Occupy Together, Because You Can't Arrest An Idea Whose Time Has Come

You can't arrest an idea whose time has come, and the gathering of about 150 occupiers from all over the state of Maine last Saturday in Augusta was brimming with ideas. People of all ages came together as the 99%, and the youngster on the left wanted people to think about an economy that is based on value rather than on cash. She joined the Alternative Economies breakout session and explained her idea; she also listened to the ideas of people who have experienced those kinds of arrangements. The next day she told me, "I want to do more stuff like that. Stuff that changes things and make it better."

Introductions during which people identified where they Occupy ... Portland, Augusta, Bangor, Brunswick, Ellsworth, Blue Hill, MDI (Mt. Desert Island), Waldo County, Mt. Washington Valley/Conway, Boston, Wall St., cultural mythology,  the food supply, independent media.

Portland, Maine was identified as the longest continuous occupy encampment in the country -- established October 1 and still going strong despite punishing cold, and an eviction notice from the city hanging over their heads since December 15. They have vigorously pursued relief in the courts, and are awaiting news on a permanent injunction to halt eviction.

Occupy Augusta pulled up stakes rather than apply for a permit, removing their Capitol Park teepee with dignity and self-respect, continuing to hold General Assemblies each Saturday at 5pm indoors.

In our diversity lies our strength!

After an amazing rapid whole group share of examples of occupation that covered centuries, we moved into small groups with people we didn't know to address two prompts:

1) Why did you join the Occupy movement? 2) What's special about the Occupy movement?

This was ably modeled by Curtis (above, left) who responded:

1. To gain experience. Our world's falling apart and many people don't seem to care. But those who do care need to get together, share knowledge, and form a movement.
   
   
2. It signifies nations all across the world rising up and demanding an end to the common ills we all share – war, poverty, unemployment. Shows the governmentts that we, the workers, will not be silent. We will fight back, and take what's ours.

I joined a group to talk about Media. Ten people briefly discussed the problems with mainstream media, and then spent most of the time talking about alternative media in forms including local access tv and radio, online news, YouTube, blogs; and direct actions/publicity stunts that attract MSM attention. Further uses of MSM included letters to the editor, online comments, developing relationships with reporters, and providing press releases to reporters. The role of drum circles at Occupy sites from Wall St. to Maine to Native communities in Canada was examined also, with reference to their importance in building community, and as an outlet for expression that is non-verbal.

Then I joined a group to talk about Food and Land. About 35 people gave examples of local food production and land use including becoming farmers, supporting the work of farmers, addressing the problems of landless farmers, various land use schemes, cooking, educating, gleaning, and exchanging food for work. Then the group brainstormed ways that the Occupy movement can or does connect with food production/land use.

This is a strong strand for Maine and there are years of intelligent collaborative effort to build on. A murmur of delight went through the crowd when I mentioned a Wall St. tweet I'd seen that the OWS  kitchen had quickly organized to feed the largest number of folks ever, daily, in NYC. No wonder they were perceived by authorities as such a threat!

Further news of the 99%: While we were meeting, Occupy Oakland in California was being tear gassed, beaten, shot with rubber bullets and flash bang grenades, and arrested in droves (especially reporters). Their crime: trying to occupy a years vacant building to establish a community center. Solidarity events broke out everywhere on Sunday. Here's an inspiring video from Occupy Boston:

Sampling Occupy Demonstrates "The People Can Have Anything They Want"

“The people can have anything they want. The trouble is they do not want anything. At least they vote that way on Election Day.”

Eugene Debs, Socialist candidate for president several times in the early 20th century, as quoted in this analysis of the effect of the Occupy movement on elections by blogger Kevin Gosztola. I've been reading him with interest since he did such a great job covering Bradley Manning's pretrial hearing, and he nails it here:

Is it any wonder why the Occupy movement is so refreshing? It has forced progressives to confront their role in a liberal class that has betrayed Americans in the past decades.

It may be that the time has finally arrived when the people do want something. Here's the crowd that turned out for the New Hampshire primary to (joyfully) express their dissatisfaction with corporate controlled "representative" government. These people want music, and they want to raise their collective voice.


Occupy can and has changed the mainstream media narrative. Reporting on a survey conducted by Pew about the growth in perception of class conflict in the U.S., the NYT made this absurd statement:

...experts said, that the groups that traditionally benefit the most economically — women, whites and those in higher income groups — seem to be the most concerned about class conflict. 

Women traditionally benefit the most from capitalism under patriarchy -- what planet is the NYT on?

A snapshot of what the people want right now -- at the inception of the year of great change, 2012.

Women occupying want a full voice, and they mean to have it.

Young people carrying the burden of education debt want relief.

The 99% want to throw off their shame and tell their story to the world.

