Tuesday, September 17, 2013 Two-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street

About Us « Occupy Wall Street S17:

• Although the primary focus of S17 is on the events that marked the beginning of Occupy Wall Street in New York, we are also celebrating the expansion of the movement beyond that day. We welcome all thoughts about how OWS has been effective in raising awareness of the social challenges brought on by the economic failures of Wall Street in all parts of American and the world at large.
• We would appreciate having your opinions about the value and direction needed to bring about change by Occupy Wall Street and all activist groups. Please send your comments to Staff@s17ows.org and we will include them on the front page of the site.

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August 21-25, 2013 Occupy (Inter)National Gathering 2013 Kalamazoo, Michigan

Occupy (Inter)National Gathering 2013: Kalamazoo, Aug 21-25 | OccupyWallSt.org:

• Attendance encouraged by all Occupiers and interested parties. Occupy Kalamazoo will be hosting the second round of Occupy National conferences, August 21-25, 2013, following the wildly successful Occupy National Gathering that took place in Philadelphia, PA, July 2012.
• We, the National Gathering Working Group 2013 (NGWG2013), propose a National Gathering of the Occupy Movement, and peoples’ movements worldwide, in Kalamazoo Michigan, to collectively assemble and embrace our different ideologies and perspectives; to find our common visions; to share our strategies and actions; and to leave this gathering with steps we can all take in both agreement and diversity; for ourselves, our communities, our nations, and for all of us all over the world.
• There will be a special focus on indigenous peoples, race, gender and class throughout the convergences.
• Occupy National Gathering working group (NGWG2013) is a coalition of Occupy movements from cities around the world, uniting in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and with Occupy and peoples’ movements worldwide.

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Download the free Occupy Organizer Guide handbook

Details: InterOccupy | Organizer Guide:

• Occupy The Economy in collaboration with Occupy Love has put together a guide to help anyone organize and plan actions this spring. It is a nice summary of why we think it will be important to recommit to camping and raising public awareness about these issues. We hope many of you will check it out and join us in building a new economic paradigm that works for everyone.
• Download the handbook.

InterOccupy

Oakland to Punish Cops for Handling of Occupy Protesters Over the Last Year

Oakland to Punish Cops for Handling of Occupy Protesters | OccuWorld:

Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said today that he wants to discipline 44 of his officers for misconduct in their handling of Occupy Oakland protesters at three major demonstrations in the past year. Jordan said at a briefing at City Hall that his Internal Affairs division has received 1,127 complaints about alleged officer misconduct at Occupy Oakland protests in the past year. Jordan also revealed that one of his officers – not an officer from an outside agency – fired a beanbag that critically injured Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen on Oct. 25, an incident that galvanized the Occupy movement.

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"Aboard occupy," a poem

Aboard occupy
by David Weller



aboard occupy
called as to duty
solidarity
absorbed unity

we will move forward
we will prove our word
we've still strove enough
we still love as tough

live in the spirit
stay tarry in it
may carry onward
strive on stay on guard

"We occupiers," a poem

We occupiers
by David Weller



we make
our amends
we wake,
our friends!

we demand
our justice
we're in hand,
as just is!

we live
in the present
we strive,
none to resent!

we assess
what is good
we press,
what we should!

we move
with conviction
we love,
no division!

we act
no politics
we tack,
no polemics!

we fight
the good fight
we right,
in our sight!

How to break the banks that stole from America

>> 5 Ways to Break the Banks That Stole from America | Occupy.com:
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"5 Ways to break the banks that stole from America"
by Stephen Lerner
Occupy.com
August 9, 2012

• Two critical tools--the LIBOR fraud scandal and the potential to start exercising eminent domain to seize bank-owned properties--can supercharge the ongoing campaigns focused on Wall Street. For the first time we can align moral and legal arguments with real leverage to demand that banks renegotiate the debt that is bankrupting communities and drowning homeowners around the country. The single most important step we can take to address local budget deficits is to force banks to renegotiate toxic deals held by local government and to rewrite mortgages for underwater homeowners. Combined, this would pump hundreds of billions into local economies.

• It is time to REBEL against Wall Street and the big banks and to start fixing the economy and reclaim our democracy. There are five steps to this [details in article]:
• Renegotiate public and housing debt.
• Exercise eminent domain.
• Boycott big banks and move public money.
• Enact resolutions at local governments and pension funds.
• Litigate and legislate.

