'Our Berlin Wall Is Breaking': Taking on Wall Street's Dictatorship
By Roberto Lovato
AlterNet /
The furious waves of marchers in yesterday’s Occupy Wall Street mobilization have cracked the dark marble and teflon walls protecting the dictator of our age: Big Corporations.
Our Berlin Wall is breaking. The furious waves of marchers in yesterday’s Occupy Wall Street mobilization have cracked the dark marble and teflon walls protecting the dictator of our age: Big Corporations.
While baffled Teapartiers, Democrat-leaning progressives and most of the media ignored, ridiculed and then fought the nascent movement, the forces of Occupy Wall Street won a stunning ideological victory over the US dictator. The history that allegedly ended after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marches on on Wall Street and on Main Streets throughout the United States -- and the world -- of 2011. The heavily buttressed and beatified belief in invincibility of Wall Street -- the fortressed embodiment of Big Corporate Control of our land, our sea, our air, our country and even our DNA -- just got occupied.
Though the unprecedented popularizing of the “Wall-Street-as-US-Dictator” meme implicit in the movement’s message is growing and impressive, the real success of Occupy Wall Street, the great struggle of our crisis-ridden lives will be defined by one thing: definitively ending the dictatorship of Big Corporations. Put another way, the real human beings that make up the citizenry will have to destroy the fake citizenship of the non-persons that control Republican and Democrat, Obama and Boehner alike.
Failure to fundamentally alter Wall Street’s control of our political, economic and personal lives will lead to even greater devastation of real citizens. The good news is that we in the United States have finally started recognizing, naming and fighting back against the power behind a White House, a Congress, a Pentagon and an entire political and economic system beholden to fantastically rich and powerful corporations controlled by less than 1 percent of the population.
The history of the future will record how the Occupy Wall Street movement began informally after many of us stood by and watched as the great martyr of our times, Citizen Troy Davis, was denied his fundamental rights, was denied life itself; Historians will document how we watched and grew in anger as Corporate Citizens like the GEO group and other prison construction firms that profit from warehousing Davis and other Death Row inmates suck up all the rights of our citizenship -- and none of the responsibility.
Whether they profit financially from the death penalty or from manufactured and unnecessary wars or whether they destroy the Gulf of Mexico or the earth’s climate, Corporate Citizens face no death penalty for their crimes. Only we human citizens do.
Like dictators, Big Corporations act with an unfettered arrogance and a dangerous impunity that profits from death, from war, from poverty and from the destruction of the planet itself. Many of us in the immigrant rights movement see the will to protect the powerful at the expense of the weak in how the Obama administration jails more than 400,000 poor immigrants a year all the while not making a single banker serve serious time for what should be called Economic Crimes Against Humanity.
Occupy Wall Street represents a Great Awakening to the need to rescue our free speech and other democratic spaces humiliated by Big Corporations that the Supreme Court protects legally; that the police protect physically; that the media protects culturally and that White House and Congress protect politically.
Like the powerful social movements that are reshaping the Arab world, Latin America and even Israel, Occupy Wall Street must build enough power to avoid the multiple and often carefully disguised attempts by corporate interests to divert and water down our insurgent energy.
While the first line of Wall Street’s defense of its dictatorship is the more openly right wing, hard-line approach of trying to downplay and attack Occupy Wall Street thru any and all physical, political and media means, the next stage of defense will be subtler- and Democrat-led: try to divide and coopt the movement. Among the principal means will be the attempt to align and define the Occupy Wall Street movement by identifying it with the Democratic party and the Obama administration. Already, the White House has started deploying Treasury Secretary -- and Wall Street insider -- Tim Geithner to create some sort of wedge between President Obama and Wall Street.
Obama allies in the progressive, immigrant rights, civil rights, environmental, labor and other movements are already trying to do what they did during the our last insurgent moment, the anti-Bush era: channel the insurgent energy into support for Democrats in the elections, in our case the 2012 elections. Failure to recognize these more subtle machinations of the corporate dictatorship will be fatal to the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Key to recognizing these machinations is the urgent need and willingness to expose the disturbingly deep connections between the Obama administration and the dictators of Wall Street. Any attempt to revive the thoroughly dead American Dream that does not detail how the Wall Street-heavy Obama administration’s economic, military, immigration, environmental and other policies have destroyed the dreams of millions should be deemed questionable, at best.
Reviving hope and change will require nothing less than swiftly and surgically separating them from an electoral system corrupted by the Corporate Dictator that thoroughly controls both the Democrats and the Republicans. For the moment, real hope and change, (i.e. the kind that does not cost a billion dollars of Wall Street and other money to promote) have returned to their rightful place in the streets and hearts of marchers and those hungry for justice.
Like those courageous souls who tore down the Berlin Wall or the wall of silence surrounding Tahrir Square, we must have the courage to confront the dictatorial menace of our time. In our case, the menace is neither communist nor a blatantly totalitarian dictator. Rather, it is a “Citizen” that none of us voted into office, but who all of us are becoming indebted to and imprisoned by. Before doing the urgently necessary work of (Re)Occupying -and redefining-our Citizenship, let us take a moment to occupy our breath and take in our Great Awakening as we continue and expand the fight of and for our lives.
Roberto Lovato is a New York-based writer with New America Media. Read more of his work at Of América.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
OCCUPY EVERYWHERE: THE EPIC Battle Begins
AlterNet / By Adele M. Stan and Don Hazen
Van Jones on America's Uprising: It's Going Be an Epic Battle
Jones talked to AlterNet about the growing social movements for change, running real progressives in 2012, and how we can train a million new leaders.
October 4, 2011 |
As the grassroots sit-ins and marches that originated as Occupy Wall Street spread to other cities, Van Jones, lead evangelist for the American Dream movement, took the stage Monday at a Washington, DC hotel where organizers of the institutional element of the progressive movement converged at Take Back the American Dream. The gathering was organized by the Campaign for America's Future in partnership with Jones' new organization, Rebuild the Dream. Jones voiced his support for the spontaneous Wall Street uprising, and for the U.S. Marines who agreed, he said, to protect the protesters while wearing dress blues.
Jones said that after he left the White House, where he served as a green jobs adviser to President Barack Obama, he occupied his time studying how the Tea Party movement came into existence and marshaled its power. Jones had been a target of Tea Party ire, stoked by Glenn Beck on his Fox News Channel platform, back when Beck served as the de facto community organizer for media baron Rupert Murdoch, before Beck fell out of the mogul's favor.
Jones explained the Tea Party's "leaderless" model to the activists with a PowerPoint showing how the instigators of the Tea Party movement -- leaders of groups such as FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity -- didn't so much create a top-down organization as they did a network that fostered the development of local Tea Party organizations by local activists, who then took ownership of their own corners of the movement. "The Tea Party is an open-source brand," Jones explained, "that 3,528 affiliates use; none of them own it." For all their talk of rugged individualism, Jones said, the forces behind the Tea Party "have enacted the most collectivist strategy for taking power in the history of the republic."
Jones also demonstrated, with modeling schematics, how progressives had initially, during the 2008 presidential campaign, centered their movement more around a person -- Obama -- than their own issues. In no small part, Jones implied, progressives were drawn to the Obama campaign's branding, with its iconic "O" logo onto which people projected their own aspirations and beliefs.
"It has been a tough couple of years," Jones told his audience. "We went from hope to heartbreak in about a minute...We have the wrong theory of the presidency."
As for the rise of the right, Jones said, "I'm not mad at the Tea Party. I'm not mad at them for being so loud. I'm mad at us for having been so quiet the past two years."
With Monday's speech, Jones set out to sell the idea of a more diffuse and locally directed progressive movement to a gathering of progressives who are more used to being part of organizing campaigns launched from organization or union headquarters. What Jones is offering instead, though his Rebuild the Dream hub (launched in partnership with MoveOn.org), is an open-source brand for the left, complete with a logo in the form of a red "A" (for "American Dream") with a white star at its center, underlined by a blue stripe. It's a graphic turn on the American flag, part of Jones' call to the left to reclaim the mantle of patriotism.
Rebuild the Dream has already facilitated some 1,600 house meetings of like-minded people who aim to build a grassroots movement on a par with the Tea Party. Rebuild the Dream has also issued a "Contract For the American Dream," built on the model of past right-wing contracts, which politicians are being asked to sign in order to signify their willingness to support movement goals in their political and legislative work.
Today, the more institutional wing of the left will be represented among the less-affiliated protesters of Occupy Wall Street, as union members, artists, hactivists and students join in the mass expression of outrage at the impunity with which big banks and traders have turned the economy against everyday Amercans for the benefit of the 1 percent of Americans who own 42 percent of the nation's wealth. A number of New York union locals are marching in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street from City Hall to Zuccotti Park, the protesters' base camp.
Van Jones sat down yesterday with AlterNet executive editor Don Hazen and Washington bureau chief Adele Stan to share his hopes for the rebirth of a liberal people's movement.
AlterNet: When you talk about Rebuilding the Dream being a resource hub for progressives, how do you envision that?
Van Jones: We want to be a support center like FreedomWorks is a support center [for the Tea Party]. Everybody focuses on the money from the Koch brothers; they focus on Fox News TV. But they don't focus so much on infrastructure, and the relationship between the institutions. So we've tried to focus in on that.
