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Health workers in Kilkis, Greece, have occupied their local hospital and have issued a statement saying it is now fully under workers control.
The general hospital of Kilkis in Greece is now under workers control. The workers at the hospital have declared that the long-lasting problems of the National Health System (ESY) cannot be resolved.
The workers have responded to the regime’s acceleration of fascism by occupying the hospital and outing it under direct and complete control by the workers. All decisions will be made by a ‘workers general assembly’.
The hospital has stated that. “The government is not acquitted of its financial responsibilities, and if their demands are not met, they will turn to the local and wider community for support in every possible way to save the hospital defend free public healthcare, to overthrow the government and every neo-liberal policy.”....
http://libcom.org/blog/greek-hospital-now-under-workers-control-05022012
Wall Street's Secret Spy Center, Run For the 1% By NYPD - by Pam Martens
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/06/wall-streets-secret-spy-center-ru...
"...the center is jointly shared and operated by the NYPD along with the largest Wall Street firms. The Wall Street firms that were bailed out by the 99%, are now policing the 99%..."
'US Brutality Against OWS Overwhelming' (and vid)
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/225297.html
"Occupy Wall Street movement (OWS) emerged when a group of demonstrators gathered in New York's financial district on September 17, 2011 to protest against social and economic inequality, high unemployment as well as corruption and the influence of corporations on government.
Interview with Oscar Leon, Latin American broadcaster who talks about the domino effects of the Occupy movement from the US to Latin American countries and a new anti-imperialist force..."
The Heroes of Super Bowl Sunday - by Dave Zirin
http://www.thenation.com/blog/166097/heroes-super-bowl-sunday
"...My new heroes are the people in the Occupy and Labor movements who gathered to protest on Super Bowl Sunday. All of these proud trade unionists and Occupy activists showed up even though the AFL-CIO explicitly instructed people not to protest on the day of the big game.
That's why it's so important that the people were a presence at this Woodstock for the 1 percent, leaving energized and excited about further forging connections between the Occupy and the Labor movements. After all, we don't have $3 Million for a 30 second ad. We just have the ability to gather and be heard..."
"On January 28th, 2012, Occupy Oakland moved to take a vacant building to use as a social center and a new place to continue organizing. This is the story of what happened that day as told by those who were a part of it. Features rare footage and interviews with Boots Riley, David Graeber, Maria Lewis, and several other witnesses to key events."
Horizontal social relationships and the creation of new territory, through the use of geographic space, are the most generalized and innovative of the experiences of the Occupy movement. What we have been witnessing across the United States since September 17th is new in a myriad of ways, yet also, as everything, has local and global antecedents. In this essay I will describe these two innovations, and ground them in the more recent past, specifically in the global south in Argentina. I do this so as to examine commonalities and differences, but also to remind us that these ways of organizing have multiple and diverse precedents, and ones from which we can hopefully learn....
http://www.possible-futures.org/2012/01/09/horizontalism-and-territory/
eta: Horizontalidad is a social relationship that implies, as its name suggests, a flat plane upon which to communicate. Horizontalidad necessarily implies the use of direct democracy and the striving for consensus, processes in which attempts are made so that everyone is heard and new relationships are created. Horizontalidad is a new way of relating, based in affective politics and against all the implications of “isms.”1 It is a dynamic social relationship. It is not an ideology or political program that must be met so as to create a new society or new idea. It is a break with these sorts of vertical ways of organizing and relating, and a break that is an opening.
quote:
One of the most significant things about the social movements that emerged in Argentina after the 19th and 20th of December is how generalized the experience of horizontalidad was and is: from the middle class organized into neighborhood assemblies to the unemployed in neighborhoods, and with workers taking back their work places. Horizontalidad, and a rejection of hierarchy and political parties was the norm for thousands of assemblies, taking place on street corners, in workplaces and throughout the unemployed neighborhoods. And now, ten years later, as people come together to organize, the assumption is that it will be horizontal, from the hundreds of assemblies currently occurring up and down the Andes fighting against international mining companies, to the thousands of Bachilleratos, alternative high school diploma programs organized by former assembly participants and housed in recuperated workplaces.....
10-12 February
Teatro Valle Occupato, Rome
Throughout Europe, we are witnessing massive transfers of resources from the public to the private sphere. The political responses to the crises are defined by austerity measures and by cuts to social spending, driving Europe further into recession.
