#occupywallstreet

Wall Street Occupiers vs. Tea Party Activists visual representation

(click the link)

submitted by: http://stopdropandrun.tumblr.com/

…the National Lawyers Guild obtained a court order allowing Occupy Wall Street protesters to return with tents to the park. The guild said the injunction prevents the city from enforcing park rules on Occupy Wall Street protesters.

tigersmilk:

quaking-aspen:

• 3:05 a.m. NYPD cutting down trees in Liberty Square
• 2:55 a.m. NYC council-member Ydanis Rodríguez arrested and bleeding from head.
• 2:44 a.m. Defiant occupiers barricaded Liberty Square kitchen
• 2:44 a.m. NYPD destroys OWS Library. 5,000 donated books in dumpster.
• 2:42 a.m. Brooklyn Bridge confirmed closed
• 2:38 a.m. 400-500 marching north to Foley Square
• 2:32 a.m. All subways but R shut down
• 2:29 a.m. Press helicopters evicted from airspace. NYTimes reporter arrested.
• 2:22 a.m. Frontpage coverage from New York Times
• 2:15 a.m. Occupiers who have been dispersed are regrouping at Foley Square
• 2:10 a.m. Press barred from entering Liberty Square
• 2:07 a.m. Pepper spray deployed — reports of at least one reporter sprayed
• 2:03 a.m. Massive Police Presence at Canal and Broadway
• 1:43 a.m. Helicopters overhead.
• 1:38 a.m. Unconfirmed reports of snipers on rooftops.
• 1:34 a.m. CBS News Helicopter Livestream
• 1:27 a.m. Unconfirmed reports that police are planning to sweep everyone.
• 1:20 a.m. Subway stops are closed.
• 1:20 a.m. Brooklyn bridge is closed.
• 1:20 a.m. Occupiers chanting “This is what a police state looks like.”
• 1:20 a.m. Police are in riot gear.
• 1:20 a.m. Police are bringing in bulldozers.

“The police move came as organizers put out word on their Web site that they planned to “shut down Wall Street” with a demonstration on Thursday to commemorate the completion of two months of the beginning of the encampment, which has spurred similar demonstrations across the country.”

arewepayingattention:

The Occupy Atlanta folks have been seriously hassled by their mayor, but they’ve since hit upon a brilliant idea. With one strategic move, they’ve outflanked their establishment opponents and offered up a model for occupiers in every American community.

Here they are occupying the front yard of an Atlanta police officer’s home to prevent a foreclosure eviction. The neighbors are cheering the effort, thereby spreading the resistance to a type of neighborhood which perhaps would not otherwise have been engaged.  And let’s see how the powers that be manage to evict a police officer and his family with a front yard full of occupiers and television cameras, not to mention cell phone videographers watching.

Brilliant.

occupyonline:

leterel:

After an entire night of thousands protesters holding the parks from riot cops in full gear, this morning when the protestors mostly went to sleep the cops came in and started dismantling camps. During the General Assembly the cops flooded in and began shoving protestors out of the parks onto the sidewalks, then off the sidewalks into the street. Cops have batons, rubber bullet guns, pepper spray. There are a few livestreams, but here’s one that should be up for a while.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mpapaya

http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/blogs/BlogtownPDX/ has overview of what happened overnight

http://twitter.com/#!/theriaultpdx this person is updating very often with what is happening

occupyonline:

1. It names the source of the crisis.
Political insiders have avoided this simple reality: The problems of the 99% are caused in large part by Wall Street greed, perverse financial incentives, and a corporate takeover of the political system. Now that this is understood, the genie is out of the bottle and it can’t be put back in.

2. It provides a clear vision of the world we want.
We can create a world that works for everyone, not just the wealthiest 1%. And we, the 99%, are using the spaces opened up by the Occupy movement to conduct a dialogue about the world we want.

3. It sets a new standard for public debate.
Those advocating policies and proposals must now demonstrate that their ideas will benefit the 99%. Serving only the 1% will not suffice, nor will claims that the subsidies and policies that benefit the 1% will eventually “trickle down.”

4. It presents a new narrative.
The solution is not to starve government or impose harsh austerity measures that further harm middle-class and poor people already reeling from a bad economy. Instead, the solution is to free society and government from corporate dominance. A functioning democracy is our best shot at addressing critical social, environmental, and economic crises.

