#OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

[Plutonia]

That cop doesn't look too happy

[Project Willow]

Tear gas being used on Seattle protesters outside Jamie Dimon meeting at Sheraton hotel. [on edit: unconfirmed]

Pepper spray used earlier today outside of Chase bank.
http://www.king5.com/home/Occupy-Seattle-takes-aim-at--133116923.html

[operator kos]

Just got back from the Oak-upy General Strike mass gathering. My conservative estimate on the crowd number there this afternoon is in the neighborhood of 30,000, at least from ground level. Maybe more. Huge march proceeded up Broadway to the plaza - I stood and watched people pour in twenty-five wide for at least a half an hour. Well over a hundred tents in the plaza, and police presence was negligible. Incredible energy, diversity and solidarity. Sorry I missed you, Operator Kos - we'll try it again soon!

Pictures to come, once I come down a little...

No worries... glad you made it out there. Looking back over the march from the top of that bridge was a beautiful sight indeed. I haven't seen that many demonstrators together since the early days of the Iraq War protests.

[MacCruiskeen]

California protesters shut down Oakland port

Protesters called for strike action and tried to stop operations at the Port of Oakland

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15568057

3 November 2011 Last updated at 03:18 GMT



Thousands of anti-corporate greed [sic] demonstrators have closed one of America's busiest ports.

A spokesman for the Port of Oakland in California said maritime operations had effectively halted.

The shutdown capped a day in which hundreds of city workers, including teachers, joined the call for a strike.

The crowds also stopped traffic at a junction where a military veteran was seriously injured last week as protesters clashed with police.

Ex-Marine Scott Olsen, 24, is recovering in an Oakland hospital after being struck on the head with a tear gas canister fired by police.

That incident catapulted Oakland, which is on San Francisco Bay, to the centre of the national Occupy Wall Street movement and has spurred fresh demonstrations across the US.

Elsewhere in the US on Wednesday:

- Police in Philadelphia arrested nine protesters who staged a sit-in inside the lobby of Comcast, America's largest cable firm

- In New York, about 100 military veterans marched in uniform and stopped in front of the city's stock exchange, where there was a heavy police presence

- In Boston, college students and union workers marched on Bank of America offices and the statehouse to protest over the student debt crisis

Organisers of the latest Occupy Oakland protest said they wanted to disrupt operations at the nation's fifth busiest port, which handles about $39bn (£24bn) a year in imports and exports.

"At this time, maritime operations are effectively shut down at the Port of Oakland," the port said in a written statement to Reuters news agency. "Maritime area operations will resume when it is safe and secure to do so."

Oakland police estimated that about 3,000 demonstrators were gathered at the port. Police said 4,500 people had marched across the city on Wednesday.

A number of businesses, including several banks, were shut during the protests, which were largely peaceful during the day, with low police visibility.

The demonstration, which included students, families with young children and union members, began with a rally outside city hall.

One large protest banner read: "Occupy Everything, death to capitalism."

Oakland officials said about 5% of employees had taken the day off, including about 360 teachers.

One teacher at the rally, Brother Muziki, told AFP news agency: "Our classrooms are overcrowded. The banks are being bailed out - but not the schools."

The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Los Angeles says Oakland has a higher than average unemployment rate and suffered badly during the US recession.

The activists have been protesting against a system which they believe favours corporations and the nation's wealthiest 1%.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15568057

[barracuda]

[MacCruiskeen]

From the commentary to the short film that accompanied the BBC report:

"They, of course, are protesting against the excesses of capitalism." [Emphasis not added.]

- which sounds more than a little panicky to me, especially considering what the film actually shows.

[elfismiles]

http://occupygeorge.com/

I used to use similar stamps that basically educated about the federal reserve. SWEET!

[Plutonia]

Anyone up for this?

It pays!

