Who works for the 1%? The NYPD, for sure. Here they are arresting activist Rae Abileah, co-director of the women-led peace and justice group CODEPINK. What did she do to deserve arrest? You can watch the video for yourself.
It occurred on Sunday Sep 16 during the Occupy Wall Street march to protest the proposed Spectra
fracking gas line in NYC. CodePink sought to connect environmental and
economic destruction by highlighting the big banks that back fracking,
coal mountaintop removal, deforestation, and other disastrous projects.
See what a threat she is? She is opposed to destroying the environment for profit.
Mainstream media outlets spent the weekend minimizing and trivializing the accomplishments of the Occupy movement (I refuse to link to any such articles -- you will have to find them yourself, which should be easy, since those who follow 1% communication marching orders own most all the airwaves, newspapers and magazines). But they will have to work extra hard today to ignore the massive street presence (detailed here in Business Insider!) that will attempt to shut down Wall St. for #S17.
#S17 and #OWS already trending on twitter this anniversary morning at 6:50am Eastern time -- check there for more livestreams as events unfold. "Riot police donning gear" was just tweeted out by Allison Kilkenny, a good one to follow on Twitter.
Hooray for the citizen journalists who do the unglamorous and undercompensated work of bringing us the real news of our day! Kevin Gosztola has become a favorite of mine because of his coverage of the trial of truth-teller Bradley Manning. Here's his coverage in Firedoglake of Pre Anniversary Arrests by NYPD.
Crowd at Spokescouncil meeting Sun afternoon in NYC. My prediction: you ain't seen nothing yet.
Occupy Maine Summer Camp got underway yesterday in Kennebunkport as campers began setting up tents, activity stations (banner painting! button making! and drumming circles, natch).
Signs I brought along: the assephant that Occupy the NH Primary folks gave me, and the No East-West Corridor sign that my friends Abby and Fang gave me. Their friend Bozin made many of them to help us protect our state and its natural resources from the private-public partnership our governor and the CEO of Cianbro Corp. are in cahoots to build across the Maine wildnerness.
Some people really have this encampment thing down!
Following a terrific communal dinner, we held a GA with about 35 people participating. Hearing why everyone was there and seeing the generational diversity was very inspriring. A Norwegian artist named Una Hunderi who is traveling in the US to investigate "idealistic communities" came from the farthest away to be with us. We were also grandparents, young farm interns, and several videographers and writers. Something we all had in common -- the desire to occupy mosquitos!
As the GA wound down, who should arrive but a NYC contingent bringing activists from the New School to talk about resisting mountain top removal coal miming in Appalachia. It was so exciting to see the big van I've only seen in photos pull into our bucolic camping site.
Codepink Maine members Curtis Cole and Pat Taub posed in front of my favorite side of the first vehicle in the Occupy Caravan. There will be many more assembling over the next few days to head to the National Gathering in Philadelphia. Occupy the Roads!
Today we'll hold a Feminist GA at camp, in advance of the national one at NatGat on July 1.
I grew up in a single parent home in a basement apartment. The
government has refused to give my family any type of financial help
since ‘95. My playgrounds were surrounded by rapists. My schools were
filled with drug dealers. My apartment building was taken over by
gang-bangers. And many of my friends have been shot/murdered. I am an
African-American female. I have been told that I am at ‘the bottom of
the list’…as in the government’s list of concerns. My family has never
been on vacation and we still can not afford a car. BUT THAT HAS NOT
STOPPED US! My mother has been ill for almost 10 years, but that has not
stopped her. My brother and I have made it to college because they
can’t stop us. Even now, my mother is unemployed and can’t afford our
education…but guess what? THAT WILL NOT STOP US! I am 19 and have been
denied jobs because my name is Akuabba. I am the 99% looking for change.
Until I am able to pay off my mother’s piling medical bills, take care
of my tuition bills and take my mother on a two week vacation, I will
not stop occupying Chicago.