From Greece to Spain, from London to Rome, European people are increasingly aware of the need for a different model of globalisation. From those resisting the privatisation of resources and services (for example in Italy with the water referendum, and currently in Romania) to the recent occupations of public spaces against neoliberalism (for example in the UK and Spain), this is the moment to construct and alternative Europe, one which is not a product of neoliberal politics, but the political expression of European citizens.
Within this context, over forty organisations, networks and social movements from eight European countries will meet in the 600-seat Valle Theatre in Rome to organise a common front to construct an alternative European model. This three-day forum will focus on the construction of common transnational campaigns on the thematics of the commons and guaranteed minimum income, also utilising the new method provided by the European citizens’ initiative. The event will be a true opportunity to build European networks and campaigns that will take concrete forms in follow-up meetings in Spain, the UK, Romania, Bulgaria and France in the following months to continue the work begun in Rome. The emphasis on concrete campaigns will be the starting point to engage in a reflection on the revision of the EU Treaties, to propose an alternative vision of Europe....
http://www.iuctorino.it/content/income-commons-democracy-european-campaigns-construction-alternative-europe
This article was produced as part of the Rio+20 preparation meeting of the World Social Forum, from the ‘Thematic Group on the Commons’. More information: dialogos2012.org/grupos-tematicos/benscomuns/?lang=en
quote:
Resistance and construction: commons, commoning
The processes of enclosure face resistance. And most of them can be analysed from a commons perspective. On each continent, organized communities are confronted with these challenges. In Bolivia, for example, there is the emblematic case of TIPNIS, the indigenous territory and national park threatened by the construction of a highway that would split in half a pristine park. Indigenous organizations marched more than 600km during two months in defence of this park and long-standing ways of life based on the communion with nature and on self-government, receiving extraordinary support and urban solidarity. As in this local struggle, the resistance is global. Attacks on water as a commons are encountering organized community resistance in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. Seven million signatures were collected in a referendum on “water as a commons” in Italy in 2011.
On each continent movements like Occupy, the Indignados and others are arising that do not simply resist, but actively search for alternatives. All over the world people are cooperating via the Internet to create shared works and tools –Wikipedia and free software are the most visible examples– and new forms of social mobilization. Each can be thought of and connected to each other by a larger vision of the commons.
The resistance is also propelled by proposals for alternatives that emanate from the social practices of the commons. These practices form an alternative framework for the transformation of daily life as well as for the design of new public norms and policies that recognize self-management as the central element for a necessary social transformation.....
Occupy Gainesville invites you to the first SouthEastern Regional Convergence of Occupations (affectionately dubbed SERCO).
This event was approved via consensus by the statewide Florida General Assembly on December 11, 2011.
SERCO will take place from March 23-25, 2012, in the lush cypress groves of North Florida.
Occupy Gainesville commits to providing a safe campsite to host three days of workshops, skill-shares, and assemblies. But rather than setting the agenda ourselves, we invite all participants to help shape this event. We will help coordinate the planning, but you will decide the program itself, so that SERCO reflects the interests and concerns of all attendees....
http://interoccupy.org/southeastern-regional-convergence-of-occupations/
quote:
Through this, we can build and strengthen a network of activists and occupations from the Caribbean to the Southeastern U.S.; achieve a model for more effective global coordination in the spring, summer, and the coming years; celebrate the great diversity of our cultures; and find new cohesiveness in our common aims of creating a more just, free, and sustainable world.
After Metz, Quimper, Nantes and Lyon, the Paris General Assembly has decided on Sunday 22 January 2012 to join the process for a referendum to hold a Constituent Assembly, in response to the frequent question “What do you want?”, which we still answer by saying “Real Democracy Now!”
What we want is for the people themselves to finally make the decisions.
Those who hold power should not be allowed to write the rules that govern power.
Because “Our dreams won’t fit in their ballot boxes,” we call on you, in every city and town, to take part in the referendum for a Constituent Assembly....
http://takethesquare.net/2012/02/14/paris-indignadxs-call-to-launch-a-co...
The Occupy Wall Street Journal: A New Declaration - by Derrick Jensen
http://www.countercurrents.org/jensen120212.htm
"We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That the real, physical world is the source of our lives and the lives of others...
Once we've recognized the destructiveness of capitalism and industrial civilization - both of which are based on systematically converting a living planet into dead commodities - we've no choice, unless we wish to sign our own and our children's death warrants, but to fight for all we're worth and in every way we can to overturn it..."