5. It creates a big tent.
We, the 99%, are people of all ages, races, occupations, and political beliefs. We will resist being divided or marginalized. We are learning to work together with respect.

6. It offers everyone a chance to create change.
No one is in charge; no organization or political party calls the shots. Anyone can get involved, offer proposals, support the occupations, and build the movement. Because leadership is everywhere and new supporters keep turning up, there is a flowering of creativity and a resilience that makes the movement nearly impossible to shut down.

7. It is a movement, not a list of demands.
The call for deep change—not temporary fixes and single-issue reforms—is the movement’s sustaining power. The movement is sometimes criticized for failing to issue a list of demands, but doing so could keep it tied to status quo power relationships and policy options. The occupiers and their supporters will not be boxed in.

8. It combines the local and the global.
People in cities and towns around the world are setting their own local agendas, tactics, and aims. What they share in common is a critique of corporate power and an identification with the 99%, creating an extraordinary wave of global solidarity.

9. It offers an ethic and practice of deep democracy and community.
Slow, patient decision-making in which every voice is heard translates into wisdom, common commitment, and power. Occupy sites are set up as communities in which anyone can discuss grievances, hopes, and dreams, and where all can experiment with living in a space built around mutual support.

10. We have reclaimed our power.
Instead of looking to politicians and leaders to bring about change, we can see now that the power rests with us. Instead of being victims to the forces upending our lives, we are claiming our sovereign right to remake the world.

Former U.S. Marine Scott Olsen, whose injury during clashes between Oakland police and protesters last month galvanized the Anti-Wall Street movement, has been released from the hospital, friends said on Friday.

“He is out of the hospital as of yesterday or today, thank goodness,” Adele Carpenter, 29, told Reuters.

Iraq Veterans Against the War spokeswoman Dottie Guy also confirmed Olsen’s release to Reuters.

Olsen is focused on healing right now, Carpenter told Reuters, but she added that “he is following the Occupy protests closely, as well as the vets march against police brutality today.”

“He sent words of affirmation to friends during the Oakland General Strike and has been excited to hear stories from people who could attend,” she said.

abudai:

The organizers, at the behest of Egyptian civil society groups, will send 20 activists to Egypt to monitor the Nov. 28 elections. They’ll consist of two to four representatives from six of the existing Occupy working groups, including press, movement building, direct action, mediation, and medical.  The significance is mostly symbolic, but they say their participation will “work to protect and support the civilian monitoring efforts of Egyptian activists on the ground and constitutes a concrete stand against the use of American weapons against peaceful demonstrators.” The $29,000 includes 20 tickets at $1,200 each, $20 per person for daily lodging, and $50 per person for daily food and transportation.

We are the 99%! We are the 99%! 

occupyallstreets:

Operation Walk Out will take place on November 30th in solidarity with The National Association of Head Teachers.

Students and teachers have been greatly impacted by the economic crisis.

Our teachers have been continually laid off and schools have lost funding due to budget cuts.

We need to send our government a message, our education should be top priority.

The Walk Out will begin at 12 p.m. in all schools.

We ask students, teachers and faculty to march against education cuts and tuition hikes.

We shall be heard.

Like us on Facebook for updates.

Police have arrested 156 supporters of the English Defence League in order to prevent a breach of the peace, Scotland Yard said.

It is understood the EDL supporters were planning to target Occupy LSX protesters outside St Paul’s Cathedral.

The EDL followers were arrested outside the Red Lion pub, in Westminster, and taken to central London police stations.

Federal judge Jed Rakoff, a former prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s office here in New York, is fast becoming a sort of legal hero of our time. He showed that again yesterday when he shat all over the SEC’s latest dirty settlement with serial fraud offender Citigroup, refusing to let the captured regulatory agency sweep yet another case of high-level criminal malfeasance under the rug.

The SEC had brought an action against Citigroup for misleading investors about the way a certain package of mortgage-backed assets had been chosen. The case is very similar to the notorious Abacus case involving Goldman Sachs, in which Goldman allowed short-selling billionaire John Paulson (who was betting against the package) to pick the assets, then told a pair of European banks that the “designed to fail” package they were buying had been put together independently.  

This case was similar, but worse. Here, Citi similarly told investors a package of mortgages had been chosen independently, when in fact Citi itself had chosen the stuff and was betting against the whole pile.

