99% For Stopping The Next War Before It Starts (and vid)
http://warisacrime.org/content/99-stopping-next-war-it-starts
Occupy Global
Thu, 2012-02-23 14:02
#52
Sun, 2012-02-26 17:36
#53
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."
Sun, 2012-02-26 17:55
#54
Chicago Workers Stop Layoffs After Occupying Their Factory
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....
Sun, 2012-02-26 18:03
#55
Shut Down The Corporations the 29 of February – Leap Into Action! Reclaim Our Future!
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!...
Mon, 2012-02-27 16:58
#56
The itinerant US left has found its home in the Occupy movement
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-...
Mon, 2012-02-27 16:59
#57
OCCUPY CARAVAN
The Occupy Caravan’s week long, celebratory journey promoting economic justice begins in Los Angeles April 2, then makes it’s way city to city, gathering more vehicles and supporters until it reaches New York City’s Wall Street, before heading to our final stop Washington DC April 9th. This historic and FUN civil rights road trip brings the people’s voice from the nation’s heartland, to the seats of power! Families, friends, veterans, seniors, students and occupy supporters of all kinds make this a very special and all inclusive trip! Join this important action today! Join the website membership and Join the working group!
Tue, 2012-02-28 19:12
#58
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.."
Wed, 2012-02-29 12:39
#59
..great project!
Occuprint 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:
Wed, 2012-02-29 14:22
#60
'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.."
Sun, 2012-03-04 17:41
#61
Concept
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!
Sat, 2012-03-10 17:22
#62
Racism, Resistance, and Workplace Organizing: Workers of Color and OWS
Date/Time
Date(s) – 07/03/2012
6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Location
Following up from the December Racial Justice Workshop, organizers from the People of Color Caucus have joined with the Rank and File Committee (of the Labor Outreach Committee) for an exciting event on how racism has been essential to Wall Street’s historic roles in the US economy, and how workers of color have fought back throughout. Ai-jen Poo (Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance) will lead us through this history, highlighting the key roles that workers of color have played in the US Labor Movement, even when they had to fight racism within the movement.
The second half will be a panel discussion with rank and file leaders from New York’s labor struggles and how Occupy Wall Street can help them win against the corporations that profit off of their labor: Sotheby’s Workers (Teamsters, Local 814), Domestic Workers United and others!
How can OWS support those on the front-lines of the fight-back against the corporate attack? Join us to help OWS and the Labor Movement build together!
http://occupythebronx.org/events/racism-resistance-and-workplace-organiz...
Sat, 2012-03-10 17:30
#63
Sat, 2012-03-10 17:48
#64
video
The last two months the struggle of cleaners has been in the centrepiece of social movements in the Netherlands. The cleaners are among the first who are affected by the economic crisis in the Netherlands. After transportation workers, post workers and employees in subsidised jobs, the cleaners are facing wage cuts.
The budget cuts in the cleaning expenses by companies such as Philips and organizations such as the ministries and the universities directly affect the working conditions of the employees in the cleaning sector. The cleaning companies, in order to maintain their profits in the same level as before, they increased the workload and worsened the working conditions. Although most employees in the Netherlands are entitled to a paid sick-leave, the companies deny this right for the cleaners. To make things worse, the companies had eliminated the pay rises and their contribution to social security for temporary workers.
As everybody else the employees in the cleaning sector demand a decent life and proper working conditions. As everybody else they have the right to fight for their demands. Therefore hundreds of them are on strike for 40 days now. After 4 months of discussions, 7 rounds of negotiations, hundreds of small actions, 9 big demonstrations in several Dutch cities, they decided to go one step further. On Monday, 27th February, more than 2.000 cleaners, together with hundreds of students who support their struggle, occupied Utrecht University.
Today they do the same in the VU University of Amsterdam and they have our absolute support.
We call all the working people, youth and unemployed persons to show their solidarity and support the occupation of the cleaners in order to gain their demands.
They fight for respect in the context of a systemic global crisis that deteriorates the lives of millions of people.
They fight for better working conditions and for a better life.
They fight also for us! We should fight with them!
Solidarity to the cleaners. They will win!
Sat, 2012-03-10 17:59
#65
Cleaners in the netherland went on strike and occupied
After a few weeks of protests and negotiations, cleaners in The Netherland went on strike on the 27th of February.
Yesterday, they occupied the VU University of Amsterdam with the help of dozens of activists with the intention of doing an ongoing sit-in.
The contractors of the cleaning companies such as Philips, the ministries and the universities proceed to gradually cut back on cleaning expenses. The cleaning companies accommodate these cuts by increasing the workload extremely and worsening the working conditions.