Now is the winter of our discontent, and I am often awake too late or too early watching the sometimes violent, sometimes sneaky, sometimes ridiculous attempts of the poorly paid minions of the 1% -- whose growing arsenal of sophisticated weaponry is worth far more than their pension -- to evict the 99% from their encampments.
There has been a lot of thoughtful talk about how the encampments aren't really a necessary part of the Occupy Everything movement, and the compelling case against them lines up like so:
1) Maintaining the encampments takes so much energy and time that the activism they were supposed to supports is harmed, not helped.
3) Many of the encampments are not safe for anyone, because in some cases municipal police deliberately populate them with violent or drug addicted citizens. In other cases, people who were already living on the streets are drawn to a place with free food, shelter, warmth and companionship -- which is understandable, and mirrors the fundamental failure of capitalism to care for people that the 99% have been talking about -- until someone gets hit on the head with a hatchet for playing a snare drum at 7am and refusing to stop when asked. A not insignificant footnote to this point is that some of the encampments were and are located in a public space that homeless people were already using.
4) The encampments necessarily look messy, ruin the grass and, for a variety of similar reasons, create a bad impression on fence sitters among the 99%. It hardly needs mentioning that the mainstream media capitalizes on this at every turn. (Remember back in the day when mean cheerleaders grew up to be mad housewives instead of snarky t.v. "news" anchors?)
t
Why Occupy Wall Street isn't about a list of demands CNNMoneyTechOctober 12, 2011
So a typical scenario, in a U.S. big city at least, goes something like this: an encampment springs up for political reasons, it attracts some apolitical people just looking to get their needs met, it becomes somewhat messy in the way of campsites everywhere, it is threatened by authorities on the basis of either crimes that occur there or perceived public health issues, it draws a large crowd of supporters in response to the threat, and it is raided under cover of darkness once the crowd has dwindled.
Repeat cycle, except maybe in the unseasonably warm but still growing chilly northern latitudes.
Sometimes an encampment wins in court, then loses, or vice versa. Sometimes, as in the case of Occupy Augusta, it loses in court and decides to decamp by choice and with dignity, rather than apply for a permit to exercise 1st amendment rights of speech, assembly, and petition for redress of grievances.
But here is why I don't agree with those who argue that encampments are not necessary to continue to grow the movement.
1) While monitoring the Twitter feed as Occupy Boston faced eviction after losing in court, I saw a tweet that said something like The last 20 calls on my phone are from people I didn't even know a month ago. #OccupyBoston.
2) For many teenagers, their closest Occupy site is like Woodstock: something inestimably attractive, shining like a beacon in the distance when one has turned 18 and one's parents can no longer forbid one to go to it.
3) Without continuous presence in public space, how much mainstream media coverage would the grievances of the 99% be getting? Compare with nearly non-existent MSM coverage of large marches, well-attended demonstrations, and small but colorful one-off events speaking truth to power.
I want to elaborate more on reason #1 because I think it is the most important. I am an organizer, and a communications specialist, so people in my area often contact me or read one of my email blasts to find out what's going on. Just yesterday one of the most dedicated long term activists in my state called to discuss something else, and was surprised -- and glad -- to learn of a large rally on Wed. 12/14 at 10am in the Hall of Flags in Augusta to protest the huge cuts to funding for health care and other services about to come down in Maine. I did not organize the rally, nor will I be able to attend, but I help by publicizing it. I do not fault my peaceful friend for not reading all the emails I send him. Who could? Even an information junkie like me often finds it challenging to know what's happening when and where, and to arrange my life so that I can show up and lend a hand. And I'm one of the lucky ones, because I have the resources and time and motivation to be involved, and the contacts to help me.
But as long as there was an encampment in Augusta, or in Bangor, or Portland, or SF, or NYC, I didn't need any additional information. I didn't need to know anyone or coordinate with anyone if I wanted to support the effort. I just showed up. And so did students, and grandparents, and environmental advocates, and reporters, and infiltrators, and tourists, and....
This is why I think the encampments are important and will endure, sprouting again like mushrooms come spring.
