OccupyWallSt News

June 30 - July 4: Occupy National Gathering in Philadelphia

OccupyWallSt — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:17:35 +0000

Post via Occupy Together. As of June 4th, fifty-seven Occupies have already endorsed!

The Occupy National Gathering is a nationally coordinated event which will take place from June 30th to July 4th in Philadelphia. The Occupy movement will convene the Occupy National Gathering in the vicinity of Philadelphia’s Independence Mall for a week of direct actions, movement building and the creation of a vision for a democratic future. The National Gathering will kick off with a massive march with Healthcare-Now! and will conclude on July 5th when attendees will join the Guitarmy for a 99 mile march from Philadelphia to Wall Street in Lower Manhattan.

Perhaps the highlight of the gathering will be the crafting of a Vision of a Democratic Future. On July 4th the National Gathering (#natgat) will facilitate a visioning process designed to allow all voices to be heard while allowing repeat visions to organically rise to the top. Together, by all those who choose to participate, a Vision of a Democratic Future will be conceived. Learn more about this and more here.

Want to get involved? Here’s how:

Organize

For the past couple of months Occupiers from all over the country have gathered via InterOccupy conference call to conceive of, and implement a strategy for, the Occupy National Gathering. This is the group that hase submitted the “Occupy National Gathering Proposal” to assemblies around the country. You can join them in organizing the final details as the National Gathering is gearing up. The planning calls happen weekly via the InterOccupy system on Tuesdays at 9PM EST. To join the call please register.

Spread the Word

Share the National Gathering on Facebook and Twitter (@OccupyNG) with your friends to raise awareness and bolster the National Gathering’s attendance.

Go to the National Gathering

RSVP to the Facebook Event Page and invite your friends to join you.

Need to find out how to get to Philly? Occupy Caravan is organizing travel from all over the country. To find out more visit occupycaravan.com or join Occupy Caravan’s weekly InterOccupy call by registering here.

Obama Counter-Fundraiser for Investigation Task Force

OccupyWallSt — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 05:45:00 +0000

TODAY Monday, June 4 2012
Assemble in Bryant Park (42nd St and 6th Ave, NYC) at 6pm.
Move to New Amsterdam Theater at 7pm.

FTHEBANKS HITS OBAMA WHERE IT HURTS
BRING A DOLLAR TO DANGLE, AND A POT TO BANG

On June 4th, members of F The Banks will be escalating our campaign to highlight the failure of the government to investigate the financial crisis.

Recently, we took our campaign to Attorney General Schneiderman’s office, to try and take charge of his underfunded, understaffed, and underachieving “Task Force”. Now, we’re going straight to his boss, Obama. And we’re going to hit him where it hurts: his campaign funds.

It’s predicted that the Obama campaign and related PACs will spend over a billion dollars trying to get him re-elected. For just a few cents out of every campaign dollar, they could fully fund the task force that he touted in his State of the Union speech.

Instead, Congress is refusing to fund it, and the task force is floundering.

While Obama is fundraising for his campaign, we’ll be holding a fundraiser for what really matters: bringing the banks to justice.

We’ll bring one dollar each, and wave it in their faces to underscore the ridiculous disparity between campaign spending and the amount of money needed to bring justice to the bankers who caused this crisis. We will bang our pots and pans to bring noisy attention to their quiet investigation.

BILLIONS FOR A CAMPAIGN, NOTHING FOR JUSTICE?
FIGHT BACK. HIT THEM WHERE IT HURTS
BRING A DOLLAR AND A POT OR PAN

Lessons from the victory at Sotheby’s

OccupyWallSt — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 05:09:25 +0000

From a January 27 Occupy Wall Street action at the MoMA in support of the locked out Sotheby's workers. Photo by @NEREphotography, via Occupy with Art

This article was written by Gary Roland for and published by Waging Nonviolence in their series Occupy Spring. Check out their blogs!

Last September 22, when Occupy Wall Street was just five days old, labor activists from the encampment at Zuccotti Park disrupted an auction at Sotheby’s in support of the locked out art handlers of Teamsters Local 814. This action began a collaboration that lasted nine months, eventually leading to the ratification of a new three-year contract that ended the lockout on May 31. George Miranda, president of the Teamsters Joint Council 16, said, “These hard-working men and women will go home today and tell their families that they got their job back, and that’s what the Teamsters call a victory.”

On the management side of the battle was a premier union-busting law firm, Jackson Lewis, which represented a board comprised of some of the most wealthy and politically influential people in the world. On the other side were 42 workers, many of them artists themselves, who loved handling some of the most important art objects in existence and who refused to allow their jobs to be turned into low-paying, temporary contract work. They were joined by OWS activists and the Teamsters Joint Council to struggle toward a victory that some felt was improbable from the outset. The heavy lifting of this campaign, though, was borne by the workers’ family members, who had to tighten their belts and go without during the dispute.

Having been a part of the campaign from the OWS side, I had a chance to see close up how certain strategic decisions led to its success and to draw some valuable lessons from it.

Lesson 1: Choose allies carefully

When the OWS Labor Outreach Committee first met with representatives of the art handlers in the early days of the occupation, OWS activists were busy trying to reach out to potential institutional allies in New York. At that time, it seemed like every 15 minutes a new organization was approaching OWS for help, and it was clear that we needed to bring labor unions into our growing coalition. A worldwide day of solidarity was being planned by the Indignados in Spain for October 15, and many OWS organizers thought that if labor were to throw its weight behind that, we would have a shot at spreading our movement across the country. At the time, most unions didn’t seem to know what to make of us, and they didn’t want to lend their support to a protest that could be gone in a matter of weeks.

We were not looking to throw ourselves into just any labor dispute. There were certain criteria that we were looking to satisfy. It had to be a dispute that we could win, one that had symbolic resonance with the message we were trying to spread and one that would generate interest in the news media. Movements must bring about victories, so it is important to not only go after broad, transformational visions but also to choose shorter, more easily achievable campaigns. Helping to get 42 workers back to work seemed entirely reasonable, and the benefits of bringing a large and influential union like the Teamsters into the fold were obvious.

The art handlers’ story was compelling, and a fitting metaphor for the realities that we all face in a society run by the 1 percent. Our current system removes the humanity from us all and turns us into interchangeable commodities. We are no longer fathers, mothers, brothers or sisters; we become consumers, workers, bosses and debtors. Sotheby’s is a company that drives the ultimate luxury market, taking art objects that are some of the most profound expressions of human culture and selling them as personal property to wealthy buyers. Rather than being held in common for all to admire, they’re often kept in private vaults and admired only for their price tag.

This dispute pitted middle-class workers who wanted to preserve the dignity of their jobs against some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world. The bosses put up a hard fight, forcing us to sustain our enthusiasm over a long campaign — which brings us to our next lesson.

Lesson 2: Plan for the long run (but don’t plan too much)

It is important to recognize that a successful campaign may take longer than you expected, and you must pace yourself so you don’t burn out. A movement’s momentum can wax and wane with changing circumstances beyond its control. On November 9 of last year, we held a picket in front of the Sotheby’s auction house, where over 400 OWS and union activists joined the art handlers to try and block the doors to an auction. Sotheby’s could not have foreseen when they originally locked the workers out that this dispute would grow to attract so much support, both in New York and internationally. OWS was also flying high on its own early enthusiasm; anything seemed possible, and there were rumors that a deal must be close. But only a few days later, disaster struck in the form of the NYPD’s paramilitary raid on Zuccotti Park in the early morning hours of November 15. Suddenly, we didn’t feel so unstoppable, and enthusiasm waned.

At the time, we were unable to accept the fact that we were entering a new phase, one requiring new tactics. It’s important when planning a campaign to realize that the environment in which you will be acting is not static. Your opponent will react and change the nature of the conflict, and you’ll have to adapt by finding new ways in which to act.

Soon, the news media had declared OWS dead, and it became harder both to draw people into the streets and to attract coverage when we did. Still, we had a responsibility to the families of the workers to see this campaign through. So we changed it up. No longer did we rely on auction disruptions or picket lines as the sole means of communicating our message. OWS groups like Occupy Museums and Arts & Labor dropped banners on crowded nights at the Museum of Modern Art — which has strong ties with Sotheby’s — and held general assemblies underneath. We put up provocative websites and occupied boardrooms with performance art. We created free art fairs and circulated petitions. Most importantly, we realized that in order to continue to tell the story of the 42 workers, we would have to do so in creative ways that the media couldn’t resist talking about.

It’s also important that activists plan to conserve the energy they accumulate when things are building so as not to burn out. They also need to keep enough flexibility in their plans to allow them to innovate and try new things. This brings me to the last point:

Lesson 3: Horizontality breeds innovation

I can’t tell you how many times during this campaign that I was faced with a problem that I wasn’t sure how to solve — and then someone else would simply walk up to me with a solution. In a group working together as a non-hierarchical collective, if you take time to establish a shared intention both early and clearly, amazing things can happen. The intention of the Sotheby’s campaign was, first and foremost, to get the 42 workers back to work, and that focused our efforts. When a collective decides on an intention like this, it is not like an edict or command handed down by the leader; rather, it is owned by all of the participants. Each member of the collective is then forced to realize, first, that they are each only one part of the puzzle and, second, that they each have a responsibility to help develop creative responses to challenges the group faces. A collective that shares an intention becomes extremely resilient, and the collective is no longer dependent on the actions of any one leader to move forward.

Although I was involved in some critical decisions at important junctures in this campaign, at times, other responsibilities took me away from the campaign. Whenever that happened, there was someone from the collective to keep pushing it toward the intended goal. This capacity for rejuvenation, as well as innovation, gives me hope that our movement might actually contribute to solving the multiple existential crises that face the planet. Shared intentions foster synchroncity. Just as the intention of supporting the art handlers’ struggle brought many different groups with different tactics to a shared victory, I think there’s hope that people everywhere, working through ties of solidarity, can lead us all into a better world.

Tuesday: Stop Spectra, Resist Fracking In NYC

OccupyWallSt — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 03:29:40 +0000

Stop Spectra: New Yorkers Resist Hydro-fracking and a Dangerous and Unnecessary Gas Pipeline

What: Corporate terrorists are threatening to blow up a huge chunk of Manhattan, poison New Yorkers with radioactive gas, pollute our drinking water, and contribute to climate change. WE ARE GOING TO STOP THEM.
Where: Assemble at United Nations (East 42nd and 1st Ave)
When: Tuesday, June 5th, 12-4pm
More info: http://www.owsstopfracking.org/
Schedule:

Noon-1pm: Converge during Food and Water Watch rally against privatization of natural resources, U.S. support for hydrofracking.
1:15pm: March leaves
2-3pm: Picket at Blackrock corporate headquarters (52nd between Madison and Park) to demand divestment from Spectra and Chesapeake Energy
3-3:30pm: Picket at FERC office (34th street just west of 5th Ave.) to demand that regulators reverse their decision to approve the project. Soapbox to brainstorm ideas for direct action to stop the pipeline.

Last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the Spectra natural gas pipeline. The pipeline offers no long-term benefit to New Yorkers, presents a HUGE safety hazard to millions, and will exacerbate our degradation of ecosystems and contribution to climate change through the hydro-fracking process, through which natural gas is extracted. WE MUST STOP THIS corporate menace to our city and our environment before construction begins (which it might as soon as this summer).

RISK OF EXPLOSION: The blast zone for the Spectra pipeline encompasses MUCH OF THE WEST VILLAGE and NEARLY ALL OF JERSEY CITY. An explosion could take thousands of lives and destroy key infrastructure, including Interstate 95, commuter rail lines, and the New York City subway. Spectra has a deplorable track record of safety violations-a recent inspection of the company's Operations and Management Plan found inadequacies in continuing pipeline surveillance, emergency plans, and welding procedures (!).

In September 2010, a faulty weld caused a pipeline with similar pressure to explode in suburban San Bruno, CA. The blast killed 8 people and injured 51, razed 38 homes, and left a crater 4 stories deep. That pipeline was running on lowered pressure due to water corrosion. Lowered pressure (rather than repair or termination) would be the response to corrosion that would almost definitely occur in the Spectra pipeline due to its exposure to moisture under the Hudson River.