This whole transaction actually combined a number of Goldman-style misdeeds, since the bank both lied to investors and also bet against its own product and its own customers. In the deal, Citi made a $160 million profit, while its customers lost $700 million.

Goldman, in the Abacus case, got fined $550 million. In this worse case, the SEC was trying to settle with Citi for just $285 million. Judge Rakoff balked at the settlement and particularly balked at the SEC’s decision to allow Citi off without any admission of wrongdoing. He also mocked the SEC’s decision to describe the crime as “negligence” instead of intentional fraud, taking the entirely rational position that there’s no way a bank making $160 million ripping off its customers can conceivably be described as an accident.

“Why should the court impose a judgment in a case in which the SEC alleges a serious securities fraud but the defendant neither admits nor denies wrongdoing?” And this: “How can a securities fraud of this nature and magnitude be the result simply of negligence?”

Rakoff of course is right – the settlement is nuts. If you take Citi’s $160 million profit on the deal into consideration, what we’re talking about then is a $125 million fine for causing $700 million in damages. That, and no admission of wrongdoing.

Just imagine a mugger who steals $70 from some lady’s wallet being sentenced to walk free after paying back twelve bucks. Magritte himself could not devise a more surreal take on criminal justice.

It gets worse. →

A man was shot this evening near the Occupy Oakland encampment outside City Hall, witnesses said.

The man was shot outside the 12th Street BART station at 14th Street and Broadway about 5 p.m.

Witnesses said four to six shots were fired. Oakland firefighters performed CPR on the victim, who was taken away in an ambulance.

Two longtime Occupy Oakland campers said they did not recognize the victim and that they did not believe the shooting was related to the encampment.

“This was not an internal incident,” said one of the campers, 35-year-old Shake Anderson. “What happened was the result of neighborhood violence. Don’t forget, we’re in downtown Oakland.”

More swiftly than we ever believed possible, the occupation at Zuccotti Park has opened up a political conversation and shifted the terrain. A recent poll revealed that 67 percent of New Yorkers agree with the views of Occupy Wall Street protesters and that almost three-quarters of them favor a tax on millionaires. People who have not been to demonstrations in years—or perhaps ever—have taken to the streets across the country. Instead of being ashamed about unemployment and personal debt, people are indignant. Instead of blaming a few “bad apples,” fingers are pointing to the economic system at large. The ultimate sign of early success is that politicians who initially scoffed at the outliers at Zuccotti Park have had to proclaim their allegiance to the 99 percent. Look at Republican hopeful Mitt Romney who first sounded the alarm about “dangerous … class warfare” and now says he doesn’t “worry about the top 1 percent” and that, when he looks at Wall Street, he “understands how those people [the protesters] feel.”

When high-profile Democrats like Bill Clinton embrace the Wall Street demonstrations on David Letterman (then advise the movement to throw its weight behind Obama), and Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor goes from calling occupiers “mobs” to “justifiably frustrated,” the left needs to adjust and push the envelope accordingly. When influential conservatives are fretting on their blogs that OWS is stealing their thunder (“These people are open to listen to anyone who is willing to take on Wall Street,” wrote blogger and CNN contributor Erick Erickson, “We shouldn’t let unwashed hippies be the only people they hear speaking to their concerns”) we need to recognize, if nothing else, that the Occupy movement has already tilted the playing field and move our goal posts accordingly— further left so we keep dragging the political conversation with us.

occupyrva:

Police made 2 arrests yesterday during a rally for the Occupy RVA movement. During the police encounter, 3 incidences of police brutality have been reported. Later in the day, a strong police presence was observed at the site of the encampment at Festival Park, with the number of officers observers reporting as close to 80 or more.

This comes after a raid on the Occupy Richmond encampment in Kanawha Plaza, where close to a dozen people where arrested, and the former site razed by bulldosers and dumptrucks.

2 Large Tent Stoves and 2 Large Canvas Arctic tents.

One of our biggest needs right now are warm spaces we can use to continue to provide for the food needs of the camp and to retain our 24-hour presence at the site. We are hoping to use one tent as our winter cooking tent. This tent will allow us to continue to feed the occupiers and other vulnerable community members that need support.

The other tent will be used both for sleeping accommodations during the night and for a meeting/arts space during the day.