AlterNet: One of the things FreedomWorks did was to create the Tea Party Patriots, which is a network, as you noted in your speech. One of the things Tea Party Patriots did was to create its own social media infrastructure. Progressives tend to use Twitter and Facebook, which means our calls to action are out there on public platforms. Is that just who we are, or do you foresee building an American Dream movement social-media network, just as Tea Party Patriots did for their people? They build communities that way -- communities that are locally and regionally based, but which are then tied to the national Tea Party Patriots network, which is in turn tied to FreedomWorks. But they also bring in new people who may not have been politically active before, because there's a level of the social media network that's local. One of the reasons some people are saying that Occupy Wall Street is more like the Tea Party than the folks at this conference is that nobody is directly affiliated with a top-down, long established organization.
Van Jones: People can take too literally the [Tea Party comparison] -- like what is the one effort that is going to be the [progressive version of] the Tea Party. Then people can start having a tug of war over it. But, really, I don't think of it like that. I think we're going into a real period of serious experimentation and innovation, and even improvisation -- certainly through the [2012 presidential] election, and probably a couple of years beyond as a couple of things happen. One, as the economic crisis gets worse -- it ain't gonna get better -- the formal economy is going to continue to contract. That means you're going to have a lot of people suffering due to the economy. That's going to create a need for a response. What are we going to do? How can we address the ways in which people are hurting -- immediate needs? That's going to be a driver of innovation, the economic crisis. People have to eat. People have to live indoors. People aren't going to just lay down and die because Wall Street wants to hold up the economic recovery.
But the other driver will be the other process -- which is a global phenomenon -- of the business model for social change changing, moving away from the hierarchical and more toward the horizontal. And you'll see different efforts that reflect different aspects of that. Getting all these grassroots leaders to align ourselves differently as we begin to function differently, more in partnership, and also a lot more open-source efforts.
For example, November 17 is going to be a major protest date. And we're just letting people take that and run with it. There's no central group people are going to do this. We're just throwing the date out there -- November 17th, "Jobs Not Cuts." That's different from the kinds of coalitional tables that have been set up before where [groups] try to dictate exactly the messaging, exactly this and exactly that. So you're seeing urgency because of the economic crisis, and the opportunity to do things differently, because of the technology, to create all kinds of new forums. And so it could be, in some ways, Occupy Wall Street will reflect some of the success model from the Tea Party. We're talking about the Tea Party because that's what gets the attention. But we're also studying the Arab Spring.
There's a way that we, as Westerners look at things: What is the one right answer? Is it the American Dream Movement, or is it Occupy Wall Street? Which is it? When, actually, we're just glad that the volcano is starting to erupt. We just want to fight. And there are some pre-existing grassroots assets that need to be re-aligned or redeployed; we're trying to do that here. Then there's all this new energy out there. And what you're going to see happening is that new explosion of energy will capture and inspire some existing stuff; some of these new organizations that are started will capture and inspire some new stuff, and you'll see all kinds of interpenetrations and that kind of thing.
AlterNet: So, you as a brand may still say, we're going to build our own social networking infrastructure.
VJ: We're going to continue to innovate and improvise, and nothing would make us happier than for this to result in something that's incredibly useful, and for other things to show up that create incredible utility. There's not going to be one thing that progressives do to fix this; we're going to be in a period of improvisation. Now people are going are, rightly, using your work -- Dangerous Brew and other stuff -- to get insight and a window into the Tea Party phenomenon, but there are other things.
AlterNet: So, you're saying, that even structurally you're not looking to mirror that movement.
VJ: Not primarily. We wanted to see that if we went through the steps they went through, with their Contract from America, with the house meetings, could we do it? You know, they had 800 house meetings; we had 1,597 -- almost double.
AlterNet: And are those people going to meet again to build the grassroots?
VJ: Yes. Look at the three things we're committed to coming out of here. One, November 17th -- that's a big deal. That's going to be all over the country. So, if you look from September 17th, when the young people took over Wall Street, to November 17th. That's the American Autumn. You had the Arab Spring; that's the American Autumn...That process is ongoing, on the theme, Jobs, Not Cuts. Now, the difference is, there's not all kinds of coalitions zipping around, trying to dictate all the signs and messaging. We're inviting all kinds of people, individuals as well as organizations, to jump on board.
Number two -- we're saying protests must lead to participation. We had those house meetings -- we had, I think, 31,000 people, online and in person. We're going to be launching a new online platform...where people will be able to continue that effort. We're also going to be developing teach-ins, because one of the things we learned from all those house meetings was that there's a need for some experience. Because if you go to [a house meeting] that's great, that's great. But if you go to one that's not so great, it's not so great. So if you have a teach-in, there's a way to get the best of all possible worlds. You get a lot of people together, you have some videos or a some main speakers -- we're going to try that out.
AlterNet: So you start a national conversation and get people talking.
VJ: We're going to try to get a million leaders in America online and talking with each other. And that's going to be a major piece.
And then there's a third piece, and it's new -- and it seems to have escaped people's notice -- and that's that we've said we're going to run 2012 people for office in 2012. Now, that's a big deal.
AlterNet: That's a lot of people.
VJ: And the reason we're able to do is not because Mike (Lux) have 2,000 people in their back pockets. It's because we have groups like Progressive Majority and the New Organizing Institute.
AlterNet: Then you're talking about local folks, too -- people running for school board and town council.
VJ: Everybody, up and down. We're talking about U.S. senators who want to run as American Dream candidates -- soon to be announced. We've reached out to the House Democratic Caucus; there are House members who want to run as American Dream candidates. One of the things that's been missing is, you have Tea Party Republicans: you may not like the product, but you know what the product is. Right now, you say Democrat, and you don't know if you're getting Larry Summers or Dennis Kucinich. So you can imagine at some point that there will be American Dream Democrats -- or American Dream Republicans, if they want to act right, or even American Dream independents. They just have to agree with our Contract For the American Dream -- those 10 things (the contract contains "10 Critical Steps to Get Our Economy Back on Track"), and including the preamble that says "liberty and justice for all," not for some, but for all. So you've got more corners where you can have a lot of activity happening.
Look, the Occupy Wall Street stuff is a huge, big deal; this is a huge, big deal; there will be other huge, big deals. There is a big thaw happening. People have gone through their grieving process, and people want to fight. Look, if the economy gets worse, there may be a whole section of Latinos that jump off [and into the movement] -- people nobody expected, because of the horrible things that are being dropped on Latino communities in the Southeast and Southwest.
I just want to say one last thing, and this is important. A lot of the people in the leadership of the American Dream Movement just love Occupy Wall Street. We're in awe of them and we want them to do well. And what we're struggling with is how do we support it without looking like we're trying to take it over. Because we couldn't've thunk this up, therefore we want it to be able to have its independence. At the same time, [it's important to determine] where they might need a little bit of support, so you don't jump in and wind up killing something that is an organic thing.
AlterNet: It's going to be interesting to see what happens when Dan Cantor, executive director of the labor-aligned Working Families Party, and other union members join with Occupy Wall Street for the solidarity march this week.
VJ: Exactly! This is thrilling stuff! This is an epic battle [with] the dream-killers on Wall Street -- who are so disgusting and so despicable; they are ingrates who are sitting up there laughing at us. I mean, every other bloc of capital that has this much weight, they try to do something to make you like them. Even the polluters, they say, "We'll get clean coal." They try to do something. But these people on Wall Street -- they just don't care. So it's just going to be an epic battle now between the worst people in America, the most selfish people in America, and the most selfless. And that's going to be amazing.
Adele M. Stan is AlterNet's Washington bureau chief. Follow her on Twitter: www.twitter.com/addiestan. Don Hazen is the executive editor of AlterNet.
Van Jones on America's Uprising: It's Going Be an Epic Battle
Jones talked to AlterNet about the growing social movements for change, running real progressives in 2012, and how we can train a million new leaders.
October 4, 2011 |
As the grassroots sit-ins and marches that originated as Occupy Wall Street spread to other cities, Van Jones, lead evangelist for the American Dream movement, took the stage Monday at a Washington, DC hotel where organizers of the institutional element of the progressive movement converged at Take Back the American Dream. The gathering was organized by the Campaign for America's Future in partnership with Jones' new organization, Rebuild the Dream. Jones voiced his support for the spontaneous Wall Street uprising, and for the U.S. Marines who agreed, he said, to protect the protesters while wearing dress blues.
Jones said that after he left the White House, where he served as a green jobs adviser to President Barack Obama, he occupied his time studying how the Tea Party movement came into existence and marshaled its power. Jones had been a target of Tea Party ire, stoked by Glenn Beck on his Fox News Channel platform, back when Beck served as the de facto community organizer for media baron Rupert Murdoch, before Beck fell out of the mogul's favor.
Jones explained the Tea Party's "leaderless" model to the activists with a PowerPoint showing how the instigators of the Tea Party movement -- leaders of groups such as FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity -- didn't so much create a top-down organization as they did a network that fostered the development of local Tea Party organizations by local activists, who then took ownership of their own corners of the movement. "The Tea Party is an open-source brand," Jones explained, "that 3,528 affiliates use; none of them own it." For all their talk of rugged individualism, Jones said, the forces behind the Tea Party "have enacted the most collectivist strategy for taking power in the history of the republic."
Jones also demonstrated, with modeling schematics, how progressives had initially, during the 2008 presidential campaign, centered their movement more around a person -- Obama -- than their own issues. In no small part, Jones implied, progressives were drawn to the Obama campaign's branding, with its iconic "O" logo onto which people projected their own aspirations and beliefs.