Federal inspection procedures for natural gas lines are severely lacking-only 7% of pipelines are subject to mandatory inspection, and even those that require inspection are only inspected once every 7 years. Inspection typically relies on indications from grass and trees above the pipeline-the Spectra pipeline's proposed route under urban areas and a river would thus make inspection impossible!

DAMAGE TO THE ENVIRONMENT: The pipeline will lock New Yorkers into dependence on a fossil fuel that is equally or even more ruinous to the environment than coal or oil (when the impact of extraction is taken into account) and preclude investment in renewable energy for years to come. The hydro-fracking process creates toxic waste, the contents of which industry is not required by law to divulge (under the pretext that these contents are a "trade secret"). This toxic waste contaminates drinking water and soil--some residents of areas near fracking sites have such high methane content in their drinking water that they are able to light it on fire. The Marcellus Shale borders on the reservoirs that supply New York City's drinking water, making the risks of contamination potentially catastrophic.

ECONOMIC IMPACT: Claims by proponents of the pipeline that we need the gas are simply untrue. Demand for natural gas in New York is projected to decrease and then flatten out until 2020. The gas is most likely intended for eventual export, which will raise the price of gas tremendously, creating economic hardship for New Yorkers who will have come to depend on it.

RADON: The pipeline will transport gas with up to 70 times as much radon as the gas currently supplied to New York. Radon is a highly toxic radioactive chemical released in the fracking process that is the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers.

JOIN FELLOW NEW YORKERS TO LAUNCH A CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE SPECTRA PIPELINE. COME TOGETHER TO DEFEND OUR CITY AND OUR LIVES AGAINST THIS CORPORATE MENACE!

Sunday, June 3: NYC Solidarity Summer Coordinating Meeting

OccupyWallSt — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 17:31:11 +0000

City-wide Coordinating Meeting for Solidarity with the Quebec Student Strike and Escalating Our Struggles

TIME: Sunday, June 3rd 6pm
LOCATION: 16 Beaver St., NYC

Every night for over a week, Occupy Wall Street activists have taken to the streets of New York to march for affordable education and against police repression, in solidarity with the massive, ongoing student uprising taking place in Quebec and now spreading across the world. As protesters have in Argentina, in Chile, in Spain and now in Canada, we bang pots and pans as we march — a practice called casseroles or caceroladas.

Now, we are calling for a SOLIDARITY SUMMER based on a diversity of tactics, a variety of actions, and a broad range of participants.

Quebec students are currently waging the biggest student strike in recent history, an unlimited general strike that has galvanized massive popular support. The provincial government seeks to destroy the movement and the students’ unions and associations through increased police repression. On Friday, May 18th, an emergency law (Law 78) was passed aimed at criminalizing their growing movement. But the movement shows no signs of faltering.

Students at CUNY as well as other schools are facing severe tuition hikes, budget cuts, police repression and surveillance on our campuses, and crippling student debt. We have common cause with our sisters and brothers in Quebec and seek to unite our struggles.

We are calling this meeting to discuss how to coordinate and escalate our movements, how to involve greater numbers of students and supporters in our movement, how to be in effective solidarity with Quebec’s students and how to organize against police repression everywhere. Please bring your ideas about increasing visibility, participation, and sustainability of this movement.

For tuition-free, quality public education for all
For the abolition of student debt
For universities run by students, faculty, and staff in accordance with our needs and desires
For the right to assembly, demonstration, and dissent without repression.

Long live the unlimited student strike!

From Spain: Bankia Is Mordor

OccupyWallSt — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 06:38:54 +0000

Our comrades in Spain haven been occupying local banks with lively noise demos and caceroladas, or pot-banging protests, in Barcelona, Madrid, and other cities. In Barcelona, protesters have targeted La Caixa in a campaign called Occupy Mordor, a reference comparing the bank to the land of evil from J.R.R. Tolkien mythology. The Spanish government recently bailed out another major bank (Bankia) while under threat from the European financial sector, who promised total market chaos across Europe if their demands were not met. Spanish Occupiers - the 15-M or indignad@s movement, who largely inspired #OWS - are fighting back by expanding their banking protests.

The banking bailout is tied to the wider program of austerity being enforced in Spain and across Europe, as well as here in North America. We stand in solidarity with social movements in Spain and across the world who are resisting corrupt rule and fighting for real democracy! Below is a Manifesto from Barcelona, translated by OccupyWallSt.org. More photos below.

Manifesto

We have a government that is directly involved in bank fraud and an economic elite that does not hesitate to rob us. Together, they have doomed the lives of millions of people to the abyss, and consequently sent the country into total bankruptcy. Without any shame, they continue to enrich themselves and tell us to the face that they will not investigate any charges. Evictions, insider scams, and millions of empty houses left to speculation fuel a descent into poverty where the only certainty is that there is no right of the people they are not willing to sacrifice in order to save the banks.

It is time not only to protest, but to take action: While they live the high life and rescue the banks that rob us using our own tax dollars, they ask us to tighten our belt without any type of decency. While increasing taxes, they cut services in order to privatize our basic rights like transportation, and the rising cost of living forces us to work much longer for less money. They are using the crisis to defraud us. Why do we pay taxes if in the end we are forced to pay for the services we need anyway? And how are we supposed to pay if we cannot find work?

Since May 15th, we have protested La Caixa (#LaCaixaEsMordor) every day at Diagonal (Maria Cristina stop on metro line 3) from 17h to 20h in the afternoon. We bang pots (cacerolada) to show that this hoax must end now, and at 20h we hold talks to explain how different collectives are organizing to struggle together. For example, we conducted talks by Platform Affected by Foreclosures on how to deal with the crisis differently.

This Saturday [today], we will plant a new seed at Bankia. We will exercise our right to freedom of expression and rebellion.

Here is what could be done with the 23,500 million € that the government will give Bankia:

Increase pensions by 20%
Cover 81.5% of unemployment cases
Increase the scholarships program by 18.5%
280% increase in education and health care spending
Increase by 13% Spanish social spending
Multiply by 11 the Official Development Assistance
Increase policy development work by 4 times
25-fold increase of investment in culture
Increase infrastructure investment by 106%
Pay for 4 years spending on development research

More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/245507585548855/
http://labancaesmordor.ourproject.org/
https://www.facebook.com/LaBancaEsMordor
https://www.facebook.com/groups/459458230734170/
Acampada Barcelona International (English)
#CAIXArolada y #PITÓDROMO #LaCaixaEsMordor #BankiaEsMordor #AcampadaMordor #OccupyMordor

Cacerolada at La Caixa AKA Mordor

graffiti from Spain

Mordor occupied

Poster for #OccupyMordor events in Barcelona

OWS Events This Week

OccupyWallSt — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 05:25:24 +0000

!
Times Square Quebec solidarity protest, May 30

Every Day, 8pm
Casseroles March in Solidarity with the Quebec Infinite General Strike
Washington Square Park and everywhere else
Bang your pots at 8pm every night! Show your indignation for corruption, undemocratic practices, and debt slavery!

Daily #OccupyUnionSq Info Table, 9am - 9pm
@OWSUnionSquare
Every day Occupy Union Square has an info table open and staffed, acting as a hub to promote the constant flurry of events and meetings occurring in the park and across OWS. Click here to find out how you can help out with immediate needs of the Union Square occupiers to keep it running and growing.

Friday, June 1, 6:30pm
Restorative Justice Teach In: Transforming Conflict Lab of Occupy Wall Street
The Commons, 388 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY
Restorative justice is an emerging social movement that offers a new vision for the world. Where justice should heal instead of punish, where we can engage with each other in a way that restores our common humanity and helps us build stronger communities, where we can lay the foundation for a new culture of understanding and solidarity. Suggested Donation: $5-$20. No one will be turned away. For more info, contact rusafischer@gmail.com.

Friday, June 1, 6:30pm
National Lawyers Guild Annual Fundraiser
Angel Orensanz Foundation, 172 Norfolk Street Come support the work of the NLG-NYC at the 2012 Spring Fling! This year we will honor the Chapter's OWS work and Guild members who have made an extraordinary contribution to that work.

Saturday June 2, 12pm
Summer Disobedience School
Bryant Park, 42nd Street and 6th Avenue
The OWS Direct Action Group is launching Summer Disobedience School. We’ve completed Spring Training – and we’re moving and communicating in the streets like never before.

Noon: Trainings and actions around Midtown.
2pm: Mic check in Times Square.
3pm: Action Debrief, planning for next week, Occu-U classes and group meetings.
4pm: Occupy Theory Assemblies. This week’s theme: Imaginative Resistance!

Read more about our curriculum, download a workbook, and join the fun all summer long!

Sunday, June 3, 12pm
1st Debt and Education Assembly: Building a Political Movement
Washington Square Park
Co-hosted by: Free University - The Occupy Student Debt Campaign - Tidal Occupy Theory

Sunday, June 3, 6pm
City Wide Coordinating Meeting for Solidarity with Quebec Student Strike
16 Beaver Street, 4th floor

Tuesday June 5th, 6pm
Occupy Public Access Brooklyn
Brooklyn Center for Media Education, 242 3rd Street
The new OWS show on Brooklyn public access is to begin airing this July! If you’re a writer, videographer, news anchor, broadcast technician, or just enjoy connecting with other people and spreading the word about what we do, come out to an orientation session.

Every Wednesday, 4pm
The People’s Gong
This Wednesday, and every Wednesday thereafter, we call on all people to join Occupy Wall Street in ringing the People's Gong on Wall Street. We invite all working groups to re-connect and re-occupy Liberty Park with us.

4pm: Meet at Federal Hall, mic check, and ring the gong.
5:30pm: Return to Liberty Plaza to debrief and work on projects across OWS. This week’s Direct Action meeting will focus on planning for Black Monday (September 17 2012).
7:30pm: Report-back circle.

Wednesday, June 6th, 530
March To Call on the SEC to Investigate Jamie Dimon
Liberty Plaza
On the anniversary of the founding of the SEC, Occupy the SEC and Alternative Banking are holding a march calling on the SEC to investigate Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, under Sarbanes-Oxley and refer the case the the Department of Justice for prosecution.

Thursday, June 7, 11am
Forgive Us Our Trespass - Speak Truth to Power
Liberty Square
This is a public witness to remind all land-rich religious institutions that their faith calls their loyalty to those among God's people who are at the losing end of economic disparity, not to the powerful 1% or to their own self-interest. Chris Hedges and Fr. Daniel Berrigan will speak in relation to the upcoming jury trial of Bishop George Packard and others. Occupy Catholics will hold a planning meeting for further pre-trial actions after this action.

Sunday, June 10, 7pm
Forgive Us Our Trespass - Praying Truth to Power
Duarte Square, Canal Street and 6th Avenue
Vesper service the night before the jury trial of Bishop George Packard and others. We ask Rev. Cooper and Trinity Church to listen to the Gospel mandate of forgiveness, to drop all charges against those who trespassed on the lot at 6th and Canal, and reconsider use of the empty lot.

Sunday, June 10th, 7pm
OWS Arts Cluster
The Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn
We think that this opportunity to share information, resources, grievances and sympathies among the creative community of OWS can strengthen all of our participation in the huge work at hand. Join us!

Save the Dates

June 16 - People’s Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - NYC Solidarity Rally
June 16 - Occupy Town Square: Staten Island
September 17 - Black Monday - OWS One-Year Anniversary

June 6th in Milwaukee: Keep It in the Streets!

OccupyWallSt — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 04:53:09 +0000

via Occupy Milwaukee

When: Wednesday, June 6, 2012 at 5:00pm CDT
Where: Pere Marquette Park (3rd St and State), Milwaukee, WI
Facebook event

The Struggle of the 99% against the exploitation of the 1% is not just an election between Democrats and Republicans, it is a struggle between the Haves and the Have Nots. We must remember this and not let up our will to fight back against the 1%, even after the recall. We will be starting at Pere Marquette, at which point we are going to march through the city in what is sure to be a spirited exercise of the Power of the People. This rally will occur NO MATTER WHICH CANDIDATE WINS THE RECALL! If your group is interested in endorsing this event, contact us at occupymilwaukee@gmail.com! Occupy Milwaukee will always keep it in the streets!

We need supplies to create flyers, banners, drums and signs for this huge action! If you would like to donate to Occupy Milwaukee, please see the donation section of our website. Every little bit counts, so please donate $1, $5 if you can!

