#OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

[wordspeak2]

Thanks for posting that, 82_28; that's *really* disturbing.
This anarchisty over-emphasis on internal process and taking too seriously the notion that your little group is the cell for a new society, over continuing to grow and build your appeal in the real world... will kill the movement if it doesn't change. I didn't realize it was this bad already.

[Elvis]

This anarchisty over-emphasis on internal process and taking too seriously the notion that your little group is the cell for a new society, over continuing to grow and build your appeal in the real world... will kill the movement if it doesn't change.

I couldn't agree more. If this is where the Seattle effort is, this is where I get off the boat.
I've run into this sort of intolerance lately, and it tends to alienate most people---just see what happened there.

I'm recuperating from my seasonal job and a nasty cold, and wondering, "where do I go with my sign?" I see almost no point in "occupying" a community college lawn in a hip neighborhood away from downtown.

Thanks for posting that, 82.

[Jeff]

FYI, cops look set to riot again in Oakland.

http://www.ustream.tv/occupyoakland

[psynapz]

FYI, cops look set to riot again in Oakland.

http://www.ustream.tv/occupyoakland

Live now: "They are tearing down the camp right now. It's okay, it'll be back up in a couple of days!"
and "So for all of you watching -- we need more tents!"

[psynapz]

"Channel 2 is reporting that 20 people have been arrested so far."

Also, an impromptu wedding just took place in the crowd, with vows exchanged via Peoples' Mic.

[psynapz]

"We have a bit of a break in the police line here -- it looks like they're about to file out."

and now

"Hey, they're leaving! Let's see where they go."

Copter overhead.

Cops marching directly away now, it seems.

Priceless commentary: "There was nothin but tents there, and they kicked those tents' ass. They got served. If I was a tent, I woulda got my ass whooped."

Edited for Point of Clarification: cops are still tearing down the encampment while the crowd, and stand-ups for the local TV media, look on. The 14th & Broadway "Oscar Grant Intersection" is currently under occupation.

[elfismiles]

I watched this live as well. Cheers!

"Channel 2 is reporting that 20 people have been arrested so far."

Also, an impromptu wedding just took place in the crowd, with vows exchanged via Peoples' Mic.

[psynapz]

I watched this live as well. Cheers!

"Channel 2 is reporting that 20 people have been arrested so far."

Also, an impromptu wedding just took place in the crowd, with vows exchanged via Peoples' Mic.

Don't you just love a wedding in the middle of a major city intersection occupied by a global justice revolution staring down a wall of riot police?

[beeline]

Occupy Philly updates: Jesse Jackson, sexual assault

Link

Occupy Filthy: Weary city tells protesters out

BY WILLIAM BENDER & MORGAN ZALOT

Philadelphia Daily News

More police ordered at Occupy Philly site Cops investigate Occupy Philly rape allegation Occupy: Police clear OR park, CA action possibleIT'S TIME for Occupy Philly to occupy somewhere else, Mayor Nutter says.

Seriously, guys. He's calling the cops.

Nothing against drum circles, but the 40-day urban camping session, which has already cost taxpayers more than $500,000 in police overtime and other expenses, is now threatening to derail a $50 million revitalization project at Dilworth Plaza.

That's nearly 1,000 jobs that would put food on the table of the "99 percent" that Occupy Philly claims to represent.

Plus, the campsite is getting kind of nasty.

"There are public-health and public-safety concerns that have nothing to do with Wall Street and corporations," Nutter said yesterday, showing a flash of anger when describing the increasingly radical protesters who are "purposely" blocking the construction project.

"The Dilworth Plaza project will not be conducted by some corporate entity," Nutter said of the plan to turn the concrete plaza into a handicapped accessible green public space with a café and a fountain that could be used as a skating rink. "These are real men and women. Philadelphians, Pennsylvanians, who need jobs, who need to take care of their families, their 99 percent in their households."

As if on cue, reliably defiant civil-rights activist Jesse Jackson showed up yesterday afternoon and urged Philadelphia protesters to "never surrender," even as officials were clearing Occupy sites in Portland and other cities.

"This Occupy zone reminds Philadelphia that there's poverty. There's pain," Jackson said.

Separately, about 30 protesters from the original Occupy Wall Street site marched into Philadelphia yesterday on their way to Washington, D.C.

