Occupy campsites fell like the leaves. New York City, Los Angeles, Denver, Indianapolis and Omaha all evicted their occupations in November. San Antonio, New Orleans and Boston — one of the last major holdouts — followed.

Lincoln's own camp, however, is very much alive, outlasting camps in cities 40 times Lincoln's size.

"I'm speechless about it," said Dana Garrison, a junior agricultural education major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who often acts as a spokeswoman for the protest. "This is one of the most powerful things to be involved with."

The camp benefited from open communication with Lincoln's law enforcement and research of city law. Centennial Mall became Occupy Lincoln's home, for example, because the public right-of-way has no curfew. But the campers, who've dwindled in number as most retreated indoors, might add something else.

"You might not see a lot of occupiers, but the community is with us," said Jo Tetherow, 60, as she held aloft her "Regulate the Banksters" sign. Tetherow has camped out, through sub-freezing temperatures, all but three of Occupy Lincoln's days.

She joined largely out of disgust with large banks, which she said pressured her to fudge her numbers as a real estate appraiser before the housing market collapsed several years ago.

Tetherow was extremely skeptical of the city's claim that it needs the entire Mall as a staging area for this year's renovation work. On Saturday, she called on Lincoln to raise its voice in support of the camp.

"We need them to call the mayor," Tetherow said. "Call the city council. Write the city council."

Some protesters said Occupy Lincoln would live on with or without its camp and adapt, as protests around the country have done.

Despite their evictions, for example, occupiers in New York, Oakland, Denver and Albany have continued to hold marches and protests. Many have shifted to local politics and economic problems, with Occupy Atlanta and others helping families facing foreclosure.

Last week also featured coordinated protests on the second anniversary of the Citizens United decision from the U.S. Supreme Court, which essentially unhitched corporations from political spending limits.

Occupy Lincoln has joined this "Move to Amend" movement.

Several members regularly call on the Lincoln City Council to join other cities in adopting a resolution against the decision, an effort to build momentum from the bottom up.

"It's not sustainable to remain camping forever, to be realistic," said Jeffrey Eggerss, a UNL sophomore communication and international studies major, early this month. There's been some discussion of finding an alternate site, he added.

But Occupy Lincoln wasn't waiting to fade away even before the city's announcement.

The new year brought "Occupy Education," a project that aims to share the expertise and knowledge at the collective fingertips of Occupy Lincoln's members. At least one UNL professor and several Lincoln residents not attached to Occupy have joined that effort.

At the protest's general assembly meeting Sunday afternoon at Indigo Bridge Books, most of the about 20 present weren't campers, but all were familiar faces. As a whole, the protesters seemed to remain optimistic and productive, perhaps focused by the city's ultimatum.

Proposals to reorganize several committees and reinvigorate the protest's message and media presence, along a meeting Sunday evening on the camp's defense come March, demonstrated the movement's heart is still pumping.

"I think this is the best G.A. I've ever been to," Tetherow said to the others, seated in wooden chairs and surrounded by colorful bookshelves. "We've shown now today we can work as a team."

Earlier, as the Saturday march wound down, the marchers repeated the movement's signature chant, crafted to bring attention to the country's significant income inequality.

"We are the 99 percent," they shouted. In the beat of silence between repetitions, one man added: "And we're still here!"

Danholtmeyer@dailynebraskan.com