The cleaners do not ask for much, just for respect and the appreciation of their job, for paid sick leave and a normal workload.
Yesterday, nice events were organized, people talked to the students. The union of university employees supported the strike and they tried to link the struggle of the cleaners with the problems of the university personnel. At the end of the day, after meeting some of the demands (6 fired workers were given another 6-month contract and the university will send a letter to the cleaning companies saying that they support the demands of the cleaners), the union of the cleaners decided to end the sit in.
Given the willingness of people for action and given the way that the cleaners themselves presented their struggle (with demands that included solidarity with the personel of the university), for many of the participants and supporters of the strike this was a rather shocking experience. Actually, there was no real democratic procedure followed for the end of the action: the decision was taken in 2 seconds and then the cleaners left the area within 20 min.
Today there will be a meeting with some people from the Uni to see how to go on.
You can find more information in English in:
reinform.nl/cleaners-strike-and-occupy
...
Sun, 2012-03-11 00:05
#66
PAN invite: Inter-Assembly List and Global Newswire
This is an invitation to join our Inter-Assembly Newswire project. It’s being run by team members from Occupy/15M/PAN in the USA, Spain and London. Please read the following information, and ask your Assembly’s external and international communications workgroups (or equivalent) to subscribe and participate.
There are two aspects to this project:
(1) the global email list and
(2) the decentralised blog-link, or global newswire.
We are excited about the newswire which allows you to ‘news tag’ your local blog posts for people to follow and receive your news at the global level. Both platforms are designed to maintain local assembly autonomy while also establishing clean lines of inter-assembly communication, and are open-source so can be utilised on other sites....
http://interoccupy.org/pan-invite-inter-assembly-list-and-global-newswire/
Sun, 2012-03-11 20:33
#67
6 Ways to Get Ready for the May 1st GENERAL STRIKE
Yesterday, 60,000 marched on Madison to mark the one-year anniversary of the passage of Governor Scott Walker's drastic dismantling of collective bargaining rights for public employees. Last year, Walker's attacks on labor rights sparked massive protests that saw hundreds of thousands occupy the Wisconsin capital building. Their actions prefigured Occupy Wall Street and inspired countless others to take a stand against economic inequality, political injustice, and the tyranny of the 1% enforced through politicians and banksters alike.
This is just one example that people across the globe are actively resisting attacks on the 99%. This year has already seen the largest-ever strike on record in India, hundreds of thousands marching for democracy in Bahrain, general strikes in Montreal and Spain where students once again occupied public space in protest of the austerity measures and spending cuts being enforced by the European banking elite, massive uprisings in the streets of Moscow, and more. Even in the United States, the movement grows. The corporate media claims that Occupy's strength is waning, but they are merely in denial. During the coldest months of this year, the United States has already seen more revolutionary momentum than it has in decades...
Mon, 2012-03-12 17:07
#68
..this is hilarious. clap! clap! clap! clap!
Bank of America Stole Our Homes - So Occupiers Moved Into Bank of America
video:
Bank of America has stolen millions of homes. It's time to turn the tables! Watch a crew of Occupiers set up their new living room in a New York City branch of Bank of America, which is being rented by the taxpayers at a cost of $230 billion in bailouts from the U.S. government:
Tue, 2012-03-13 17:32
#69
..more on the cleaners strike from # 63-64.
Struggles intersect at uni occupation in Amsterdam
The occupation we witnessed at the Vrije Universiteit (VU University) in Amsterdam this past week was no ordinary university occupation. But that’s what you get when you combine the energy behind the longest-running sector-wide strike in Dutch history since 1933 with the channeled frustration of employees and students about the destructive neoliberal reforms underway at their university. The result is a new breed of radical action that works.
Over a period of two days, the central hall of the university’s main building was taken over by a few thousand striking cleaners and their fellow occupiers. Upon arrival, the main lecture hall was stormed and held, while striking cleaners and co-occupiers — like my university colleagues and I — visited students in their classrooms, explaining the purpose and goals of the occupation. The central reclaimed spaces would soon become both the base for the cleaners’ collective decision-making assembly, as well as the location of a slew of speeches and activities in solidarity with the cleaners’ struggle....
http://roarmag.org/2012/03/occupy-university-amsterdam-workers-cleaners-...