Nutter did not set a deadline for dismantling tent city, but he's clearly lost patience with the fractious local chapter of the anti-Wall Street movement that's protesting corporate greed, poverty, racism, capitalism, lobbyists, unemployment, Republicans, Democrats, war, fracking, campaign-finance laws, police brutality and an ever-growing laundry list of mostly left-wing grievances.

The "dramatically deteriorating conditions" at the campsite on the west side of City Hall include an alleged rape over the weekend, unsanitary food distribution, graffiti, a tent fire, thefts and assaults, Nutter said. Public urination and defecation poses a "significant health threat," even though portable toilets are available, he said.

"These conditions are intolerable," he said.

Up to this point the activists and city officials had been cooperating, setting somewhat of a national example of a peaceful Occupy protest marked by few disturbances and a conciliatory local government.

Officials and some Occupy Philly members now say the movement is being redirected by more radical protesters who are hellbent on forcing a clash with police. The organizers that the Nutter administration had previously communicated with are "no longer on the scene," he said.

"The leadership is being hijacked," said Fernando Antonio Salguero, a volunteer firefighter who runs the warming station at Occupy Philly.

"There are a number of individuals that have placed themselves into key positions that want the whole thing to burn, the whole system to burn," Salguero said. "They want billy clubs and they want tear gas. They want to be martyred. I want us to move across the street to the Thomas Paine plaza and continue the good work."

Most Occupy Philly protesters interviewed by the Daily News yesterday were open to moving, but some said an influx of unfamiliar faces helped swing a general assembly vote Friday night to remain in the plaza.

"I'm sure if we go across the street, people will still sit in front of the construction site and link arms. And there's nothing wrong with that," Michael Yaroschuk, 29, a former IT worker from Bucks County, said outside the food tent. "The radicals will be here until the police take them away."

Nutter said he's asked Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey to increase the uniformed police presence at Occupy Philly and "establish structured and strategic positioning and deployment of officers on a regular basis."

Asked what would happen if the protesters ignore the city's demands, Nutter responded instantly with a terse answer that sounded a lot like a threat:

"They'll find out."

[Wombaticus Rex]

Tone has really shifted this week. This whole year has been the 60's on ADHD fastforward, Thanksgiving through Christmas should be 69-70.

[AlicetheKurious]

As the clock counted down, it was apparent that Occupy Seattle had repressed whatever thoughtful ideas the panelists brought to the stage and were willing to fill the time with chatter about unenlightening process. They wanted more power; they wanted to speak. They were also being rank hypocrites. Here is a group purporting to give people a voice and cut through the bureaucratic layers of government and capitalism. Instead, they silenced speech, quashed ideas, and replaced it with their own bureaucratic process reserved for a minority that wanted power.
...

Lots of people were leaving, angry—it was a stark contrast with stellar activism the week before.

...

But the Occupy activists came off as disrespectful, hostile, and woefully misguided about what democracy looked like. The activists added zero new content, but in the process, prevented the speakers from sharing their knowledge (that's some democracy).

So everyone's sure that these people genuinely represent "Occupy Seattle"? Because they're behaving exactly like agents provocateurs assigned to distract, diffuse and fragment the movement from within. I wonder if anybody checked them out?

[Wombaticus Rex]

Based on my own experience dealing with Anarchists I think it's just as plausible that non-agents could plan and execute an operation that disrupts and discredits a larger movement without any help, guidance or personnel from LEO of any kind. It is curious that the NYC GA was interrupted by "real Anarchists" on the same night that "real Anarchists" were disrupting an event in Seattle, for sure, but I increasingly see it as a groupthink reflex to write off internal problems as external subversion. Any movement of even moderate size has nuff idiots of their own already.

[Jeff]

Tone has really shifted this week. This whole year has been the 60's on ADHD fastforward, Thanksgiving through Christmas should be 69-70.

Yes. Warming up in the 1% bullpen is Altamont and the Manson Family. Someone should have counseled Jay-Z that only after they make their appearance could he get away with making a buck off nostalgia for it.

[Laodicean]

Someone should have counseled Jay-Z that only after they make their appearance could he get away with making a buck off nostalgia for it.