One last bit of anecdotal evidence: In the summer of 2011 my sister and I visited an encampment of occupiers at Glen Cove on the northern edge of the vast waterway that is the San Francisco Bay. Indigenous people and supporters were encamped there for 97 days to block the proposed desecration of a sacred shell mound burial site -- one of the few remaining heritage sites that has not been disturbed for development. Cookie cutter McHouses in pale stucco marched down a hillside toward the bay, but stopped short of the water's edge, where a large field kitchen and many small tents dotted the undeveloped land.
We were greeted warmly at the Glen Cove encampment, and offered food; it was early in the morning, and we asked permission to sit by the side of the water to meditate, which was granted. Afterward we made an offering to the sacred fire that was kept continuously burning, after receiving some instruction about how to respect the space, and were again offered food. We talked with one of the long term campers for a while about their purpose for occupying, and when we departed we took some literature and bought a t-shirt for another family member.
On the day after Thanksgiving (or as the Wampanoag tribe in New England prefers, the National Day of Mourning) we returned with two more people. The four of us were aghast to find bulldozers and chain link fencing, not an encampment. Of course I did some research when I got home. Turns out that the occupiers were successful in negotiating with those developing a park there not to disturb the shell mound portion of the site, or to pave it to put in a parking lot. Activists say they will continue to monitor the land use closely to see that the agreement is honored.
When Occupy Wall St. sprang up this fall I recognized where I had seen this organized, communal approach to outdoor living: at Glen Cove.
With indigenous wisdom on the proper use and care for Mother Earth, I believe the 99% can endure.
(Yes, of course there are a ton of useful, powerful actions to be taken while occupying/not occupying. More on that in my next post. A particularly lively example: the West Coast Port Shutdown plan for Monday 12/12/11. Onward!)
On the one hand I occupy Augusta, Maine, and sleep overnight in a teepee like in ancient times, and my inner voice is chanting joyfully like the 99% in Oakland did at the very start
of their general strike video:
Hella, hella occupy! The system has got
to die !
I know in my bones that if the system doesn't, the Earth will. And that is what ultimately matters as far as human life is
concerned.
Then, on the other hand, the U.S.
Senate proves itself every bit as venal and corrupt as any Roman body
of leeches ever was by voting – overwhelmingly, only 7 against –
for the U.S. military to be able to detain anybody -- without charges -- on planet battlefield in the war on terror. What rhymes with Indefinite Detention? Could be Extraordinary Rendition. So one more time I write or call my corporate owned so-called representatives, to express
displeasure. I could try to occupy their offices, which are now
barricaded because my friends occupied them years ago protesting war
mongering. Or I could gather with the 99% and make art, not war, and talk about what to do next.
This piece of legislation is horrible, and laws do matter, used
as fulcrums for leverage, and you can't let it pass unremarked without
the outrage it deserves. But, really -- how much can this surprise us
when Bradley Manning has been in jail for one year and five months without a
fucking day in court?
Some say, oh, but he was in the
military, so that's different. Looks like we're all in the throughly
militarized USA now, whether we signed up or not.
The man accused of leaking thousands of
files from Iraq, Afghanistan, and the State Dept. all over the globe,
the man credited with sparking the Tunisian uprising which ignited
Egypt which continues to roll out in great waves of freedom seeking behavior all across the planet
will finally have his pre-trial hearing Dec. 16-17 at Fort Meade, Maryland. I will
be in the streets for Bradley on that day for sure. (Find out how to
join a Bradley Manning support action near you.)
When I contact my senators these days, I never fail to point out something they already know: they don't represent
their constituents. Lately I send copies of the Bring Our War $$ Home Penny Poll, showing how people in Maine last election day wanted their
federal taxes spent (educations, health care and V.A.) and how that
compares with the nearly 2/3 spent on “defense” now. It's a gravy
train for drone and other WMD manufacturers, i.e. the 1%, plus salary
and benefits for a portion of the working class caught in the maws of the
great war machine, forced as National Guardsmen and women to defend the homeland by being stationed in, for instance, Bahrain.
