Occupy 2nd Wave - May

[ska invita]

Supposedly there are public plans for a 2nd Wave of Occupy in May. Also the UKUNCUT street party thing is at the end of May.

Doesn't seem to be that much momentum at the moment in the UK towards these, but it may build.

Dates so far announced are May Day, 12 May and 15 May. I think (may be wrong) Tuesday 15 May is the global day of action called by the Spanish (might be the 12th though) - possibly both will see co-ordinated actions in different countries.

UKUncut thing is the 26th May...I think http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/blog/PR-great-british-street-parties

Thats all I know...

 

[Brixton Hatter]

well at least it will be warmer this time

 

[Red Storm]

Oooo I can't wait...

 

[xes]

good news

 

[AKA pseudonym]

No confirmed details as yet... Belfast are meeting tonight about it ( c/f Belfast thread)
Hopefully this will be the first co-ordinated campaign across Ireland/UK.....

btw: I wouldnt necessarily define it as a 'second wave' quite a few camps have held strong....

 

[rekil]

They've started early here with a broke landlord solidarity campaign.

Members of the Occupy Dame Street protest movement have travelled to the former Dublin home of Brendan and Asta Kelly to pledge support for the couple.

Qualified accountant Mr Kelly, 71, and his wife Asta were filmed as sheriffs escorted them from the plush property in St Matthias Wood, Killiney on Wednesday.

Their eviction from their gated-community residence — which was valued at €3.75m at the peak of the property market in 2008 — prompted outrage after it was captured on video and circulated on social media websites.

However, the public reaction was tempered after it emerged the couple retain a large property portfolio in Ireland.

Earlier Finance Minister Michael Noonan said that the Government has pledged to keep people in their homes, but not in ''21 different homes''.

"We must distinguish between people who can't pay and people who won't pay," the Minister said.

However Occupy campaigner John Rogers said the couple were removed from the property with brutal force, which was unacceptable.

“It doesn’t matter how many properties they have in their portfolio,” said Mr Rogers.

G-d bless us and save us.

 

[ska invita]

Bit of info up for May 12
http://occupylsx.org/?p=4044
May 15th
http://occupylsx.org/?p=4082

 

[hipipol]

The First wave is still camped out on Finsbury Sq. Went down thery to see if I could get a first hand idea of whats happening
Well mainly arguments about food - to be fair living hand to mouth in a mud bath will drain your resolve
A girl came by on a pushbike saying there was to be a meet there the next day as she represented the Occupy Energy group - no one at the site had heard of her or the meet, well of the 5 people in the receprion tent that is.
The tent doubles as a library
Lots of Jackie Collins type stuff
Very odd

 

[shaman75]

someone stuck up a manifesto/ list of demands on the guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/11/occupy-globalmay-manifesto

protest tomorrow, 1pm at St Pauls.

 

[kavenism]

"Food sovereignty through sustainable farming should be promoted as an instrument of food security for the benefit of all. This should include an indefinite moratorium on the production and marketing of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and immediate reduction of agrochemicals use."

Bang goes all research into new treatments for cancer, HIV, and a whole host of other diseases which are treated using drugs produced using modified mammalian cells. Oh and I lose my job too! Well thought out that one.

 

[elfman]

Occupy confuses me.

 

[yield]

How so? It's about reclaiming the commons. Not stopping useful research.

 

[kavenism]

How so? It's about reclaiming the commons. Not stopping useful research.

They say explicitly that they want a moratorium on the production of ALL new GMO's. They make no distinction between those used to produced medical insulin and modified crops. Although I'm sure they're more opposed to the latter. Just indicates to me that they're not thinking things through. And besides I'm not convinced that the opposition against modified crops isn't just white middle class hippy bullshit which takes no account of the possible benefits that these crops may have in parts of the world where the growing of cereals is subject to contingencies that we simply don't have to face.

 

[butchersapron]

I think what they say that they want is irrelevant - the fact that there is no process that has decided this for me/us is more fuckwitted.

 

[Col_Buendia]

They've started early here with a broke landlord solidarity campaign.

“It doesn’t matter how many properties they have in their portfolio,” said Mr Rogers.

G-d bless us and save us.

Am I missing something here or have the Dubs mastered a level of irony previously unseen in history?

 

[Riklet]

It's the anniversary of the 15M "Democracia Real Ya" movement in Spain. There's been solitary actions in various countries, including the UK, Germany etc, and lots of places across Spain today, with more set to start/continue tonight. Spanish news story translated here.

Most of the main demonstrations and attempts to occupy have kicked off today, but the demo here is at 19:00 etc due to heat and other factors. They've chosen the 12th instead of the 15th as it's the weekend and better for numbers etc.

The Spanish government has been very clear that camping out is not allowed (which has been criticised by Amnesty), the police have shut down a squat and a CSOA (Centro Social Okupado Autogestionado) centre and I think there's a big police presence out n about across the country. There definitely will be in Barcelona n Madrid anyway, will update later probably, off out to see what's happening now.

 

[shaman75]

 

[AKA pseudonym]

im hearing they is getting kettled?

 

[shaman75]

I stayed with it until they gathered outside the BoE. Police tried kettling a few times during the journey there, but they kept pushing together on a countdown and breaking though. Police lines ended up surrounded and withdrew. Twitter reporting dispersal notice given, but seems like they were gong to resist. Or just move elsewhere and keep going. Back home processing pics atm.