"It has been a tough couple of years," Jones told his audience. "We went from hope to heartbreak in about a minute...We have the wrong theory of the presidency."
As for the rise of the right, Jones said, "I'm not mad at the Tea Party. I'm not mad at them for being so loud. I'm mad at us for having been so quiet the past two years."
With Monday's speech, Jones set out to sell the idea of a more diffuse and locally directed progressive movement to a gathering of progressives who are more used to being part of organizing campaigns launched from organization or union headquarters. What Jones is offering instead, though his Rebuild the Dream hub (launched in partnership with MoveOn.org), is an open-source brand for the left, complete with a logo in the form of a red "A" (for "American Dream") with a white star at its center, underlined by a blue stripe. It's a graphic turn on the American flag, part of Jones' call to the left to reclaim the mantle of patriotism.
Rebuild the Dream has already facilitated some 1,600 house meetings of like-minded people who aim to build a grassroots movement on a par with the Tea Party. Rebuild the Dream has also issued a "Contract For the American Dream," built on the model of past right-wing contracts, which politicians are being asked to sign in order to signify their willingness to support movement goals in their political and legislative work.
Today, the more institutional wing of the left will be represented among the less-affiliated protesters of Occupy Wall Street, as union members, artists, hactivists and students join in the mass expression of outrage at the impunity with which big banks and traders have turned the economy against everyday Amercans for the benefit of the 1 percent of Americans who own 42 percent of the nation's wealth. A number of New York union locals are marching in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street from City Hall to Zuccotti Park, the protesters' base camp.
Van Jones sat down yesterday with AlterNet executive editor Don Hazen and Washington bureau chief Adele Stan to share his hopes for the rebirth of a liberal people's movement.
AlterNet: When you talk about Rebuilding the Dream being a resource hub for progressives, how do you envision that?
Van Jones: We want to be a support center like FreedomWorks is a support center [for the Tea Party]. Everybody focuses on the money from the Koch brothers; they focus on Fox News TV. But they don't focus so much on infrastructure, and the relationship between the institutions. So we've tried to focus in on that.
AlterNet: One of the things FreedomWorks did was to create the Tea Party Patriots, which is a network, as you noted in your speech. One of the things Tea Party Patriots did was to create its own social media infrastructure. Progressives tend to use Twitter and Facebook, which means our calls to action are out there on public platforms. Is that just who we are, or do you foresee building an American Dream movement social-media network, just as Tea Party Patriots did for their people? They build communities that way -- communities that are locally and regionally based, but which are then tied to the national Tea Party Patriots network, which is in turn tied to FreedomWorks. But they also bring in new people who may not have been politically active before, because there's a level of the social media network that's local. One of the reasons some people are saying that Occupy Wall Street is more like the Tea Party than the folks at this conference is that nobody is directly affiliated with a top-down, long established organization.
Van Jones: People can take too literally the [Tea Party comparison] -- like what is the one effort that is going to be the [progressive version of] the Tea Party. Then people can start having a tug of war over it. But, really, I don't think of it like that. I think we're going into a real period of serious experimentation and innovation, and even improvisation -- certainly through the [2012 presidential] election, and probably a couple of years beyond as a couple of things happen. One, as the economic crisis gets worse -- it ain't gonna get better -- the formal economy is going to continue to contract. That means you're going to have a lot of people suffering due to the economy. That's going to create a need for a response. What are we going to do? How can we address the ways in which people are hurting -- immediate needs? That's going to be a driver of innovation, the economic crisis. People have to eat. People have to live indoors. People aren't going to just lay down and die because Wall Street wants to hold up the economic recovery.
But the other driver will be the other process -- which is a global phenomenon -- of the business model for social change changing, moving away from the hierarchical and more toward the horizontal. And you'll see different efforts that reflect different aspects of that. Getting all these grassroots leaders to align ourselves differently as we begin to function differently, more in partnership, and also a lot more open-source efforts.
For example, November 17 is going to be a major protest date. And we're just letting people take that and run with it. There's no central group people are going to do this. We're just throwing the date out there -- November 17th, "Jobs Not Cuts." That's different from the kinds of coalitional tables that have been set up before where [groups] try to dictate exactly the messaging, exactly this and exactly that. So you're seeing urgency because of the economic crisis, and the opportunity to do things differently, because of the technology, to create all kinds of new forums. And so it could be, in some ways, Occupy Wall Street will reflect some of the success model from the Tea Party. We're talking about the Tea Party because that's what gets the attention. But we're also studying the Arab Spring.
There's a way that we, as Westerners look at things: What is the one right answer? Is it the American Dream Movement, or is it Occupy Wall Street? Which is it? When, actually, we're just glad that the volcano is starting to erupt. We just want to fight. And there are some pre-existing grassroots assets that need to be re-aligned or redeployed; we're trying to do that here. Then there's all this new energy out there. And what you're going to see happening is that new explosion of energy will capture and inspire some existing stuff; some of these new organizations that are started will capture and inspire some new stuff, and you'll see all kinds of interpenetrations and that kind of thing.
AlterNet: So, you as a brand may still say, we're going to build our own social networking infrastructure.
VJ: We're going to continue to innovate and improvise, and nothing would make us happier than for this to result in something that's incredibly useful, and for other things to show up that create incredible utility. There's not going to be one thing that progressives do to fix this; we're going to be in a period of improvisation. Now people are going are, rightly, using your work -- Dangerous Brew and other stuff -- to get insight and a window into the Tea Party phenomenon, but there are other things.
AlterNet: So, you're saying, that even structurally you're not looking to mirror that movement.
VJ: Not primarily. We wanted to see that if we went through the steps they went through, with their Contract from America, with the house meetings, could we do it? You know, they had 800 house meetings; we had 1,597 -- almost double.
AlterNet: And are those people going to meet again to build the grassroots?
VJ: Yes. Look at the three things we're committed to coming out of here. One, November 17th -- that's a big deal. That's going to be all over the country. So, if you look from September 17th, when the young people took over Wall Street, to November 17th. That's the American Autumn. You had the Arab Spring; that's the American Autumn...That process is ongoing, on the theme, Jobs, Not Cuts. Now, the difference is, there's not all kinds of coalitions zipping around, trying to dictate all the signs and messaging. We're inviting all kinds of people, individuals as well as organizations, to jump on board.
Number two -- we're saying protests must lead to participation. We had those house meetings -- we had, I think, 31,000 people, online and in person. We're going to be launching a new online platform...where people will be able to continue that effort. We're also going to be developing teach-ins, because one of the things we learned from all those house meetings was that there's a need for some experience. Because if you go to [a house meeting] that's great, that's great. But if you go to one that's not so great, it's not so great. So if you have a teach-in, there's a way to get the best of all possible worlds. You get a lot of people together, you have some videos or a some main speakers -- we're going to try that out.
AlterNet: So you start a national conversation and get people talking.
VJ: We're going to try to get a million leaders in America online and talking with each other. And that's going to be a major piece.
And then there's a third piece, and it's new -- and it seems to have escaped people's notice -- and that's that we've said we're going to run 2012 people for office in 2012. Now, that's a big deal.
AlterNet: That's a lot of people.
VJ: And the reason we're able to do is not because Mike (Lux) have 2,000 people in their back pockets. It's because we have groups like Progressive Majority and the New Organizing Institute.
AlterNet: Then you're talking about local folks, too -- people running for school board and town council.
VJ: Everybody, up and down. We're talking about U.S. senators who want to run as American Dream candidates -- soon to be announced. We've reached out to the House Democratic Caucus; there are House members who want to run as American Dream candidates. One of the things that's been missing is, you have Tea Party Republicans: you may not like the product, but you know what the product is. Right now, you say Democrat, and you don't know if you're getting Larry Summers or Dennis Kucinich. So you can imagine at some point that there will be American Dream Democrats -- or American Dream Republicans, if they want to act right, or even American Dream independents. They just have to agree with our Contract For the American Dream -- those 10 things (the contract contains "10 Critical Steps to Get Our Economy Back on Track"), and including the preamble that says "liberty and justice for all," not for some, but for all. So you've got more corners where you can have a lot of activity happening.
Look, the Occupy Wall Street stuff is a huge, big deal; this is a huge, big deal; there will be other huge, big deals. There is a big thaw happening. People have gone through their grieving process, and people want to fight. Look, if the economy gets worse, there may be a whole section of Latinos that jump off [and into the movement] -- people nobody expected, because of the horrible things that are being dropped on Latino communities in the Southeast and Southwest.
I just want to say one last thing, and this is important. A lot of the people in the leadership of the American Dream Movement just love Occupy Wall Street. We're in awe of them and we want them to do well. And what we're struggling with is how do we support it without looking like we're trying to take it over. Because we couldn't've thunk this up, therefore we want it to be able to have its independence. At the same time, [it's important to determine] where they might need a little bit of support, so you don't jump in and wind up killing something that is an organic thing.
AlterNet: It's going to be interesting to see what happens when Dan Cantor, executive director of the labor-aligned Working Families Party, and other union members join with Occupy Wall Street for the solidarity march this week.
