After reporting on Occupy Oakland’s large and overwhelming peaceful protest yesterday, I woke up this morning to read about arrests, tear gas and vandalism. Yes, some property was destroyed. In the afternoon I saw a black-clad group smashing the windows of a Chase bank and a Whole Foods. Later in the evening, some occupiers took over an abandoned building that once housed a homeless advocacy group (since closed due to funding cuts). At some point, a bonfire was set, cops arrested plenty of people and more property destruction occurred. But the title of USA Today’s article, “Port of Oakland reopens after violent OWS protests,” misses what mainly happened, as did most of the mainstream media’s coverage.

There’s a lot to be said about the general strike yesterday in Oakland—in which thousands of people shut down banks and the fifth-largest port in the country—but here’s what I found especially striking about the strike: extreme message discipline. We usually think of message discipline in relation to political campaigns and the conscious attempt to mechanically repeat talking points. But here I found another kind of message discipline—of a more organic variety—in which people spoke about the same issue not out of a pre-designed plan but because their shared experiences were remarkably similar.
It’s worth repeating: those advocating property destruction were an incredibly small minority, whose actions alienated many of their fellow members of the “proletariat.”

City workers complained about pay cuts; parents cited the recent announcement to close several Oakland schools; striking teachers highlighted the challenge of teaching without sufficient materials. All placed blame squarely on giant banks and the unchecked power of corporate America. As the protesters marched through downtown to shut down the banks, the mood was equal parts anger and joy: anger at the banks and joy at the prospect of finally doing something to vent their pent-up frustrations.

“I’m in foreclosure right now, and Chase is trying to take away my home the week of Thanksgiving,” Brenda Reed told the marchers as they gathered in front of a Chase office. “But I am not moving!”