After voting on June 5th we have to make our voices heard in order to hold our Governor accountable. Occupy Milwaukee, community allies and labor unions will march on June 6th to make the following demands of our Governor:

Repeal Act 10 - Hands off unions and collective bargaining. No cuts to education or Badger Care.
Restore the Equal Pay Act - We demand an end to workplace discrimination.
Tax the 1% - Hold the banksters and the 1% accountable for their economic crisis, and stop the cuts to working and oppressed people.

We will rally at Pier Marquette Park before marching on Milwaukee's banking district.

Endorsers (in progress) - Occupy Wisconsin, Occupy Milwaukee, Madison, Fond du Lac, Green Bay, Oshkosh, Appleton and St. Croix Falls, 9 to 5, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998, Milwaukee Teachers Education Association (MTEA), Welfare Warriors, Casa Maria, WI Bailout the People Movement, Iraq Veterans Against the War, AFSCME 82, Move to Amend, Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society, Peace Action WI, Milwaukee Fransiscan Action Network, Milwaukeeans for a Better Tomorrow Tomorrow, Act Everywhere, Occupy Riverwest, Occupy the Suburbs, Milwaukee Transit Riders Union, Progressive Democrats of America...

Los Angeles: Join The Seven Day Siege Of The CCA

OccupyWallSt — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:04:41 +0000

via Occupy Los Angeles

We are occupying!!!

Join LA CAN, Occupy the Hood, Occupy Skid Row and Occupy Los Angeles at Wilshire/Hope (626 Wilshire Blvd.) at 8:30pm tonight to fight gentrification and the corrupt practices of the lobby group Central City Association. BRING TENT.

We are peacefully gathering to protest the Economic Development Meeting and the downtown 2020 plan to build new high rises, the AEG Stadium and further criminalize and push out the homeless. The CCA is the localized manifestation and microcosm of everything wrong with policy, the 1% and obsession with wealth and prestige. In this hyper-localized resistance, everyone must fight the bully in their respective backyards, as a community.

We have power in numbers and will be OCCUPYING the CCA, who monitors the public spaces of downtown with private security for the one percent. Red shirt, green shirt, purple shirt, police all working together to criminalize the homeless, communities of color and more recently, to patrol protesters in the area.

Facebook event | Twitter: @OccupyLA

One Occupier's account of the campaign so far:

We wrapped on what was a productive and spirited second day, occupiers! Throughout the day yesterday, activists were in direct action affinity group discussions, action meetings, and planning dialogues. The Los Angeles General Assembly consented upon an action in support of B. Manning for June 6th. After a laborious discussion surrounding the concept of an "Extraordinary General Assembly", the People came to consensus! We had a lot of solidarity claps and sincere people recognize that, "we're not going slow, we're going far"... and it paid off. Get involved and take ownership of this process of improvement. All power to the People!

Following the general assembly, about seventy occupiers took to the streets to march to the ongoing occupation of the Central City Association. We had a lot more people than the previous night, and the energy felt euphoric and tactile, much like the tribes around City Hall in last year. Young and old helping set up tents, an artist painting on canvas, and cardboard codes of conduct taped to trees. Pots, pans, guitars, boom boxes, and voices… all doing their part in clanging, strumming, thumping, and singing about solidarity and the revolution. Check out the photos here, thanks E.H.!

Some delicious vegan food showed up around 10:15 p.m. or so (Thank you, M.T.!) and we sat down with some hot tea and got to chalk-uppying the sidewalk. This was a new element, and along with the boost in occupiers, tents, and activities, made it feel like Solidarity Park last fall.

The camp groggily started to stir at about 5:45 a.m., when the 6 a.m. warning calls were being issued. (The rule throughout the city is tents can stay up from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.) The LAPD had waited until about 7 a.m. on Day One to mobilize, but this morning they were only two minutes late. The same cops as yesterday strutted up and repeated their dance for the 1%. We didn't.

The discipline and militancy of the first day was echoed for Day Two. The tents were immediately in the air. No one talked to the pigs. Yet still, one man was arrested for chalking on the sidewalk. Chalk is not graffiti… it has been deemed Constitutionally-protected free speech. He was chalking the names of Black Panthers who were killed by the police. They waited until he was finished, approached him and told him he was under arrest. No warning was given even though others had been chalking.

We spent the rest of the morning protesting the CCA on the corners and handing out flyers to the community. I noticed a markedly more positive response to outreach efforts. Some said they had seen us yesterday and were wondering what we were about. Others couldn’t help but grin as they said, “Good morning AGAIN!” to the adamant stalwarts lining the sidewalk. In this suffocating urban rat race, music and laughter and courtesy and compassion are becoming contagious as we occupiers remain vigilant.

The siege continues. We’ll see you all there tonight. Friday’s numbers will be huge as Venice, the 805 area, Whittier, and other surrounding occupations mobilize in solidarity. We gather at 8:30pm, 626 Wilshire Blvd. (Wilshire/Hope). Bring People. Bring Pots and Pans. Bring Food. Bring Tent.

14 Arrested at Cruz Home, Vowing Needless Foreclosure “Stops Here”

OccupyWallSt — Thu, 31 May 2012 17:18:35 +0000

Via Occupy Homes Minnesota

Update: We will reoccupy the Cruz home AGAIN tomorrow at 2pm on the one month anniversary of our 24/7 eviction blockade at the Cruz family home. Freddie Mac, PNC Bank, and Mayor Rybak have a choice to make: waste more city resources arresting peaceful protesters, or work to keep the Cruz family in their home. WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED.

Update: Community members held 12 pm press conference at City Hall to condemn Rybak’s use of public resources to defend the banks, joined by other homeowners facing foreclosure who have taken a pledge not to leave their homes. Raw video: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/22970891 and http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/22971483

In the latest incident in an ongoing showdown, officers violently arrested occupiers peacefully defending the Cruz family home from foreclosure Wednesday night. Fourteen were arrested defending 4044 Cedar Avenue Wednesday night, only 24 hours after Mayor Rybak’s office, facing mounting public pressure, issued a news release declaring “the City is not in the foreclosure business.” In the statement, City Attorney Susan Segal is quoted saying “The City plays a limited role to protect public safety. The property is the responsibility of its owner… In this case, the City has fulfilled its legal obligation to secure the property.”

“We hoped Mayor Rybak would stick to his word, but today’s police violence shows Rybak and his police protect and serve the banks, not our communities,” said Martha Ockenfels-Martinez, an organizer with Occupy Homes MN and representative of the Cruz family.

The 14 arrests Wednesday at the Cruz home bring this week’s total to 23 during 5 eviction attempts.

At 8:45PM, over 100 people gathered to link arms around the Cruz family home, sitting peaceably singing “We Shall Not Be Moved.” By approximately 9:30PM, occupiers had reclaimed the Cruz home.

Around 10:30PM, dozens of police returned in full force, many wielding four-foot batons, and closed off the entire block around Cedar Avenue. Several officers, including Police Chief Tim Dolan, trampled over the eight protesters sitting down and linking arms on the front steps of the home. During this time dozens of protesters gathered in the front and back yard linking arms around the Cruz family home. A police line shoved the protesters linking arms in the front yard down the hill to the sidewalk. The protesters linking arms sang and chanted “It stops here” before the 8 protesters sitting on the front steps of the house were violently arrested. One police officer head-locked Occupy Homes organizer Nick Espinosa, who was sitting on the top of the steps, throwing him down on his back and dragging him inside the front door of the house in the arrest.

“The banks are stealing our homes through illegal and fraudulent practices while refusing to work with families, and they are aided and abetted by the mayor and police,” said Espinosa, who was released on bail early this morning. “If anyone should be arrested it’s the bankers that crashed our economy while paying themselves record bonuses with our tax dollars.”

Around 11:30PM, after further threats of arrests from the MPD, protesters decided to relocate outside of the Hennepin County Jail in solidarity with the protesters arrested. As they were attempting to leave the home, four more were arrested from the public sidewalk and street, including one who was arrested as he was unlocking his bike.

Freddie Mac, the current holder of the Cruz family’s mortgage, hired 24/7 private security who called the police to enforce the raid Wednesday night, though PNC Bank, which originally held the Cruz loan, has repeatedly assured the family that they are working to resolve the issue.

At a press conference following the Sheriff Department’s second raid last Friday, City Council Members Gary Schiff, Elizabeth Glidden, and Cam Gordon came to show their support and speak out about the violent, unjust eviction of the Cruz family home. “I stand with you in calling on Hennepin County to suspend the breaking down of more doors and the breaking in of more homes of families in this community,” said City Council Member Gary Schiff. “There is no excuse to resort to this kind of violence to put the wealth back in the hands of banks.”

more photos

Inside the FBI Entrapment Strategy

OccupyWallSt — Thu, 31 May 2012 16:00:37 +0000

That every act of political violence should nowadays be attributed to anarchists is not at all surprising. Yet it is a fact known to almost everyone familiar with the anarchist movement that a great number of acts, for which anarchists had to suffer, either originated with the capitalist press or were instigated, if not directly perpetrated, by the police." -- Emma Goldman

via CrimethInc.

Over the past month, the FBI has initiated a spate of entrapment operations designed to frame anarchists as “terrorists.” Significantly, they have not targeted longtime organizers, but rather people who are relatively peripheral to anarchist communities.

In response, we’ve prepared a pamphlet suitable for a wide readership explaining how this entrapment strategy works, and an analysis exploring why the FBI has adopted it. Please circulate these widely.

Reading PDF [550kb]
Imposed PDF for Printing [550kb]

The Latest Trend in Repression

Not so long ago, it seemed that the FBI focused on pursuing accomplished anarchists: Marie Mason and Daniel McGowan were both arrested after lengthy careers involving everything from supporting survivors of domestic violence to ecologically-minded arson. It isn’t surprising that the security apparatus of the state targeted these activists: they were courageously threatening the inequalities and injustices the state is founded upon.

However, starting with the entrapment case of Eric McDavid—framed for a single conspiracy charge by an infiltrator who used his attraction to her to manipulate him into discussing illegal actions—the FBI seem to have switched strategies, focusing on younger targets who haven’t actually carried out any actions.

They stepped up this new strategy during the 2008 Republican National Convention, at which FBI informants Brandon Darby and Andrew Darst set up David McKay, Bradley Crowder, and Matthew DePalma on charges of possessing Molotov cocktails in two separate incidents. It’s important to note that the only Molotov cocktails that figured in the RNC protests at any point were the ones used to entrap these young men: the FBI were not responding to a threat, but inventing one.

Over the past month, the FBI have shifted into high gear with this approach. Immediately before May Day, five young men were set up on terrorism charges in Cleveland after an FBI infiltrator apparently guided them into planning to bomb a bridge, in what would have been the only such bombing carried out by anarchists in living memory. During the protests against the NATO summit in Chicago, three young men were arrested and charged with terrorist conspiracy once again involving the only Molotov cocktails within hundreds of miles, set up by at least two FBI informants.

Undercover informants “Mo” and “Gloves” (aka “Nadiya”) from the NATO entrapment cases

None of the targets of these entrapment cases seem to be longtime anarchist organizers. None of the crimes they’re being charged with are representative of the tactics that anarchists have actually used over the past decade. All of the cases rest on the efforts of FBI informants to manufacture conspiracies. All of the arrests have taken place immediately before mass mobilizations, enabling the authorities to frame a narrative justifying their crackdowns on protest as thwarting terrorism. And in all of these cases, the defendants have been described as anarchists in the legal paperwork filed against them, setting precedents for criminalizing anarchism.

Why Entrapment? Why Now?

Why is the FBI focusing on entrapping inexperienced young people rather than going after seasoned anarchists? Isn’t that just plain bad sportsmanship? And why are they intensifying this now?

For one thing, experienced activists are harder to catch. Unlike anarchists, FBI agents work for money, not necessarily out of passion or conviction. Their reports often read like second-rate homework assignments even as they wreck people’s lives. Agents get funding and promotions based on successful cases, so they have an incentive to set people up; but why go after challenging targets? Why not pick the most marginal, the most vulnerable, the most isolated? If the goal is simply to frame somebody, it doesn’t really matter who the target is.

Likewise, the tactics anarchists have actually been using are likely to be more popular with the general public than the tactics infiltrators push them towards. Smashing bank windows, for example, may be illegal, but it is increasingly understood as a meaningful political statement; it would be difficult to build a convincing terrorism case around broken glass.

