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Occupy Wall Street

Posting this here because the NYT credits the occupations for bringing this discussion into the mainstream.

WASHINGTON — Benjamin Franklin did it. Henry Ford did it. And American life is built on the faith that others can do it, too: rise from humble origins to economic heights. “Movin’ on up,” George Jefferson-style, is not only a sitcom song but a civil religion.

But many researchers have reached a conclusion that turns conventional wisdom on its head: Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe. The mobility gap has been widely discussed in academic circles, but a sour season of mass unemployment and street protests has moved the discussion toward center stage.

...

By emphasizing the influence of family background, the studies not only challenge American identity but speak to the debate about inequality. While liberals often complain that the United States has unusually large income gaps, many conservatives have argued that the system is fair because mobility is especially high, too: everyone can climb the ladder. Now the evidence suggests that America is not only less equal, but also less mobile.

John Bridgeland, a former aide to President George W. Bush who helped start Opportunity Nation, an effort to seek policy solutions, said he was “shocked” by the international comparisons. “Republicans will not feel compelled to talk about income inequality,” Mr. Bridgeland said. “But they will feel a need to talk about a lack of mobility — a lack of access to the American Dream.”
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someone should record the interview he's about to do, incase I'm really high and forget that I was about to watch it.......
 
Statement from Occupy Wall Street:

Yesterday, Occupy Oakland moved to convert a vacant building into a community center to provide education, medical, and housing services for the 99%. Police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, beanbag rounds and mass arrests. The state has compounded its policy of callous indifference with a ruthless display of violent repression. The Occupy movement will respond, as we have always reponded: ...with an overwhelming show of collective resistance. Today, we take to the streets. Across the country, we will demonstrate our resolve to overcome repression and continue to build a better world grounded in love and solidarity for one another. All eyes on all Occupies.

SOLIDARITY SUNDAY, 7pm EST, Sunday, January 29. Check your local Occupation for convergence points.

Be there.

NEW YORK
Washington Square Park 7PM Check this link for details about other cities convergence points.
http://occupywallst.org/

Check Oakland thread for more details
 
This really doesn't look good. Its hard enough to protest in the US it seems to me...

A bill passed Monday in the US House of Representatives and Thursday in the Senate would make it a felony—a serious criminal offense punishable by lengthy terms of incarceration—to participate in many forms of protest associated with the Occupy Wall Street protests of last year. Several commentators have dubbed it the “anti-Occupy” law, but its implications are far broader.

...

Among the central provisions of H.R. 347 is a section that would make it a criminal offense to “enter or remain in” an area designated as “restricted.”

The bill defines the areas that qualify as “restricted” in extremely vague and broad terms. Restricted areas can include “a building or grounds where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting” and “a building or grounds so restricted in conjunction with an event designated as a special event of national significance.”

...


The standard punishment under the new law is a fine and up to one year in prison. If a weapon or serious physical injury is involved, the penalty may be increased to up to ten years.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/mar2012/prot-m03.shtml

There's the G8 in Chicago on May 19th...
 
NYPD officers arrest peaceful protesters on OWS anniversary


New York police arrested protesters celebrating the six-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street by massing on a square near the stock exchange over the weekend.
Chaotic scenes unfolded at Zuccotti Park in Manhattan’s financial district overnight Saturday-Sunday when officers broke up the peaceful rally by about 600 people at the site where the Occupy movement started last September.

There were no immediate official figures on the total number of arrests but AFP reporters saw more than a dozen.
Three women hurt in the clashes could be seen in an ambulance and several other ambulances were deployed to the site, their sirens joining the wailing of police squad cars that raced down the neighborhood’s narrow streets.
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via #occupyws mailing lists...
getting hot n heavy again.....
Protecting and serving the corporate states of america, the NYPD's brutal response to our peaceful and nonviolent celebration last night. 80 plus arrests. The Gang in Blue has already gunned down 3 innocent black youth this year. And in between they crack heads for the 1%, trying to silence any resistance. We fight with and in solidarity with all people subject to the tyranny of the capitalist system. Their brutality against our peaceful assembly helps grow this movement as the world sees their hypocrisy. We take the streets again tonight at 8pm, meet at the red cude by LIBERTY SQUARE
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.
 
OWS Friday 13, April 2012

Wall Street Occupation Shifts From Parks To Sidewalks Near Stock Exchange
For th...e past four nights, protesters affiliated with Occupy Wall Street have camped out on sidewalks near the New York Stock Exchange, sleeping outside banks and handing out literature to financial district workers by day. Why hasn't the NYPD swept in and crushed this dangerous nonviolent political demonstration? It seems Bloomberg's army may be stymied (for now, at least) by a 2000 court ruling upholding protesters' right to sleep on the sidewalk for political purposes, provided they don't take up more than half the sidewalk.See more
For the third consecutive night, Occupy Wall Street protesters used a tactic that many of them hope will emerge as a replacement for their encampment at Zuccotti Park, which was disbanded by the police in November. Norman Siegel, a prominent civil-rights lawyer who visited the protesters on Wednesday night, said a decision by a federal court in Manhattan arising from a lawsuit in 2000 allowed the protesters to sleep on sidewalks as a form of political expression so long as they did not block doorways and took up no more than half the sidewalk. The protesters first cited that ruling last week while sleeping outside bank branches near Union Square, but said this week that they wanted so-called sleep-outs to occur nightly around the New York Stock Exchange. An organizer, Austin Guest, said protesters had scheduled such events for Friday night at four other spots, each related to the Occupy Wall Street message that the financial system benefits the rich and corporations at the expense of ordinary citizens. The protesters’ presence on and near Wall Street has drawn the attention of the police, but officers have not dislodged them.
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audiotech said:
302600_2641908377537_1550406058_32792820_307056521_n.jpg
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Clown Show at UC Davis -- Too Bad It's Not Funny
huffingtonpost 20/04/12
There was so much going wrong with this crew it is hard to know where to begin, so let's start at the beginning: there was no legal basis for forcing the students to dismantle their tents and leave the quad.