Wed, 2012-03-14 14:44
#70
Catchfire
10 "Occupy" Candidates Running for Congress
Unlike the tea party, the Occupy movement hasn't involved itself much in elections. But that hasn't stopped a slew of progressives and political outsiders from capitalizing on the movement's energy. Here's a rundown of 10 electable House and Senate hopefuls who, one way or another, have made Occupy part of their campaigns:
Alan Grayson (Florida): Nobody running for Congress has done more to side with Occupy Wall Street than the outspoken former congressman from Orlando. In October on Real Time with Bill Maher, Grayson destroyed conservative pundit PJ O'Rourke with a fiery defense of the movement. A clip from the segment now features in an Occupy-themed video that automatically plays on the Grayson campaign's homepage. Beloved by progressives for his voting record and willingness to go on the attack—he likened Dick Cheney a blood-sucking vampire and summed up Republicans' health care plan as "die quickly"—Grayson lost his reelection bid in 2010 but is attempting a comeback in Florida's new Democratic-leaning 9th Congressional District.Prospects: Excellent. He's one of only three candidates whom the DCCC has named "Majority Makers," meaning that their races are top priorities.
Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin): In 2010, the National Journal called Baldwin the most liberal member of the House. She earned kudos in November from the Occupy crowd for sponsoring a resolution opposing any government deal that grants criminal immunity to banks. "When the conventional tools for expressing yourself...are closed and your voice is cut off," Baldwin has said of Occupy Wall Street, "what else is left but to use the possibility of standing on a soap box and screaming to anyone who will listen?"Prospects: Excellent. She is the likely Democratic nominee to replace the retiring Sen. Herb Kohl.
Wed, 2012-03-14 22:43
#71
Reclaiming the Commons: Human Lessons in the Era of Corporatism and Perpetual War - by Phil Rockstroh
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30811.htm
"...unless we start to see the world and our role in it with new eyes, we will be unable to alter the structure of the present system Withal, it is imperative to be in full possession of one's humanity when facing the desperate, dehumanizing forces of an order that has grown ever more brutal in direct proportion to its rapidly declining purpose and legitimacy.."
Thu, 2012-03-15 14:40
#72
OCCUPY: Infiltration of Political Movements is the Norm, Not the Exception in the United States.
Part II
On March 6 members of an off-shoot of Anonymous, Lulzsec, were arrested as a result of an FBI informant, Sabu, whom the media describes as a Lulzsec leader. The six arrests were for people allegedly involved with Lulzsec which became known for targeting Sony, the CIA, the U.S. Senate, and FBI, as well as Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal.
Exactly one year ago to the day of the arrests, The Guardian published an article headlined, “One in four US hackers 'is an FBI informer.'” The article described how the FBI had used the threat of long sentences to turn some members of Anonymous and similar groups into informants. It also described how the group was open to infiltration. On Democracy Now, Gabriella Coleman, a professor at McGill University who is an expert on digital media, hackers and the law, said: “There had been rumors of infiltration or informants. At some level, Anonymous is quite easy to infiltrate, because anyone can sort of join and participate. And so, there had been rumors of this sort of activity happening for quite a long time.”
In Part I of this series, Infiltration to Disrupt, Divide and Mis-direct are Widespread in Occupy, we described reports of widespread infiltration of the Occupy. In this article we will describe the history of infiltration of political movements in the United States and the goals of infiltration. Part III of this series will describe behavior of infiltrators, how other movements have countered infiltrators and what Occupy can do to minimize the damage from infiltrators....
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29750
Fri, 2012-03-16 23:43
#73
..see post #66 for more details.
Weekly Marches on Wall Street Start Today! 2PM LIBERTY SQUARE
Start training for May Day and join the spring resistance! Weekly marches every Friday; meet at 2 PM in Liberty Square
Start training for May Day and join the spring resistance! Weekly marches every Friday; meet at 2 PM in Liberty Square
Sun, 2012-03-18 22:08
#74
edit due to a temporary glich in my brain. what could i have been thinking?
Wed, 2012-03-21 00:36
#75
How the #OccupyWallStreet Movement Has Shifted the Economic Paradigm
quote
Zizek’s ideas are echoed by – Canadian activist, author and publicist, Naomi Klein in an interview in Solutions an online Journal for a Sustainable and Desirable Future. Klein states that the Occupy Movement has been a game changer, that it has opened up space to put more radical solutions on the table and she says that the experience of seeing these groups of young people putting their radical ideas on the table, and the country getting excited by it, has been a wake up call for a lot of people.. She concludes that it has challenged the sense of what is possible. [5]
University of Amherst Professor Emeritus Richard Wolff, one of many Profs who have spoken out in favour of the Occupy Movement, in the US stated: As the Occupy movement keeps developing, it seeks solutions for the economic and political dysfunctions it exposes and opposes. For many, the capitalist economic system itself is the basic problem.