VJ: Exactly! This is thrilling stuff! This is an epic battle [with] the dream-killers on Wall Street -- who are so disgusting and so despicable; they are ingrates who are sitting up there laughing at us. I mean, every other bloc of capital that has this much weight, they try to do something to make you like them. Even the polluters, they say, "We'll get clean coal." They try to do something. But these people on Wall Street -- they just don't care. So it's just going to be an epic battle now between the worst people in America, the most selfish people in America, and the most selfless. And that's going to be amazing.
Adele M. Stan is AlterNet's Washington bureau chief. Follow her on Twitter: www.twitter.com/addiestan. Don Hazen is the executive editor of AlterNet.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
OCCUPY WALL STREET IS THIS YEAR'S TEA PARTY WITH BRAINS..
David Weidner's Writing on the Wall Archives | Email alerts
Oct. 4, 2011, 4:54 p.m. EDT
Occupy Wall Street is this year’s tea party with brains
Commentary: Protesters seek political process that doesn’t exclude them
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/occupy-wall-street-is-a-tea-party-with-brains-2011-10-04
By David Weidner, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The revolution just might be televised, after all.
More than two weeks after a band of young people began camping out in the shadow of the New York Stock Exchange, the movement to remake America’s inequitable financial system is growing
It’s been called the Woodstock of Wall Street, but that’s hardly an apt comparison. The gathering at Max Yasgur’s farm 42 years ago was built on a generation looking for peace, love, some drugs and acid rock. The kids today are looking for real, tangible change of the capitalist sort. They’re organized, lucid and motivated.
Reuters
Demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street campaign hold signs aloft as a protest march enters the courtyard near the New York Police Department.Actually, they have more in common with the tea-party movement than the hippie dream, with one key difference: They’re smart enough to recognize the nation’s problems aren’t simply about taxes and the deficit.
They want jobs. They want the generation in power to acknowledge them. They want political change. They want responsibility in a culture that abdicates it. They want a decent future of opportunity.
If that isn’t American, then what is?
Another key difference between today’s kids and their hippie forefathers: They’re willing to gut it out.
Not only is Occupy Wall Street showing no signs of dying out, but it’s getting stronger. On Sunday, a night of rain dampened the crowd at Zuccotti Park, but then the sun broke through, and they were back at it: challenging police, marching and drawing attention to their cause.
They’re wired and ready. They’re using YouTube and blogs. A newspaper, the Occupied Wall Street Journal, began publishing last week. They meet in the evenings in a “general assembly” to discuss tactics.
Moreover, there are signs the Left Coast wants to get into the action. On Sunday a group called Refund California announced a series of protests throughout Los Angeles. On Monday, a teach-in took place aimed at bringing awareness to how Wall Street has worsened California’s budget problems.
On Tuesday, Refund California is going to Orange County for a protest. On Wednesday, the group will target the home of a bank executive. And on Thursday a big bank in L.A. will be the next target. Protests in Chicago this weekend showed the message isn’t lost in flyover country.
Click to Play Protest spreads to Chicago
Inspired by the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations in New York, some 100 people gathered Sunday outside the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago to protest inequities in the nation's financial system.
This isn’t just some anarchist or lefty agitating. Many of the protesters are furious with the Obama administration’s kow-towing to Big Finance. They’re critical of Federal Reserve policies. Refund California is aligned with 1,000 faith-based groups.
Protesters are admonished for displaying the U.S. flag incorrectly. These protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful. And, despite what you hear, there’s been a lot of goodwill between the police and protesters. They’re sharing coffee and doughnuts in the morning.
Meanwhile, another group, Occupy Los Angeles, is organizing its own protests. This movement, though small compared with the New York effort, is slowly gathering steam. Back East, Occupy Boston is gaining momentum. Protests in the financial center of Dewey Square took place Monday.
The persistence is paying off. The media are beginning to pay attention. Local papers in New York have been running more Occupy Wall Street stories. All of the major networks are covering the protests now.
Click to Play House is gone, but debt lives on
Forty-one states and the District of Columbia permit lenders to sue borrowers for mortgage debt still left after a foreclosure sale.
There are many more reporters on the scene, and the coverage has moved from the police confrontations to what these thousands of protesters want.
The press seems confused. There were signs about Afghanistan, taxes, Wall Street greed, corporate responsibility and just about every pet cause out there. But what some decry as a lack of focus is really about them not getting it: This movement is about money. It’s about wasting money. It’s about greed for money guiding those in power. It’s about the inequitable distribution of money.
Most of all, it’s about process. In a “general assembly” meeting Saturday, Occupy Wall Street came up with its first official document. It is a powerful summation of grievances, not just of the young, but of many Americans: home foreclosures, workers rights, Internet privacy, health care and bailouts. Read the declaration of Occupy Wall Street .
“No true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power,” the declaration states. “We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.”
The protesters urge others to join them in public spaces everywhere.
Occupy Wall Street is a bigger and more important movement than it was two weeks ago. As the country faces a year in which many of its major political offices could potentially shift hands, there finally seems to be a movement that reflects frustration with a system beholden to big financial interests.
Still, there’s much work to do. The movement needs to sharpen its message. It needs visible and well-spoken leadership and people to become active politically. Some have argued that the protesters need more concrete ideas, such as financial-transaction taxes or Wall Street reforms. Blanket anti-corporate statements aren’t actionable.
But for a generation accused of being lazy, unwilling to work and living under their parents’ roofs for far too long, these kids have shown a hell of a lot of mettle so far. The odds are still long, but they’ve succeeded in the first step.
They’ve gotten our attention.
David Weidner covers Wall Street for MarketWatch
Oct. 4, 2011, 4:54 p.m. EDT
Occupy Wall Street is this year’s tea party with brains
Commentary: Protesters seek political process that doesn’t exclude them
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/occupy-wall-street-is-a-tea-party-with-brains-2011-10-04
By David Weidner, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The revolution just might be televised, after all.
More than two weeks after a band of young people began camping out in the shadow of the New York Stock Exchange, the movement to remake America’s inequitable financial system is growing
It’s been called the Woodstock of Wall Street, but that’s hardly an apt comparison. The gathering at Max Yasgur’s farm 42 years ago was built on a generation looking for peace, love, some drugs and acid rock. The kids today are looking for real, tangible change of the capitalist sort. They’re organized, lucid and motivated.
Reuters
Demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street campaign hold signs aloft as a protest march enters the courtyard near the New York Police Department.Actually, they have more in common with the tea-party movement than the hippie dream, with one key difference: They’re smart enough to recognize the nation’s problems aren’t simply about taxes and the deficit.
They want jobs. They want the generation in power to acknowledge them. They want political change. They want responsibility in a culture that abdicates it. They want a decent future of opportunity.
If that isn’t American, then what is?
Another key difference between today’s kids and their hippie forefathers: They’re willing to gut it out.
Not only is Occupy Wall Street showing no signs of dying out, but it’s getting stronger. On Sunday, a night of rain dampened the crowd at Zuccotti Park, but then the sun broke through, and they were back at it: challenging police, marching and drawing attention to their cause.
They’re wired and ready. They’re using YouTube and blogs. A newspaper, the Occupied Wall Street Journal, began publishing last week. They meet in the evenings in a “general assembly” to discuss tactics.
Moreover, there are signs the Left Coast wants to get into the action. On Sunday a group called Refund California announced a series of protests throughout Los Angeles. On Monday, a teach-in took place aimed at bringing awareness to how Wall Street has worsened California’s budget problems.
On Tuesday, Refund California is going to Orange County for a protest. On Wednesday, the group will target the home of a bank executive. And on Thursday a big bank in L.A. will be the next target. Protests in Chicago this weekend showed the message isn’t lost in flyover country.
Click to Play Protest spreads to Chicago
Inspired by the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations in New York, some 100 people gathered Sunday outside the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago to protest inequities in the nation's financial system.
This isn’t just some anarchist or lefty agitating. Many of the protesters are furious with the Obama administration’s kow-towing to Big Finance. They’re critical of Federal Reserve policies. Refund California is aligned with 1,000 faith-based groups.
Protesters are admonished for displaying the U.S. flag incorrectly. These protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful. And, despite what you hear, there’s been a lot of goodwill between the police and protesters. They’re sharing coffee and doughnuts in the morning.
Meanwhile, another group, Occupy Los Angeles, is organizing its own protests. This movement, though small compared with the New York effort, is slowly gathering steam. Back East, Occupy Boston is gaining momentum. Protests in the financial center of Dewey Square took place Monday.
The persistence is paying off. The media are beginning to pay attention. Local papers in New York have been running more Occupy Wall Street stories. All of the major networks are covering the protests now.
Click to Play House is gone, but debt lives on
Forty-one states and the District of Columbia permit lenders to sue borrowers for mortgage debt still left after a foreclosure sale.
There are many more reporters on the scene, and the coverage has moved from the police confrontations to what these thousands of protesters want.
The press seems confused. There were signs about Afghanistan, taxes, Wall Street greed, corporate responsibility and just about every pet cause out there. But what some decry as a lack of focus is really about them not getting it: This movement is about money. It’s about wasting money. It’s about greed for money guiding those in power. It’s about the inequitable distribution of money.
Most of all, it’s about process. In a “general assembly” meeting Saturday, Occupy Wall Street came up with its first official document. It is a powerful summation of grievances, not just of the young, but of many Americans: home foreclosures, workers rights, Internet privacy, health care and bailouts. Read the declaration of Occupy Wall Street .
“No true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power,” the declaration states. “We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.”
