#OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

[Project Willow]

Poor thing.

I did read about this but didn't post as I wanted to wait for Holden's update concerning medical records that verify the miscarriage was caused by the pepper spray incident.

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/11/21/pregant-woman-blasted-with-pepper-spray-by-spd-reportedly-miscarries

[Jeff]

Obama Gets Mic Checked, Tells Protesters: ‘You’re The Reason I Ran For Office’

And you're the reason many of them voted for the first time. And the last.

[justdrew]

Obama Gets Mic Checked, Tells Protesters: ‘You’re The Reason I Ran For Office’

And you're the reason many of them voted for the first time. And the last.

this movement better show up at the polls come election day or it's going to achieve as much change as newspaper political cartoons (cosmetic relief valve and conscience salve)

[2012 Countdown]

I think we're playing the 'long game' here with OWS.

In other news, Chris Wallace is still a DICK-

[MacCruiskeen]

Obama Gets Mic Checked, Tells Protesters: ‘You’re The Reason I Ran For Office’

...thus demonstrating yet again his [speechwriters'] ability to say absolutely nothing while appearing to say something.

[Project Willow]

OMFG, OMFG, Obama is the biggest goddamn liar I've ever seen in my life.

He knows, he fucking knows, he is cognizant of the score and completely, shamelessly lies. Lies. LIES.

Standing in front the original copy of the Constitution as he verbally violates it like some cheap baby-raping porn star. Fuck him.

If I had no conscious whatsoever, I'd just go out in the world and do the same thing and reap all of the profits.
That fucker. Fuck him, Mic check him everywhere, that fucker.

(Forgive me.)

[Simulist]

OMFG, OMFG, Obama is the biggest goddamn liar I've ever seen in my life.

He knows, he fucking knows, he is cognizant of the score and completely, shamelessly lies. Lies. LIES.

Standing in front the original copy of the Constitution as he verbally violates it like some cheap baby-raping porn star. Fuck him.

If I had no conscious whatsoever, I'd just go out in the world and do the same thing and reap all of the profits.
That fucker. Fuck him, Mic check him everywhere, that fucker.

(Forgive me.)

Forgive you for what, PW, telling the truth?

(You don't need to be "forgiven." In this day and age, you need to be cloned.)

[Jeff]

Occupy Toronto is being evicted. (So far, peacefully.)

IMO, Toronto went off message a couple of weeks ago. Maybe because the location isn't especially close to the financial district, or because they've been put in a defensive posture by the media and the city, but I haven't seen the imaginative elasticity here that I've seen from other Occupies.

[American Dream]

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/11/23/ ... eon-thing/

NOVEMBER 23, 2011

The Nature of the Beast Revealed

The Swing of That Truncheon Thing

by RON JACOBS


While I truly empathize with the victims of the use of force by police against Occupy protesters these past few weeks, the fact that these acts of abuse occurred has served a very useful purpose. For the first time in a long time, the role of police in a society that calls itself democratic is being questioned. As anyone who has been paying attention knows, in the past few weeks police have beaten, pepper-sprayed, shot rubber bullets and other projectiles, used concussion grenades and other wise attacked Occupiers, their supporters and journalists at protests across the United States. In addition, individuals at other protests against tuition hikes, pay cuts and other economic issues have been brutally attacked by police. Video of these attacks, while rarely appearing on mainstream television, have been seen hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube and other social media.

The German philosopher and sociologist Max Weber wrote in his book Politics As Vocation that one condition of a legitimate government depended on how “its administrative staff successfully upholds a claim on the monopoly of the legitimate use of violence in the enforcement of its order.” When that government feels it is under attack and believes that nothing but force will work to end those attacks, then it brings out the police and gives them free rein. In the United States in 2011, that means tear gas, pepper spray and truncheons; in Egypt of 2011 it means that and much more. Nor does it matter if one government is an elected nominally liberal civilian government, a dictator, or a military regime.