Lynn Redgrave as Mother / photo credit: http://www.veriport.com/galleries/a.htm
Bertolt Brecht wrote "Mother Courage"
about the irony of a working class parent losing her three children one by one to
the war economy she depended upon to feed them.
We can do better than this. And after reading Truthout's breathtaking interview about the Occupy movement with author Arundhati Roy, I think we will.
It's what my Pink sister Janet said to me today. She was grieving Occupy Oakland, which she had described to me last month as "sweet" and with a family, community feel about it, now reduced to a muddy trampled bit of earth but filled up with the indomitable spirit of the people. She was kind of mad that people who hadn't seemed to care about the U.S. violently attacking countries far away from us were now all riled up. I told her it's human nature, or as my mom is wont to say, it all depends on whose ox is being gored.
Hell hath no fury like a media worker whose equipment has been wantonly destroyed.
Check out Occupy Oakland's answer to police brutality, where they pledge as a community to SURVIVE: "Did you think I'd crumble?
Did you think I'd lay down and die?"
Most hopeful news item of the day? Tie between Karl Rove being disrupted by Occupy Baltimore, or this one about the retired police captain who knows a show of unnecessary force and bad policing when he sees it. With guys like him joining the 99% every day, this thing is far from peaking.
Occupy Augusta received some terrific mainstream news coverage yesterday from WGME 13 as about 100 folks joined the hardy souls of the tent occupation -- which has doubled in size since I was there two weeks ago -- to march, chant, drum, and take a little field trip to the home of the biggest corporate lobbyist in Maine, Severin Beliveau.
The founding partner of the law firm Preti Flaherty Beliveau Pachios did not appear to be at home. Maybe he was schmoozing with some lawmakers; Severin was a major influence in the administration of (Democrat) Gov. Baldacci, and contributed heavily to the third party candidate campaign that split the Maine vote to put the current corporate lackey (Republican) Gov. LePage in office.
The people I spoke to in Augusta yesterday were clear on the absence of any meaningful distinction between the two corporate-controlled parties, and on the acute lack of people's voices in government at the local, state, or national level. And if the people don't stick up for the Earth, who will?
Meanwhile, to the east of us Occupy Bangor got some kudos from resident author Stephen King, and to the south of us the Occupy Maine folks in Portland received good news that there was no truth to rumors that the police were planning to evict them.
A flotilla with as many as a dozen activists — including Code Pink’s
Kit Kittredge- was bound to Gaza bearing humanitarian aide on November
4th. The Israeli military boarded seized the ship, and took all of the
activists into custody.
Occupy Boston then marched on the Israeli Consulate in solidarity
Notice how -- no matter who is in the White House or which party has a majority in Congress -- that we, the taxpayers, still send Israel $3 billion a year in mostly weapons? That's why corporate media like the Washington Post have to work overtime to keep us believing bullshit:
What can be said at this point is that, after three years of pitched
battles between Obama and congressional Republicans, the country is
heading toward a high-stakes contest. Election 2012 will be a contest
not just between two candidates but also between two starkly different
views of the role of government that underscore the enormous differences
between Republicans and Democrats.
Amanda
Savage sits with the Occupy Wall Street protesters at Zuccotti Park in
New York. Savage, a military recruit, said she's staying in the park
until her boot camp training starts. (Kathy Willens/AP)
Breaking news: NPR has decided to send two reporters on the road to "spend the month reporting from places we don't often visit, telling the stories of people we don't often hear from (sic)." In case you're skeptical that NPR has re-discovered what the "P" in their name stands for, refer to their explanation that they are covering this story during November in order to find out from people, "What are they thinking about when they are looking to next year's election?"
I'll bet you any money that NPR does NOT report that this is what people are thinking (though it's all over Facebook, so obviously not that hard to find):
I'm thinking that the presidential election of 2012 is becoming more irrelevant with each passing day. Why?