The protesters urge others to join them in public spaces everywhere.
Occupy Wall Street is a bigger and more important movement than it was two weeks ago. As the country faces a year in which many of its major political offices could potentially shift hands, there finally seems to be a movement that reflects frustration with a system beholden to big financial interests.
Still, there’s much work to do. The movement needs to sharpen its message. It needs visible and well-spoken leadership and people to become active politically. Some have argued that the protesters need more concrete ideas, such as financial-transaction taxes or Wall Street reforms. Blanket anti-corporate statements aren’t actionable.
But for a generation accused of being lazy, unwilling to work and living under their parents’ roofs for far too long, these kids have shown a hell of a lot of mettle so far. The odds are still long, but they’ve succeeded in the first step.
They’ve gotten our attention.
David Weidner covers Wall Street for MarketWatch
Message to OCCUPY WALL STREET
Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.
DONATE TO SUPPORT THE OCCUPATION!
Sites
•OccupyWallSt.org for news and logistics
•New York City General Assemby for on-the-ground information
•OccupyTogether.org to join your local occupation
•Adbusters' #OCCUPYWALLSTREET HQ
•Adbusters' Facebook Event
•US Day of Rage
Twitter
•#occupywallstreet
•@occupywallst
Chat
•"#occupywallst" on irc.freenode.net
Video
•global revolution livestream
An open letter and warning from a former tea party movement adherent to the Occupy Wall Street movement. (self.occupywallstreet)
submitted 2 days ago by vaslittlecrow
I don't expect you to believe me. I want you to read this, take it with a grain of salt, and do the research yourself. You may not believe me, but I want your movement to succeed. From a former tea partier to you, young new rebels, there's some advice to prevent what happened to our now broken movement from happening to you. I don't agree with everything your movement does, but I sympathize with your cause and agree on our common enemy. You guys are very intelligent and I trust that you will take this in the spirit it is intended.
I wish I could believe this Occupy Wall Street was still about (r)Evolution, but so far, all I am seeing is a painful rehash of how the corporate-funded government turned the pre-Presidential election tea party movement into the joke it is now. We were anarchists and ultra-libertarians, but above all we were peaceful. So, the media tried painting us as racists. But when that didn't work they tried to goad us into violence. When that failed, they killed our movement with money and false kindness from the theocratic arm of the Republican party. That killed our popular support.
I am sharing these observations, so you guys know what's going on and can prevent the media from succeeding in painting you as violent slacker hippies rebelling without a cause, or from having the movement be hijacked by a bunch of corporatists seeking to twist the movement's original intentions. If you think this can't happen, it happened to the Independence Party and the tea party movement. Don't let it happen to your movement as well.
Here's how they turned our movement into a bunch of pro-corporate Republican party rebranding astroturf, and this is how I predict they are turning your movement into a bunch of pro-corporate Democratic party rebranding astroturf. I believe many of these things are already happening, so take note.
1- The media will initially and purposely avoid covering your dissenting movement to cause confusion about what your movement is about within mainstream audiences. This is to enrage you and make you appear unreasonable, and perhaps even invisible.
2- While the obsfuscation is happening, stooges will infiltrate and give superficial support, focus and financial backing to the targetted movement. In the tea party movement's case, it was the religious Republicans and Koch Brothers. In this case, it's the Public Sector Unions (the organizations as quasi-human entities, not the members themselves) and Ultra Rich liberals who pretend to care, but frankly do not serve liberators and freedom seekers but rather the interests of those who run the Public Sector Unions and the Democratic Party. Democrat, Republican, these parties are all part of the same corporate ruling system. Case in point: http://www.debates.org/
3-The media will cover the movement only after this infiltration succeeds. Once the infiltration is completed the MSM will manufacture public media antipathy towards the movement by using selective focus on the movement's most repulsive elements or infiltrators on the corporate Conservative media side, while the corporate Liberal media will create a more sympathetic tragic hero image -- this is the flip side of the tea party, but same media manipulation tactics. I go into greater detail on this tactic: http://vaslittlecrow.com/blog/2011/09/08/how-the-media-and-ideological-groups-manipulate-your-beliefs/
4- Someone in the Democratic Party will feign sympathy for the movement and falsely "non-partisan" entities provide tons of funding and unwanted organization, just as was done with the tea party movement by Republicans. Once people assume that the pro-corporate government operatives are their friends, they will hijack the movement and the threat of your movement will be neutralized.
If this new Occupy Wall Street movement is to survive, here's what needs to be done.
1- Loudly denounce violence and disavow the violent rabblerousers of the movement. They do not help the cause.
2- Be image conscious. Present your best face and call out those who act like fools within the movement. People are more likely to pay attention to you in your Sunday dress and bringing homemade food, than when you are drinking a bottle of Snapple and chomping on Big Macs while you are looking like a slacker rich hipster/unwashed hippie stereotype.
3- Accept that you've already been infiltrated by the corporate-funded government, and work hard to say, and state what your movement is and is not about. "No, this isn't about unions or Liberals, conservatives or bored spoiled brats. This is about 99% of our population being exploited and manipulated for the sake of profit." "No we will not resort to violence." "Yes, all we want is for for the end of government collusion with corporate entities that are illegitimately recognized as people." And, so forth...
4- Don't forget who you are as the illusions are thrown at you. Corporatists are masters of illusions. That's the most powerful weapon they have. That's how they sell products you don't need and convince you to justify accepting atrocities for the sake of products Don't fall for it. Otherwise, your cause will be lost. Be wary of large donations from special interest groups or non-profit corporations that were not involved this movement from the inception. Special interests groups are not your allies. Non-profit corporations are still corporations, and unfortunately, too many of them care more about donations than doing the right thing. Killing a movement with kindness is easy.
5- Remain independent and focused. If you can, pick a face to represent your movement. Rosa Parks wasn't just a random lady in a bus. http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/systems/agentsheets/New-Vista/bus-boycott/ -- She was chosen. You too can use the power of illusion against those who oppose you.
I wish your movement better luck than we had with the tea party movement before it got hijacked by the theocrats and corporatists. We used to be non-partisan too. We were the older version of you. But, I believe that as the media apparatchik and infiltrators start to twist your cause, you will understand the frustration us early adopter tea partiers felt and that we were not your enemy after all. A fascist oligarchy on the verge of winning is our common enemy. This should be your focus. Don't be dazzled by the illusion as we were. For the sake of our future, know who you are.
Thank you for reading. I would love to read your ideas on the subject. Correct me where I am wrong. Explain what is going right. This is ultimately your fight.
EDIT: To understand how movements get hijacked, check out this fantastic video that JamesCarlin shared: http://vimeo.com/20355767
If my essay seems too conspiratorial or tl;dr for your tastes, try Hibernator's excellent and much less paranoid sounding summary below:
"Someone starts a movement. It starts small, and there's a lot going on in the world, so the mainstream media gives it minimal coverage. Today's mainstream media is also understaffed, so they don't investigate and they wait for someone else to slap a label on it.
Eventually a sound byte X pops up above the noise and the mainstream media uses this to engage viewers and define the movement. This defining characteristic X spreads like a meme.
People in power now notice what's going on, and think to themselves "Hmm, this new movement is defined by X, and that's almost in line with my goals, so maybe I can use them to further my ends."
But people in power are all labelled as Democrats or Republicans, so now the media applies the polarizing filter of American politics to associate movement X with one of the parties.
The original movement has now been labelled X, and associated with a political party, and none of this happened because of any 'government conspiracy.' It just happened because that's what you get as output when you plug something new into the American political system."
EDIT: Thanks to Whiskey With My Coffee and all the other redditors who have been sharing my message around the Web. I am so grateful to you.
DONATE TO SUPPORT THE OCCUPATION!
Sites
•OccupyWallSt.org for news and logistics
•New York City General Assemby for on-the-ground information
•OccupyTogether.org to join your local occupation
•Adbusters' #OCCUPYWALLSTREET HQ
•Adbusters' Facebook Event
•US Day of Rage
•#occupywallstreet
•@occupywallst
Chat
•"#occupywallst" on irc.freenode.net
Video
•global revolution livestream
An open letter and warning from a former tea party movement adherent to the Occupy Wall Street movement. (self.occupywallstreet)
submitted 2 days ago by vaslittlecrow
I don't expect you to believe me. I want you to read this, take it with a grain of salt, and do the research yourself. You may not believe me, but I want your movement to succeed. From a former tea partier to you, young new rebels, there's some advice to prevent what happened to our now broken movement from happening to you. I don't agree with everything your movement does, but I sympathize with your cause and agree on our common enemy. You guys are very intelligent and I trust that you will take this in the spirit it is intended.
I wish I could believe this Occupy Wall Street was still about (r)Evolution, but so far, all I am seeing is a painful rehash of how the corporate-funded government turned the pre-Presidential election tea party movement into the joke it is now. We were anarchists and ultra-libertarians, but above all we were peaceful. So, the media tried painting us as racists. But when that didn't work they tried to goad us into violence. When that failed, they killed our movement with money and false kindness from the theocratic arm of the Republican party. That killed our popular support.
I am sharing these observations, so you guys know what's going on and can prevent the media from succeeding in painting you as violent slacker hippies rebelling without a cause, or from having the movement be hijacked by a bunch of corporatists seeking to twist the movement's original intentions. If you think this can't happen, it happened to the Independence Party and the tea party movement. Don't let it happen to your movement as well.