The stoves are to keep the tents warm. As we are without power at the site (the ‘owner’ of the park turned off all power outlets) the stoves are essential for providing protection against the cold 24-hrs a day.

2 Gas generators.

As mentioned above we do not have power at the site. The generators are to help alleviate the power needs at the site and are primarily for the kitchen and media tents. They will be used as a power source and to charge the power packs (see below).

The kitchen needs power throughout the day to cook warm meals, to provide warm tea and coffee and to ensure we all have happy, warm bellies.

The media tent needs power so we can facilitate on-site/off-site communication, so we can send out media and action alerts and so we can continue to main on-going contact with the outside world.

2 Power packs

These packs are to give us the ability to store power. As we want to be as environmentally conscience as possible we want to use the generators as little as possible. The packs will allow us to have power on site and to also be able to use it for outdoor activities and actions.

2 Medical Kits

We have several nurses and medics as part of our action team. We also have medical supplies but they are unfortunately quite diverse and do not provide a solid medic kit for us to use throughout the winter. Also winter contains specific medical needs that we wish to be prepared for. These medic bags will allow us to provide for and attend to any medical needs.

Internet stick

This stick will allow us to have internet on-site. This will help facilitate on-site/off-site communication, give us the ability to send out media and action alerts and allow us to continue to main on-going contact with the outside world.

Building supplies

We are also hoping for a variety of building materials. Due to the limitations imposed on our site we are not able to build ‘structures’ but do require some materials to further insulate, to build safe lock boxes for materials, to build bunk beds to lift people off the ground, etc. We are trying to get many items donated but will likely need some support to complete our needs. 1 Lift of 12’ 2X4’s, 1/2 Lift of 12’ 2X8’s, 1 Lift of 3/8” 4X8’ Sheets of OSB, Several 18X24’, Insulated Tarps, 3” Nails, Several Bags of R20 Insulation, 3 Rolls of, Industrial Grade Poly, Several Boxes of 3/4” Staples, Several Rolls of Tie Wire.

occupyonline:

Previous 11/7 Report

NATIONWIDE

Occupy the Polls! Several Occupy sites and their allies are encouraging folks to get out and rock the vote today. Sites like Cincinnati, Boston, Tulsa and others have been sending links with information on the candidates via twitter all day and encouraging

Occupy Asheville
Occupy Ashville member, Martin Ramsey, reports that following Occupy Asheville’s November 2nd day of action, “the Asheville Police Department has… been arresting Occupy Asheville people rather indiscriminately and charging them all with the same crimes. Reactionary comments by police have been making their way through the press and we’re hopeful that due to this, a climate of doubt surrounding Ron Moore, our District Attorney, and our continued pressure and action will result in the dismissal of all charges against Occupy participants.” The group hasn’t let the arrests stop them from mobilizing. This Saturday Occupy Asheville marched in solidarity on BoA and RBC with the Southern Student Renewable Energy Conference anti-bank action, with total numbers at nearly three hundred.

Occupy Atlanta

Tonight at 9pm Occupy Atlanta will hold a press conference where they will provide updates on the Occupation of the foreclosed Rorey family home. Last week, Tawanna Rorey’s husband, a police officer based in Gwinnett County, e-mailed Occupy Atlanta to explain that his home was going to be foreclosed on and his family was in danger of being evicted on Monday. So within a few hours Occupy Atlanta developed an action plan to move to Snellville, Georgia on Monday to stop the foreclosure. At least two dozen protesters encamped on the family’s lawn, to the applause of neighbors and bystanders. Occupy Atlanta set up two tents in the front yard, draped a “This Home is Occupied” sign over the porch railing and handed out bottled water and granola bars to other members. Tonight the group is expected to announce the formation of Occupy Gwinnet whose first action will be to take over the occupation of the Rorey house as well as research other wrongful foreclosures in Gwinnet. Gwinnet has the 4th highest foreclosure rate in the country.

Occupy Boston
**Occupy Boston Free School U. Needs Volunteers**

The Free School provides free daily classes and workshops in activism. Occupy Boston’s Free School University needs Greeters, Forum Coordinators and Online Help (wiki, mailing list, website, twitter.)

CALL TO ACTION: If you can help please contact Eden@FreeSchoolUniversity.org or attend this Friday’s Volunteer Meeting at 4:00pm.