Well-known activists also have much broader support networks. The FBI threatened Daniel McGowan with a mandatory life sentence plus 335 years in prison; widespread support enabled him to obtain a good lawyer, and the prosecution had to settle for a plea bargain for a seven-year sentence or else admit to engaging in illegal wiretapping. Going after disconnected young people dramatically decreases the resources that will be mobilized to support them. If the point is to set precedents that criminalize anarchism while producing the minimum blowback, then it is easier to manufacture “terror” cases by means of agents provocateurs than to investigate actual anarchist activity.

Above all, this kind of proactive threat-creation enables FBI agents to prepare make-to-order media events. If a protest is coming up at which the authorities anticipate using brutal force, it helps to be able to spin the story in advance as a necessary, measured response to violent criminals. This also sows the seeds of distrust among activists, and intimidates newcomers and fence-sitters out of having anything to do with anarchists. The long-range project here, presumably choreographed by FBI leadership rather than rank-and-file agents, is not just to frame a few unfortunate arrestees, but thus to hamstring the entire anti-capitalist movement.

How to Destroy a Movement

As we saw in the Green Scare, FBI repression often does not begin in earnest until a movement has begun to fracture and subside, diminishing the targets’ support base. The life cycle of movements passes ever faster in our hyper-mediatized era; the Occupy phenomenon peaked in November 2011 and has already slowed down, emboldening the authorities to consolidate control and take revenge.

As anarchist values and practices become increasingly central to protest movements, the authorities are anxious to incapacitate and delegitimize anarchists. Yet in this context, it’s still inconvenient to admit to targeting people for anarchism alone—that could spread the wrong narrative, rallying outrage against transparently political persecution. Likewise, they dare not initiate repression without a narrative portraying the targets as alien to the rest of the movement, even if that repression is calculated to destroy the movement itself.

Fortunately for the FBI, a few advocates of “nonviolence” within the Occupy movement were happy to provide this narrative, disavowing everyone who didn’t affirm their narrow tactical framework. Journalists like Chris Hedges took this further by framing the “black bloc” as a kind of people rather than a tactic—despite even the Chicago Sun-Times comprehending the distinction. Hedges led the charge to consign those who actively defended themselves against state repression to this fabricated political category—in effect, designating them legitimate targets. It is no coincidence that entrapment cases followed soon after.

“The individuals we charged are not peaceful protesters, they are domestic terrorists,” [state attorney Anita] Alvarez said. “The charges we bring today are not indicative of a protest movement that has been targeted.”

The authorities swiftly took up this narrative. In a recent Fox News article advancing the FBI agenda, we see the authorities parroting Chris Hedges’ talking points—“they use the Occupy Movement as a front, but have their own violent agenda”—in order to frame the black bloc as a “home-grown terror group.” The article also describes the Cleveland arrestees as “Black Bloc anarchists,” without evidence that any of them have ever participated in a black bloc.

The goal here is clearly to associate a form of activity—acting anonymously, defending oneself against police attacks—with a kind of people: terrorists, evildoers, monsters. This is a high priority for the authorities: they were able to crush the Occupy movement much more quickly, at least relative to its numbers, in cities where people did not act anonymously and defend themselves—hence Occupy Oakland’s longevity compared to other Occupy groups. The aim of the FBI and corporate media, with the collusion of Chris Hedges and others, is to ensure that when people see a masked crowd that refuses to kowtow to coercive authority, they don’t think, “Good for them for standing up for themselves,” but rather, “Oh no—a bunch of terrorist bombers.”

To recapitulate the FBI strategy:

-divide and conquer the movement by isolating the most combative participants
-stage-manage entrapments of vulnerable targets at the periphery
-use these arrests to delegitimize all but the most docile, and to justify ever-increasing police violence.

What Comes Next

The authorities are explicitly announcing that there will be more of these “sting operations” at the upcoming Republican National Convention in Tampa. We can expect more and more “unsportsmanlike” entrapments in the years to come.

For decades now, movements have defended themselves against police surveillance and infiltration by practicing security culture. This has minimized the effectiveness of police operations against experienced activists. However, it can’t always protect those who are new to anarchism or activism, who haven’t had time to internalize complex habits and practices, and these are exactly the people that the FBI entrapment strategy targets.

Three years ago, we called for a collective security culture that could protect even newcomers against infiltrators. In a time of widespread social ferment, however, even this is not sufficient to thwart the FBI: we can’t hope to reach and protect every single desperate, angry,vulnerable person in our society. Infiltrators need only find one impressionable young person, however peripheral, to advance their strategy. These are inhuman bounty hunters: they don’t balk at taking advantage of any weakness, any need, any mental health issue.

If we are to protect the next generation of young people from these predators, our only hope is to mobilize a popular reaction against entrapment tactics. Only a blowback against the FBI themselves can halt this strategy. This will not be easy, but there is no better alternative.

Don’t stop speaking out, organizing, and fighting—that won’t stop them from repressing us or entrapping people. Retreating will only embolden them: we can only protect ourselves by increasing our power to fight back, not by withdrawing, not by hiding, not by behaving.

The best defense is a good offense. So long as capitalism is unstable—that is to say, until it collapses—there will be repression. Let’s meet it head on.

Irish Referendum Commission Occupied as Ireland Votes on EU Austerity Treaty

OccupyWallSt — Thu, 31 May 2012 04:17:56 +0000

Ahead of today‘s referendum vote on whether Ireland should adopt harsh austerity measures demanded by the bankers and European financial elite, activists briefly occupied the Referendum Commission in Dublin yesterday. Here is an official statement from Occupy Dame Street:

#Occupy Dame Street is now occupying the #Referendum Commission office on 18 Lower Leeson Street in opposition to its misleading representation of the #Fiscal Treaty. The literature is meant to be unbiased, however, firstly presenting it as a ‘stability’ treaty is manipulative. The leaflet from this ‘neutral’ commission was delivered late so that people wouldn’t have a chance to read, research and understand it. The literature is also full of threats on what will happen if we #vote no. It’s good to remember that this commission allowed a second referendum for the #Lisbon #Treaty when the government didn’t like the first result. In short, we can’t trust them. For this and other reasons, #Occupy Dame Street asks for a NO vote.

For background on the referendum, read this open letter to the people of Ireland from social movements in Greece (via Occupy Dublin):

Appeal to the Irish people from Greece

By representatives of the movement of the “Enraged”
many Social Movements
and local assemblies across Greece
Thursday, May 24, 2012

Dear brothers and sisters

We, Greek women and men who have participated in Syntagma and in the mass mobilizations against the memorandum, the loan agreements and the stability pact, in popular assemblies around Attica (Nea Smyrni, Aegaleo, Nikaia-Rentis, Glyfada, Kaisariani, Voula, Chalandri, Cholargos, Aghios Dimitrios, Pireaus, Aegina, Neos Kosmos, Academia Platonos, Neo Herakleio, Ilion, Amaroussio, Exarcheia), in social spaces (Antilogos – free social space in Helioupolis, Citizens’ movement “Messopotamia”), among “Citizens against unjust taxation (charatsia)” and “Lawyers against unjust taxation (charatsia)” – all of us contact you in the intimacy of our common struggles against the dominant classes in the European Union and in each member state. We share a deep belief that peoples of Europe, the world of work and of those “from below”, have the power to overthrow policies that keep impoverishing our societies and boding an even more sinister future.

Governments and opaque institutions of the EU in alliance with economic oligarchies, banks and markets, as well as with the IMF, in order to impose on all countries and primarily on the so-called PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain) deadly “therapies”, which destroy employment, dismantle productive sectors of the economy and dissolve the welfare state. All what working people have gradually constructed through bloody struggles is being torn down at a breathtaking speed. Through dramatic cuts of our wages and salaries, huge unemployment rates, insecure and precarious work, minimal pensions and exclusion from public health and education, we are called to pay for the debts incurred by the most wealthy, who manage to stop the falling rates of their profits by absorbing public resources and displacing their activities in tax paradises.

Development through private productive investment sounds like an unattainable yet comforting rhetoric, following the relevant data of the past decade, in a world in which capital is transformed and makes short-term moves through fiscal bubbles and high risk ventures, leading banks to bankruptcy and forcing societies to fund them through popular resources.

The tunnel in which European peoples have been pushed has no way out to light. This is why neoliberal policies are rejected through mass mobilisations in every country. Greek people, who took in thousands to the squares and streets, organised many strikes and denied payments, have dismissed memorandums and loan pacts by an absolute majority in the recent elections of the 6th of May. The “guinea pig” of Europe, mutilated by severe cuts, has nonetheless escaped from the neoliberal market castle and is demanding decent work, justice and democracy in order to live a life of decency and dignity.

Comrades and friends, brothers and sisters in our common struggle,

We call upon you to take over the torch from Greek hands, changing the route of Ireland and re-defining the route of Europe. In the name of the European and world multitude of “indignados” and struggling peoples, we appeal to you to use the referendum as an opportunity to change direction in contemporary European history.

The argument towards Irish people to “vote Yes for stability” is also in Greece the only proposal by systemic forces. The vast majority of people, however, already live in instability, so that the dominant oligarchies can enjoy stability of profits and wealth. “Yes to the fiscal pact” means that working men and women will continue to pay, at the cost of employment loss and actual death, because development will not take off by simple moralizing pleas.

Dear comrades,

From resisting and hopeful Greece we appeal to the Irish people to continue, together with the citizens of Europe, on the way of anger, indignation, resistance and solidarity. We urge you to vote “No” in the referendum of the 31st of May for the Stability Pact, in order to overthrow the dominant European policies and win back our lives.

Night Falls, Power Rises, in Montreal

OccupyWallSt — Wed, 30 May 2012 16:04:00 +0000

by Cindy Milstein

A week ago last Sunday night, I was sitting around a table at a friend’s house with two other friends in the Plateau East neighborhood of Montreal, having a quiet & delicious dinner after the Anarchist Bookfair weekend, when at 8 pm, we heard the singular noise of someone banging on a pot in the nearby distance, then two, and maybe three or four. My friend got up to peak around the corner, to see which of his neighbors was making the noise, telling us that there was a Facebook call to bang pots & pans in solidarity with the student strike (as it turns out, it was a professor’s idea, and he did indeed post a FB page for it).

Last night, May 27, that same friend and I met up with other friends at the “usual” corner on Mont-Royal near St-Denis on the Plateau West side of this Montreal neighborhood. At first a handful came, right at 8 pm, like us, and then dozens, growing quickly to hundreds. It was my second night at this intersection, near to the home of another friend, and already I recognized most of the faces, and people nodded at each other, and more of them talked to each other (and my two friends and others are busily organizing toward their first neighborhood popular assembly this coming Saturday).

As we moved from crossing with the light, to crossing at the traffic light, to finally taking the intersection, a group of young children–barely teens–among the many young children on the streets with us, decided to lead a breakaway march, skirting past the police car that had now arrived to “help” us manage the traffic. We adults quickly ran after them, laughing, as our children at the front lead us for some 15 minutes away from that cop car again and again, turning a corner at the last minute to allude the police, and when we got to a big road, the kids took over the other side too, at one point nearly encircling a second police car to ensure we could all get ahead of the police! And soon we turned a corner and that, voile, was another band of casserolers, and soon we ran across another, and then our big casserole met another huge casserole at a main intersection, and everyone raised their pots & pans in unison to joyfully greet each other. The police couldn’t keep up with us, neither children or adults, or bikes or dogs, wheelchairs or skateboards.

Hours later, after marching with thousands and thousands of people who never stopped banging on the asundry metal noisemakers as we snaked our way for miles through Montreal, past tiny stickers of red or with words on street signs and lampposts, or big swathes of radical graffiti slogans, it was hard to tell whether our legs or ears hurt more–or as my Plateau East friend said, Emma Goldman may have wanted a revolution to dance to, but this “walking” revolution is hard on the feet! Then we looked at each other and marveled how, just a mere week ago, there were four lone pots beating out a tune of solidarity & disobedience & freedom in his neighborhood, and now, so few days later, young children are teaching themselves rebellion, and as another friend said to me on the street, we anarchists are struggling to catch up to what the tens of thousands of people are doing here in Montreal. He too marveled: “And to think I was thinking of moving away from Montreal a year ago. This has been the best year of my life already!”