Source: Occupy Wall St.'s wall on Facebook
Here's the image on my mind after watching Occupy Denver last night facing
police goons and keeping their morale up by telling dumb jokes, and then having the livestream go suddenly silent;
and then reading this morning that Scott Olsen has lost the power of speech
following his head injury by the Oakland police, who according to eyewitnesses were aiming at the Veterans for Peace flag he and other vets were holding. (You can support Scott Olsen here with a donation.)
The 99% to NPR: you can't fool people who have no home, no health care, no way to pay back their student loans, no jobs, and friends being shot in the head for standing in a park. Hats off today to the hero Bradley Manning and the organization Wikileaks, who have been credited with not only starting the Arab Spring, and the cascade of Occupies that has followed, but even with ending Phase I of the illegal war for Iraq's oil. Their weapons? Just information.
Here's one last image in support of my belief that truth will win out over propaganda in the end. This is a photo at the biggest, tackiest war memorial I have ever seen (it's in Virginia Beach):
This is the kind of garbage that people in the U.S. have been fed for decades.
But the spin machine is breaking down as people realize thatAircraft Carrier is to Diplomacy as Getting Your Skull Cracked for Holding a Veterans for Peace Flag is to Being Protected and Served by Police.
Patience, at Occupy Detroit, makes a beautiful statement.
Ok I finally got to visit Occupy Wall St. and it was a freak early wintery mix of a storm -- before Halloween for cripes sake. Three inches of slush accumulated on the streets in Jersey, while in Manhattan it melted more quickly into soupy puddles. At Liberty Plaza only a few hardy souls were leaning into a wet wind, some under light cover but most hunkered down inside tents with flys made out of tarps. We didn't stick it out very long as we were drenched and it was coming down hard. I have a lot of respect for the occupiers. There were a lot of police vehicles, watching.
The few people out in the occupy space looked really cheerful though, despite the fact that the fire dept took their generators and fuel, including used cooking oil, for "safety." The real reason is that the chief purpose of generators is the charging of digital devices used in media work, to get the message out. Squelching real news while pretending to be doing something completely different is a hallmark of corporate rule, is it not?
There were boxes of organic bananas being offered while we were there, a lot of recordings
happening, and more food in the kitchen, which I read they were going to simplify for a few
days while they regrouped and made some plans for feeding so many every
day.
Occupy Walll St. made the evening news in New Jersey as occupiers were compared with 320,000 other people who lost electricity, in the latter case due to heavy wet snow bringing down tree limbs and power lines.
But weather doesn't change the reason people are occupying everywhere. Check out Mimi Pierre Johnson delivering a message about her home mortgage to Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.
Occupy Denver had scuffles at the capital building resulting in police using rubber bullets on the unarmed crowd; they were being swarmed by riot police later at their occupation site, and using the people's mike to joyfully recite their constitutional rights -- when the livestream video feed went dead.
Please tell folks that 1000 people, myself included, came to Occupy SF
the night of Oct 26/27 to avert a police attack -- and the attack WAS
averted! It helped a lot that 5 city supervisors and several union reps
were there, but overall the numbers of people were crucial. While every
such victory is fragile, we CAN protect our Occu-pies, but it takes a
human presence on site -- as well as calls to officials, media work,
etc.
Statement posted by Desiree Fairooz of VA on Facebook (not sure if she is the author or not, but I like it):
We will not stop until the corporate abuse of the poor, the working class, the elderly, the sick, children, those being slaughtered in our imperial wars and tortured in our black sites, stops. We will not stop until foreclosures and bank repossessions stop. We will not stop until students no longer have to go into massive debt to be educated, and families no longer have to plunge into bankruptcy to pay medical bills. We will not stop until the corporate destruction of the ecosystem stops, and our relationships with each other and the planet are radically reconfigured. We are the 99%.
Dear Bangor Public Library, The news of your action on behalf of free
speech and the right of assembly in Bangor tomorrow has been shared far
and wide in my network of women-led activists, coast to coast, and
beyond our shores.