 

[Artaxerxes]

I stayed with it until they gathered outside the BoE. Police tried kettling a few times during the journey there, but they kept pushing together on a countdown and breaking though. Police lines ended up surrounded and withdrew. Twitter reporting dispersal notice given, but seems like they were gong to resist. Or just move elsewhere and keep going. Back home processing pics atm.

Pretty much the same here, looked like most people wandered off when it got to the BoE as well. Did the riot squad moving up onto the steps ever make any sense in the end?

edit: Some photos uploaded, didnt seem to get many I'm happy with.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59462388@N00/tags/occupy/

 

[ViolentPanda]

"Food sovereignty through sustainable farming should be promoted as an instrument of food security for the benefit of all. This should include an indefinite moratorium on the production and marketing of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and immediate reduction of agrochemicals use."

Bang goes all research into new treatments for cancer, HIV, and a whole host of other diseases which are treated using drugs produced using modified mammalian cells. Oh and I lose my job too! Well thought out that one.

You're being disingenuous. The "manifesto" refers strictly to sustainable farming", and makes no mention of the use of genetic modification techniques in other fields than agriculture.
Don't accuse others of not thinking things out when you either haven't done so yourelf, or are constructing a straw man around which you can argue that you'd prefer not to lose your job.

 

[shaman75]

seems like riot police are wading in and generally being 'orrible.

 

[ViolentPanda]

They say explicitly that they want a moratorium on the production of ALL new GMO's.

Yes, they do.

Now, in what context do they do so?

They make no distinction between those used to produced medical insulin and modified crops.

WHy would you need to make a distinction when it's clear that your context is agriculture, not "everything"?

Although I'm sure they're more opposed to the latter. Just indicates to me that they're not thinking things through. And besides I'm not convinced that the opposition against modified crops isn't just white middle class hippy bullshit which takes no account of the possible benefits that these crops may have in parts of the world where the growing of cereals is subject to contingencies that we simply don't have to face.

You might have a point if we didn't already have a fair idea of the cost/benefit ratios of current GM agriculture. They look great for the companies that own the seedlines, especially on the balance sheet. Not so cool for the farmers, though, who are not permitted to "bank" seeds, and a real arse for some of the farmers who've been sued by the big seed companies because wind-drift has blown seed from neighbouring farms onto their land, and "agents" from the likes of Monsanto and Cargill have spotted "their" crop growing on a farm that doesn't have a licence to grow it. I won't even bother to trot out the "Golden Rice" debacle beyond mentioning it.

 

[ViolentPanda]

seems like riot police are wading in and generally being 'orrible.

So, behaving like coppers, then?

 

[shaman75]

"Police losing control attacking protesters, press and legal observers"

https://twitter.com/#!/Henry_Langston/status/201371392078397440

 

[ska invita]

Live stream? I think it was streaming at the time - some kind of video anyway
http://bambuser.com/v/2637215

 

[shaman75]

on bbc news 24 now. good interviewee for a change.

 

[kavenism]

You're being disingenuous. The "manifesto" refers strictly to sustainable farming", and makes no mention of the use of genetic modification techniques in other fields than agriculture.
Don't accuse others of not thinking things out when you either haven't done so yourelf, or are constructing a straw man around which you can argue that you'd prefer not to lose your job.

Fair enough; although the arguments I've heard against the use of modified crops seem to me to have little validity (aside from the lack of democratic control over their use), and more then a hint of crude luddism, which could just as well be applied to other uses of GMOs.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Fair enough; although the arguments I've heard against the use of modified crops seem to me to have little validity (aside from the lack of democratic control over their use), and more then a hint of crude luddism, which could just as well be applied to other uses of GMOs.

Well, I suppose the more nuanced argument (and to be honest, biotech was a new field when I studied biology) is that medical research is in conformity with quite a few more safeguards, and "exposure" to GM medicines is limited to those who require such novel creations, whereas the average GM crop of the 1990s was fairly poorly-controlled in terms of limiting the various routes by which the GM lines could cross into the general population. For all the boasting about sterility and the impossibility of cross-fertilisation, for example, we know that some "terminator" lines of seeds didn't terminate, and cross-bred with other strains. All in all, I suspect that Luddism (Hail Ned!) is less of an issue than public concerns (some well-informed, some poorly-informed) about possible environmental consequences, and the blithe disregard that the politicians and Big Farma (see what I did there? ) showed those public concerns when the technology was new still go a long way in informing reaction to the idea of agricultural GMOs.

 

[ymu]

Fair enough; although the arguments I've heard against the use of modified crops seem to me to have little validity (aside from the lack of democratic control over their use), and more then a hint of crude luddism, which could just as well be applied to other uses of GMOs.

The behaviour of the GMO seed companies is kinda critical to the arguments, no? My dad was a farmer and he used to have a field for growing seed rather than buy it each year. The cost difference to a small farmer is huge because family labour comes free (big farming conglomerates are better off paying a seed company than they are paying people to pull out the weeds by hand). The benefit of GM crops to small farmers is very, very limited when every penny of any advantage gained will be reflected in the price of the seed to the farmers. It's really very naive to argue that these companies are doing something which benefits small farmers - they're not charities.

The other problem is the idea that GMO is a single technology. Proving one particular GMO safe/unsafe tells you nothing at all about the others. Even if it is credible to assume that you can prove anything at all about an agricultural GMO without far more extensive and long-term field trials than the ones they are required to carry out.

But, as butcher's said, of far more concern is how this hippy crap got released by a bunch of facile morons on behalf of everyone else.