Of course, much as the police and politicians have, for the time being, lost control of this city, they struggle each night to figure out new ways to police and control their out-of-their-control uprising. Last night, that involved this unusually tall and lengthy, sparkling-white oversize van–nearly a truck–with few windows, and those windows blackened so we couldn’t see it. This truck-van appeared out of nowhere behind us, swerved toward a building wall, and equally oversize riot-type police jumped out, pushing someone against the wall, grabbing him, throwing him in the van, and whisking away. Some cops next to us on horses (we were, at that point, at the back of the thousands-of-people casseroles-march) said something about a new “Intervention” unit, and then “helpfully” told us to move in front of him, so he could “protect us” in case of “an explosion.”

Some 20 minutes or so later, as the demonstration was nearing a point that would signal the end for many of us–near a Metro, for some, and near our still-long-walk home, for us–that van-truck appeared again. I tried to capture a photo of it, but my cell phone isn’t the best of cameras, especially as the van-truck started speeding toward us, flying past another new police vehicle labeled “technical.” We conjectured about whether they were gathering “intelligence” on us, listening in to cell phones, tracking people via their cell phone GPS, or putting out incorrect info.

For instance, the SPVM police maintain a “friendly” lie-filled Twitter, with the supposedly calming slogan “Always closer,” and they used it last night to deny nearly beating a man to death, also just over a week ago, when people took control of a stretch of St.-Denis to build barricades and fend off the cops. Counter reports from witnesses and those involved in this uprising are that this man is still in a hospital, in a coma, potentially paralyzed and brain damaged. People used this Twitter access to the police to last night ask them again and again about this beating, and the police again and again assured people everything was OK. But there are video images of the man being beaten, first to the ground by one cop, and then again, by another, after he’s on the ground. And an eyewitness mentioned she saw the second cop use his bike as a weapon in the beating. Indeed, last week, when we were on the street during the St.-Denis uprising on that evening, a woman came up to us to say a man had died; that she herself had seen him lying on the ground, not moving, for 20 minutes. We were skeptical, thinking the street takeover would have turned into an outright riot, if someone had died. Now, a mere week later, it seems the police have potentially destroyed yet another life.

All to say, the joy of watching preteens defy the authority of the state, so adroitly and swiftly, with such confidence, under the approving eye of thousands of us adults, has to balanced by the presence of that same authority, even if cowed for the moment, lurking in vans and shadows, strategizing somewhere in bureaucratic offices, trying to figure out how to win this cat-and-mouse (or cat-and-anarchopanda) game of communizing Montreal, whether they end up using brute force or carrot-and-stick for the students–or both.

It’s 7 pm, an hour before this evening’s casseroles slowly but surely but noisely begins again, at the “usual” corner of Mont-Royal, where tonight my friend will hand out flyers about the popular assembly to be held in a neighborly neighborhood park this weekend (for the parks here are still far less “privatized,” and much more anarchic and community oriented, than many in the United States). Tomorrow, another friend, the one who is glad he didn’t move away, is helping to initiate “Nos-Casseroles for justice for low-wage immigrant and placement-agency (day-laborer) workers” in another neighborhood, and a day or two ago, the Rosemont neighborhood held its first assembly–150 people, who broke into four working groups.

Last night, a friend mentioned how it was important that we go to these street manifestations, night after night, because they evidence the determination and anger, and hopefully the dreams too, of this movement that currently has power-together in its grasp. I realized, as I walked for another five hours last night, how cynical I’ve grown about marches in the United States. We scream in front of banks, chant as we walk, proudly hold banners and signs, make noise and reclaim the streets and sidewalks temporarily–but the contrast here is: there’s really social power behind those same acts now, and everyone knows it. The question, which everyone also seems to know, is what to do with that power–hence the move to kick off neighborhood assemblies and put out calls for people to come greet, meet, and disrupt the impending, lucrative Gran Prix in early June. Meanwhile, the power seems to just keep growing.

Each night here, I see the differences, even if subtle, from people walking by on the streets at 5 pm with pots and pans clearly in their backpacks; stores putting red squares on their merchandise on display in the windows; indeed, more and more red squares, large and small, hanging off more and more balconies; restaurant workers and others stuck in dreary low-paid jobs come out of those jobs to bang pots for a few minutes as the big casseroles marches pass by; and last night, we saw people in an expensive hotel in downtown Montreal holding big red squares in the windows high above us, raising their arms in silent cheer to our noisy answer from the street below.

(Photos by me, or rather my cell phone, save for the graffiti photo, thanks to Jonathan Leavitt)

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Global Casseroles Night in Solidarité with Québec in Over 50 Cities

OccupyWallSt — Wed, 30 May 2012 15:25:05 +0000

Tonight, in dozens of cities across North America and the world, the people are making themselves heard - not with their voices, but by banging pots and pans. At 8pm, thousands will take to their streets, parks, and neighborhoods to bang pots in solidarity with the ongoing fight for the right to education going on in Québec and all over. This simple, creative form of protest takes example from the Chilean cazerolazos and presents an easy, fun way to show solidarity with our shared struggle. From Vancouver to Halifax, from New York to Paris, from London to LA, our voices will ring out in a united clamor for justice.

At 8:00pm, grab a pot & a spoon, and bang away. Wherever you are, it doesn't matter if you're at home in the kitchen, or in flashmobs in the streets - our pots will send the unmistakable message amidst this crumbling economy, eroding access to education, repression of our rights, emergency laws, and ignorant politicians. We will be joined by thousands pouring out of their homes - students, parents, children, and grandparents. The noise we make is not to be seen as a nuisance - but an alarm to signal that something is deeply wrong here and across the land, and the people will not be silent about it.

Solidarity Actions are taking place TONIGHT at 8:00pm local time in over 50 cities - find yours in the list below. If you don't see your home town, then look no further than your kitchen!

New York City
Washington, DC
Philadelphia, PA
Austin, Texas - bring pots to Austin City Hall, 8pm!
Bridgewater, Nova Scotia
Brussels, Belgium
Calgary
Courtenay, BC
Cumberland, BC
Edmonton
Gaspésie, Chandler, marche à 19h, rue commerciale, départ de l'église et casseroles à 20h :)
Guelph, ON
Halfmoon Bay, BC, corner of Cooper and Connor Roads
Halifax
Hamilton
Kamloops, BC
Kelowna, BC
Kingston, ON
Kitchener-Waterloo, ON
Lethbridge, Alberta
Little Rock, Arkansas
London, ON
London, UK:
Madison, Wisconsin
Matane, Gaspésie, QC
Moncton, NB
Montreal + Quebec
Nelson, BC
Niagara/St Catherines
Oshawa, ON
Ottawa: Four locations
Paris, France
Peterborough, ON
Providence Bay, ON: On the boardwalk 8pm
Regina
Roberts Creek, BC: Meet at the Roberts Creek Hall 8pm May 30
Salt Spring Island, BC
Saskatoon
Sudbury
St John's, Newfoundland
Tatamagouche, NS
Toronto: Dufferin Grove Park
Toronto #2: Leslieville
Toronto #3: Winchester Park
Toronto #4 Seaton Village
Toronto #5: Toronto Poets and Friends, meet at the NW corner of Grace and Harbord.
Toronto #6: Harbord & Huron
Toronto #8 Parkdale Feeder
Trois-Rivières, Québec
Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery
Vancouver 2: Commercial Street
Victoria
Whitehorse
Winnipeg, MB
Wolfville, NS

Todos somos quebequenses! We Are All Québécois!

OccupyWallSt — Tue, 29 May 2012 06:57:47 +0000

March for public education in Santiago, Chile; August 7, 2011

Below is a statement of solidarity from Chilean academics and student leaders with the ongoing student protests in Montréal, Québéc, Canada. (English translation via Translating The Revolution.)

We Are All Québécois!

We the undersigned, Chilean academics and student leaders, denounce to national and international public opinion the persecution of the student movement in Québéc, Canada, expressed in Act 78, which was enacted on Thursday, May 19 by the government of Prime Minister Jean Charest.

Act 78—or the “Loi Matraque” (Rattle Law)—is the harshest since the War Measures Act in October 1970. It has been denounced by the President of the Bar of that province, as well as by Amnesty International, the Human Rights League, the four main trade unions, and various academic bodies.

It co-opts the fundamental freedoms of the citizens of Québéc by fundamentally restricting freedom of expression, freedom to demonstrate, and freedom of assembly, which are enshrined in both the Constitution and Québéc’s Charter of Rights. This law affects not only the students who have been on strike for fifteen weeks against higher tuition, but also all citizens—particularly teachers, academics, and workers, whose rights of expression and assembly are being affected.

Amongst these measures we denounce those that prevent spontaneous demonstrations of any group of more than fifty persons; the prohibition on protesting within fifty meters of a school; and the strengthening of police power by allowing police to decide at any time if a demonstration is legal or illegal, or if someone is an agitator.

By the same token, this law punishes any public expression of support for the demonstrations. For example, nobody in Québéc during a conflict may prevent the entry of students to colleges and universities, on pain of individual fines, fines to the student association or unions they belong to, as well as fines to union and student leaders. These penalties range from CA$1,000 to CA$125,000. Student leadership have announced they will challenge this law in court for being unconstitutional, and they have called for solidarity from all citizens.

The people of Québéc have for years stood by the Chilean people with their active solidarity. That’s why today we feel called to express and demonstrate our fullest solidarity with their student organizations and their leaders, with their labor unions, and with all citizen activists.

We do this for solidarity, but also because we understand that any attack against the freedoms of any place in the globalized world is an attack on our freedoms.

The so-called “Ley Hinzpeter” (Hinzpeter Law) driven by the Chilean government is part of the same repressive and undemocratic perspective.

The struggle of students, academics, and workers in Québéc is also our struggle.

Santiago de Chile, May 24, 2012.

(see here for list of signatories)

Solidarity with Striking Students of Québec - New York City

OccupyWallSt — Tue, 29 May 2012 04:55:41 +0000

On May 22, 2012, an ongoing student strike, involving hundreds of thousands of university students in Quebec, reached its 100th day. In New York, hundreds of students, teachers, and Occupy Wall Street participants marched in solidarity with the students of Quebec.

We continue to march every night at 8pm eastern, in Montreal, in New York, and in dozens of other cities. Join us! Bang your pots at 8pm every night! Show your indignation for corruption, undemocratic practices, and debt slavery!

#ggi #gginyc

An Open Letter to the Mainstream English Media, From Montreal

OccupyWallSt — Sun, 27 May 2012 05:54:34 +0000

Written and published at Translating the printemps érable

Thank you; you are a little late to the party, and you are still missing the mark a lot of the time, but in the past few days, you have published some not entirely terrible articles and op-eds about what’s happening in Quebec right now. Welcome to our movement.

Some of you have even started mentioning that when people are rounded up and arrested each night, they aren’t all criminals or rioters. Some of you have admitted that perhaps limiting our freedom of speech and assembly is going a little bit too far. Some of you are no longer publishing lies about the popular support that you seemed to think our government had. Not all of you, mind you, but some of you are waking up.

That said, here is what I have not seen you publish yet: stories about joy; about togetherness; about collaboration; about solidarity. You write about our anger, and yes, we are angry. We are angry at our government, at our police and at you. But none of you are succeeding in conveying what it feels like when you walk down the streets of Montreal right now, which is, for me at least, an overwhelming sense of joy and togetherness.

News coverage of Quebec almost always focuses on division: English vs. French; Quebec-born vs. immigrant; etc. This is the narrative that has shaped how people see us as a province, whether or not it is fair. But this is not what I feel right now when I walk down the street. At 8pm, I rush out of the house with a saucepan and a ladle, and as I walk to meet my fellow protesters, I hear people emerge from their balconies and the music starts. If you do not live here, I wish I could properly convey to you what it feels like; the above video is a start. It is magic. It starts quietly, a suggestion here and there, and it builds. Everybody on the street begins to smile. I get there, and we all—young and old, children and students and couples and retirees and workers and weird misfits and dogs and, well, neighbours—we all grin the widest grins you have ever seen while dancing around and making as much noise as possible. We are almost ecstatic with the joy of letting loose like this, of voicing our resistance to a government that seeks to silence us, and of being together like this.

I have lived in my neighbourhood for five years now, and this is the most I have ever felt a part of the community; the lasting impact that these protests will have on how people relate to each other in the city is deep and incredible. I was born and raised in Montreal, and I have always loved this city, I have always told people that it is the best city in the world, but I have truly never loved it as much as I do right now.