• It is our responsibility to REBEL. All of our futures depend on it!

August 9, 2012 Occupy Art event in New York City: "Time in the Mind of the Anarchives"

Occupy with Art - Blog:
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>> "OAS Imaginary Movie: #TITMOTA 1 & 2"
Occupy with Art
August 8, 2012

• The Occupational Art School commences its program auspiciously with "Time in the Mind of the Anarchive," a conversation-starter in two [2X∞] parts, #TITMOTA 1+2. The opening festivities slated for Thursday, August 9 at 7PM at Bat Haus in Bushwick include a presentation by Bold Jez, a/k/a Jez Bold, a/k/a Jeremy, a/k/a Jez3PREZ, etc., entitled "Recording Future History: Activist archivism in Occupy Wall Street." The actuality of our expo is N+1-oriented, so come prepared. It's a hot summer in Brooklyn, and 11 months after the first interventions in and around Wall Street popped up, the promise of occupation is a multi-faceted proposition, if not an outright seduction, to be fulfilled. #TITMOTA is therefore a beginning that looks behind us, over our shoulders.

>> "[OAS NODE #1]: When is #TITMOTA? And why?"
Occupy with Art
August 4, 2012

• Have you ever seen a work of art change over time?  Or watched a complex idea emerge from many unintentional steps?  For the Anarchives, process is product is process: each recorded moment brings a new iteration in an evolving work of art.  History itself is changing over time and each documented moment is an opportunity for a new interpretation.

• Would you like to understand more?

• Join Bold Jez, anarchivist, at the opening of the newly founded Occupational Art School for his 1st solo show called "TIME IN THE MIND OF THE ANARCHIVES."  Examine a collection of strange and familiar objects.  Discover what the universe looks like when refracted through the infinite panels of the K(rystalleido)scope.   Join him for a performance-presentation "Recording Future History: Activist archivism in Occupy Wall Street" to learn more about how the Anarchives altered recent history and informed the origins of OWS.

• As stated by #Jez3Prez, anarchist candidate for Prezident, "In order to radically change our history, we must revolutionize our concept of time." The site of historical struggle can begin anywhere, and here it begins by infiltrating the archive.

• *Time in the Mind of the Anarchives, Pt 1 [#TITMOTA][August 9, 2012 at OAS Node #1][BAT HAUS, Bushwick]
• 7 pm Wander/wonder/wait/explore (discover drawings inside of journals, find movies inside books, look for scenes on the ceiling)
• 8 pm  Presentation/Performance "Recording Future History: Activist archivism in Occupy Wall Street" featuring:
• - #LiveReports from the 1st General Assembly of OWS 2011.Aug.2, "testing wall street" 2011.Sept.1, and the NY Fun Exchange [#NYFE] 2012.Sept.17
• - #LiveReplays of Pre-Occupy Wall Street direct action stunts in Wall Street by the original OWS Arts and Culture Posse #OWSACP
• (Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/370272566379787/  )

• *Time in the Mind of the Anarchives Pt 2 [#TITMOTA2]: Potluck/Potlache
• Revolutionary Games, in collaboration with the Occupational Art School, invites you to the latest in its series of salons: the #TITMOTA2 Potluck & Potlache will be a free space to participate in an art exchange and give away of recipes, books, media, art...whatever items of substance that you want to send out into the world. This event is a community BBQ and potluck, a review & replay of the first #TITMOTA, and a playground for games, music, and memees; bring things to share with everyone. #OASNode0 invites you to a potlache of orphan works that we commit the annals of the Anarchives by documenting their current presence and sending them into the world with new stewards (who collect, care for, & document the item's changes over time). YOU could already be the new host of an item from the Anarchives! We invite you to bring something to send out as well, something of your own to share with the world through the collection of this revolutionary community archive. As with any valuable experience, expect to come away with more than you came...
• (Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/154708874653530 )

Bad boyz-- by spying-- hurt the Occupy movement's freedom of expression

Spying on Occupy?:
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Spying on Occupy?
by Linda Lye, ACLU of Northern California
ACLU - Blog of Rights
July 19, 2012

1. The ACLU of Northern California and San Francisco Bay Guardian today filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FBI to find out whether and to what extent the feds have been spying on members of the Occupy movement.  
2. Why is the federal government spying on protesters? And just what arms of the federal government are involved? These are just some of the questions our lawsuit hopes to answer. 