He also noted that the students who were occupying Harvard and hundreds of other colleges and universities around the country were exploring two basic issues: i) how to restore the idea of the university and ii) how to imagine and create appropriate substitutes for capitalism. Both are key issues within the larger, national and international, Occupy movement....
http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/how-the-occupywallstreet-movement-has-shif...
Wed, 2012-03-21 15:35
#76
The luxury Madrid prostitutes on strike sex with bankers until the credit flowing again to the real economy
The largest trade association of luxury escorts Madrid announced yesterday the beginning of a total strike and indefinite sexual services to employees of banks until they return to provide credit to households, SMEs and Spanish companies.
The idea of this strike arose from the experience of CP Lucia one of the association's members, who for the wheel of the press sa recounted how excited one of his regular customers told him that, for many months, his only activity was to borrow hundreds of millions of euros of liquidity window of 1% of the ECB, and immediately invest that money in European debt and highly specialized products such as CDS and commodity hedge funds, with returns of between 3 and 7%, pocketing the difference. "-One day I got fed up and said: Enough is enough no? Go forgetting my pussy until you fulfill your responsibility to society. My client at first grumbled and threatened to get on the maintenance fees and transfers, but eventually backed off and three days later returned with a notarized certificate of having granted a line of credit to SMEs and a loan to buy a Citroen van a self-contained. This is how I realized that we could help the credit flowing again "...
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Felblogd...
Wed, 2012-03-21 19:28
#77
Awesome. :D
Wed, 2012-03-21 22:15
#78
Police State Blues - by Phil Rockstroh
http://consortiumnews.com/2012/03/19/police-state-blues/
"At mid-evening, on Saturday March 17, upon the six-month anniversary of the occupation of Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, the NYPD initiated another brutal operation to expel OWS activists from the premises, and to discourage, in general, those who might venture attempts to exercise their right to free assembly and free expression across the whole of the city of New York, as winter proceeds into Spring.
In a police state, unjust actions by authoritarian bullies, operating at the behest of privileged bullies in power, act by caprice and will escalate their level of brutality by the degrees that the public at large reacts with support and indifference to the state's assaults on civil liberties and common decency.."
Thu, 2012-03-22 16:51
#79
April 23 – 25: Occupy The Surface Warfare Summit – Norfolk, Virginia alongside Occupy Norfolk
Spread the Word!!
April 23 – 25: Occupy The Surface Warfare Summit – Norfolk, Virginia
alongside Occupy Norfolk. Flier is below.
Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/events/405392556141702/?ref=ts
Thu, 2012-03-22 17:04
#80
Occupy Davis's Bank Boycott Victory
For the last two months, Occupy UC Davis has been blockading a campus branch of U.S. Bank. Now, in a victory for Occupy that potentially gives birth to a new movement tactic, U.S. Bank has capitulated and permanently closed the branch.
U.S. Bank has been a visible symbol on campus of the corporatization and monied corruption of education in part because, as The Aggie campus newspaper explains, “in 2010, all students were required to get new ID cards with the U.S. Bank logo on the back.”...
http://www.theaggie.org/2012/03/19/u-s-bank-announces-closure-of-on-camp...
Fri, 2012-03-23 21:24
#81
#Occupied Reports from the Front Lines No. 4
YOUR WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF OCCUPY MOVEMENT NEWS
# This week in Occupy, we turned six months old - and law enforcement noticed, Occupy Seattle's Chase 5 was found not guilty, spring training for the nation's May 1 actions commenced, SXSW was #occupied and we couldn't stop watching this.
# The six-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street on March 17 was marked by reconnection and celebration, which clearly angered law enforcement: 73 people were arrested in and around the movement's Liberty Square birthplace and five were arrested at Occupy L.A. on felony charges. The March 17 raid was followed up by a candlelight vigil in Union Square the next evening....
Wed, 2012-03-28 00:44
#82
Wed, 2012-03-28 00:49
#83
...and to go to CHICAGO in May,2011 STOP NATO / G8
Wed, 2012-03-28 00:56
#84
US tightens up on protesting
video
In 2011, Time Magazine called The Protester the person of the year. But a new law that was recently signed by President Obama very well might mean that won't happen again. Since the start of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, over 6,700 Americans have been arrested for taking part in demonstrations and this new law could raise those numbers significantly. Marina Portnaya gives us the latest on H.R. 347, the Trespass Bill.