I was born in Bangor and, though I have ranged far, I now live in Solon, Maine and often visit Bangor. Thank you for warming my PINK heart today with your courage, your wisdom, and your historic action on behalf of Occupy Bangor.
Occupy Augusta is alleged to be the only site that has permission
for an open fire. Perhaps Occupy Bangor will be the only site protected
by a public library. Hooray for Maine!
Augusta, Maine Day 1 of #OccupyAugusta October 15, 2011
Learning to make videos in order to "be our own media" has been frustrating at times, but I am beginning to get the hang of doing it. I love the interviewing part -- that feeds my citizen journalist soul. It fascinates me how people everywhere stay on message so clearly (politicians have to be heavily coached to to do this).
#OccupyAugusta (Maine) Day 1 fell on October 15, 2011, the day of global action by people against corporate greed. Here's the local newspaper coverage of the event:
Here's a great video by Bex Hickman from Day 1, showing a lot of the action down in Capital Park, which is an historic public space just opposite the State House capitol building. Campers numbered 16 on Night 1 and were told by capitol police that they could stay overnight and have a fire if it was contained in something. The first General Assembly wasn't really a true G.A. as they were just getting organized as to working groups, etc. but Chris Buchanan taught everyone the hand signals and about 35 people participated. I love this photo of my sister in Pink Cat Erdman circling up, and the State House lit up behind her.
College students were out in force. There were students from UMF, UMA, UMO, and Thomas College. UMF's Taylor Noyes took this photo of me with my grandson:
It is before dawn on a day of global history making, October 15, 2011. People will pour into public spaces to demand an end to government that serves corporate interests and financial elites, some while pretending to represent the common people.
An excellent piece in Common Dreams yesterday (reprinted from Foreign Policy in Focus) brings the problem into focus. Lockheed Martin's dirty dealings in Mongtomery County, Maryland to keep a war dollars home resolution from even being considered is reported by authors Jean Athey and John Feffer:
...a simple, straightforward resolution. It urged Congress “to make
major reductions in the Pentagon budget, in a manner that does not harm
the safety or lives of our troops, with the savings invested in state
and local needs so that Montgomery County and other counties in Maryland
can repair their deteriorating infrastructure, reverse budget cuts to
education, health care, and other needs, and otherwise improve the
welfare of their residents.”
On October 4, the Council president introduced this resolution with
three cosponsors. One additional Council member announced that he would
also support the resolution. With this majority, the resolution was
guaranteed to pass when it came up for a vote on October 11.
But it didn’t pass. Cue the ominous movie soundtrack.
The Machine Fights Back
Lockheed Martin is one of the premier military contractors in the world. It also employs about 5,000 people in Montgomery County. Alerted to the resolution, Lockheed Martin switched into high gear. One of its top lobbyists began calling council members. The Washington Postreported
that some Council members were also called by a “state delegate, and
the offices of County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), Gov. Martin O’Malley
(D) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D).”
Maryland officials were most upset at the prospect that Lockheed
would up and leave Maryland – for Virginia. Last year, Northrop Grumman
opted for Virginia over Maryland as the site of its new global
headquarters. The prospect that Lockheed Martin might pull up stakes
prompted Maryland County Executive Isiah Leggett to refer to the resolution as “a dagger pointed directly at the heart of Montgomery County.”
With that degree of opposition, at least one and perhaps two of the
original supporters decided to rescind their support for the resolution.
In order to avoid a defeat, the Council president pulled the
resolution, and the Council never voted on it.
A commenter called since 1492 claimed, "We don't need no stinkin resolutions. We need civil disobedience that
will lead to the dismantling of the Pentagon and the mindset that runs
it."
Well, 1492, I think we need both. Here's part of the comment I made explaining why I think so:
As for whether resolutions are worth working on, in my experience
these non-binding acts by local governance units open a space for
discussion of the issues by many citizens who are practically brain dead
from an entire lifetime of getting their "news" and information from
the mainstream media. These are discussions with the potential to
educate the 99% in a significant way. Then, when the dirty dealing of
corporate players like Lockheed Martin kicks in, the revelation of who
is really represented by county government (or town, or congress) has a
similar value in revealing truth.