Yep, you read that right. The students weren't doing anything wrong. No law was being broken. In fact, as the report documents in excruciating detail, from the moment the administration began telling the students they had to leave, the most common response from students was to peacefully and respectfully ask, "How is this unlawful?" or "What law are we breaking?" The students stuck to this position as various school officials and police changed their explanation from one law to another to another, or simply told them it didn't matter what the law was. The students kept up their questioning right up until they were getting pepper sprayed in the face.
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One reason the plan was so inadequate was that the police chief did not even attend the planning meeting. Though the Chief was so utterly incompetent we cannot assume her presence would have improved anything.

How about this one: the students finally took the tents down. The pepper spraying occurred after after the tents were down. Even loaded onto a truck. There were no tents left in the Quad. Bet you didn't see that one coming.

The pepper spray that was used is not an approved weapon for the UC Davis Police, and they had not been trained in how to use it. The task force could not figure out how it even wound up in the hands of Lt. Pike.
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Bump.
The world needs to change radically, it needs to change dramatically, and it needs to change fast. American Autumn: an Occudoc is an invitation for you to participate in that positive change.
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Shot on the front lines and meeting spaces of the Occupy movement in NYC, Boston, and Washington, DC from the earliest days through the end of January 2012, American Autumn: an Occudoc is an inside looking out view of the occupy movement.
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I think it's okay to say, as predicted, that the media did a successful job making the
ska invita said:
This really doesn't look good. Its hard enough to protest in the US it seems to me...

A bill passed Monday in the US House of Representatives and Thursday in the Senate would make it a felony—a serious criminal offense punishable by lengthy terms of incarceration—to participate in many forms of protest associated with the Occupy Wall Street protests of last year. Several commentators have dubbed it the “anti-Occupy” law, but its implications are far broader.

...

Among the central provisions of H.R. 347 is a section that would make it a criminal offense to “enter or remain in” an area designated as “restricted.”

The bill defines the areas that qualify as “restricted” in extremely vague and broad terms. Restricted areas can include “a building or grounds where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting” and “a building or grounds so restricted in conjunction with an event designated as a special event of national significance.”

...


The standard punishment under the new law is a fine and up to one year in prison. If a weapon or serious physical injury is involved, the penalty may be increased to up to ten years.
Click to expand...

Where are the people who were trying to make Occupy out to be a partisan thing?
 
I think it's safe to say that Occupy was successfully done in by the media and the government in an admirably bi-partisan fashion.

At least in the business of suppressing the citizens our leaders will come together.
 
nino_savatte said:
You left out corporate interests.
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Corporations didn't have to fight this one. I never thought they would. The Occupiers had no allies - not the republicans nor democrats.

Power is the most important thing. Stooges like the few here on Urban that champion the democrat agenda don't get it.
 
dilute micro said:
Corporations didn't have to fight this one. I never thought they would. The Occupiers had no allies - not the republicans nor democrats.

Power is the most important thing. Stooges like the few here on Urban that champion the democrat agenda don't get it.
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Huh? Like it or not there is an incestuously close relationship between corporate America and the political system. Surely you're not telling me that the corps were fine with the occupation?
 
nino_savatte said:
Huh? Like it or not there is an incestuously close relationship between corporate America and the political system. Surely you're not telling me that the corps were fine with the occupation?
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No I'm saying they didn't have to tell the politicians what to do.

And it was an excellent play by the media too.
 
dilute micro said:
Corporations didn't have to fight this one. I never thought they would. The Occupiers had no allies - not the republicans nor democrats.

Power is the most important thing. Stooges like the few here on Urban that champion the democrat agenda don't get it.
Click to expand...
Odd that at the start of occupy you claimed it was simply a stunt by the democrats in order to bolster their party support. Where would you now say that you were wrong in this analysis? What would you identify as your most egregious error in coming to this conclusion?
 
butchersapron said:
Odd that at the start of occupy you claimed it was simply a stunt by the democrats in order to bolster their party support. Where would you now say that you were wrong in this analysis? What would you identify as your most egregious error in coming to this conclusion?
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Oh gosh. No butchersapron, if you go back and look. You're most likely taking things out of context again. You've never been real good on reading comprehension.
 
tbh: was to be expected from what I hear from various camps over there.....

Occupy Illinois is endorsing President Obama for the 2012 election. Occupy Illinois will be participating in OFA events to show our support wearing Occupy Illinois apparel. Occupy Illinois does not speak for any other occupations. Email to join in PRO OBAMA actions.
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:(
:facepalm:
 
gonna be interesting how this pans out... for a 'leaderless' group.... glad to see some dissent about the 'decision'... no-one is supposed to co-opt #occuppy
 
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