Occupy Chicago
Video: Governor Scott Walker gets mic checked by the 99%: http://front.moveon.org/scott-walkers-chicago-speech-taken-over-by-the-99/#.TrlZNw00vBw.twitter

Occupy Cincinnati
Like many other sites, Occupy Cincinnati has been encouraging people to get out and vote today and has been using Twitter to encourage voters to seek out more information on all the local candidates: http://www.wlwt.com/politics/29649250/detail.html.

Occupy DC
Today Ben and Jerry (yup – the ice cream guys) visited Occupy DC and handed out free scoops of ice cream. Tonight Occupy DC is hosting a march and Homelessness 101 Teach-In tonight in McPhersonSquare. You can catch the Occupy DC livestream at http://occupydc.org/. The last reports from twitter announced that the group was “blockading at least six intersections around building w Koch Bros, Herman Cain, Mitt Romney, etc.”

Occupy Maine
[Member report] During the wee hours of the morning a pair of officers informed Occupy Maine members that their tents are considered homes and cannot legally be entered by the police. The group is well on its way to becoming an established community with a bank account, huge yurt and library (equipped with a new Indy Media and Activism section).

Occupy Minneapolis
**Help Occupy MN Save a Foreclosed Home**

Occupy Minneapolis/Occupy Minnesota will help a local woman take a stand and fight back against the bank trying to take her home. OM will occupy the home of Monique White tonight. White lost her job as a Youth Counselor due to state budget cuts, and then she lost her home. Now White has decided to stay in her home, raise awareness about foreclosures, and put an end to banks taking peoples’ homes. Occupy Minneapolis/Occupy Minnesota will protect and occupy her home beginning tonight. Get more information at http://vimeo.com/31770485 and http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=212533328819790.

CALL TO ACTION: Sign the petition to tell US Bank CEO Richard Davis to keep Monique White in her home chn.ge/​uw224u

Occupy Oakland
[Huffington Post report] A police attack against Oakland man Scott Campbell has drawn national attention and outrage after Campbell released a video of the incident on YouTube. Early Thursday morning after Occupy Oakland’s general strike, Campbell filmed police officers as they surrounded the remaining protesters. According to Campbell, an officer asked him to step back as he approached the police line with a video camera. Campbell obliged, and then began filming about ten feet from the officers. On the video, Campbell can be heard asking “is this OK?” twice. Several seconds later, an officer shoots him with what appears to be a rubber bullet. Watch the video here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/08/scott-campbell-films-police-shooting_n_1082393.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

Occupy Portland
Today Occupy Portland protesters joined hands in an enormous circle around Pioneer Courthouse Square in solidarity with 15,000 environmentalists in Washington D.C. In a move to pressure President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline for dirty tar sands oil, Oregonians from all walks of life joined Occupy Portland to protest against this polluting and dangerous project. Check out the video from today’s Occupy Portland Tar Sands Protest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8794iOt0CQ0

Occupy Raleigh
Twitter report this morning: The Occupation in Raleigh is down to three people.

Occupy Sacramento
Check out the Occupy Sacramento livestream at http://www.livestream.com/occupysacto.

Occupy Seattle
The city council of Seattle is debating a resolution that would support Occupy Seattle. The resolution would “recognize and support the peaceful and lawful exercise of the First Amendment as a cherished and fundamental right in the effort to seek solutions for economically distressed Americans at the federal and local levels.”

Occupy Wall St.
Occupy Wall Street is going on the road — a two-week, 240-mile walk to Washington. A small group of OWS activists plans to leave Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park at noon Wednesday. They hope to arrive in DC by Nov. 23rd, the deadline for a congressional committee to decide whether to keep President Barack Obama’s extension of Bush-era tax cuts. Today – David Crosby and Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are performing at Zuccotti Park.

Occupy Worcester
[Press Release] Just before 11 am today, Tuesday, members of the Worcester Anti-Foreclosure Team (WAFT), homeowners Pablo and Shirley Travieso and family, and members of Occupy Worcester lined up in front of the Traviesos’ two-story house at 24 Illinois St., drowned out the voice of auctioneer John Baker by chanting loudly, and blocked his entry to the property. The 44 protesters held signs and their chants included “Bank of America/Bad for America”, “Banks got Bailed Out/We got Sold Out”, and “What does democracy look like?/This is what democracy looks like!” The auctioneer, John Baker, acting for Bank of New York Trust, trustee for a bundle of mortgages in which this one was included, gamely proceeded with the auction at 11am despite the noise, and as there were no other bidders, the bank took back the house for $79,900.

