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Occupy Wall Street

butchersapron said:
Odd that she says she's met him, then her next message is one saying it was said on facebook (and the one on bloody facebook said he was planning to make his way there from elsewhere - doesn't bother checking the bloke out, or she would have found he was in the infantry 40 years ago, and i note she changes his status to 'army serviceman'). You'd have though that hari would have taught her a lesson. She's quite clearly in a cafe on the net not out in the middle of it or or something.

edit: in fact she's nailed as bullshitting as the facebook entry said he was heading down there with 15 of his mates. And even better, it clearly says that this is actually him just posting something from someone else, i.e not from Ward Reilly (the serviceman she uses in the very next message), Ward Reilly is actually heading to another another city entirely. I think the bullshitter got bullshitted. Too late.

I do think it highlights a potential problem here - the habitual and casual inflation of claims around this thing has set off my bullshit detector - whether that's justified or not, and i'm someone who does recognise the tactical use of hyperbole can be a good move in certain situations.

edit2: she says at the same time as these two messages that she's actually in the media centre. Odd that this marine and his 15 'buddies' are all in there too eh?
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Some hyperbole about these events.
I stress we do all support actions such as these. We need some level of proportion. The financial centre roadblock tactic - should it be rolled out all over the world? That needs some discussion.

Some distant observations, being poorly looking at some of the reports:

1. On size. May 2008 pray-ins road/bridge and road blocking for Sean Bell had similar perhaps higher numbers for New York.
Walkouts, marchies, rallies 1 May 2006 in support of illegal aliens was definitely larger across the country.

2. Trade union leaderships 'lending support' is fairly meaningless.
Trade union reps and leaders in the USA also support 'Don't buy China' campaigns, they also support Make it in America in alliance with employers, the coalition of Agricultural Producers is allied between trade unions and agribusiness, the Fair Currency Coalition involving unions and employers to try and squeeze more profit from dealing with China. The Alliance for American Manufacturing is joint employer/AFL-CIO/United Steel Workers/UMW on the offensive against 'the East' - China and India. Trade union leaders also close down strikes/ on-the-jobs slowdowns (shopworkers in California who tried to go slow after their sold-out strike in 2003 were threatened by their union).

3. A copy of Labor Notes from 2010 showed how the recession was destroying labour organisation drives. People are being demoted, refused hours, made redudant every week for trade union activities before unions are recognised on the basis of 'recession', 'don't blame us [Main Street], blame Wall Street'.

4. Attacking financial centre's streets is fine, however it stresses the 'financial wing' of capitalism/banks/immoral banks is responsible.
The 'Occupy Wall Street' concept was around in USA on internet mostly, for like 3 months before the action.

Going straight ahead for next fortnight in the City of London might not make complete tactical sense to ensure a mass turnout. Mass roadblocking (like extra-route areas on March 26) needs mass participation).

Some acceptance that financial pseudo-production will not be blocked even when Wall Street is occupied (it's done on computer, there's nothing physical about the gambling/ the decisions to invest etc.) might encourage us all to see the nature of the enemy we are facing.
 
Wall Street protesters approve ‘Declaration of Occupation’

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 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’ healthcare 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, who are responsible for 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 or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial 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.
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As an aside:

320978_2176041113229_1012863429_32067689_241530966_n.jpg
 
I dont know if this has been posted here but its some 'liberal' (i.e. US liberal) TV talk show talking about the protests.

http://allisonkilkenny.com/2011/10/talking-occupy-wall-street-on-msnbc/
Its about the first 15 mintues. Funny as they realise there are other ways of orginising the world.

And not every protest has to have a focus group approved set of objectives and PR directives when starting out. Sometimes, its cool to wing it.
 
manchester:

Town is now occupied...Police have consented to tonight possibly tomorrow...Three tents...shelter and a place to charge phones...PLEASE COME DOWN TO ABLERT SQUARE; LETS OCCUPY...MANCHESTER IS NOW OCCUPIED...BRING URSELF TO ALBERT SQUARE...BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE...
Click to expand...
 
The Torygraph's Tim Stanley produced this laughable blog titled

"If the Wall Street protesters really want to reform capitalism, they should join the Tea Party"

One thing that is especially irksome about their movement is its pleasure seeking. This protest, like countless others, has been described as having a “carnival atmosphere”. Doesn’t that seem a little less than revolutionary? During the Red Scare of 1919-1920, America was torn apart by union strikes and anarchist bombs. Clashes between labor and nationalist mobs in Cleveland, Ohio were only broken by mounted police. Two people died, forty were injured and 116 were arrested. Compare that grim, cheerless struggle for workers’ rights with this report from the Wall Street protests, which briefly swelled when it was announced that Radiohead would be playing in Zuccotti Park: “While hundreds of people have camped out overnight in the plaza during the two-week old sit-in for social change, an online announcement that Radiohead was en route jammed the plaza. “I actually think it's kind of ridiculous,” said a dreadlocked 20-year-old who identified himself as Pigpen. “The only reason 500 people are here is because they think Radiohead is going to be here.”” Radiohead’s appearance turned out to be a hoax and the crowd dispersed. According to the New York Daily News, “Organizers were red-faced.”
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/t...rm-capitalism-they-should-join-the-tea-party/
Click to expand...

:facepalm:
 
I really love this protest phenomenum ! In the heart of the beast too !

Kinda gives one a lovely warm "May 68" kinda feeling to lighten the ever deepening economic gloom !

I imagine the American Right are preparing the tarring and feathering for the brave souls who've participated as we speak. 700 arrested in the Brooklyn Bridge occupation stunt. GREAT.:D

It's true that many more Americans seem to have fallen for the Tea Party baloney, but hopefully this is the start of a real US fightback.
 
Pity MC5 weren't around now. Unlike Radiohead, they would have turned-up and played for hours, even when the risk of being battered unconscious was extremely likely by those motherfuckers back then in Chicago '68.

The biggest clash in Chicago took place that day. Police fought with the protestors and vice versa. The chants of the protestors shifted from “Hell no, we won’t go” to “Pigs are whores.”Tom Hayden, one of the leaders of Students for a Democratic Society, encouraged protestors to move out of the park to ensure that if they were to be tear gassed, the whole city would be tear gassed, and made sure that if blood were spilled in Chicago it would happen throughout the city. The amount of tear gas used to suppress the protestors was so great that it eventually made its way to the Hilton Hotel, where it disturbed Hubert Humphrey while in his shower. The police were taunted by the protestors with chants of “Kill, kill, kill.” They sprayed demonstrators and bystanders indiscriminately with Mace. The police assault in front of the Hilton Hotel became the most famous image of the Chicago demonstrations of 1968. The entire event took place live under the T.V. lights for seventeen minutes with the crowd shouting, “The whole world is watching.”
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Democratic_National_Convention
 
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