They want to express what's on their mind using creative media like Occupy the Wall (very fun to draw on, try it).

Occupiers want to have fun challenging the financial elite's death grip on our collective resources. photo credit: Bess Adler

The people want to protest the Citizens United ruling that corporations are supposedly people, and money is supposedly a form of speech protected by the First Amendment. Occupy the Courts January 20.

People want homes. Occupy Foreclosures is seen by many as the best alternative to occupying parks and getting pepper sprayed while police throw your media equipment into garbage trucks. At least during winter in the northern latitudes. Occupy Spring!

Indigenous people want what they have always wanted: for the commons of earth, water and air to be shared not privatized. For human beings to live respectfully as guests of the Earth Mother.

A dear activist and organizer in Maine died last week at a ripe old age. Tom Sturtevant was a retired teacher who was an excellent mentor to many of us in the peace movement. He often sent news articles he thought would be of interest, and the last article he sent to me before his passing was, "In solidarity, Occupy group joins with Native Americans" from the Boston Globe's coverage of the National Day of Mourning aka Thanksgiving.

I imagine that Tom felt he could go, because big changes and connections were underway, and the 99% was finally waking up to want something.

Tom Sturtevant in front of the Brunswick Naval Air Station. He organized this protest of the fuel wasting air show last summer.

#Occupy and the Forces of Co-option

A friend of a friend on Facebook posted this comment on info about why the 99% are moved to #OccupyWall St:

It's about time we stood up! I signed up for some kind of "virtual march" and was supposed to get details yesterday and never did. =( I'm so on board with this!!

I believe she's referring to the large organization that has tried to jump on the #Occupy bandwagon even though they have been enabling and excusing Obama's war mongering and environmental destruction ever since they steered grassroots activists to help him get elected.

This tumblr collection of testimony from the 99% is the most amazing and moving website. Here's one of many illuminating posts from somebody who cannot be fooled again:

"Land of the owned and home of the afraid." Tell it, sister.

Encouraging news: activists in other countries don't think signing up for a "virtual march" is the way to change anything. Here's an authentic recipient of the Nobel peace prize, Yemen organizer Tawakul Karman, on why 'peaceful revolution' is the only solution to our global problems.


Here are people in Afghanistan having a real march to demand NATO / U.S. troops withdraw immediately. (Thanks, Janet Weil, for the link.)


Afghans protest US presence by presstv

And here's the real reason the U.S. has no intention of withdrawing: our government endorses any activity that produces profits for the corporations who finance election campaigns, no matter how bad that activity is for the people of the Earth. Like the Tar Sands Keystone Pipeline: the U.S. State Dept. had the environmental impact report done by consultants to the company that wants to build the pipeline!

But make no mistake:

Okay, I'm off to help #OccupyMaine starting with a potluck lunch in Monument Square, Portland at noon. Then on Sunday Oct 9 in Augusta we'll conclude our 30 day Care-a-Van to Bring Our War $$ Home with an indigenous people's day celebration at UMA starting at noon. Songs, poetry, kickass environmental activist and speaker Hillary Lister, and finger foods to share.

Join us! Because we are all the 99%.

Ten Years Too Long!

Above is what was going on in Maine as the war on terror surpassed a decade. And here are reports of this week's protests against U.S. militarism in Afghanistan. And here is more eloquent testimony every single day from the 99%. All over  people are saying, we're fed up.

Here's what was going on in the streets of DC today, where Codepink and other groups shut down General Atomics for a time.

While this was going down inside the White House, a constant stream of Creepy visitors...

Today's Schedule
9:45 AM: The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing
10:25 AM: The President and the Vice President meets with Senate Democratic Leadership
11:30 AM: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney
11:30 AM: The President meets with Secretary of the Treasury Geithner
12:00 PM: The President meets with senior advisors
3:05 PM: The President welcomes the 1985 Super Bowl Champion Chicago Bears to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their Super Bowl victory 
3:45 PM: The President holds a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi of Tunisia

Now the first day I met Medea and joined CODEPINK protesting Geithner's appearance before Elizabeth Warren's TARP hearing in April '09 seems like a harbinger of #OccupyWallSt .

Absence of Fear

Thanks to Chuck Vonderae on Facebook for this image.

The most hopeful thing about the surging wave of global protests is the repudiation of fear. Granted this is much, much easier if you're white, young, and live in the U.S.A. (at least for now) than it is if you are, for instance, a medical worker in Bahrain. But Egyptians rising up against a brutal security state dictatorship caused millions watching to throw off their own chains of fear: fear of not being cool, fear of Pentagon drone-based face recognition software, fear of admitting that you're financially broken for the forseeable future.