Wed, 2012-03-28 22:13
#85
Thu, 2012-03-29 16:01
#86
M. Spector
[url=http://www.thenation.com/article/166759/occupy-climate-change]Occupy Climate Change[/url]
[quote]The General Assembly resolution calls for [url=http://www.nycga.net/2012/01/16/occupy-earth-day-global-month-of-action/]a month of action, starting March 24 and leading up to Earth Day on April 22, to draw the Occupy movements across the country and around the world further into the struggle to protect the climate.[/url] “Earth Month,” which will target all fossil and nonrenewable fuels, is being spearheaded by a group from OWS called 99forEarth. The resolution also calls for [b]“connecting the dots between the 1% and the destruction of the planet.”[/b] At one end of the chain are specific depredations on specific environments: “Our mountains in Appalachia are blasted; our drinking water in the northeast [is] threatened by fracking; our American heartland is charted for an oil pipeline; and our forests in the northwest [are] targeted for further deforestation.” [b]Connect the dots and you find that the corporate destruction of the earth’s climate has been “financed by the 1%” and that a “small group of polluting businesses” have “hijacked our political system for their benefit.”[/b]...
The Occupy movement is about reclaiming a future for people who have had their life chances rubbished by three decades of global neoliberalism and austerity. But it’s not just about paycheck economics; the destruction of the climate and environment is an integral part of the neoliberal world order. [b]The same corporations, banks and financial institutions that destroyed the economy are destroying the global environment.[/b] The struggle to preserve the earth and its atmosphere is, by necessity, a struggle against those forces....
The climate crisis is a global crisis, which will require global cooperation to solve. Without international agreement, if one country restricts corporate carbon pollution, global corporations will seek to move their production elsewhere. In a global economy, countries are likely to seek economic advantage by allowing higher levels of pollution. Fortunately, both Occupy and the climate protection movement are highly hooked up globally—[b]the protests that linked Occupy and other economic justice movements on October 15 reached an estimated 1,500 cities worldwide[/b], and 350.org has initiated globally coordinated demonstrations in every country except North Korea.
An economy driven to enrich the 1 percent cannot meet the needs of the 99 percent for a secure, sustainable future. We need a strategy to counter the threats to economic security and climate security by putting people to work to create a low-pollution, climate-friendly, sustainable global economy—what is sometimes described as a [b]Global Green New Deal[/b]. It will require democratizing our economy so that we can direct our labor and our investment to sustainably meeting the needs of all people. It will require not just different policies, or even different structures, but a global society mobilized for change. A Global Green New Deal will ensure jobs and livelihoods for all, because it will take all the work—and all the creativity—we can muster.
Mon, 2012-04-02 13:51
#87
Occupy San Francisco Creates Social Center in Vacant Church Building
In another sign of the Occupy movement's diversifying tactics and growing spring momentum, yesterday Occupy San Francisco liberated a vacant building owned by the Archdiocese of San Francisco and announced plans to establish a permanent occupation -- including a social center, shelter, and food bank -- on the site. The April 1st action began with a lively march from Union Square before arriving at the building just before 6pm. When they arrived, Occupiers who had already secured the building greeted the marchers with open doors.
The two-story building, located at 888 Turk St., soon filled with hundreds of exuberant Occupiers. Preliminary reports indicate that the Archdiocese has asked police not to take any action until the morning. However, the Occupiers are requesting help and numbers in case of any eviction attempt. If you are in the Bay Area and are able, please get down to the San Francisco Commune as soon as possible! Most recently (as of 1am Pacific time), police had surrounded the building with barricades to prevent supplies from getting inside. Occupiers have announced they will serve breakfast at 9am and are inviting everyone to join them!...
Tue, 2012-04-03 00:06
#88
We Are All Luddites - by David Rosen
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/03/30/we-are-all-luddites/
"This year 2012, marks the 200th anniversary of the Luddite uprising, when English textile workers smashed looms with hammers. Few words in the English language invoke such perjorative connotations as Luddite. It signifies the machine breakers, someone who opposed progress - and, thus, the capitalist project.
Today, two centuries later, the popular struggle against capitalism - a system involving not only commodification and the maximization of profits, but also imperialism, patriarchy, racism, hierarchy and sexual repression - draws inspiration from the Luddites.."
Wed, 2012-04-04 01:30
#89
Selma James at Occupy Philadelphia. (Photo by Jenna Spitz)
Wed, 2012-04-04 02:15
#90
Are You With Me?
(Louis Reyes Rivera 1945-2012)
by Iva Rad and Martyna Starosta
This is a 10-minute film dedicated to freedom fighter Louis Reyes Rivera. Rivera was a member of the 1969 occupation of City College, which was led by students of color and won open admissions. He spoke to Students United for a Free CUNY at the AME Church in Harlem on October 27, 2011 before his death on March 3, 2012. We had the honor to film what was to become one of his last public speeches.