The first night that I went to a casseroles (pots and pans) demonstration, at the centre of the action—little children ecstatically blowing whistles, a young couple handing out extra pots and pans to passers-by, a yoga teacher who paused his class to have everyone join—I saw a bemused couple, banging away, but seemingly confused about something. When we finished, they asked me, “how did you find us?” I replied that I had checked the map that had been posted online of rendez-vous spots, and theirs was the nearest to my house. “Last night we were all alone,” they told me. They had no idea it had been advertized online. This is what our revolution looks like: someone had clearly ridden around our neighbourhood, figured out where people were protesting, and marked them for the rest of us. This is a revolution of collaboration. Of solidarity.

The next night the crowd had doubled. Tonight we will be even more.

I come home from these protests euphoric. The first night I returned, I sat down on my couch and I burst into tears, as the act of resisting, loudly, with my neighbours, so joyfully, had released so much tension that I had been carrying around with me, fearing our government, fearing arrest, fearing for the future. I felt lighter. Every night, I exchange stories with friends online and find out what happened in their neighbourhoods. These are the kinds of things we say to each other: “if I loved my city any more right now, my heart would burst.” We use the word “love” a whole lot. We feel empowered. We feel connected. We feel like we are going to win.

Why don’t you write about this? This incredible feeling? Another example I can give you is this very blog. Myself and a few friends began it as a way of disseminating information in English about what was happening here in Quebec, and within hours, literally hours, volunteers were writing me offering to help. Every day, people submit translations to me anonymously; I have no idea who they are, they just want to do something. They come from everywhere. They translate what they think is important to get out there into the world. People email me corrections, too. They email me advice. They email me encouragement. This blog runs on solidarity and utter human kindness.

This is what Quebec looks like right now. Every night is teargas and riot cops, but it is also joy, laughter, kindness, togetherness, and beautiful music. Our hearts are bursting. We are so proud of each other; of the spirit of Quebec and its people; of our ability to resist, and our ability to collaborate.

Why aren’t you writing about this? Does joy not sell as well as violence? Does collaboration not sell as well as confrontation? You can have your cynicism; our revolution is sincere.

Sincerely,

The Administrator of Translating the printemps érable.

Global Solidarity Events Today in NYC

OccupyWallSt — Sun, 27 May 2012 05:24:12 +0000

Montreal

May 27

Solidarity Assembly at 12:00pm

Washington Square Park (Garibaldi Statue on the East side of the park)

What does Global Solidarity mean to you?
This is part of weekly thematic assemblies. More: Tidal

Solidarity Rally at 7pm

Bryant Park

We march in solidarity with Quebec, Spain, Greece, Chile, Germany, and around the world.
Bring a sleeping bag and an umbrella. #ows #ggi #gginyc #manifencoursNYC

Portland: Ten Arrested in Occupy Action at Post Office

OccupyWallSt — Sun, 27 May 2012 03:39:44 +0000

press release via Occupy Portland

Police arrested ten members of labor unions, faith groups, neighborhood organizations, and Occupy Portland who refused to leave the University Station post office at closing time this evening. Unfurling two ten foot banners, reading “Occupy the Post Office” and “No Closures! No Cuts!” the protesters blocked the closure of the retail window while a rally of over a hundred supporters chanted outside. Earlier a line of demonstrators had marched through the office, delivering postcards addressed to the Postmaster General.

“The Postmaster General’s plan to close processing plants, delay mail delivery, and cut hours in the nation’s post offices will not fix the postal service’s financial crisis,” said Jamie Partridge, an arrestee from Occupy Portland. “Congress manufactured the crisis and Congress or the President will fix it. If the PMG can’t wait, he should step down and allow in someone who will protect the postal service.”

“People from across Portland are coming out to show that we value our public services and we will not allow those services to be sabatoged by corporate interests. Today we defend the Post Offices, but we know that these public services – our Post Offices, our libraries, our parks, and even our schools are all the target of corporate interests profit-driven machines, says Laurie King, organizer with Occupy the Post Office. “We are coming out to say that all communities deserve access to the mail service, and we will not have it handed over to the highest bidder.”

The Postmaster General is poised to close half the nation’s mail processing plants, including Portland’s Main Office, while reducing hours from 25% to 75% at 13,900 post offices. Donahoe is also pushing for an end to door-to-door and Saturday delivery. Organizers say that the financial problems that USPS is experiencing is due to a funding mandate passed by Congress in 2006 that requires the USPS pre-fund retiree health benefits 75 years in advance. This law was a product of ALEC and its Congressional members who focus on shrinking and privatizing public services. Community members are pressuring Congress to pass bills HR 3591 and S 1853 which will repeal the pre-funding mandate and protect the Postal Service.

“USPS is financially sound, the Congressional mandate to pre-pay benefits for 75 years is shackling the Post Office. This is clearly a part of Wall Street’s plan to privatize and destroy an honored institution of our community,” says Lataya Dailey, an organizer with Occupy St Johns. “The Postmaster is complicit in this plan to gut and cut our community Post Offices. We demand he resign immediately.”

This action was part of an on-going effort by a community coalition to support the Postal Service by Occupy St Johns, Occupy Portland, the Rural Organizing Project, and Jobs with Justice.

Occupy St Johns and Occupy Portland are part of the international Occupy Movement fighting against the inequality of wealth and power in our existing economic and political systems. Jobs with Justice is coalition of labor organizations and community groups dedicated to protecting the rights of working people and supporting community struggles to build a more just society. JWJ has been an active supporter of public infrastructure like the Post Office since its founding in 1992.

#OWS Summer Disobedience School Starts TODAY

OccupyWallSt — Sat, 26 May 2012 06:15:31 +0000

Summer Disobedience School (#OWSDS) begins today at noon in Bryant Park. Your homework is to Watch and Share this VIDEO (a visual Curriculum in #OWS style). See you there! And don't forget to come prepared.

via Tidal

¨Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty¨ - Henry David Thoreau

What is capitalism? Where is capitalism? Who and what sustains it? How can we starve its roots, which feed off our relations to one another to the detriment of humanity? What alternatives can we create together? These are a few of the questions we will explore in OWS Summer Disobedience School (OWSDS), a twelve-week training program that will empower us to map, target, and disrupt sites of capitalist injustice across the city with a wide range of creative tactics accessible to people will all levels of experience.

OWSDS is informed by the following pedagogical principles:

We learn by questioning, sharing, and doing
We learn from and with each other
We learn with our hearts, minds, and bodies
Our education will create space for action, empowerment, and imagination
Our growth will allow us to shed layer after layer of fear and complacency

Our experience together will enable us to occupy Wall Street and reclaim our power as people.

OWSDS will be divided into four three-week quarters, each of which will take a city park as a staging-ground for actions against nearby corporate targets: Bryant Park, Central Park, Washington Square Park, and Liberty Plaza. Each week, we will develop the group affinities, technical skill-sets and operational roles necessary for successful actions, such as target-scouting, march-pacing, research & messaging, mic-checking, banner-deployment, communications coordination, media documentation, and police liaison. We will also hone and expand the tactical vocabulary used during #SpringTraining. Emphasis will be placed on infiltrations, interruptions, slowdowns, and blockades undertaken by small action-teams rather than unified mass demonstrations.

A key priority in the OWSDS curriculum is the empowerment of new people to step up in planning and executing actions; to this end, OWSDS will involve a mentoring system in which those with more experience can "buddy up" with less experienced individuals to lend moral support and technical guidance. This "training of trainers" process can in turn be replicated and innovated by increasing numbers of people across time and space. Students will be encouraged to develop personal escalation calendars to track their own progress over the course of Summer School in advance of Graduation Day: September 17th, the one-year anniversary of OWS.

As the reign of the 1% collapses, it desperately deploys the police, the law, and the media to silence us and keep us in our places. In solidarity with students from Chile to Greece to Montreal to the Bronx, the school motto of OWSDS proclaims:

Educate to liberate! The crisis is our classroom! Now is the teachable moment!

Five Arrested As Occupiers in MN Successfully Defend Home from Second Eviction Attempt

OccupyWallSt — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:04:22 +0000

via Occupy Homes Minnesota:

Platoons of sheriffs descended on the Cruz family home in a 4 am raid today, arresting five nonviolent supporters in the second failed eviction attempt in 48 hours. Fifty protesters mobilized to defend the home and outflanked the sheriffs by marching through the alley into backyard, causing the sheriffs to retreat without fully securing the home. Members of Occupy Homes MN remain inside the home as of 7 am this morning.

“An army of sheriffs marched in military-style and busted down the door in the dead of night,” said Ben Egerman, an organizer with Occupy Homes MN. “It’s unconscionable that Sheriff Stanek ordered the violent eviction of this home a second time, especially when he is fully aware of active negotiations between the family and the bank to resolve the situation peacefully.”

Several protesters, who had locked themselves to structures in and around the home, sustained minor injuries as sheriffs forcibly removed them from the balcony and roof with jackhammers and electric saws. The condition of arrested persons remains unknown.

Occupy Homes MN has been defending the home in a round-the-clock eviction blockade since April 30 to demand PNC Bank negotiate with the Cruz family, who fell into foreclosure when the bank failed to withdraw their online payment.

The second eviction attempt came hours after Occupy Pittsburgh delivered a giant letter to PNC Bank Executive Vice President Dan Taylor, who committed to working with the family to modify their loan.

“It’s clear that Sheriff Stanek would rather kick families out of their homes than work with our communities,” said Martha Ockenfels-Martinez of Occupy Homes. “We’re still here and we will not be moved from this home until we see a good faith negotiation.”

UPDATE: Community members will hold an emergency 12:00pm press conference and march on Sheriff Stanek's office from the steps of City Hall to denounce him for authorizing the violent eviction of the home while the family is in active negotiations with the bank to peacefully resolve the situation. They will demand he stop trying to evict the home while the bank is working to resolve the issue.

UPDATE: Sheriffs have said they will hold the arrestees until TUESDAY. Call sheriff Stanek to demand they release them IMMEDIATELY. Ask him why his deputies are evicting a family negotiating with the bank and to demand he stop these senseless attacks on our community. (612)348-3744

Again with the pots! Louder this time! 8pm EST! #potsinprogress

OccupyWallSt — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:57:59 +0000

Video of massive neighbourhood #potsinprogress in Montreal

SHOW YOUR INDIGNATION FOR CORRUPTION, UNDEMOCRATIC PRACTICES, AND DEBT SLAVERY! BANG YOUR POTS ON THE INTERNET! SPAM THIS EVERYWHERE! #POTSINPROGRESS

via bopollo from /r/occupywallstreet:

I'm never going to forget that experience. Just walked out of my house banging a pot, then everyone else on my block appeared at their balconies and doors doing the same thing, so we decided to go for a walk. Turns out everyone else in the neighbourhood was also banging their pots, so we all got together and walked around for a few hours. Finished the night with a few beers and some new friends.

This is what democracy looks like.

Again last night, Quebecers and people around the world showed their indignation for corruption, undemocratic practices, and debt slavery by joining their communities in a thunderous clanging of pots! In coordination with Occupy Wall Street and other groups, people in the US and Europe also started banging on pots.

Our traditional methods of communicating - through our media, our politics, our business - are corrupt and unusable, so we will get our message out with pots!

Let's build a global movement!

Last year, the strength of Occupy Wall Street created the foundation for a continent-wide movement through the occupation of public squares and parks.

This spring, la Belle Province of Quebec has built the momentum, strength, and opportunity to be a launchpad for new North American occupations. Occupons Montréal was evicted from la Place du Peuple, but now we're occupying our entire city on an epic and unimaginable scale. Real change is in the air.

Take advantage of our momentum! This is your chance!

Spam this message everywhere!

#potsinprogress

Facebook community: http://www.facebook.com/potsinprogress

#TodosSomos132: Solidarity With the Mexican Spring

OccupyWallSt — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:50:29 +0000

On May 11, a group of students at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City booed Enrique Peña Nieto at one of his appearances. Peña - who was followed out of the building by students shouting "Get out!"- is the presidential candidate for the PRI, the party that ruled Mexico for over 70 years before being voted out in 2000. After this incident, supporters of the PRI in the mainstream media and on television news quickly demonized the dissenting students, claiming they were planted by their political rivals.