Here's how they turned our movement into a bunch of pro-corporate Republican party rebranding astroturf, and this is how I predict they are turning your movement into a bunch of pro-corporate Democratic party rebranding astroturf. I believe many of these things are already happening, so take note.
1- The media will initially and purposely avoid covering your dissenting movement to cause confusion about what your movement is about within mainstream audiences. This is to enrage you and make you appear unreasonable, and perhaps even invisible.
2- While the obsfuscation is happening, stooges will infiltrate and give superficial support, focus and financial backing to the targetted movement. In the tea party movement's case, it was the religious Republicans and Koch Brothers. In this case, it's the Public Sector Unions (the organizations as quasi-human entities, not the members themselves) and Ultra Rich liberals who pretend to care, but frankly do not serve liberators and freedom seekers but rather the interests of those who run the Public Sector Unions and the Democratic Party. Democrat, Republican, these parties are all part of the same corporate ruling system. Case in point: http://www.debates.org/
3-The media will cover the movement only after this infiltration succeeds. Once the infiltration is completed the MSM will manufacture public media antipathy towards the movement by using selective focus on the movement's most repulsive elements or infiltrators on the corporate Conservative media side, while the corporate Liberal media will create a more sympathetic tragic hero image -- this is the flip side of the tea party, but same media manipulation tactics. I go into greater detail on this tactic: http://vaslittlecrow.com/blog/2011/09/08/how-the-media-and-ideological-groups-manipulate-your-beliefs/
4- Someone in the Democratic Party will feign sympathy for the movement and falsely "non-partisan" entities provide tons of funding and unwanted organization, just as was done with the tea party movement by Republicans. Once people assume that the pro-corporate government operatives are their friends, they will hijack the movement and the threat of your movement will be neutralized.
If this new Occupy Wall Street movement is to survive, here's what needs to be done.
1- Loudly denounce violence and disavow the violent rabblerousers of the movement. They do not help the cause.
2- Be image conscious. Present your best face and call out those who act like fools within the movement. People are more likely to pay attention to you in your Sunday dress and bringing homemade food, than when you are drinking a bottle of Snapple and chomping on Big Macs while you are looking like a slacker rich hipster/unwashed hippie stereotype.
3- Accept that you've already been infiltrated by the corporate-funded government, and work hard to say, and state what your movement is and is not about. "No, this isn't about unions or Liberals, conservatives or bored spoiled brats. This is about 99% of our population being exploited and manipulated for the sake of profit." "No we will not resort to violence." "Yes, all we want is for for the end of government collusion with corporate entities that are illegitimately recognized as people." And, so forth...
4- Don't forget who you are as the illusions are thrown at you. Corporatists are masters of illusions. That's the most powerful weapon they have. That's how they sell products you don't need and convince you to justify accepting atrocities for the sake of products Don't fall for it. Otherwise, your cause will be lost. Be wary of large donations from special interest groups or non-profit corporations that were not involved this movement from the inception. Special interests groups are not your allies. Non-profit corporations are still corporations, and unfortunately, too many of them care more about donations than doing the right thing. Killing a movement with kindness is easy.
5- Remain independent and focused. If you can, pick a face to represent your movement. Rosa Parks wasn't just a random lady in a bus. http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/systems/agentsheets/New-Vista/bus-boycott/ -- She was chosen. You too can use the power of illusion against those who oppose you.
I wish your movement better luck than we had with the tea party movement before it got hijacked by the theocrats and corporatists. We used to be non-partisan too. We were the older version of you. But, I believe that as the media apparatchik and infiltrators start to twist your cause, you will understand the frustration us early adopter tea partiers felt and that we were not your enemy after all. A fascist oligarchy on the verge of winning is our common enemy. This should be your focus. Don't be dazzled by the illusion as we were. For the sake of our future, know who you are.
Thank you for reading. I would love to read your ideas on the subject. Correct me where I am wrong. Explain what is going right. This is ultimately your fight.
EDIT: To understand how movements get hijacked, check out this fantastic video that JamesCarlin shared: http://vimeo.com/20355767
If my essay seems too conspiratorial or tl;dr for your tastes, try Hibernator's excellent and much less paranoid sounding summary below:
"Someone starts a movement. It starts small, and there's a lot going on in the world, so the mainstream media gives it minimal coverage. Today's mainstream media is also understaffed, so they don't investigate and they wait for someone else to slap a label on it.
Eventually a sound byte X pops up above the noise and the mainstream media uses this to engage viewers and define the movement. This defining characteristic X spreads like a meme.
People in power now notice what's going on, and think to themselves "Hmm, this new movement is defined by X, and that's almost in line with my goals, so maybe I can use them to further my ends."
But people in power are all labelled as Democrats or Republicans, so now the media applies the polarizing filter of American politics to associate movement X with one of the parties.
The original movement has now been labelled X, and associated with a political party, and none of this happened because of any 'government conspiracy.' It just happened because that's what you get as output when you plug something new into the American political system."
EDIT: Thanks to Whiskey With My Coffee and all the other redditors who have been sharing my message around the Web. I am so grateful to you.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Occupy Wall Street: Look deeper, a new democracy is waiting to be born
by Chaz Valenza
opednews.com
Look deeper. Underneath the veneer of protests and arrests there is a new democracy waiting to be born.
Yesterday the NYPD gave Occupy Wall Street, and the movement it is birthing, a boost by arresting some 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge, an apparent contradiction that is a manifestation of the paradigm shift now underway.
Over the past 40 years, since 1970 when mortgage-backed securities were first introduced, Wall Street has transmuted from allocating capital for long-term investment into nano-term android speculators and anti-capitalist systemic fraud orchestrators.
Ketchup, her name, addressed the General Assembly by Valerie B. Taylor 9/25/11 Attribution for Use
Over the past 30 years since, since Ronald Reagan was elected president, regulated capitalism has been dismantled. An aristocracy of kleptomaniacs and a politics of corporatocracy subsumed democracy originally created by and for the people.
The American democratic government has been hijacked by the virtual world called "Wall Street," which is, relative to the entire population, a small number of fast-buck artists raping and pillaging people world-wide.
Occupy Wall Street has by choice engaged with the people, not the system.
The corporate mass media, MSM, has given the people the sound bite, the "inside baseball" political analysis and the spin, all devoid of any discussion of issues or important content.
Occupy Wall Street has toppled the media sound bit and replaced it with the HD big picture of reality calling out the overall issues.
The MSM counters by saying the big issues are too big to debate wanting to pick small insignificant fights.
The government has been sold to the highest bidders on a cash for power basis.
Occupy Wall Street's NYC General Assembly has proved an all inclusive democracy can reach consensus and make long term decisions to the benefit of both the stability of the organization and the security of people who participate.
The police and media keep asking for the occupation movement's leaders, both nationally and locally, as the cause spreads to other cities and towns. They are dumbfounded when they discover there are none, just a leaderless democracy of the people.
The establishment decries the movement's refusal to engage in debates where they have predetermined only two possible positions.
Occupy Wall Street educates the newly arrived in a philosophy of consensus building and creative solutions to problems that consider not just two, but three or more possible creative solutions.
Occupy Wall Street is determined to stay as long as necessary to achieve tangible objectives of recognition, substantial growth and future prospects before ending the current protest action.
1 | 2
Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
I support Occupy Wall Street and I want an end to financial tyranny now!
Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers
Chaz Valenza is writer and small business owner in New Jersey. He earned his MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business. His current feature film project is "Single Point Failure" an insider's account of how the Reagan Administration (more...)
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My hope for this piece... by Chaz Valenza on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 10:46:58 AM Most of us Understand by macdon1 on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 5:32:45 PM Something really big is beginning by Betsy Whitfill on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 12:24:10 PM I hope its bigger than big. by Sharon M on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 1:41:04 PM Chaz, nobody is "dismissing" the movement by lila york on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 12:43:02 PM Great Article by Burl Hall on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 1:36:20 PM A new democracy waiting to be born by Sister Begonia on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 1:51:33 PM Mondragon Owns Its Own Bank, Which Reinvests In Itself by Michael Dewey on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 5:34:00 PM A New Democracy Certainly IS Waiting to Be Implemented by J Nunn on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 3:31:00 PM Tweet: Occupy Wall Street: Look deeper, a new democracy is waiting to be born: http://bit.ly/pQNLbf | WE elected @barackobama & then turned back to by Linda Dapper on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 3:43:00 PM Tweet: Occupy Wall Street: Look deeper, a new democracy is waiting to be born: http://bit.ly/pQNLbf by Michael Dewey on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 5:42:44 PM Thanks by Kevin Tully on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 9:48:19 PM
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The Best Among Us; Join the Revolt On Wall Street or Stand On The Wrong Side of History by Chris Hedges
There's Something Happening-- BIG!! Are You In? by Rob Kall
Occupy Wall Street Day 14 - NYPD Arrest 400 in Brooklyn Bridge Trap by Chaz Valenza
Occupy Wall Street: Look deeper, a new democracy is waiting to be born by Chaz Valenza
Is The War On Terror A Hoax? by paul craig roberts
Congressional Anti-Internet Freedom Bills by Stephen Lendman
DISPATCH FROM #OCCUPY WALL ST AS PROTESTS ENTER THIRD WEEK by Danny Schechter
Bear Raiders: How Short Sellers Fleece Investors by Ellen Brown
Prison Hell in America by Stephen Lendman
Why Democrats must embrace Occupy Wall Street by Cliff Weathers
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by Linh Dinh
Has American Journalism flat lined?
by Bob Patterson
Westward Ho! For the Arab Spring
by Marta Steele
700 Arrested in NYC, Dozens Arrested Among Thousands Protesting Bank Of America in Boston at Citibank
by Rob Kall
Occupy Wall Street: Look deeper, a new democracy is waiting to be born
by Chaz Valenza
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Black America and Obama: A Dilemma
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by Cliff Weathers
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by Stephen Lendman
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by Stephen Lendman
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by Mikhail Lyubansky
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by Robert Parry
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by Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall
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by Robert Reich
Mutiny on the Titanic
by Uri Avnery
by Chaz Valenza
opednews.com
Look deeper. Underneath the veneer of protests and arrests there is a new democracy waiting to be born.