As far as the US and the wave of protest occurring there goes, the State has a firm monopoly on violence. Indeed, the increasingly violent police attacks on Occupy protests have been met with an even greater chorus of civilians calling for nonviolent witness. Any protester that challenges this insistence on nonviolence is quickly challenged as a potential police provocateur, a selfish jerk, thug or some other variant of deviant. While the fact exists that nonviolent witness is an incredibly powerful tactic of protest, it is a moral protest. Therefore, it assumes that those whose actions one is protesting actually have morals similar to the protesters and can be convinced to change policies by the moral power of the protesters’ arguments. Unfortunately, such is often not the case. For example, the chancellor of University of California (UC) Davis, whose actions created the situation last week where several students were pepper-sprayed at point blank range by campus police, seems to be truly shaken by the police actions her orders unleashed. However, given the history of UC policing, I doubt very much that there will be a sea change in how UC police use force on campus. Furthermore, one has to wonder if that chancellor would be having the moral misgivings she seems to be having if the pepper-spraying incident had not received the coverage it has.

Do I think the recent police violence against protesters in the US means that it’s time for protesters to move to armed struggle or even throw rocks at cops? No, of course not. My only intention in pointing out the limits of nonviolent resistance is that those limits are something that the authorities don’t necessarily recognize or care about.

Like many folks that have been involved in opposing the state, I have had my share of physical run-ins with the police. Truncheons, tear gas, pepper spray, all of it. Yet, the worst beating I ever received from the police was not at a protest. It happened when the police answered a noise complaint at an apartment I was at one night. After an argument between the cop and one of the apartment residents, the cop kicked in the door, tearing it off its hinges. He called for backup. I went outside through a back door. As I tried to leave one of the six policeman standing around saw me and attacked. Within minutes I was on the ground with three officers on me. One was twisting my arms around to cuff me and the other two were pushing my face into the concrete of the sidewalk. Another was beating my legs with his nightstick. I was thrown into the car of the cop who began the whole episode and as we drove to the station he told me that my friends and I were dead meat if he ever saw me when he was not in uniform. I said nothing. When we got to the jail he placed me in a holding cell and began to beat me with his fists and club. If it weren’t for the jailer arriving, he probably would have beat me unconscious. This experience is not that uncommon, especially in poorer neighborhoods (and especially in neighborhoods populated by people of color.)

Police handled the attacks on the Occupy camps, which in the authorities’ minds were nothing but magnets for those without houses, much as they do any attempts to roust the homeless. The fact that these attacks were played out in the media occurred because the camps were protest camps instead of non-political camps of the homeless. Furthermore, the presence of college students, labor activists and other “middle-class” residents not only brought cameras to the camp roustings, but people with some connections capable of speaking the language of the authorities and the media. This presence made what is a common occurrence to the people living on the streets into a national news story. In other words, the police violence visited on the homeless every day was exposed, if only briefly, to the world.

Historically, police violence is a fact of life in every society. In a society based on a capitalist economy, the police serve those that have the most money and property. When the authorities and their policies are under attack, the police will always be called in to protect the former. No official should be shocked when the police act brutally. There is a reason the most thuggish of the uniforms are often the ones called to disperse angry crowds. If there are officials shocked or upset at the brutality unleashed by the police under their command, they can resign like two members of the Oakland mayor’s staff did in the wake of the police raids on Occupy Oakland or they can defend their thugs like Mayor Bloomberg. As for the chancellor of UC Davis? Only time will tell if those tears she recently shed at a speakout on campus are genuine. Meanwhile, hardly any one but their friends and family weep for those the police brutalize off campus.



Ron Jacobs is the author of The Way the Wind Blew: a History of the Weather Underground and Short Order Frame Up. Jacobs’ essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch’s collection on music, art and sex, Serpents in the Garden. His collection of essays and other musings titled Tripping Through the American Night is now available and his new novel is The Co-Conspirator’s Tale. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion, forthcoming from AK Press.