Students at Ibero fired back. 131 students from the university uploaded videos on Youtube and Facebook proving their identities. Soon, using the name #YoSoy132 (I am 132) in solidarity with the students who stood up to Peña, the protest spread from social media to the streets. One week ago, hundreds of students demonstrated outside Televisa's broadcasting centers. The protests continued to grow, reaching a size of around 50,000 in Mexico City on Saturday, when marchers shut down Paseo de la Reforma, a main thoroughfare in the capital. Over 20 cities in Mexico have joined in solidarity so far.

Although press has covered the protests as a youth-led movement against the PRI, the organizers describe themselves as a nonpartisan, leaderless movement for real democracy. In fact, the corporate media have been some of the movements primary targets. The movement is upset that two corporations, Televisa and TV Azteca, own 95% of media in Mexican homes, and the companies both have been accused of showing undue favoritism to the PRI. During the 70-year rule of the PRI, Televisa largely acted as the party's propaganda arm and continues to favor the PRI. Although Mexican media ignored the protests as long as possible, they were forced to acknowledge them after massive turnouts at Televisa's headquarters. A Mexican political analyst told the Wall Street Journal: "The protest movement has already achieved the impossible: forcing Televisa to cover an insurrection by young people."

But they are not finished yet. The #YoSoy132 movement is organizing a nationwide TV boycott during the presidential debates; on May 30 in Mexico City students from all schools and univerisites will gather for a joint General Assembly; convergences are also still taking place this weekend and beyond in Oaxaca and elsewhere in Mexico.

More: YoSoy132.mx
Twitter: @YoSoy132 | #MarchaYoSoy132
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/yosoy132

#MarchYoSoy132, May 23 2012

via #YoSoy132:

The #yosoy132 movement arose from social networks and the jeering of Enrique Peña Nieto by students at the University of Ibero. After this incident, the PRI accused the students of being planted. In response, 131 students uploaded videos showing their names, faces, account numbers, and credentials. Their videos climbed on Youtube and proved they were students from that university.

Then, the PRI was forced to admit that, yes, they were students but that it would be investigated. In response, users of social networks started the #yosoy132 ("I am 132") movement, announcing they too were exercising their freedom of expression and that they supported the 131 students.

Thanks to that, we organized and set up a march last Friday, attended not only by students from the Ibero, but also from universities such as ITAM and Anahuac. We marched on the sidewalk, without affecting traffic, and shouted slogans to Televisa and other mass media, demanding truthful information and the democratization of the media. We called, this time from many more colleges (public and private), to demand an end to media manipulation and the imposition of a candidate.

Then, we took to the streets, without party, without color, without violence.

#YoSoy132 is no longer a movement of students. Today we are a movement of ALL Mexicans.

The powerful media of our country (Mexico) want to impose a candidate (Peña Nieto) through the manipulation of information. The young university students at Ibero protested against media bias after the Peña Nieto's visit to the university. This generated a physical and digital citizens' movement against the Telecracy.

We are inspired by the 131 students at Ibero, who showed that the people are the boss, not a handful of corrupt politicians and businessmen who want to decide the future of the lives of millions of Mexicans and who lie, suppress, and deceive to do it, creating an environment not conducive to progress, freedom of expression, and truth.

Today I say to that small corrupt group of people:

I am the 132. I will not be fooled. I want a fairer, more free Mexico.

This is La Primavera Mexicana civil awakening against the manipulation of information. #YoSoy132 is a movement for truth.

tomorrow in Oaxaca

Tonight, at 8pm EST, take a large pot, go outside and bang it as loud as you can.

OccupyWallSt — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:10:27 +0000

IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF QUEBEC, SHOW YOUR INDIGNATION FOR CORRUPTION, UNDEMOCRATIC PRACTICES, AND DEBT SLAVERY!

#casserolesencours #manifencours #GGI #caixarolada #cacerolada #ComoIslandia

via bopollo from /r/occupywallstreet:

Montreal police have been doing whatever it takes to snuff out the nightly protests. In response, we've de-centralized.

Last night, at 8pm EST, people all over the province, but mainly in Montreal, went outside and started banging on kitchen pots, making a massive noise that could be heard all over Montreal island.

People came off their balconies and into the streets, and dozens of marches started forming, getting larger, and larger, all converging on downtown.

We're doing it again tonight, and every night, jusqu'à la victoire!

[1] Video of la manif des casseroles

[2] local article

Exclusive Post-Mortem Interview With Lucy Parsons, Rosa Luxemburg, and Emma Goldman

OccupyWallSt — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:17:24 +0000

During the recent NATO counter-summit in Chicago, we sat down for tea with the ghosts of Emma Goldman, Lucy Parsons, and Rosa Luxemburg, who granted us a rare interview. (The ghost of Mikhail Bakunin, crashing on the couch while in town for the protests, also chimed in.) We discussed Occupy Wall Street, NATO, the demonization of anarchists, May Day, the crisis in the European Union, prison reform, the U.S. Presidential elections, and more.

NATO

OWSt.ORG: The recent mass mobilization here in Chicago was one of the most significant events in the young Occupy movement’s history. We were joined by veterans against war, nurses for a Robin Hood Tax, anarchists opposed to police brutality. What are your thoughts on NATO? Why is it relevant to Occupy?

EMMA: We Americans claim to be a peace-loving people. We hate bloodshed; we are opposed to violence. Yet we go into spasms of joy over the possibility of projecting dynamite bombs from flying machines upon helpless citizens. It's quite saddening.

LUCY: Yes, but the NATO protest which has just been observed in Chicago was a great success from many standpoints, notably among which was the increased number of young people who took part in it. Very inspiring.

MIKHAIL: Why are so many people generally discontented with NATO today? The ruling class (the 1%, as your slogan goes) – which created NATO to protect its commercial and industrial transactions against the terrifying red phantom [the Soviet Union] – had not reckoned with the fact that a military regime is very costly, that through its internal organization alone it paralyzes, it upsets, it ruins nations, and moreover, obeying its own intrinsic and inescapable logic, it has never failed to bring on war; dynastic wars, wars of honor, wars of conquest or wars of national frontiers, wars of equilibrium – destruction and unending absorption of States by other States, rivers of human blood, a fire-ravaged countryside, ruined cities, the devastation of entire provinces – all this for the sake of satisfying the ambitions of Wall Street and their favorites, to discipline populations, and to fill the pages of history.

ROSA: The action at the Boeing headquarters was particularly brilliant for highlighting the connection between business and war. Armaments and wars, international contradictions and colonial politics accompany the history of capitalism from its cradle. It is the most extreme intensification of these elements, a drawing together, a gigantic storming of these contradictions.

Anarchists at the NATO summit

OWSt.ORG: Do you support the military veterans who returned their medals at the NATO summit?

EMMA: Absolutely. It is probably even more important to carry the truth into the barracks than into the factory.

OWSt.ORG: Surely by now you’ve heard of the #NATO5 (originally the #NATO3 before 2 more were arrested), the alleged anarchists being accused of making molotov cocktails during NATO who are now being charged with terrorism. The case bears striking resemblance to the anarchists who were arrested before May Day in Cleveland. In both examples authorities are being accused of entrapment, even planting evidence. What are your thoughts?

LUCY: How little has changed from our day. As you know, all of us here have been imprisoned and/or murdered for our political views. Our comrades were not murdered by the State because they had any connection with the bombthrowing, but because they were active in organizing the wage-slaves. The capitalist class didn't want to find the bombthrower; this class foolishly believed that by putting to death the active spirits of the labor movement of the time, it could frighten the working class back to slavery.

EMMA: That every act of political violence should nowadays be attributed to anarchists is not at all surprising. Yet it is a fact known to almost everyone familiar with the anarchist movement that a great number of acts, for which anarchists had to suffer, either originated with the capitalist press or were instigated, if not directly perpetrated, by the police. For a number of years acts of violence had been committed in Spain, for which the anarchists were held responsible, hounded like wild beasts, and thrown into prison. Later it was disclosed that the perpetrators of these acts were not anarchists, but members of the police department. This is one of the many striking examples of how anarchist conspiracies are manufactured. That the American police can perjure themselves with the same ease, that they are just as merciless, just as brutal and cunning as their European colleagues, has been proven on more than one occasion. We need only recall the tragedy of May 4th, 1886, known as the Haymarket Riot – here in Chicago, no less. No one who is at all familiar with the case can possibly doubt that the anarchists, judicially murdered in Chicago, died as victims of a lying, blood-thirsty press and of a cruel police conspiracy. The Judge of the case himself said: "Not because you have caused the Haymarket bomb, but because you are anarchists, you are on trial."

MIKHAIL: [muttering under breathe] There is no horror, no cruelty, sacrilege, or perjury, no imposture, no infamous transaction, no cynical robbery, no bold plunder or shabby betrayal that has not been or is not daily being perpetrated by the representatives of the States, under no other pretext than those elastic words, so convenient and yet so terrible: “for reasons of national security...¨

EMMA: Yes. What, then, are the objections? First, anarchism is impractical, though a beautiful ideal. Second, anarchism stands for violence and destruction, hence it must be repudiated as vile and dangerous. Both the intelligent man and the ignorant mass judge not from a thorough knowledge of the subject, but either from hearsay or false interpretation.

NATO is the real terrorist

OWSt.ORG: What are your thoughts on the proposed removal of NATO troops from Afghanistan by 2014?

ROSA: What is being prepared by the ruling classes as peace and justice is only a new work of brutal force from which the hydra of oppression, hatred, and fresh bloody wars raises its thousand heads. Remember that your victorious capitalists stand ready to suppress in blood our revolution. You yourselves have not become any freer through the “victory,” you have only become still more enslaved.

OWSt.ORG: After seeing all of the horrific livestream and photos of police violence against peaceful protesters last week, many people in the movement find ourselves again asking: are police part of the 99%?

LUCY: People have become so used to seeing the evidences of authority on every hand that most of them honestly believe that they would go utterly to the bad if it were not for the policeman's club or the soldier's bayonet.

EMMA: Referring to the American government, the greatest American anarchist, David Thoreau, said: "Law never made man a whit more just; and by means of their respect for it, even the well disposed are daily made agents of injustice."

The police state in full force in Chicago

Occupy Wall Street

OWSt.ORG: Clearly, one of the most significant accomplishments of OWS was to shift political discourse away from debt and markets and toward economic inequality and human need. For example, slogans like ¨the 99%¨ versus the ¨the 1%¨ are now commonplace in popular culture. How important is this shift?

MIKHAIL: Thanks to Occupy, one would have to be a sophist to deny the existence of the abyss which separates these two classes today. As in the ancient world, our modern civilization, which contains a comparatively limited minority of privileged citizens, is based upon the forced labor (forced by hunger) of the immense majority of the population who are fatally doomed to ignorance and to brutality. But what of the objection that this contrast, this gulf between the small number of the privileged and the vast numbers of the disinherited has always existed and still exists; just what has changed? It is only that this gulf used to be filled with the great fog banks of religion, so that the masses were deceived into thinking there was a common ground for all. Nowadays, the Great Revolution has begun to sweep the mists away; the masses, too, are beginning to see the abyss and to ask the reason why. This is a stupendous realization. From the moment this question was asked, the people everywhere, led by their admirable good sense as well as by their instinct, have realized that the first condition for their real emancipation or, if I may be permitted to use the term, their humanization, was, above all, a radical reform of their economic condition. The question of daily bread is for them the principal question, and rightly so.

ROSA: [nods] Naturally no one could predict the lightning-like way in which this idea would succeed and how quickly it would be adopted by the working classes.

OWSt.ORG: Rosa, you were a big proponent of May Day. How did you feel about the Occupy General Strike on May 1st?

ROSA: The brilliant basic idea of May Day is the autonomous, immediate stepping forward of the proletarian masses, the political mass action of the millions of workers who otherwise are atomized by the barriers of the state in the day-to-day parliamentary affairs, who mostly can give expression to their own will only through the ballot, through the election of their representatives. What could give the workers greater courage and faith in their own strength than a mass work stoppage which they had decided themselves? What could give more courage to the eternal slaves of the factories and the workshops than the mustering of their own troops? The first of May demanded the introduction of the eight-hour day. But even after this goal was reached, May Day was not given up. As long as the struggle of the workers against the the 1% (as you Occupiers say) and the ruling class continues, as long as all demands are not met, May Day will be the yearly expression of these demands. And, when better days dawn, when the Global 99% has won its deliverance then too humanity will probably celebrate May Day in honor of the bitter struggles and the many sufferings of the past. This is to say, let’s make next May Day even bigger!