Wed, 2012-04-04 03:19
#91
an occupy autonomy initiative (draft)
The Occupy Eugene House-Free Commons Project
Habitat for a New Society through the Wisdom of the Houseless
While not a 'homeless' program, this project does especially address the long term needs of house-free young adults occupying the urban Eugene environment. The young adult is a fast growing sector of the houseless population. Within this houseless sector there is a growing subgroup which might be called the 'house-free' group. While claiming the need and the right to assemble and associate, they disavow needing to be housed at all. They are not unhoused, they are house-free. Their grievance is the criminalization of their urban outdoor way of life. To reverse that plaint, this project recognizes them as 'cultural creatives' whose ongoing desire for a house-free experience has become an important harbinger to our urban society in middle-class descent. In light of the economic transition that's now begun we see the house-free young adult, having shed the conventional fantasy of the over-housed, as a valuable, even a crucial, asset to our civil society going forward.
This project also addresses a much greater challenge, that of our city's economy being over monetized and consumerist. In this regard this project proposes to begin stewarding and maturing the young and houseless experience into an educational commons devoted to the rapid infusion of restorative economies into our local communities, thereby meeting the greater need of having living, working examples of locally rooted economies available nationally. In this vision Eugene is underway to becoming a renowned eco-society, a hotbed for the social innovations that a deepening green future requires. The house-free are well positioned to pioneer this emerging commons-based economy and its way of life.
This project, being highly integrative and forward looking, offers an expenditure benign, culturally poised and politically unique direction to the homeless reintegration challenge here in our particular city. It is decidedly not about building a 'homeless' camp, it is about reclaiming and re-animating the commons and establishing a house-free transitional community upon it as a necessary first use of that commons. So, first things first: The OE Commons Project calls upon the City of Eugene to allow for the prompt recognition and steady establishment of a network of eight OE living demonstration campus sites throughout the city. Wherein each and every city ward will carefully select a permanent campus site through the agency of resident OE actionists within their own ward. These eight campus sites taken together are to be the (Occupy) Eugene Commons. The need to begin is appearing urgent....
Wed, 2012-04-04 13:17
#92
Anti-capitalist action in over 30 cities – and we’re here to stay!
In less than three months, the M31 initiative was joined by leftist groups and libertarian grassroots unions in 15 European countries. On March 31st, thousands took to the streets all over Europe against capitalism and neoliberal crisis regulation. There were M31 demonstrations and rallies in Porto, Lisbon, Madrid, Toledo, Bilbao, Zaragoza, Murcia, Badajoz, Aranjuez, Castro Uridales, Besancon, Bayonne, Utrecht, Frankfurt/Main, Vienna, Modena, Kiev, Ufa, Ljubljana and other Slovenian cities, Zagreb, Athens and Thessaloniki. Simultaneously, syndicalist comrades in the UK, Poland and Italy staged anti-capitalist demonstrations and direct actions. All this came just days after successful general strikes in Portugal and Spain....
http://march31.net/2012/asides/anti-capitalist-action-in-over-30-cities-...
Wed, 2012-04-04 14:39
#93
Fight the Cuts! Occupy for Public Transit TODAY
Occupy Wall Street and the Amalgamated Transit Union have declared today, April 4, a National Day of Action for Mass Transit. Demonstrations are taking place in over 20 cities including New York, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Milwaukee, Detroit, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, and Portland.
Today is also the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who called public transit a civil right. With today´s coordinated actions, first proposed by Occupy Boston and endorsed by dozens of other community, labor, and Occupy groups, we are standing with transit workers and all of our supporters to continue the fight to make this dream a reality. According to the ATF, Chicago has lost 14 percent of its transit services in just the past two years, while Pittsburgh has lost over half. Even in New York City, which has historically prided itself on its subway system, the transit system has suffered severe cuts. Instead of more service cuts or fare increases that working people cannot afford, we are calling for investment in resources that benefit our communities, especially low-income communities and communities of color who were hit hardest by the Wall Street-manufactured economic crisis.
While governments have been slashing away spending on projects that benefit the 99%, the 1% on Wall Street has been reaping the rewards. Banks and elite financial institutions have been reaping huge profits as the rest of us suffer from lack of services. With each cut in public funding, Wall Street investors step in with pricey loans that cost taxpayers and transit riders even more. It´s time to say no more! Their greed got us into this mess; now is the time the 99% take control of our public resources and fix it....
Wed, 2012-04-04 23:23
#94
Occupy Atlanta occupies south DeKalb home
For 62-year-old Christine Frazer, 18 years of homeownership has come down to a pending eviction.