The Brian Piccolo Specialty School in Humboldt Park, Chicago is currently Occupied by parents and students. Occupy Chicago and other allies are outside the building in solidarity and have set up an encampment. Around one hundred people are present and are taking shifts to ensure the safety of the occupation. The Chicago Teachers Union has expressed support for the action. Piccolo, an elementary school with a student body that is almost entirely from low income communities of color, is one of 16 Chicago public schools slated to be closed by Mayor Rahm's service cuts to the poor.
As of 3:30AM Central Time, it is believed that Chicago Police have decided to leave and protesters have declared victory for Day 1 of Occupied Piccolo! If you are in Chicago, please come to 1040 North Keeler Avenue to show your support, and bring a tent! Follow #takebackourschools, #piccolo, @OccupyChicago and @TBOurSchoolsChi on Twitter.
Update: As of 10AM Central Time on 2/18, the police are still not attempting to remove protesters inside. However, they will not allow anyone else inside, and will not allow occupiers to leave and return. Parents and occupiers inside are being denied food and medicine.
Via Occupy Chicago Press:
Declaration #1 from Piccolo Occupation
11:49pm - February 17th, 2012
Piccolo has failed because CPS has refused to invest in public education. The school has struggled for years butWe, the Piccolo Occupation, are putting our childrens' education first....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/18/chicago-parents-students-_n_128...
Occupy Brief: Common Sense Resources to End 1%'s War Crimes
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/02/occupy-brief-common-sense-resourc...
"This brief explains, documents, and proves objective and independently verifiable facts of the 1%'s crimes that kill millions, harm billions, and cost trillions...Please Report and Share
Occupy Piccolo! Chicago Communities Occupy School In Protest of Privatization
4:00PM: Occupiers have emerged from the school to thunderous applause and declared victory! The demands have been met, proving that direct action and community power can be leveraged for real change! Parents will be given the opportunity to meet with the Board of Directors to submit a counter-proposal for local education. This is what real community control looks like.
Thanks to Occupy, Senate Looks at Inequality by Sarah Anderson I had the opportunity to testify on inequality before the Senate Budget Committee last week. No one seems to recall the last time the committee devoted a whole hearing to this issue. So you can add this to the signs of the Occupy movement's impact on our political discourse. ... The Committee's Ranking Member, Senator Jeff Sessions, and Republican witnesses tried to raise doubts about the inequality data, questioning whether things were really as bad as they look. I didn't envy them the task of being an inequality denier in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Awesome work by Occupy bringing attention to inequality, and now it's paying off!
The School of Ideas is situated on corner of Bunhill Road and Featherstone Street, Islington EC1Y 8RX in an abandoned school building. It is a space complete with 10 class rooms. We’re open to visitors and guests from 12 noon to 9 pm from Tuesday to Friday and from 10 am to 9 pm on Saturday and Sunday.
It has been opened to the public for the free sharing of ideas and solutions, to help solve the pressing economic, social and environmental challenges globally and locally.
There is also room for community groups and other public services that have lost their space due to Government spending cuts to come and use a space for free.
Artists, performers and creatives are welcome to come entertain and to help transform the space. We also encourage games, workshops and skillshares.
Sharing in ideas or skills for free, no one should need to pay to take part in the School’s activities.
Everyone should feel safe and welcome in the School. Our Safer Spaces Policy asks people to be mindful and respectful of how their ideas or actions might effect others, and there is a No Smoking, No Alcohol Policy.
As this is a community space we ask everyone to respect the people and the building.
We are a community coming together to find positive solutions to our current crises. We ask all people who come into the space to come in with respect.
Everyone is warmly welcome and encouraged to be part of creating the School of Ideas. Email us with your ideas, suggestions and requests at schoolofideaslondon@gmail.com.
Thank you very much for reading!
http://schoolofideas.org.uk/2012/02/09/welcome/
R’evolution is shorthand for the jump time of evolution, when social relations that have been frozen for a long time start thawing and the obsolescence of the dominant social order becomes obvious to the multitudes. It’s a time of unfreeze, a fascinating moment, when what the future can become is up to us, to our collective consciousness and connective intelligence.
Collective consciousness is the intimate knowing of our collective self, who we are as a movement, as a social force capable to change the future. Connective intelligence is much more than a wordplay on collective intelligence. It is the act of connection that gives rise to new life forms, thought forms, and forms of organizing.