There is no one path to regaining representative government. I'm
pretty sure Jean Athey has been in the streets many times. Lots of us
work on resolutions when we can, march when we can, occupy when we can.
Today, Oct 15, 2011, the whole world is going out to public spaces to
say: We are the 99%. Our government does not represent us. Corporations,
beware.
See you in the streets. I'll be there in Augusta -- you'll be there where you are. I'll be wearing my Bradley Manning t-shirt today. Bradley told the truth and he has now been locked up without trial for more than 500 days -- not for killing anyone, not for torturing anyone, not for bombing civilians, or sending troops into Uganda -- but for telling the truth. And just look what he started!
Here is CODEPINK staffer Alli McCracken getting arrested in the House of Representatives' Armed Services Committee where Defense Secretary Leon Panetta appeared, formerly of the CIA.
Alli was absurdly charged with assaulting Panetta, even though she was no closer than 10 feet away from him, and the alleged assault weapon was a piece of paper.
I guess the truth written down is pretty powerful. Her sign said "Fund My Education Not Your Wars."
The photo is an instant classic. Too bad you can't see Panetta's face, but the sea of dark cop uniforms sets off the pink tunic with the Bring Our War $ Home graphic nicely.
In my opinion, it is of the caliber of the iconic image ofDes and Condi:
You can feel the tide rising. I made a random business call today and the woman who had my info told me that her daughter was at Occupy Wall St every chance she could get. Then she was excited to learn that Occupy Augusta begins this Sat. Oct 15 at Capitol Park.
We should also spread the word that NYC is at risk and needs support. Here's the call put out by their General Assembly.
Prevent the forcible closure of Occupy Wall Street!
Tell Bloomberg: Don’t Foreclose the Occupation.
NEED MASS TURN-OUT: 6AM FRIDAY EVICTION DEFENSE This is an emergency situation. Please take a minute to read this, and please take action and spread the word far and wide.
Occupy Wall Street is gaining momentum, with occupation actions now happening in cities across the world.
But last night Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD notified Occupy Wall
Street participants about plans to “clean the park”—the site of the Wall
Street protests—tomorrow starting at 7am. “Cleaning” was used as a
pretext to shut down “Bloombergville” a few months back, and to shut
down peaceful occupations elsewhere.
Bloomberg says that the park will be open for public usage following
the cleaning, but with a notable caveat: Occupy Wall Street participants
must follow the “rules”. These rules include, “no tarps or sleeping
bags” and “no lying down.”
NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has said that they will move in to
clear us and we will not be allowed to take sleeping bags, tarps,
personal items or gear back into the park. So, seems likely that this is their attempt to shut down #OWS for good. PLEASE TAKE ACTION: 1) Call 311 (or 212-NEW-YORK if you’re out of town) and tell
Bloomberg to support our right to assemble and to not interfere with
#OWS. 2) Come to #OWS on FRIDAY AT 6AM to defend the occupation from eviction.
Occupy Wall Street is committed to keeping the park clean and safe —
we even have a Sanitation Working Group whose purpose this is. We are
organizing major cleaning operations today and will do so regularly.
If Bloomberg truly cares about sanitation here he should support the
installation of portopans and dumpsters. #OWS allies have been working
to secure these things to support our efforts.
We know where the real dirt is: on Wall Street. Billionaire Bloomberg is beholden to bankers.
We won’t allow Bloomberg and the NYPD to foreclose our occupation. This is an occupation, not a permitted picnic.
Hell yes! DC today: #Occupy the Senate's Hart building
Chicago Robin Hoods in Kayaks visit Mortgage Bankers conference
!
#OccupyMaine in Portland Day 8 "This has been a really long general assembly..."
And from farther afield, a bracing opinion piece on the Arab Spring as Third Intifada (with an extra wide stance) by Hamid Dabashi in Al Jazeera, with a dice up of Obama, Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad's speeches to the UN not to be missed.