Still, intimidation will continue, and fear will lurk in the shadows where it thrives. Check out the crowd sourced testimony at We Are the 99% showing the most common fear in this country is lack of health care. Once you've faced that and still gotten back up to continue the struggle, you become much harder to intimidate.

Social media like Twitter and Facebook fuel the success of the world rising up because they are public, and require one to overcome fear in order to participate. (CODEPINK is all about using public displays, including humor, to rise above fear.) I overheard a young organizer in Portland last Saturday being challenged as to why he wore a Guy Fawkes mask. He said he was protecting his identity for fear of being targeted. He acknowledged that his disguise referred to the movie V for Vendetta, but said that for him the mask was not a symbol of violence, but instead referred to thousands of people pouring into Parliament at the end of the film.

An hour later the mask was off and he was speaking at #OccupyMaine's first General Assembly in Portland. His dad was there, too, supporting him. A day later and he was organizing #OccupyAugusta (Maine), which begins Oct 15. Going public allowed him to report an attempt at intimidation by the Capitol police, and allowed me to connect him with a leading civil rights lawyer in our state.

What will you rise up against? A decade of war on terror, decades of war on the working poor, or centuries of war on the indigenous stewards of the earth?

If you're not occupying Wash DC or another place near you, join us in Augusta on Sun Oct 9 to observe Indigenous People's Day and celebrate the finale of our 30 Day Care-a-Van to Bring Our War $$ Home in Maine. It's at UMaine Augusta's Holocaust and Human Rights Center from noon to 3pm. Bring finger food to share, and bring your stories. Here's one from the Care-a-Van that I'll leave you with:

A young man in the audience at the Afghanistan teach-in at Bowdoin College last week said: My parents lost their house because my sister has leukemia, and her medical care has been so expensive. Both my parents have law degrees. I stood outside the bank that repossessed our home with a protest sign and was told by police I couldn't be there without a permit from the town (in Massachusetts) that costs $50.

I told him: If 500 people had been standing there with you, I'll bet you wouldn't have needed a permit.

He said: We sit around at school and talk about it all the time, kids from all over. We know something is broken, but we don't know what to do about it.

http://www.indypendent.org

Why did you come to #OccupyMaine Day 1?

"Banks Got Bailed Out, We Got Sold Out"

"How do we end the deficit? End the wars and tax the rich!"

Great happy and creative crowd in Monument Square today, in solidarity with Occupy Wall St. I'll post a bunch of interviews tomorrow. If you can, get on down there and join them!

Monument Square, Portland on Day 1 of Occupy Maine

First General Assembly 10-1-11

General Assembly in session

Hot Soup delivered by Local Sprouts -- yum

 

   

via awdixon on Reddit: "Educate them. Bring a sign with an important fact that illustrates the bullshit that is going on."

 

We - are - the  99%.

It Just Keeps Getting Better

Some rights reserved by Dan Nguyen @ New York City

Airline pilots march on Wall St. If you think airline pilots are not among the exploited 99%, you haven't been paying attention. Their working conditions are truly shocking. Ditto for flight attendants.

Caption from this photo shared on flickr: 

Hundreds of pilots from United/Continental showed up in full dress and made a show in support for their union during an ongoing labor dispute. They stood in an area on Broad Street, near Wall Street and the Stock Exchange

Directory for the Occupy movement coming to your city soon. See you in Portland, Maine on October 1 ! Sign me up for the Arts + Culture Committee, they always have the most fun meetings.

Some rights reserved by Dan Nguyen @ New York City " #occupywallst, Day 11 (9/28/2011) This was the biggest Occupy Wall Street crowd I had seen so far but I don't often walk by the plaza after work."

All rights reserved by codepinkhq on flickr

CODEPINK Peace Cranes join the messaging at #OccupyWallSt All rights reserved by codepinkhq on flickr

Waking Up to the 99%

9_27_11 First General Assembly of the #OccupyBoston Movement at the Boston Common Bandstand-4 / Photo by Jason Pramas for Open Media Boston. Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2011 Jason Pramas.

Here is what I woke up to today:
1) The photo above, which speaks for itself as captioned. The nurses are with the 99%!
2) The news from CODEPINK that we had received this awesome letter below. The Canadian postal workers are with the 99%!

 3) This beautiful blog post about bringing our war $$ home from "the Peace Couple", which was linked to a post on another blog reporting the elegant, poetic response of Occupy Wall St.'s General Assembly to the corporate media snarking that they lack "one demand." So the Duke & Duchess of Peace are with the 99%.

I am so happy about all this solidarity that I have tears in my eyes before the sun is even over the horizon this morning. And I went to bed happy that the 99% begin to assemble on Saturday at 11am in Portland. They have a facebook event up and their twitter handle is #OccupyMaine.