Differentiation
Working Groups are organs of the awakening social body of the 99%. Currently, they carry out functions essential to the well-being of the Occupations. I see them also as seeds for the new institutions that we’ll need for stewarding the well-being of the emerging, post-capitalist society.
They can be roughly broken into three categories: operational, sectorial, and strategy-focused. The first deals with everything needed to assure the viability of a given Occupation, including its finances, outreach, press relations, process, etc. The work of WGs in the second category is focused on such sectors of social life as education, health, economics, etc. In the strategy-focused WGs, members address issues of the emerging Occupy vision, strategic planning and navigation, and how the 99% can win.
eta:
But what is it that we, as a movement, are learning from the experience of WGs? While Occupy is re-inventing itself for Phase 2, something is also happening to the longer and bigger learning journey, the evolution of human society and consciousness. What is that? Let’s observe the answer to both questions through the lens of some evolutionary drivers that are at play, namely, the one that affects emergence at all scales: the triad of “differentiation-integration-transformation”.
Integration
Life is carrying itself forward through the workings of the “d-i-t” triad. Permanent differentiation without integration is decay, which in the social domain means a loss of cohesion and capacity to evolve into higher-order social forms. This is also known as balkanization. When a social movement balkanizes, its potential for bringing more justice, dignity and joy into the life of people is lost.
That fragmentation is not to be confounded with the initial conditions of a multi-centric mass movement, such as Occupy, where the globalized existence of capital evokes similar phenomena of resistance in various part of the world. While balkanization is a post-unity state of affairs, the unnecessary duplication of effort in Occupy is a pre-unity symptom. How can we address that? Here is an example:
We need the work of the various Economics/Corporations/Economy WGs around the world to evolve to the point where they can see and become attracted to the benefits of organizing themselves into a rich ecosystem of people, joint research and prototyping projects, and the shared knowledge resources, of an “economy commons”. Only then will they have the chance to tackle the complexity of the planetary economic and environmental crises created by capitalist globalization, and only then can we work out the fine points of issues like how to assure a basic income for everyone....
…if this illegitimate wave of repression is allowed to stand… if the powers-that-be succeed in suppressing or marginalizing this new movement… if people are once again “penned in”—both literally and symbolically—things will be much worse. THIS SUPPRESSION MUST BE MASSIVELY OPPOSED, AND DEFEATED.*** From “A Call for Mass Action Against the Suppression of the Occupy Movement <http://dontsuppressows.org/>”
NYC, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Minneapolis/St. Paul No Rubber Bullets, No Beatings, No Tear Gas, No Mass Arrests. Drop all charges against the Occupiers.dontsuppressows.org
dontsuppressows@yahoo.com
#F28 #dontsuppressows
Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/events/215553165207312/>
99% For Stopping The Next War Before It Starts (and vid)
http://warisacrime.org/content/99-stopping-next-war-it-starts
Why We Must Occupy Our Food Supply - by Anna Lappe
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/441-occupy/10133-focus-why-we-mu...
"The call to Occupy Our Food Supply, facilitated by Rainforest Action Network, is being echoed by prominent thought leaders, authors, farmers and activists including the Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva, Food Inc's Robert Kenner and authors Michael Pollan, Raj Patel, Gary Paul Nabhan, and Marion Nestle, among others. If you eat food, grow food, love food, join us to
Occupy Our Food Supply."
Workers facing layoffs at a Chicago window factory have declared victory after occupying their plant for 11 hours. Through direct community action, including the support of Occupy Chicago, the workers and their union prevented the California-based Serious Energy company from closing the plant for another 90 days. The workers hope this will give them time to keep the plant open, possibly by purchasing it themselves and creating a worker-owned co-op. “We can run this company,” Juan Cortez, who has worked more than 23 years in the factory, told the media. “We got smart people to manage the money. We can find customers. We know how to run the company.” Members of Occupy Chicago showed up in solidarity and brought supplies. In 2008, workers at the same factory occupied their plant for six days during a labor dispute with its previous owners, Republic Windows and Doors. That occupation forced Bank of America into a $1.75 million settlement with the workers....
Below you can find the national call to action made by the Portland GA. If your city or organization is participating please let us know by filling out this form! Already 70+ cities are planning actions.