Tens of thousands of workers, unions, immigrants, and Occupiers march together on May Day, 2012 in NYC

OWSt.ORG: Occupy has been critcized for ¨not having demands¨ or for ¨demanding the impossible.¨ How do you respond?

ROSA: In our time, the legal eight-hour day was one of the demands on our minimal program. i.e., the very least minimum of social reform which we, as representatives of the workers’ interests, must demand and expect from the state. The fragmentation of even these minimal demands into still smaller morsels goes against all our tactics. We must make our minimum demands in unamended form. Even if we are ready to accept any installment, we must leave it to the bourgeois parties themselves to whittle down our demands to fit their interests. If we ourselves start believing that our demands are excessive and practically impossible, then we are making the saddest moral concession. Certainly our policy should and can only endeavour to achieve what is possible under given circumstances. But this is not to say how, in what manner, we should endeavour to achieve what is possible. This, however, is the crucial point. Precisely because we do not yield one inch from our position, we force the government and the bourgeois parties to concede to us the few immediate successes that can be gained.

EMMA: [nods] Every daring attempt to make a great change in existing conditions, every lofty vision of new possibilities for the human race, has been labelled utopian.

OWSt.ORG: Since the brutal crackdowns on our encampments last fall through to the attempted re-occupations in the winter and spring, and now even the militarization of home evictions in response to Occupiers nonviolent resistance to foreclosures, more and more Occupiers are becoming the target of the criminal (in)justice system. Many are, for the first time, learning what poor people and communities of color have long experienced – that police and prisons, far from making us safer, are actually used to control and suppress marginalized communities and dissidents. Emma, as an early proponent of prison abolition, what are your thoughts on Occupy’s role in supporting prisoners?

EMMA: With all our boasted reforms, our great social changes, and our far-reaching discoveries, human beings continue to be sent to the worst of hells, wherein they are outraged, degraded, and tortured, that society may be “protected” from the phantoms of its own making. Prison, a social protection? What monstrous mind ever conceived such an idea? Just as well say that health can be promoted by a widespread contagion. We are spending at the present $28,284.16 per year for every person in a federal prison institution. In 2009, 7,225,800 adults were under correctional supervision — 3.1% of adults in the U.S. And that in a democratic country. Such unheard-of expenditure for the purpose of maintaining vast armies of human beings caged up like wild beasts! The most absurd apology for authority and law is that they serve to diminish crime. Aside from the fact that the State is itself the greatest criminal, breaking every written and natural law, stealing in the form of taxes, killing in the form of war and capital punishment, it has come to an absolute standstill in coping with crime. It has failed utterly to destroy or even minimize the horrible scourge of its own creation. On the other hand, the widespread prison investigations, agitation, and education during the last few years are conclusive proof that we are learning to dig deep into the very bottom of society, down to the causes of the terrible discrepancy between social and individual life. That said, I am not very sanguine that any real change can take place until the conditions that breed both the prisoner and the jailer will be forever abolished. If Occupy is to address the problem of prisons, this must be the goal.

Emma Goldman addressing anarchists in Union Square, NYC

The US Presidential Elections

OWSt.ORG: President Obama came to power based on promises of change. A lot of people got behind this and have been disappointed and are now starting to question whether genuine change can come from above. How can we keep making tangible improvements to our living conditions while remaining independent from the corrupt mainstream political system?

ROSA: Never in world history has a political party gone so miserably bankrupt, never has an exalted ideal been so disgracefully betrayed and dragged through the mud! Anyway, as we said in my day, it is clear that you must not demand a ten-hour day if you want the eight-hour day. Do the contrary and you’ll do well: if there is any possibility of getting legislation to limit working time to ten hours, it is only by constantly pressing for an eight-hour day. All our experiences point this up. Only by demanding from bourgeois society all that it is capable of granting have we succeeded here and there in obtaining a small part. It is a very new principle of so-called “practical politics” in our party to hope, on the contrary, to get great effects through mutest and moderate demands. No matter how popular and appealing this tactical turn may seem, it altogether misses the mark. Nobody can possibly believe that our too extreme demands made it impossible for the bourgeois parties to show their good will. No. It is exactly by demanding the eight-hour bill that we can force the bourgeoisie to show its good will at least with a more modest reform. Here as in other cases, it was only our pressure, our pushing the bourgeois reforms to extremes, which squeezed a quarter ounce of “good will” out of the bourgeoisie. It is obviously bad logic to count on bringing its so-called good will out by taking the pressure off.

EMMA: Politics is the reflex of the business and industrial world. Our institutions and conditions rest upon deep-seated ideas. To change those conditions and at the same time leave the underlying ideas and values intact means only a superficial transformation, one that cannot be permanent or bring real betterment. "All voting," said Thoreau, "is a sort of gaming, like checkers, or backgammon, a playing with right and wrong; its obligation never exceeds that of expediency.¨ A close examination of the machinery of politics and its achievements will bear out the logic of Thoreau. Universal suffrage itself owes its existence to direct action. If not for the spirit of rebellion, of the defiance on the part of the American revolutionary fathers, their posterity would still wear the King's coat. No real social change has ever come about without a revolution. People are either not familiar with their history, or they have not yet learned that revolution is but thought carried into action.

OWSt.ORG: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has defended the 1%, claiming they are the job creators who will save the economy. Under this logic, what we really need is to let the market and the self-interest of bankers fix the financial crisis. What do you say to those who claim that market deregulation, privatization, and spending cuts – austerity, as they more honestly call it in Europe – is the best way out of the Great Recession?

MIKHAIL: It is in vain that we might say, with the economists, that an improvement in the economic situation of the 99% depends upon the general progress of industry and commerce in each country, and their complete emancipation from the supervision and protection of the State. The freedom of industry and of commerce is certainly a great thing, and one of the essential foundations of the future international alliance of all the peoples of the world. As we love freedom, all types of freedom, we should equally love this. On the other hand, however, we must recognize that so long as the present States exist, and so long as labor continues to be the slave of property and of capital, this particular freedom, while it enriches a minimum portion of the 1% to the detriment of the immense majority, would produce one benefit alone; it would further enfeeble and demoralize the small number of the privileged while increasing the misery, the grievances, and the just indignation of the working masses, the 99%, and thereby hasten the hour of destruction for States.

LUCY: The grandest works of the past were never performed for the sake of money. Who can measure the worth of a Shakespeare, an Angelo or Beethoven in dollars and cents? Agassiz said, "he had no time to make money," there were higher and better objects in life than that. And so will it be when humanity is once relieved from the pressing fear of starvation, want, and slavery, it will be concerned, less and less, about the ownership of vast accumulations of wealth.

EMMA: Indeed. The oft repeated slogan of our time is, among all politicians, that ours is an era of individualism. Only those who do not probe beneath the surface might be led to entertain this view. Have not the few accumulated the wealth of the world? Are they not the masters, the absolute kings of the situation? Their success, however, is due not to individualism, but to the inertia, the cravenness, the utter submission of the mass. For now at least. [smiles]

More scenes from the NATO summit

OWSt.ORG: Since the housing bubble collapsed and the financial crisis in 2008, progressively larger segments of the middle class are slipping into poverty. Others are living one paycheck or medical bill away from being homeless. How do you feel that this has changed politics, and what relevance does it have for Occupy?

MIKHAIL: We might truthfully say that the petit bourgeoisie, small business, and small industry are now beginning to suffer almost as much as the working classes, and if things go on at the same rate, this respectable bourgeois majority could well, through its economic position, soon merge with the proletariat. It is being destroyed and pushed downward into the abyss by big commerce, big industry, and especially by large-scale, unscrupulous speculators. The position of the petit bourgeoisie, therefore, is growing more and more revolutionary; its ideas, which for so long a time had been reactionary, have been clarified through these disastrous experiences and must necessarily take the opposite course. The more intelligent among them are beginning to realize that for the decent bourgeoisie the only salvation lies in an alliance with the people – and that the social question is as important to them, and in the same way, as to the people.

Europe

OWSt.ORG: Mikhail, as one of the earliest advocates for a federation of European States and of internationalism, how do you feel about the situation right now in the Europe and the coming potential of a Greek exit from the Euro?

MIKHAIL: There is but one way to bring about the triumph of liberty, of justice, and of peace in Europe's international relations – to make civil war impossible between the different peoples who make up the European family. Unity is the great goal toward which humanity moves irresistibly. But it becomes fatal, destructive of the intelligence, the dignity, the well-being of individuals and peoples whenever it is formed without regard to liberty, either by violent means or under the authority of any theological, metaphysical, political, or even economic idea. Recognition of the absolute right of each nation, great or small, of each people, weak or strong, of each province, of each commune, to complete autonomy, provided its internal constitution is not a threat or a danger to the autonomy and liberty of neighboring countries. The fact that a country has been part of the Eurozone, even if it has joined that State freely and of its own will, does not create an obligation for that country to remain forever so attached. No perpetual obligation could be accepted by human justice, the only kind of justice that may have authority amongst us, and we shall never recognize other rights or duties than those founded upon liberty. The right of free union and of equally free secession is the first, the most important, of all political rights, the one right without which the federation would never be more than a centralization in disguise.

OWSt.ORG: Occupy was inspired, in part, by the indignad@s, or 15-M movement, and the amazing uprisings against austerity in Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal and other countries (which, in turn, were partly inspired by the Arab Spring). What do you think Occupy has to offer to the so-called ¨Eurozone crisis¨?

MIKHAIL: The European Union can never be formed from the States as they are now constituted, considering the monstrous inequality which exists between their respective economies. Occupiers should therefore bend all their efforts toward reconstituting their respective countries, in order to replace their old constitution – founded from top to bottom on violence and the principle of authority – with a new organization based solely upon the interests, the needs, and the natural preferences of their populations – having no other principle but the free federation of individuals into communes, of communes into provinces, of the provinces into nations, and, finally, the entire world eventually.

The Future

OWSt.org: In the face of such repression and a near-total media blackout, is Occupy dead – as many of our detractors would claim?

MIKHAIL: Is it necessary to prove that Occupy is not dead? We need only see what is going on all over the world today. Behind all the diplomatic gossip, what serious question is facing all the countries if it is not the social question? It alone is the great unknown; everyone senses its coming, everyone trembles at the thought, no one dares speak of it – but it speaks for itself, and in an ever louder voice. The cooperative associations of the workers, these mutual aid banks and labor credit banks, these trade unions, and this international league of Occupiers in all the countries – does it not prove that they have not in any way given up their goal, nor lost faith in their coming emancipation? Does it not prove that they have also understood that in order to hasten the hour of their deliverance they should not rely on the States, nor on the more or less hypocritical assistance of the privileged classes, but rather upon themselves and their independent, completely spontaneous associations? It took Christianity 400 years to conquer Europe, are we surprised Occupy hasn’t succeeded the far more difficult task of creating economic justice in 8 months?

EMMA: The history of human growth and development is at the same time the history of the terrible struggle of every new idea heralding the approach of a brighter dawn. In its tenacious hold on tradition, the Old has never hesitated to make use of the foulest and cruelest means to stay the advent of the New, in whatever form or period the latter may have asserted itself. Nor need we retrace our steps into the distant past to realize the enormity of opposition, difficulties, and hardships placed in the path of every progressive idea.

OWSt.ORG: Ok, one final question. Where should Occupy go from here?

EMMA: The ultimate end of all revolutionary social change is to establish the sanctity of human life, the dignity of humanity, and the right of every human being to liberty and well-being, of course.

LUCY: The manifestations of discontent now looming upon every side show that society is conducted on wrong principles and that something has got to be done soon or the wage class will sink into a slavery worse than was the feudal serf. I say to Occupiers everywhere: Think clearly and act quickly, or you are lost. Strike not for a few cents more an hour, because the price of living will be raised faster still, but strike for all you earn, be content with nothing less. Just look at Spain and Germany, or just across the border to our comrades in Quebec, and right here this week in Chicago. The voice of the people will yet be heard.

Up to 500,000 people took to the streets in Montreal on the 100th day of protest against tuition increases, austerity, and state repression