But members of the Occupy Atlanta activist group are camping out at the south DeKalb home Frazer shares with her mother, 85; daughter, 25; and grandson, 3.
“The plan is to have a non-violent sit-in,” said Cai Otee, with Occupy Atlanta, which has been at Frazer’s home since March 4. “We’re going to try to delay it as much as we can.”
“We’re pretty much waiting for the marshals to show,” said Leila Abadir, with Occupy Atlanta. “We’re going to defend this home.
“Hopefully, if we get enough people here, [the marshals] will be intimidated and push back their schedule,” Abadir said. “The goal is to save the home.”
Abadir said that a writ of possession notice was signed on March 7 giving marshals the authority to remove the occupants from the home....
http://www.championnewspaper.com/news/articles/1564occupy-atlanta-occupi...
Sun, 2012-04-08 12:35
#95
M31: Prelude to Joint and Europe-Wide Anti-Capitalist Protests
Within a joint day of action against capitalism on March 31, there have been rallies and demonstrations in more than 40 European cities. These actions are the beginning of an international networking by the anti-authoritarian movement against the European Union’s ruling crisis policy. The common goal is a free society in which everybody can participate. The foundation for that can only be an economy in which everybody is provided with a good life instead of wealth for a small number of people and poverty, existential fear and work baiting for many. On March 31, tens of thousands of people in more than 40 European cities, set in motion for that.
In Frankfurt/Main alone, around 6000 people participated in a demonstration themed “Capitalism is the Crisis”. Speeches at the the demonstration’s beginning stressed the fact that crisis and capitalism are inseparable. “It is a global and systemic crisis”, said Thorsten Bewernitz (FAU). He also said that a connection between industrial actions, struggles on the streets and in front of administrative offices will be crucial in the upcoming time....
http://march31.net/2012/news/m31-prelude-to-joint-and-europe-wide-anti-c...
Sun, 2012-04-08 22:09
#96
THIS IS HOW WE DO IT
Cooper Union
New York City, NY
Friday April 20 - Sunday April 22
A FESTIVAL OF DIALOGUES
ABOUT ANOTHER WORLD ///
/// UNDER CONSTRUCTION
There are communities around the world that have stopped waiting for the systems around them to change. They are engaged in alternative practices right now -- in economics, safety, media and communications, politics and more. With This Is How We Do It, Foundry Dialogues is bringing together many of the foremost innovators from around the globe -- people who are redefining nothing less than how the world works. We invite you to join the conversation on the poetic and practical experiences of remaking the diverse places in which we live (a kind of 'there-are-other-ways-to-do-things' show & tell) -- from the inside out. Below is schedule of the weekend's events.....
Thu, 2012-04-12 13:26
#97
#BARCELONA #15M Newsletter n.8
3. SECOND ENCOUNTER BETWEEN PEOPLE AND NATURE DURING RURALES ENREDADXS MEETING IN HUESCA
Rurales enREDadxs (Rurals Networked) is a collective of people, cooperatives and associations that promote projects of a social, eco sustanible and alternative way of life. Their aim is to connect and coordinate rural enviroment and cities, in order to integrate everyone in a human village through information, training, education and conciousness-raising.
In Capdesaso (http://g.co/maps/s5kwj) during all week long – from the 30th of March to the 8th of April -hundreds of people from Rurales enREDadxs met for the 2nd time to exchange ideas, to train, to know each other and overall to start the project of a steady settlement, to live togheter and produce concerning about the natural enviroment. They will also restore some contructions and they will build a few cabins. People who settled there have 8 hectares of ground to use. It is now preparing the ground for the summer kitchen garden. It is possible to follow the work in progress from outside Capdesaso, connecting with them by Mumble every Monday and Thursday from 8pm.
Server: mumble.tomalaplaza.net
Tutorial: How to use mumble
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmQw8MWFvAY
During the week various workshops and talks took place: “free software”, “how to use mumble”, “how to stop smoking”, “forgiveness meditation”, “Unity and Equality”, “Chi Kung”, “Alternatives in Education”, “A different way to Travel”, “Personal Revolution”, “Environamental Education”, “Human body as tool”, “how to grow the spirulina”. “Toma la tierra” (take the earth/ground) presented his project of a coordination, projects and struggle state network.
4. HOW TO END EVIL… FIVE DAYS OF CREATIVE ACTIVISM
Description of the 5 days workshop
It was a great sucess! over 200 people from different areas of the world attended the workshop at the Antic Theater. It was really full every day and there was great interest in exchanging experiences and methodologies about how to use art and frivolity tactics in political activism.