• Article's Readability.com format
• Article's Google.com Cached Page
• WOT (MyWOT.com) Reputation Scorecard for aclu.org
• WMTIPS.com Site Information Tool for aclu.org
• Article's related Google.com sites

Work Cited (Using MLA 7):
Lye, Linda. "Spying on Occupy?" Web log post. Blog of Rights. ACLU, 19 July 2012. Web. 20 July 2012.

A list of integrity considerations for the Occupy movement

What Integrity to the Occupy Movement Demands of Us | Dissident Voice: 'via Blog this'

What Integrity to the Occupy Movement Demands of Us
by Joseph G. Ramsey
Dissident Voice
July 18th, 2012

Joseph G. Ramsey is a writer, scholar, critic, educator, and activist in Somerville, Massachusetts. He is co-editor of Cultural Logic: an electronic journal of marxist theory and practice, and a participant in the Kasama Project. He can be reached at: jgramsey@gmail.com. Read other articles by Joseph, or visit Joseph's website.

• Article's Readability.com format
• Article's Google.com Cached Page
• WOT (MyWOT.com) Reputation Scorecard for dissidentvoice.org
• WMTIPS.com Site Information Tool for dissidentvoice.org
• Article's related Google.com sites

Work Cited (Using MLA 7):
Ramsey, Joseph G. "What Integrity to the Occupy Movement Demands of Us." Web log post. Dissident Voice. Dissident Voice, 18 July 2012. Web. 19 July 2012.

Jun 30 - Jul 4, 2012 Occupy National Gathering in Philadelphia

Occupy National Gathering

Philadelphia, PA USA

Sat-Wed, June 30- July 4, 2012  |  99 Mile March Thu-Wed, July 5 -11, 2012
Visioning Process Online Component

Twitter  |  #NatGat  |  Facebook

"Occupy," haiku poems by David Weller

I believe our political culture in the USA needs to be reformed into a system that a civilization can be proud of. Here a few insights as short poems I wrote tonight; I hope they are a blessing to you and this great nation of ours.



Occupy
by David Weller



social acts of love,
signals not of good or bad,
but what's not evil



displaying one's own
originality is
solidarity



electricity
can light main street, not wall street
#OWS



the rich have it that
money creates politics
go pro-creation



hot are the sidewalks
that lead to chummy Wall Street
sneakers are required



greedy financiers
think they already do know,
yet the wise do sow.



Quickly, what is the
reason for the tax season?
Nourish government.



computer money
does not calculate into
honest transactions



commerce depends on
good managers to build on,
not manager's son



to be ideal is
not to be subliminal
it is substantial

Tuesday, April 17, 2012 (Tax Day) is National Day of Action

From: Tax Wealth Not Work-- National Day of Action Tuesday, April 17th | AFL-CIO

• On Tuesday, April 17th Tax Day, across the nation we’ll raise our voices to demand that the 1% pay their fair share and that we overhaul the tax code to reflect the needs and values of the majority of Americans.

• Register your event here.

Despite sweet sentimentalities, Mr Griffin is a plutocrat, not a democrat

In response to Mr Griffin's interview about his big money donations to mostly Republican candidates and causes: I must say it is the safest American rhetoric I have ever heard.  It's amazing I could find very few things to disagree with; but isn't that the problem with his interview?  Let's get this straight: Mr Griffin is really a plutocrat.  We should, instead, have a democratic electoral system, one that gives, in general, everyone  18 and over the same amount of influence in our government.

I'm glad Mr. Griffin has laid out his battlefield of his sweet grandma's apple pie.  It is up to We, the People to occupy it.

Please read his interview with the Chicago Tribute here.

Poem for goodness and justice renewal: "Come on, come out!", by David Weller

To the Occupy movement and all those willing and able to bring into renewal a society of goodness and justice...


Come on, come out!
by David Weller



Come on, come out!

Wherever you are!
be in our place,
a nation's star!

Come on, come out!

Whoever you be!
you are our might,
right with a glee!