Yesterday the NYPD gave Occupy Wall Street, and the movement it is birthing, a boost by arresting some 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge, an apparent contradiction that is a manifestation of the paradigm shift now underway.
Over the past 40 years, since 1970 when mortgage-backed securities were first introduced, Wall Street has transmuted from allocating capital for long-term investment into nano-term android speculators and anti-capitalist systemic fraud orchestrators.
Ketchup, her name, addressed the General Assembly by Valerie B. Taylor 9/25/11 Attribution for Use
Over the past 30 years since, since Ronald Reagan was elected president, regulated capitalism has been dismantled. An aristocracy of kleptomaniacs and a politics of corporatocracy subsumed democracy originally created by and for the people.
The American democratic government has been hijacked by the virtual world called "Wall Street," which is, relative to the entire population, a small number of fast-buck artists raping and pillaging people world-wide.
Occupy Wall Street has by choice engaged with the people, not the system.
The corporate mass media, MSM, has given the people the sound bite, the "inside baseball" political analysis and the spin, all devoid of any discussion of issues or important content.
Occupy Wall Street has toppled the media sound bit and replaced it with the HD big picture of reality calling out the overall issues.
The MSM counters by saying the big issues are too big to debate wanting to pick small insignificant fights.
The government has been sold to the highest bidders on a cash for power basis.
Occupy Wall Street's NYC General Assembly has proved an all inclusive democracy can reach consensus and make long term decisions to the benefit of both the stability of the organization and the security of people who participate.
The police and media keep asking for the occupation movement's leaders, both nationally and locally, as the cause spreads to other cities and towns. They are dumbfounded when they discover there are none, just a leaderless democracy of the people.
The establishment decries the movement's refusal to engage in debates where they have predetermined only two possible positions.
Occupy Wall Street educates the newly arrived in a philosophy of consensus building and creative solutions to problems that consider not just two, but three or more possible creative solutions.
Occupy Wall Street is determined to stay as long as necessary to achieve tangible objectives of recognition, substantial growth and future prospects before ending the current protest action.
1 | 2
Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
I support Occupy Wall Street and I want an end to financial tyranny now!
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Chaz Valenza is writer and small business owner in New Jersey. He earned his MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business. His current feature film project is "Single Point Failure" an insider's account of how the Reagan Administration (more...)
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My hope for this piece... by Chaz Valenza on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 10:46:58 AM Most of us Understand by macdon1 on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 5:32:45 PM Something really big is beginning by Betsy Whitfill on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 12:24:10 PM I hope its bigger than big. by Sharon M on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 1:41:04 PM Chaz, nobody is "dismissing" the movement by lila york on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 12:43:02 PM Great Article by Burl Hall on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 1:36:20 PM A new democracy waiting to be born by Sister Begonia on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 1:51:33 PM Mondragon Owns Its Own Bank, Which Reinvests In Itself by Michael Dewey on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 5:34:00 PM A New Democracy Certainly IS Waiting to Be Implemented by J Nunn on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 3:31:00 PM Tweet: Occupy Wall Street: Look deeper, a new democracy is waiting to be born: http://bit.ly/pQNLbf | WE elected @barackobama & then turned back to by Linda Dapper on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 3:43:00 PM Tweet: Occupy Wall Street: Look deeper, a new democracy is waiting to be born: http://bit.ly/pQNLbf by Michael Dewey on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 5:42:44 PM Thanks by Kevin Tully on Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 at 9:48:19 PM
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Most Popular Articles
in the Last 2 Days
(by Page Views)
The Best Among Us; Join the Revolt On Wall Street or Stand On The Wrong Side of History by Chris Hedges
There's Something Happening-- BIG!! Are You In? by Rob Kall
Occupy Wall Street Day 14 - NYPD Arrest 400 in Brooklyn Bridge Trap by Chaz Valenza
Occupy Wall Street: Look deeper, a new democracy is waiting to be born by Chaz Valenza
Is The War On Terror A Hoax? by paul craig roberts
Congressional Anti-Internet Freedom Bills by Stephen Lendman
DISPATCH FROM #OCCUPY WALL ST AS PROTESTS ENTER THIRD WEEK by Danny Schechter
Bear Raiders: How Short Sellers Fleece Investors by Ellen Brown
Prison Hell in America by Stephen Lendman
Why Democrats must embrace Occupy Wall Street by Cliff Weathers
Go To Top 50 Most Popular
TOP EDITORIALS:
Radix Malorum Est The Man
by Linh Dinh
Has American Journalism flat lined?
by Bob Patterson
Westward Ho! For the Arab Spring
by Marta Steele
700 Arrested in NYC, Dozens Arrested Among Thousands Protesting Bank Of America in Boston at Citibank
by Rob Kall
Occupy Wall Street: Look deeper, a new democracy is waiting to be born
by Chaz Valenza
Holy Megabucks, Batman! The Astounding Popularity of Superhero Movies
by Timothy McGettigan
Chris Christie -- Can a Fat Governor "Run" for President?
by Brian J. Foley
Do we need to have a candidate entrance exam?
by Dave Corbin
Black America and Obama: A Dilemma
by Frederick Alexander Meade
Why Democrats must embrace Occupy Wall Street
by Cliff Weathers
Scott Walker, ALEC Alum
by Dennis Kaiser
Where are the grown-ups?
by lila york
Congressional Anti-Internet Freedom Bills
by Stephen Lendman
Abbas Feeling Heavy-Handed Pressure
by Stephen Lendman
"No Wedding No Womb" Might Save Lives--Are We Content With That?
by Mikhail Lyubansky
Enduring Terror Double Standards
by Robert Parry
Reclaiming Adam Smith
by Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall
Obama fundraising drive targets the wealthy
by Patrick Martin
Obama boasts of assassinating American citizen in Yemen
by Bill van Auken
There's Something Happening-- BIG!! Are You In?
by Rob Kall
The American Jobs Depression, and How to Get Out of It
by Robert Reich
Mutiny on the Titanic
by Uri Avnery
OCCUPY WASHINGTON, D.C.
Protest: Group Pushes Repeal Of Citizens United, Corporate Personhood
Arin Greenwood
arin.greenwood@huffingtonpost.com
A small group of protesters gathered in McPherson Square on Saturday morning.
First Posted: 10/1/11 02:33 PM ET Updated: 10/1/11 03:33 PM ET
WASHINGTON -- Around 35 OccupyDC protesters huddled in a cluster of trees in McPherson Square on Saturday morning during on-and-off rain showers, the beginning of what they said could be a several month-long occupation of the park in the nation's capital.
The protesters, inspired by the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City, are asking for the "repeal [of] corporate personhood," according to the group's website. Thee group is focusing particularly on Citizens United, the landmark 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down campaign-finance laws applying to corporations and unions, freeing these groups to spend money on independent political ads.
That decision expanded the First Amendment rights for corporations under the legal doctrine called corporate personhood, a theory that gives some legal rights and duties to corporations as if they were people.
Which parts of corporate personhood does OccupyDC want to repeal -- the parts that allow corporations to enter into contracts, or just the Citizens United-related parts that focus on campaign finance law?
Jeffrey Light, a D.C.-based activist lawyer associated with OccupyDC, told The Huffington Post in an interview Friday that OccupyDC doesn't yet have a unified vision of what it means to repeal corporate personhood, but said the protest group would like to start by getting corporation-related campaign finance laws back in place. "We're most concerned with the power of corporations to amass huge amounts of wealth and then to use that to distort the political system. We're also concerned about corporations looking to the First Amendment to overturn legislation enacted by democratically enacted government."
Light said that the group would support some First Amendment rights for non-persons -- OccupyDC would not support the government being able to tell nonprofits that they have to carry anti-gay messages, for example.
"But when we're talking about regulations in the public interest, things like forcing corporations to abide by environmental standards, or campaign finance limits, then it's unreasonable for corporations to be able to override the public interest," he said. "Our concern is about basic democratic principles. Rather than just making theoretical statements about what we'd like the role of corporations to be in an ideal world, we're trying to create actual reforms right now. People aren't coming out in the street because they all have a fixed and agreed-upon idea of exactly where this line should be drawn. People are just really fed up with the status quo right now, and want to see some real changes."
But Light said the group has no current plans to change Citizens United with another lawsuit or by pushing for a constitutional amendment.
"We don't have a consensus yet on what the next step is," Light said. "Unlike some other protests, we're not a nonprofit with already articulated goals. It's kind of a fluid thing right now: just individuals coming together and trying to figure out what kind of actions we should take. So we haven't necessarily articulated our long-term strategy yet.