Overland magazine is calling for articles, stories and poetry inspired by or about the Occupy movement currently taking place around the world. We want pieces which engage with all areas of the movement including:

• its political outlook
• its slogans including ‘we are the 99 per cent’
• the tactic of occupation
• its forms of organisation such as the ‘general assembly’, consensus decision-making and so on
• its relationship to other movements, including community and trade union groups
• the movement’s specific mood and ‘feel’
• its possible future

We are not looking for journalistic pieces, diaries or memoirs but rather serious essays and creative non-fiction between 1500 and 3000 words. Please familiarise yourself with the magazine, which can be read online, before submitting any pieces.

The articles will be published in the March 2012 issue so need to be of general relevance and not too time-specific.

We also welcome fiction and poetry on similar topics, which can be formally experimental or in non-realist genres.

Overland pays at a rate of around 20 cents per word; the exact amount depends on funding for each issue.

All pieces should be submitted using the Overland online submission manager. If you would like to pitch a piece, feel free to email us at Overland. Deadline is Friday 2 December.

http://overland.org.au/2011/10/overland ... r-writers/

[justdrew]

[justdrew]

Tunisia recognizes the American Transitional National Council
By Cory Doctorow at 1:03 pm Wednesday, Nov 2

Tunisian Facebook users have plastered Obama's Facebook page with thousands of messages in support of the Occupy movement:

Among the comments, Tunisian Facebook users circulated “Arab Spring” jokes, such as: “Tunisia is the first country to recognize the American Transitional National Council,” referring the revolutionary upheaval in Libya and the global recognition of the Libyan transitional council.

The Facebook users described it as a “virtual surprise attack” on. Many of the recent entries on his 2012 presidential campaign page were bombarded with as many as 20,000 comments each.

“Tunisian people are calling the U.S. authorities to respect freedom of expression and not to resort repression and assault on the rights of American citizens,” read one comment, which was reposted by several users.

Another comment read: “Tunisian people denounce violations against the American people by the security forces, which affect the freedom of expression.”

[82_28]

As per the happenings in Seattle today, I have this to say: I don't give a shit how many agents provocateurs were there, the very fact they were there says A LOT about the existential reality we all feel and the fact that this fucking country/civilization is spiraling down the drain. It is in search of a new identity. This "new identity" really is what is being fought. It occurs to me that it is much less about the financial situation, that being a symptom, but rather we are struggling against the FAKE that has become REAL, because the fake is real now.

The existential stress is very palpable everywhere and everyone wants to point some fucking finger at what is doing it. It's the EXISTENTIAL STRESS! Squirrels, cats, dogs, birds, bears, whales and deer don't do this. Just name an animal that needs to worry about this shit. There isn't one. And if they worry about shit, they figure it out. Namely, they go off to die. For all of our human abilities and the ability for us to recognize such, this iteration of time we live in is a fucking shame. We as a species, I think, are going off to die, because nobody knows the time inasmuch that we are told to march to the circadian and gregorian calendar's beat. We feel life slipping away while we constantly attempt to relive what we think were our "best years".

Fuck this optimism. There's no point. There is a lot of positivism in being pessimistic. You can't fight the empire, but you also can't ignore it. People are ignorant of the empire's existence. Thus we are fucked. Because the flipside of fighting the empire as a peon and then becoming said empire, is that the empire desires it not be noticed, thus it hides in plain view through the generations -- through the properties of time to occlude. To be kind to us on the empire side is to become the impoverished, weak and destitute as it is their rules we're dealing with. They invite us to take it/them on and try to take it over. But it is not those who are alive today at the top who do so. We're talking ancient figures.

Ah well. I'll quit rambling for now. . .

[Hammer of Los]

From the commentary to the short film that accompanied the BBC report:

"They, of course, are protesting against the excesses of capitalism." [Emphasis not added.]

- which sounds more than a little panicky to me, especially considering what the film actually shows.

Just about everything the BBC says is a lie, a reframing, an attempt to obfuscate and deceive, an attempt to control your mind.

The BBC as a source has no integrity, none.