Come on, come out!

Whenever you can!
time's not for talk,
time's your best fan!

Come on, come out!

Whatever you do!
come, with fervor,
come with your view!

Come on, come out!

However you will!
you are our light,
fight with your skill!

Come on, come out!

Why, you are brave!
the future is ours,
love's what you have!

Come on, come out!

Book says growing income inequality means more social ills

National Issues Forums: Blog
The Growing Gap between the Haves and Have Nots; Comments allowed.
Is Income Inequality Harmful to American Communities?

• A recent book published by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett titled, The Spirit Level (2009), has created quite a stir in countries across the world. The central premise of the book is that societies or communities that are more equal often do better on a wide array of socioeconomic measures – be they health, education, crime, trust, and social mobility. In essence, people from the same social strata with the same set of quality of life attributes do better in societies that are more equal than those associated with greater income inequality.
• Consider the following facts from a recent article we prepared for Daily Yonder (April 2011): The wealthiest 10% of metro counties in the nation had an average per capita market income increase of nearly 70% between 1980 and 2008, contrasted to a 38% increase for counties located at the 10% lowest income tier. Rural counties are growing more unequal, but their income inequality is less than in metro areas. The increasing gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” appears to be associated with higher rates of crime, teenage birth rates, adult and child poverty, and more.

Poem in honor of nonviolent patriots: "Love is Won", by David Weller

In honor of the Americans and supporters making personal sacrifices for a better country.  We all may not make it to Wall Street or Washington Park, but our hearts and minds are with those who can.


Love is Won
by David Weller


love is creedence,
love is true
nothing is defense,
nothing to hew

love is pointed,
love is able
everyone's annointed,
everyone's capable

love is action,
love is kind
there is no faction,
there for to find

love is appreciated,
love is cared
winning's all capacitated,
winning's all well fared

Several large protests are planned for the next couple of months in the US

From: Waging Nonviolence
Why aren’t Americans in the streets? Where is the American Autumn? | Aug 13, 2011

• Americans may not be out on the streets yet, but they’re planning on it. Just wait—or get involved. People are organizing. The more they prepare, the more likely they are to carry out actions worthy of their goals.
• Something is happening. Even Al Gore said, earlier this month, that we need an “American Spring.” How about an American Autumn [#AmericanAutumn]?
• For the past few weeks, we at Waging Nonviolence have been talking with individuals and groups that are involved in one way or another in a variety of powerful new protest efforts. Here are a few of them:

• Environmental activists—including Bill McKibben, James Hansen, and Wendell Berry— are undertaking sustained civil resistance to fight the proposed pipeline taking oil from the Canadian tar sands to refineries in Texas. They consider this a crucial battleground in the fight to ameliorate climate change. [http://www.tarsandsaction.org/]

• [Update 8/14/11] Citizens for Legitimate Government is calling for Seize DC, a plan to occupy space in the city, without permits, in protest of “endless, illegal, murderous and bankrupting war abroad; endless, brutal and bankrupting attacks on the vast majority at home.” [http://www.legitgov.org/seizedc]

• After Adbusters called for a takeover of Wall Street on September 17th, a number of websites and organizations have joined in to support the cause—just look at this, this, this, this, and more. An ongoing, open discussion has been taking place about what the movement’s demands will be—including proposals from taxing the rich to ending corporate contributions to political candidates. [https://occupywallst.org/]

• On October 6th, the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan, a broad coalition of old- and new-guard activists are planning to begin a sustained occupation of Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington DC, hoping to foster new momentum for a movement that will end American militarism abroad and put resources to use for people at home. [http://october2011.org]

• Between September 11th and October 7th, a group called 10 Years and Counting will be using art and performance to galvanize people into action against the ongoing wars. [http://www.10yearsandcounting.com/]

• A global day of action is being planned for October 15, a World Revolution for Real Democracy. In anticipation, Spanish Indignados are marching from Madrid to Brussels, with solidarity actions for September 17th and October 6th along the way.  [http://www.facebook.com/WorldRevolutionNow]

There has been a flowering of national protests in the United States, in the form of conventions, building of movements and coalitions, and organizing protests.  The flower is now in full display; how do you plan to engage in any of these events?  Are there any more protests/ marches/ sit-ins, etc. being organized?