"And there are of course a lot of different solutions, everything from another Supreme Court case to a constitutional amendment," he added. "We're not necessarily all on the same page as to what the solution would be, but any of those things would be a step in the right direction."
In the meantime, the small contingent of protesters remained in the square Saturday afternoon. Some held protest signs on the K Street NW sidewalk, getting occasional honks from passing traffic. Assuming the rain doesn't drive them away, the protesters have awhile to work out a unified vision.
Arin Greenwood
arin.greenwood@huffingtonpost.com
A small group of protesters gathered in McPherson Square on Saturday morning.
First Posted: 10/1/11 02:33 PM ET Updated: 10/1/11 03:33 PM ET
WASHINGTON -- Around 35 OccupyDC protesters huddled in a cluster of trees in McPherson Square on Saturday morning during on-and-off rain showers, the beginning of what they said could be a several month-long occupation of the park in the nation's capital.
The protesters, inspired by the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City, are asking for the "repeal [of] corporate personhood," according to the group's website. Thee group is focusing particularly on Citizens United, the landmark 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down campaign-finance laws applying to corporations and unions, freeing these groups to spend money on independent political ads.
That decision expanded the First Amendment rights for corporations under the legal doctrine called corporate personhood, a theory that gives some legal rights and duties to corporations as if they were people.
Which parts of corporate personhood does OccupyDC want to repeal -- the parts that allow corporations to enter into contracts, or just the Citizens United-related parts that focus on campaign finance law?
Jeffrey Light, a D.C.-based activist lawyer associated with OccupyDC, told The Huffington Post in an interview Friday that OccupyDC doesn't yet have a unified vision of what it means to repeal corporate personhood, but said the protest group would like to start by getting corporation-related campaign finance laws back in place. "We're most concerned with the power of corporations to amass huge amounts of wealth and then to use that to distort the political system. We're also concerned about corporations looking to the First Amendment to overturn legislation enacted by democratically enacted government."
Light said that the group would support some First Amendment rights for non-persons -- OccupyDC would not support the government being able to tell nonprofits that they have to carry anti-gay messages, for example.
"But when we're talking about regulations in the public interest, things like forcing corporations to abide by environmental standards, or campaign finance limits, then it's unreasonable for corporations to be able to override the public interest," he said. "Our concern is about basic democratic principles. Rather than just making theoretical statements about what we'd like the role of corporations to be in an ideal world, we're trying to create actual reforms right now. People aren't coming out in the street because they all have a fixed and agreed-upon idea of exactly where this line should be drawn. People are just really fed up with the status quo right now, and want to see some real changes."
But Light said the group has no current plans to change Citizens United with another lawsuit or by pushing for a constitutional amendment.
"We don't have a consensus yet on what the next step is," Light said. "Unlike some other protests, we're not a nonprofit with already articulated goals. It's kind of a fluid thing right now: just individuals coming together and trying to figure out what kind of actions we should take. So we haven't necessarily articulated our long-term strategy yet.
"And there are of course a lot of different solutions, everything from another Supreme Court case to a constitutional amendment," he added. "We're not necessarily all on the same page as to what the solution would be, but any of those things would be a step in the right direction."
In the meantime, the small contingent of protesters remained in the square Saturday afternoon. Some held protest signs on the K Street NW sidewalk, getting occasional honks from passing traffic. Assuming the rain doesn't drive them away, the protesters have awhile to work out a unified vision.
The Revolution Should Not Be PhotoShopped
The Policy Geek (Lisa Lindo)
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Nowadays you try to walk across a bridge (closely protected, of course, against acts of terrorism) and they'll arrest you (see video from You Tube). Not everyone likes to follow the sound ordinances; and some people like to play in traffic, so today, they arrested 700 American Citizens who did just that on The Brooklyn Bridge. Just bang some drums, and perhaps shut down a lane of traffic for a few hours of dancing, and "booooo!" they'll come arrest you. Even FOX News broke down and reported on what was going on, so let's put a rest to the "no news is covering this" meme, shall we?
In fact, New York City police say about 700 protesters have been arrested after they swarmed the Brooklyn Bridge and shut down traffic TODAY. This offshoot from the financial district protest orchestrated an impromptu trek to Brooklyn this evening. "They walked in thick rows on the sidewalk up to the bridge, where some demonstrators spilled onto the roadway. Most of those arrested face disorderly conduct charges, while others were accused of resisting arrest after being told to stay on the pedestrian pathway" says an NYPD spokesman.
(Backs Photos, 2011)
The magazine The Nation has the organization and the concept behind this Occupation all broken down extremely well in a recent article.
Link: http://www.thenation.com/article/163719/occupy-wall-street-faq
Interestingly enough, The New York Transit Workers Union (TWU) voted to support the Wall Street Protesters at their meeting Wednesday night. A member of TWU Local 100 told a reporter that they planned to join the protest this last Friday. The Union has 114 autonomous locals representing over 200,000 members and retirees in 22 states around the country. And it's numbers like that that have caused the GOP to try to dissolve them. Unions back Dems, and there'll be no more of that. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/a-massive-union-just-voted-to-side-with-the-wall-street-protesters-2011-9#ixzz1ZNr9x6HF
(OccupyWallSt.org, 2011)
Occupy Wall Street has been picking up some decent support from other unions in the past few days. Wednesday we reported that the Teamsters Union declared their support for protesters.
Washington Current Reports: After more than a two weeks of protests in New York against major financial institutions and the role they played in the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent economic meltdown, more than 1,000 people were in Boston yesterday to march on the headquarters of Bank of America headquarters. The action in Boston was organized by The New Bottom Line, a nationwide coalition of 1,000 faith-based and community organizations that also seeks to hold Wall Street accountable. Link: http://www.thewashingtoncurrent.com/2011/09/wall-street-protesters-to-move-on-to.html
(Adam Nelson, 2011)
Per Daily Kos today, here is their first official list of demands:
Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ health care and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*
To the people of the world, We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power. Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone
.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal. Join us and make your voices heard!
*These grievances are not all-inclusive.
Now, if anyone tells you that the people down on Wall Street are a bunch of disorganized homeless kids about to go home anyway, you can tell them that a little Policy Geek filled you in on the whole thing, and you don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon. Who knows? All that seems to be abundantly obvious, is that at this rate we're gonna have to make a whole lot more popcorn.
Check back soon for more updates.
Lisa Lindo
ThePolicyGeek
The Policy Geek (Lisa Lindo)
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Nowadays you try to walk across a bridge (closely protected, of course, against acts of terrorism) and they'll arrest you (see video from You Tube). Not everyone likes to follow the sound ordinances; and some people like to play in traffic, so today, they arrested 700 American Citizens who did just that on The Brooklyn Bridge. Just bang some drums, and perhaps shut down a lane of traffic for a few hours of dancing, and "booooo!" they'll come arrest you. Even FOX News broke down and reported on what was going on, so let's put a rest to the "no news is covering this" meme, shall we?
In fact, New York City police say about 700 protesters have been arrested after they swarmed the Brooklyn Bridge and shut down traffic TODAY. This offshoot from the financial district protest orchestrated an impromptu trek to Brooklyn this evening. "They walked in thick rows on the sidewalk up to the bridge, where some demonstrators spilled onto the roadway. Most of those arrested face disorderly conduct charges, while others were accused of resisting arrest after being told to stay on the pedestrian pathway" says an NYPD spokesman.
(Backs Photos, 2011)
The magazine The Nation has the organization and the concept behind this Occupation all broken down extremely well in a recent article.
Link: http://www.thenation.com/article/163719/occupy-wall-street-faq
Interestingly enough, The New York Transit Workers Union (TWU) voted to support the Wall Street Protesters at their meeting Wednesday night. A member of TWU Local 100 told a reporter that they planned to join the protest this last Friday. The Union has 114 autonomous locals representing over 200,000 members and retirees in 22 states around the country. And it's numbers like that that have caused the GOP to try to dissolve them. Unions back Dems, and there'll be no more of that. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/a-massive-union-just-voted-to-side-with-the-wall-street-protesters-2011-9#ixzz1ZNr9x6HF
(OccupyWallSt.org, 2011)
Occupy Wall Street has been picking up some decent support from other unions in the past few days. Wednesday we reported that the Teamsters Union declared their support for protesters.
Washington Current Reports: After more than a two weeks of protests in New York against major financial institutions and the role they played in the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent economic meltdown, more than 1,000 people were in Boston yesterday to march on the headquarters of Bank of America headquarters. The action in Boston was organized by The New Bottom Line, a nationwide coalition of 1,000 faith-based and community organizations that also seeks to hold Wall Street accountable. Link: http://www.thewashingtoncurrent.com/2011/09/wall-street-protesters-to-move-on-to.html
(Adam Nelson, 2011)
Per Daily Kos today, here is their first official list of demands:
Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ health care and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*
To the people of the world, We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power. Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone
.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal. Join us and make your voices heard!
*These grievances are not all-inclusive.
Now, if anyone tells you that the people down on Wall Street are a bunch of disorganized homeless kids about to go home anyway, you can tell them that a little Policy Geek filled you in on the whole thing, and you don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon. Who knows? All that seems to be abundantly obvious, is that at this rate we're gonna have to make a whole lot more popcorn.
Check back soon for more updates.
Lisa Lindo
ThePolicyGeek
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