None of its journalists can be trusted to put an enquiry into truth first. Instead they will play out their petty agendas. It's quite depressing. Ignore them. They are no longer relevant.

[Searcher08]

From the commentary to the short film that accompanied the BBC report:

"They, of course, are protesting against the excesses of capitalism." [Emphasis not added.]

- which sounds more than a little panicky to me, especially considering what the film actually shows.

Just about everything the BBC says is a lie, a reframing, an attempt to obfuscate and deceive, an attempt to control your mind.

The BBC as a source has no integrity, none.

None of its journalists can be trusted to put an enquiry into truth first. Instead they will play out their petty agendas. It's quite depressing. Ignore them. They are no longer relevant.

I think the journalists at the BBC now view it as some sort of elite 'reality TV' programme that serves only to showcase their 'talents'. This 'culture' is one of the reasons people like Rageh Omar left. The series on Islam he did was brilliant - he could not have done it while there.

Channel 4 is a mixed bag but there are more squirming interviewees than any other news programme in the UK (Yah!) - heck they even had an interview with a female Greek Communist MP last night who was quoting Churchill and yelling like it was "300" time. It was great!

[2012 Countdown]

'
Thanks for the photos SLAD and Barracuda (and for the on scene shots)...

====

WHO IS THIS MAN???



Two Oakland Protesters Are Run Down And Police Let The Driver Go
Robert Johnson and Linette Lopez | Nov. 3, 2011, 7:38 AM

Oakland is in turmoil and as we parse apart this morning's reports, this story is at at the top of the heap.
Eyewitnesses on the ground report that the man in this picture drove his Mercedes into protesters after becoming frustrated by the delay the crowd was causing at an intersection.
Two people were struck and one dragged 30 feet. Reports are coming in that one of those injured has been critically hurt.
Witnesses say that once the car

One of the two men struck by the Mercedes struck the protesters it attempted to speed up and drive through the central group of people but was unable to do so and stopped.
Surrounded by the angry crowd, who dumped coffee on the car and flagged down police, the man attempted to switch places with his woman passenger, but switched back when police arrived.



Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/two-oakl ... z1cdx0iud4

=======

VIDEO-Protesters Hit By Car, Cops Let Driver Go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHnLpW4a ... r_embedded

======

#OCCUPYOAKLAND PROTESTERS STRUCK INTENTIONALLY BY CAR, COPS LET DRIVER GO FREE

November 2, 2011 – 11:30 pm Pacific

Two #occupiers were hit by a car tonight in downtown Oakland – one was dragged 30 feet and sustained an “obviously” broken leg, photos of the other victim are below.

Eyewitnesses say that after hitting the pedestrians, the car accelerated, but was unable to break through a wall of other #occupiers, who were at critical mass. The angry crowd slowed the car to a stop, encircled it, coffee was thrown on the roof, and the driver of the white Mercedes (a white male, 18-24) switched seats with the passenger (white female, 18-24) in an apparent effort to disguise who was driving.

Once the police arrived, the crowd told the police of the drivers’ deception, and the pair sheepishly switched back to their original seats. After a moment, the driver took off. The crowd was surprised and immediately livid, shouting at the police officer, who left without addressing the crowd. Every single person at the scene was stunned that the driver could get away without being arrested. Why wasn’t the driver arrested? Perhaps this is an answer…

The driver had been waiting for for pedestrian traffic to clear, and in his growing impatience and recklessness, he struck the pedestrians. But with Broadway at complete critical mass – literally a wall of functionally unmovable humanity – common sense defies trying to brave the street in a car. But it didn’t stop this driver, and now people are in the hospital.

Both the victims were African American, the driver and passenger were both white and affluent. In the video below of the aftermath of the driver’s departure, other #occupiers shout that if the races had been reversed, the driver would have been arrested.

full-
http://www.pythagoreanism.com/occupy-pr ... ve-driver/

[crikkett]

^^^surely someone noted the license plate.