During 3 days there were different presentations of well know art-activism all over the world such as A.F.R.I.K.A. colective from Germany , who shared their experience with ”guerrilla communication” metodologies. Or John Jordan´s work that merges the imagination of art and the social engagement of politics. He has been deeply involved in Reclaim Streets actions in London and is one of the creators of Rebel Clown Army.
On Friday and Saturday the workshop swifted places to Sala Adriantic, where over 100 activists were collaborating on different working groups and thematics of how to use creativiy and art to engage in social change. There where 5 stable working groups created that will be developing the ideas that came up during the workshop, in order to use and experiment them on #12M15M. One of the greatest successes where the Inflatables, a creation of play-joy tools with a great potential against repression in demonstrations, you can read more at http://www.eclectic-electric-collective.blogspot.com.es/
http://takethesquare.net/2012/04/10/barcelona-15m-newsletter-n-8/
Thu, 2012-04-12 15:43
#98
Occupy Papua New Guinea Takes On Government, Wins
Over 10,000 gather at Sir John Guise Stadium in Papua New Guinea
In another example of the power of popular resistance, Papua New Guineans this week appear to have successfully stopped the government from delaying elections and implementing a controversial Judicial Conduct Law that would allow the legislature to remove judges. In front of a massive crowd organized by labor unions, churches, social media groups, and civil society organizations, PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill promised to hold elections on time.
The protests were organized in part by student activists and bloggers affiliated with Occupy Waigani, a group that formed last month to occupy Parliament in protest of the Judicial Conduct Law. Among other efforts, Occupiers in PNG are also working to address the exploitation of local resources by corporate interests and unequal development in the country. #OccupyWallStreet stands in solidarity with Occupiers and dissidents everywhere. (See below for a timeline of events in PNG!).....
Students gather at a popular assembly at the University of PNG
Fri, 2012-04-13 14:45
#99
M. Spector
Occupy Petrograd - circa 1917
[url=http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/616x.php][img]http://www.socialist...
![http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/616x.php][img]http://www.socialist...](http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/616x.php][img]http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/b616.jpg[/img][/url]){kind=link}
Sat, 2012-04-14 17:04
#100
BREAKING NEWS: Woodlawn Mental Health Clinic Occupied by Patients & Advocates! 6337 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Mental Health Movement barricaded inside Woodlawn Clinic until Rahm Emanuel backs off clinic closures
Dozens of people who use Chicago's mental health clinics along with other advocates have barricaded themselves into the Woodlawn Clinic at 6337 S. Woodlawn, one of 6 clinics facing closure. They intend to remain there until Mayor Emanuel agrees to keep all of Chicago's public clinics open, fully funded and fully staffed.
Two of the clinics slated for closure - the Northwest Clinic in Logan Square and the Northtown Clinic in Rogers Park - shut their doors last Friday. Four others (Woodlawn, Auburn/Gresham, Back of the Yards and Beverly/Morgan Park) are scheduled to close April 30th. The Mental Health Movement, which put out a report and a video undermining the Chicago Department of Public Health's claim that all patients will continue to receive care, has been calling for hearings on the clinic closures since October. Despite repeated promises and a resolution calling for hearings, the Emanuel Administration has prevented any hearings from taking place in order to avoid public scrutiny of the plan, which has come under fire even from Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.
"We have tried everything we could to be heard. We visited Mayor Emanuel when he was a candidate. We delivered him over 4,000 letters. We have talked to almost all 50 Alderman. We have held press conferences, rallies and even sat-in for 10 hours on the 5th floor of City Hall. We are the ones who know the disaster these clinic closures will mean for our communities and our city but Mayor Emanuel been unwilling to listen to us, so we are taking drastic measures to avoid a tragedy and defend our human rights," says N'Dana Carter, who goes to one of the city clinics and is a spokesperson for the Mental Health Movement.
The people barricaded in the clinic have enough food and supplies to stay for months and are threatening to do so unless Mayor Emanuel meets the following five demands:
* Keep all 12 city mental health clinics public, open, fully funded and fully staffed
* Stop plans to privatize Chicago's 7 neighborhood health centers
* Hire more doctors, therapists, nurses, social workers and other clinic staff
* Reinstate the drug assistance program
* Expand the public mental health safety net to cover unmet community needs
http://occupychi.org/2012/04/12/breaking-news-woodlawn-mental-health-cli...
Wed, 2013-09-18 12:41
#101
BTS: Occupy Anniversary Special: Highlights, Pitfalls & Shifts of Pubic Consciousness (and vid)
http://rt.com/shows/breaking-set-summary/occupy-anniversary-bankers-cons...
"A look at the successes and shortcomings of the Occupy movement..'