You can also find a variety of resources for planning direct actions. This includes ideas on different tactics, direct action planning, preparation, facilitation, affinity groups, etc. There is also information about the different areas ALEC effects and information aboutwhich corporations to target
We would also encourage you to check out our section on affinity groups and spokes councils. This is one important and effective way to organize these types of actions. It also does so in a way that is consistent with our movement’s value to direct democracy, participatory decision making, and non-hierarchical structures. Of course there are many ways to do this, but we have had enormous success with this model in Portland. The direct action spokes council, the Portland Action Lab, which is organizing Portland’s action used this combination on N17 to shut down most of the major corporate banks in downtown Portland!
If you city or organization is participating please let us know by filling out this form! We can post contact information for your action so that people in your area can get involved!...
http://www.shutdownthecorporations.org/?page_id=21
http://www.occupycaravan.com/
Far from alienating middle America, the progressive movement has captured the public and political imagination
quote:
The radical Brazilian educator Paulo Freire once asked, "What can we do today so that tomorrow we can do what we are unable to do today?" The occupations have been central to creating new possibilities.
Organising for Occupation (O4O), which executed the protest in Queens, was working on issues of housing justice months before OWS emerged. "The campaigns are separate but there is some crossover," explains Karen Gargamelli of O4O. All those I spoke to in Queens had been involved in OWS in some fashion.
In Nashville, Occupy Our Homes, which came directly out of the Occupy Nashville movement, forced JP Morgan to back off the foreclosure on Helen Bailey, a 78-year-old veteran civil rights activist. Roughly half those involved in the campaign were housing activists before, explains one activist, the others came to it through the occupation.
In Portland, Oregon, WeAreOregon has been working against foreclosures for some time, and is now concentrating on persuading people to stay in their homes and not be intimidated by the banks. It has been joined by Unsettle Portland, which came out of the occupation. Earlier this month they packed an auction and helped delay the eviction of a single mother while she challenges the banks.
Polls have shown almost twice as many Americans agreed with OWS than disagreed with it. Far from alienating middle America, the movement has captured the public and political imagination. It has shifted the national debate from debt to inequality and the focus of the problem from victims of the crisis (the poor) to its perpetrators (the financial institutions). A Pew poll released in December revealed 77% of Americans believe there is too much power in the hands of a few rich people and corporations, while those who believed "most people who want to get ahead can make it if they are willing to work hard" was at its lowest point since the question was first put in 1994.
It also has the Republicans rattled. In his address to the Republican Governors Association in December, rightwing pollster Frank Luntz said: "The public … still prefers capitalism to socialism, but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we're seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we've got a problem."...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/26/us-left-home-occupy-...
Max Keiser On The Edge: Genesis Of 99% Movement (and vid)
http://www.presstv.ir/Program/228515.html
"David Degraw from AmpedStatus.com talks about the genesis of the 99 percent movement and how it led to Occupy Wall Street.."
..great project!
OccuprintOccuprint is a volunteer-run collaborative project that curates, collects, prints and distributes posters and graphics produced by and for the global Occupy movement. In the Fall, Occuprint launched with an all-poster newspaper, published in collaboration with the Occupied Wall Street Journal. Since then, we’ve been sending the paper across the globe as a freely distributed tool to keep the #occupy movement as visible as possible, as beautiful as possible, and in as many places as possible.
The response has been overwhelming. Since the newspaper was released, we’ve received hundreds of poster submissions from all over the world—many of which we’ve archived on our website:
www.occuprint.org.
'Americans Live Under Fascist Rule' (and vid)
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/229283.html
"The Occupy movement has decided to protest against the big corporations using the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC] to buy off legislators to craft laws securing their interests. Press TV interviewed Linh Dinh, writer and political analyst from Philadelphia and others to further discuss this issue.."
What we need, at this point, is a platform that allows us to radically democratize our global organizational efforts. In addition to the local squares, we now need a global square where people of all nations can come together as equals to participate in the coordination of collective actions and the formulation of common goals and aspirations.
The ideal would be both to foster individual participation and to structure collective action. The Global Square is any public or virtual space where different groups can come together to organise their local assemblies — and where different assemblies can join hands to coordinate their collective projects. In a way, The Global Square is a groundbreaking experiment in building a global participatory decision-making system from the grassroots up.
Come and join us!Our aim is to create an ever changing kaleidoscope of ideas where the public is drawn into interaction with the global protest cloud. To create a truly free, creative and genuine social environment which transforms the passive visitor into an active acting being. In this metamorphosis process, art and protest share a common goal – moving people! TheGlobalSquare @Berlin will be held from April 29 until July 1 in the space of Berlin Biennale, come and join us!