WORLDWIDE

Global Effort
To link Occupy sites around the globe, Occupy LSX’s International Commission group is proposing a global, publically available mailing list with one assembly-endorsed contributing contact from each assembly. The kind of information that would be shared in the list would be information like:

- Proposals for other assemblies to discuss
- Updates from occupations
- Requests for help

- Any other information an assembly would like to share with the world

If your site is interested in being included on the list, please email internationalcommission@occupylsx.org with your assembly’s designated contact.

Occupy Brazil
Occupy Sao Paulo is liberating abandoned buildings to give shelter to homeless families. Early Monday families of homeless workers occupied abandoned buildings in the center of São Paulo. The group told reporters yesterday, “We cannot and should not continue to suffer from a lack of housing. We are starting with houses and land that have already been abandoned and will turn them into a large housing project for low-income families.”

Occupy Canada
[CTA report] Occupy protesters are resisting municipal orders to leave and dismantle their three-week old camps in cities across Canada as eviction notices are being served and court injunctions sought. Eviction notices have been served in Victoria, Quebec City and Vancouver, while officials in Halifax have struck a deal with demonstrators to move their tents for Remembrance Day ceremonies to be held at their camp site. In Victoria, protesters rejected a notice of removal on Monday, marching past a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald on their way to deliver a letter to city hall. The letter declares that the city of Victoria has failed to uphold the Charter of Rights and Freedoms right to peaceful assembly.

Occupy London
In solidarity with students, education workers and everyone resisting the various attacks on education, Tent City University (Occupy London’s education arm) is holding ‘Teach-Outs’ before their big NCAFC demonstration on Wednesday at 10:30am. Get more info at http://tentcityuniversity.occupylsx.org/?p=107.

Occupy Sydney
Chaos erupted at the Occupy Sydney protest this weekend, with several protesters being dragged away by police. About 100 protesters had moved from an earlier rally at Martin Place on Saturday afternoon to Hyde Park to continue their protest against corporate greed. Their protest was peaceful until police moved in to take down a tent set up by protesters. Several people were dragged away by police as protesters chanted “Let them stay, let them stay” and called the police “nazis”. A strong police presence remains in the park, with at least 50 officers standing by.

Unlike last month’s dawn raid that ended Occupy Sydney’s week-long protest at Martin Place, protesters were prepared for police action, with many of them recording the chaotic scenes on cameras and mobile phones.

REQUEST FOR TRAINING RESOURCES FROM READERS: The Daily Occupations Report needs your help! We will soon start adding a section providing tips and resources for organizing and training activists. If you have any materials, guides or links to training resources, please send them to monique@rebuildthedream.com or lizbutlerdc@gmail.com.

This report includes updates from Occupy sites and related efforts across the country and the globe. It includes big wins, local organizing efforts, protests/events, police activity reports and calls to action where additional support from allies/general public may be needed.

For more updates from occupations around the country, listen to the Occupation America podcast at http://soundcloud.com/occupation-america

On November 23rd, the Congressional Deficit Reduction Super-Committee will meet to decide on whether or not to keep Obama’s extension to the Bush tax-cuts - which only benefit the richest 1% of Americans in any kind of significant way. Luckily, a group of OWS’ers are embarking on a two-week march from Liberty Plaza to the White House to let the committee know what the 99% think about these cuts. Join the march to make sure these tax cuts for the richest 1% of Americans are allowed to die!

For as long as public space has existed, women and LGBTQ people have been trying to “occupy” it safely — with distressingly little success. Harassing comments, groping, flashing and assault are a daily, global reality for women and LGBTQ individuals. Too often, these injustices are met with little or no response, regarded simply as “the price you pay” for being female, trans, or gay in public. As supporters of the Occupy movement, we believe that a world where everyone has the right to occupy public space safely is not only possible - it is essential to building a strong and lasting movement.

It’s no secret that the Wall Street 1% who wrecked our economy are disproportionately straight and male, despite countless studies showing the less organizations look like the 99%, the less effective they are. As we quicken the pace of social change, we must be careful not to replicate Wall Street’s mistakes. The message is clear: equality means impact.