He was probably too busy with Michael Jordan...they have an NBA season to cancel afterall (quibbling over millions of dollars with the players over TV revenue).

Boots Riley recently FB'ed they are marching to take back Oakland tonight.

Let's do this.
Meet at 4pm in front of the Main Library.
This is the plan.

Show up there and we will march to the plaza to take it back.

They can't outspend us- we do this for free.

This is about the campaigns that we're starting to engage in- the camp is merely a base. But it is important to have that base.

This 1 month old movement has captured everyone's imagination and has clearly put forward, to to the whole world, a radical class analysis to basic problems in the system.

Due to our taking action on it at Occupy Oakland- reaching out to and working with labor, students, veterans groups, community groups, anarchists, socialists, communists and others- we have shown that we can actually do more than just point out contradictions in the system. We've shown that we can galvanize tens of thousands to cripple industry- and in the future- make demands that they have no choice in meeting.

In Oakland, we help people fight Wall Street in the workplace.
We will also be moving families back into foreclosed homes they've been evicted from.

These are the real reason cities and police departments around the country are conferring with each other about how to stop the Occupy Wall Street movement. In each city, the come with the same supposed list of problems. Bit those aren't the real problems. The politic is their problem.

The problems that they say are there at the camp- some are made up, some are real.
The real problems are problems that exist in Oakland already- they are not brought on by Occupy Oakland. Most people understand this. However, the bigger problems that we are trying to directly deal with- bank foreclosures and wages being too low- are part of the answer to making life better for everyone. The city's way of handling homelessness and people having to hustle to survive by sending people to jail. We are going to address those issues by freeing up housing and doing direct actions to raise pay. There are a lot of low paying jobs in Oakland that come from billion dollar businesses that could easily pay more. We plan to make that happen.

We feed 1000 people per day at Occupy Oakland.
We have and will continue to allow the amphitheater to be used by whomever wants to use it during the day. We have had no problem working with other groups who want to use the amphitheater and encourage those groups to work with us on our other campaigns. The only use issue is with the actual grass at the plaza, which is where the tents are pitched. That part of the plaza was barely used before. I think that it's a good thing that it be used for the camp, as what we have is a group of folks advocating for better living conditions and better wealth distribution for the 99%- of which most of Oakland falls into.

As far as downtown business is concerned- read my other posts. Occupy Oakland actually has a small business liaison committee and we have support of most of the small point-of-purchase businesses in the area. Why? We bring foot traffic that otherwise isn't there. Traditionally, downtown business relies almost solely on people that work downtown and people who transfer buses downtown. Neither of those spending demographics have changed. We've simply added hundreds of new people everyday spending money. The primarily big-bank-funded Chamber Of Commerce is lying. They don't represent the small businesses downtown for whom they claim to speak.

Be part of this.
This movement will change the world.

We got 99 problems, and Jay-Z is one.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Important:
http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/20 ... y-oakland/

As police dismantle the Occupy Oakland encampment, a prominent local Tea Party organizer Sally Zelikovsky is weighing in with a 10-minute video takedown of Occupy Oakland as being “riddled with the steady drumbeat of intimidation, violence and destruction; and the anarchists are not the only players,” as she writes in “The American Thinker.”

Zelikovsky, a Marin County-based founder of Bay Area Patriots who is admired by Karl Rove, said Oakland Mayor “Jean Quan and most in the press would have you believe that the violence is attributable to a rogue group of anarchists who have infiltrated the Occupation. But you will witness firsthand how masked and unmasked, anarchist and occupier march together, chant together and incite together.”

Occupy Oakland supporters will dismiss this as a masterpiece of creative editing to portray the Occupiers as a band of Marxists, anarchists, hooligans and anti-police thugs. They’ll point to the largely peaceful march of at least 7,000 to the Port of Oakland…which exploded later that night into a riot with police.

Regardless, this is the impression that many — thanks largely to the media coverage – have of the Occupy Oakland movement. If the movement wants to continue locally, it’s something that they should keep in mind as they plan their next move. That is, if they want widespread support for actually making change. As polls show, there is a lot of support for asking more from the 1 percent. But the Occupy movement still needs to decide where to focus that outrage and passion.

Here’s the video, Zelikovsky co-produced with Steve Kemp: