MetaFilter posts tagged with Occupy and OccupyWallStreet

The Anarchist Revival

homunculus — Sun, 05 May 2013 23:15:41 -0800

David Graeber’s “The Democracy Project” and the anarchist revival. "Is the current arrangement of our democracy unstable? Should we start thinking about what might come next?"

On the importance of learning from past movements

eviemath — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 10:35:54 -0800

Gideon Oliver spoke to me of the devastating effect this kind of surveillance has had on activists. “People fear that detectives are following them around. They panic. It’s a movement-dismantling tactic.” Most Occupy protesters are new to activism and are emotionally unprepared to deal with this kind of intimidation. Nor, so far as I have seen, are they inclined to seek the advice of older activists who were under surveillance in the 1960s and 1970s, before the protections of the original Handschu Decree, which prohibited political spying, were put in place. Those activists nevertheless found ways to continue their political work.

From an article on the NYPD's Intel Division. The linked article references the Handschu Decree - here is a longer background on police surveillance of activists. Spying on First Amendment Activity - State-by-State On the other coast, there's the Seattle grand jury proceedings which appeared to have targeted anarchists for their political beliefs. Back in the day, it was the FBI's COINTELPRO (more here). When COINTELPRO was discovered and publicized, it created a large enough stir that future political surveillance by law enforcement in the US generally gets compared to it. "Return of COINTELPRO" previously on the blue: 1, 2, 3. Information about how activists resisted surveillance in the 1960s and 1970s is (perhaps not surprisingly) not so easy to find with a quick online search.

in Oakland, the revolutionary pilot light is always on

gerryblog — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:19:05 -0800

Requiem for an Occupation: The New York Times visits Oakland, California, "the last refuge of radical America." Previously and previouslier. In this context, May Day — and Occupy Oakland, more broadly — looks less like an expression of the city’s indomitable radical spirit than the last gasp of a protest movement overmatched by the encroaching forces of capitalism. Oakland is simply too geographically well positioned and financially underexploited not to absorb the creative, professional and entrepreneurial overflow from more expensive places like San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Berkeley. And as it continues to develop its own gritty-chic cachet, there’s a good chance Oakland might become more than just a default option for some of the Bay Area’s nouveau riche. ... The utopian vision for a post-capitalist Oakland clung to by Boots Riley and the rest of the city’s revolutionaries will soon be dead. But radical Oakland will live on, awaiting its next opportunity to rise up, even as the city itself evolves. For every young tech worker moving into a downtown condominium tower or entrepreneur gobbling up cheap, deserted retail space, there’s sure to be a militant graduate student drawn to a city that has just added another chapter to its long radical history.

Chomsky publishes new book, Occupy

GnomeChompsky — Mon, 07 May 2012 12:45:42 -0800

Noam Chomsky has released a new book -- Occupy -- through Zuccotti Park Press. In Occupy, Chomsky discusses how a real democracy would work, how we can separate money from politics, and why everyday Americans are deciding to protest.

AlterNet recently posted an extensive interview with Chomsky, who claims America and Europe are committing economic suicide. Chomsky's focus on the OWS movement comes at the same time as coverage on the alleged Cleveland bridge bombing conspirators' close association with Occupy Cleveland.

U.S. Press Freedom Rankings Plummet

jeffburdges — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:40:15 -0800

“The United States [owes] its fall of 27 places [to 47th] to the many arrests of journalist covering Occupy Wall Street protests.” -Reporters Without Borders

Btw, Occupy Wall St. has begun heating up again for the spring with 400 arrested in Oakland yesterday. And a blooming Occupy K Street movement (DC, FB) “Crackdown was the word of the year in 2011. Never has freedom of information been so closely associated with democracy. Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom so much. Never have acts of censorship and physical attacks on journalists seemed so numerous.” There are various interesting observations throughout the report, such as Uganda's extreme crackdown, Chile losing 47 places over security forces assaults on student protests, and Brazil plunging 41 places due to attacks on journalists and bloggers. Africa saw the biggest falls overall, but a few African nations gained ground. Niger rose a spectacular 75 places. As an aside, Reporters Without Borders and WikiLeaks recently exposed NASDAQ for shutting down the U.S. based Chinese language TV network NTD TV upon the request of Chinese State Security. RSF/RWB also found that the French satellite broadcaster Eutelsat shut down NTD TV's broadcast on China's behalf.

Weren't you the 1% who hurt me with your lies?

finite — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 04:20:43 -0800

We Will Survive Capitalism! flash mob with US Uncut [previously] and the Brass Liberation Orchestra
Previous BLO flash mobs include Bad Hotel [previously], Operation Hey Mackey [previously], and "PAY UP!" (demanding Bank of America pay their taxes). Speaking of BofA, in San Francisco on Thursday activists turned every Bank of America ATM in the city into an Automated Truth Machine, using special non-adhesive stickers designed to look exactly like BoA’s ATM interface. But instead of checking and savings accounts, these new menus offered a list of everything BoA customers’ money is being used for, including investment in coal-fired power plants, foreclosure on Americans’ homes, bankrolling of climate change, and paying for fat executive bonuses. More renditions of I Will Survive Capitalism, at the November 2nd Oakland General Strike: BLO without dance troupe; larger dance troupe, without the BLO [rehearsal/instructional video] Dancing without Borders' One People flash mob at Occupy Oakland kickstarting the November 19, 2011 Action march [instructional video, edited video of performances in Oakland and SF] More flash mob bank protests (some amusical): Flash Protest inside a Bank of America in Brunswick, Maine demands banks pay their fair share; Occupy Philadelphia flash mob dances at a Wells Fargo; Occupy Portland sings and mic-checks inside Wells Fargo; OccupySF occupies Bank of America with a tent; OccupySF sings and dances to "Occupy Telephone" inside Wells Fargo; Opponents of Ohio Senate Bill 5 target the Huntington Bank for a flash mob. They cited the bank's campaign contributions to politicians that support the collective-bargaining reform bill. Led by officials from Progress Ohio, They sang a modified "Hang On Sloopy" in the bank lobby. And now for something completely different, a few flash mobs by banks: employees of Lake Sunapee Bank dance at a Farmers' Market in Newport, NH; flash mob at Whitney Bank employee meeting; professional dancers hired by TD Bank perform in New York City; many dancers, percussionists, and a choir hired by Wells Fargo perform in Times Square I began this post after following links from this tweet about the arrest of the BLO's Lauren Montana Swiger, who credited in the description of the first video as "magic wrangler, organizer, dance instructor". This 20 minute clip of SF State Journalism teacher Justin Beck's ustream follows her distraught daughter from the police station where she was arrested to the Hall of Justice where she is presently being held.