But for women and LGBTQ people to participate equally in the Occupy movement, we must be safe in occupied spaces. We know that harassment and assault happens everywhere —- and that the Occupy movement is no more immune to it than our nation’s parks and parking lots —- but we also know that a movement where women and LGBTQ individuals are not safe is not a movement that serves the interests of the 99%.

In solidarity with those who are already working on the ground to make safer spaces, we call on all General Assemblies of the Occupy movement to adopt anti-harassment and anti-assault as core principles of solidarity. To realize these principles within the movement, we call on General Assemblies in every city to empower women and LGBTQ occupiers with the time, space, and resources necessary to ensure that every occupied space is a safe space.

carton-rouge:

wespeakfortheearth:

climateadaptation:

Voting, not OWS, will change America

A low progressive turnout in 2010 got us into this mess. We can’t let that happen again

“Cop-out at the Polls

In 2008, more than 65 million Americans cast Democratic votes in congressional races, a 13 million-vote edge over the Republicans. In 2010, the Democratic vote plummeted to an abysmal 35 million, 6 million less than the GOP, which took decisive power in the House and paralyzed the Senate.

We think we know this story. But the truth is, we haven’t begun to absorb its full details and implications yet:

• The number of voters under 24 who bothered to go to the polls in 2010 dropped by a stupefying 60 percent, and those between 24 and 29 by almost 50 percent. Altogether, the participation of young people – who had been overwhelmingly pro-Obama in 2008 – declined by 11 million votes.
• Among over-65-year-olds, the core of the Tea Party movement, the voting numbers barely changed, from 17.6 million in 2008 to 17.5 million in 2010.
• The African-American vote fell by 40 percent, and the Hispanic vote by almost 30 percent.
• Among the mostly white voters who earn more than $200,000 per year, the turnout fell by a scant 5 percent, from 7 million to 6.5 million.
• Voting by those with annual incomes under $30,000 dropped by 33 percent, more than six times the figure for the affluent.

In effect, the abstainers turned a potential Democratic landslide into a full-scale collapse – with nightmarish consequences for civil rights, for the U.S. and world economies, and for social programs that range across the board from healthcare and educational funding to employment programs, pension benefits and the sagging national infrastructure.

It was a dream come true for the radical right, the sworn enemies of all public services. Their vote, measured at exit polls asking whether government was too intrusive, scarcely changed between the two elections, dropping from 50 million to 47 million.”

-Salon

Don’t like the title of this article, but the main point is completely valid: VOTE!!!

It’s amusing how quickly people like to forget things. Like 2009. And most of 2010.

What is up with this myth that “Oh, only if the House would have stayed Democratic after 2010, we would have everything we want? Therefore it’s all our fault, stupid us.” This is profoundly disconnected from reality.

Does anyone else remember “health care reform?” The huge fight over the stimulus? And perhaps more important, does anyone else remember all of the important things that weren’t even addressed during this term? Anyone??? It had nothing to do with the House, it was the fact that the Democrats couldn’t hold more than a supermajority in the Senate. And even in a major voting year like 2008, even with the unprecedented anti-Republican attitude at the polls thanks to Dubya, the Dems couldn’t gain enough ground to hold onto their supermajority in the Senate. This isn’t an electoral problem, this is a structural problem.*

Furthermore, the author of the article (and, by extension, the OP) doesn’t deign to offer the following fact: the majority of #OWS supporters are over 25, at 44.5% in the 25-44 age bracket, and 32% being over 45. That makes 76.5% of #OWS supporters that are OVER 25. Only 23.5% of #OWS participants are under 24.** So bolding that section as if it is a clever observation is asinine.

For these people, their only view of #OWS is one to serve a short-term political interest, one that can be formulated by a party. What about all of the problems (like the ones of political organization and representation themselves) that cannot be addressed by a party/legislative apparatus and must form outside this structure? We condemn the organization of modern party politics itself, so why would we put more of our time and energy into supporting such a bankrupt and worthless paradigm?

I would expect people to know better, but some people (like the OP) continue to push this bullshit and ignore reason, although it has been practically pasted to their faces many times now.

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(* Not to mention that the Dems are certainly not the answer to your prayers. Does anyone still believe this?)

(** Source: Fast Company)