West Coast Port Blockade

jeffburdges — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:30:02 -0800

On Monday, the Occupy Wall Street movement disrupted ports in its West Coast Port Blockade. Several larger participating occupations were Oakland, Los Angeles, Portland, San Diego, Seattle, Tacoma, and Vancouver (previously). There were solidarity marches is various non-costal cities and Denver blockaded a Walmart distribution center. There were significantly fewer participants than on November 2nd, but deliveries were interrupted and many longshoremen stayed home, effectively shutting down several ports for a shift or two. America’s port truck drivers issued an open letter on occupy the ports via cleanandsafeports.org. Al Jazeera asks "Is it time to occupy the highways?" Relevant twitters : #Dec12, #portshutdown, #ows, #occupyoakland, #occupyla #occupyportland, #occupyseattle, #occupyvancouver

Near-Real-Time

clarknova — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 05:18:05 -0800

Contrary to initial reports, the evictions of Occupy L.A. encampments were marked by police violence and hundreds of arrests. Journalists who ignored the prohibition on live coverage were expressly targeted by the LAPD.

MIC CHECK!

finite — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:55:44 -0800

Scott Walker, Michele Bachmann, Robin Vos, Karl Rove, Joe Moore, Ron Paul, Scott Serota, Newt Gingrich, Rahm Emanuel, Eric Cantor, and, today, Barack Obama

Clearly, Utica Club is the Better UC

Chipmazing — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 13:45:04 -0800

While the nation's attention has been recently drawn to the student protests at UC-Davis after video showing UCPD pepper-spraying a group of peaceful students went viral, this is merely one incident in a wave of student activism over the last three years with the goal of "reclaiming" the University of California for students. Some place the beginning of this mass student movement around the 2009 decision to implement a 32% tuition hike, which led to protests that drew over 5,000 students and a damning expose and condemnation from the President of the UC Faculty Association. (Budget Cuts Previously) The movement has steadily maintained its momentum despite a rash of arrests and acts of violence, and has used successfully used direct action, building occupations and inventive tactics such as occupying a building ledge. They're a movement that stands in solidarity with the much discussed OWS, but predates it. They have drawn the support of luminaries such as Robert Reich, fmr. Secretary of Labor, and have seen faculty join their protests, including a letter from an untenured faculty member calling for Chancellor Katehi's resignation. The students have made the UC Board of Regents - who raised their own salaries while hiking fees - a target of their ire, and have staged a fake resignation of President Yudof, disruptive speech-actions in conjunction with local unions support of employees arrests and suffered large numbers of arrests. This course of action has led the Regents to cancel their latest meeting after no protest-free locations could be found. In light of their inability to meet physically because of student objection, their meeting will now be held by virtual teleconference. In recognition of the sweeping protests, they've expanded public comment from 20 minutes to one hour of their normally two day meetings. Comprehensive coverage of further developments specifically on the allegations of brutality at the UC-Davis protest can be found at Prof. Angus Johnston's running article on the incident. If you can only read a single link, make it that. This post owes a great deal of gratitude to his attention to the UC student movement. Related previously(s): Irvine 11

Something Tells Me To Stop With the Al-Qaeda. I Ignore It

Legomancer — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:51:34 -0800

Frank Miller is a giant among comic book creators. He gave us The Dark Knight Returns, which rewrote the book on Batman and comics in general. He also gave us seminal versions of Daredevil, Batman, and Wolverine. His Sin City and 300 books are a triumph of design, if not subtlety. Lately, though, he's taken a different path. He recently released Holy Terror, which in 2005 was to have featured Batman, but now features a renamed stand-in fighting Al-Qaeda. It has been nearly universally panned as a piece of ugly, anti-Muslim propaganda. Last week, Miller blasted the "Occupy" movement on his blog, describing the participants as, "louts, thieves, and rapists," who, "can do nothing but harm America" and pointing to the looming threat of Al-Qaeda.

Occupy Everything

fartron — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:55:49 -0800

After deftly calming negative press coverage of his administration's handling of the Wall Street occupation by announcing that protestors may remain at the privately held public park in lower Manhattan which they have held for 26 days, Mayor Bloomberg has told the activists that they must vacate the premises by tomorrow (Friday) morning at 6AM for "cleaning." The mayor cited the owner's need to "maintain [the park] in a condition fit for public use" as reason for the public's eviction, and promised that the occupiers would be allowed to return as long as they follow the new rules which bar such occupier amenities as sleeping bags, sleeping or lying down. Some commenters have suggested the real goal is a disruption of the group prior to the planned actions on Saturday.

We are the one percent. We stand with the 99 percent!

ennui.bz — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:06:42 -0800

We are the one percent. We stand with the 99 percent!