[American Dream]

And a different point of view:

http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_ ... p?id=17264

Non-violence Does Not Have to Be Passive

By Jim Miles

I have just watched the video of the University of California students at Davis against the heavily armed police that is becoming prominent on many internet sites and I am reminded, among others, of the non-violent responses of the Palestinians to their occupiers (see “Refusing to be Enemies - Palestinian and Israeli Nonviolent Resistance to the Israeli Occupation,” Ithaca Pres, 2011). The video shows clearly the actions of the police pepper spraying passive students sitting on the ground, heads down. Following that, without any real organization of leadership, the students start slowly almost imperceptibly at first, moving forward toward the police. The resolution is that the police finally turn and leave the site. An earlier video, showing U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Shamar Thomas shaming a squad of New York city police, serves as another excellent example of non-violence actively confronting threatened or implied violence.

The highlight of this is that non-violence need not be passive.

Non-violence can be passive, and does at times necessitate full passivity in the face of impending violence. But in other circumstances, especially where the overwhelming balance of force is on one side, a pro-active non violence can be very effective. The police/military are then forced into a decision: to either use violence against the protesters; or to stand down from the protesters.

Included in this is the nature of social media and the ubiquitous presence of cameras, videos, cell phones, and their immediate input into the airwaves of the world. If the police are to choose violence, that will be seen globally, even if the mainstream corporate media do not pick up on it. If the police choose to stand down, that also will not be seen in corporate media. But everyone else will see it nevertheless.

Historically, pacifism did not bring about significant changes to the social structures and politics of the world. The Magna Carta (1215) in England was not donated willingly by the King but forced upon him by his rebellious barons. Interestingly enough, this was not a rebellion to replace one monarch with another, but to limit the powers of the absolute monarchy. The unions that workers attempted to form were not aided and abetted by the corporations that were involved. Union development in the western world is the story of workers’ rights and better working conditions up against the forces used by the corporate elites, the militaries and hired police. Many workers’ strikes were settled by violence before unions began to have some recognition under law, unfortunately later many of them were co-opted by the union bosses to support one political position or another of the elites.

The women’s suffragette movement was not a peaceful one, and involved violence against the women, with the women resorting to hunger strikes and chaining themselves to barricades in order to pronounce their determination. World War I had a significant role in giving women the right to vote as they ‘demonstrated’ their abilities to replace men in the homeland manufacturing centres. The freeing of the black slaves in the U.S. and then the long struggle to have equality in society was not given to the black people voluntarily. It involved a long history of violence against blacks and their supporters. This violence continues today with the inequalities of race and crime based on this historical pattern.

Ghandi spoke of non-violence, but was not passive in his opposition to the British empire in India. Martin Luther King spoke of non-violence but was not passive in his actions against racial discrimination in the U.S. The Egyptians demonstrated non-violence in Tahrir Square and are still under fire from the military regime now controlling Egypt (and why not, for all the billions of dollars they receive from the U.S.?) The Palestinians practice non-violence on a daily basis, protesting against the illegal “wall” that is expropriating their territory, and in a large part by simply existing and being, proceeding with life trying to give it some sort of semblance of civility under occupation. Protesters in Bahrain and Yemen who have been non-violent have had overwhelming force used against them - as did the Indians, the blacks, the Egyptians, and all others who have protested non-violently.

So there is an obvious downside to protests and struggles for human rights, but that is part of what non-violence is about - a clear demonstration that the powers that be are not democratic and are in reality against the masses of the people (except as consumers and cannon fodder of course). The elites are not aligned with the people, are not accepting their own rhetorical standards of free speech and democracy, and with other elites will do their best to control the voice of the people. It is an alignment of the contradictions of society where those in power clearly do not lead the people, where the elites are clearly in opposition to the people, and in some cases will go to great lengths, including torture and murder, to keep their positions.

Occupy Wall Street for the moment remains a relatively calm demonstration, with non-violence being one of its hall-marks (the other main one being that it is essentially leaderless). The elites will look for weaknesses and try to exploit them. The elites main weapon for now is the overall tenor of fear that they present to society: fear of communism, fear of terrorism, fear of crime; all embellished by the corporate media to both entertain and contain the thoughts of the hopefully ignorant masses.

The lessons learned from the efforts of the Palestinians can be incorporated into the occupy movement. What the state [of Israel, the U.S. ….] fears most of all is the hope that people can live together based on justice and equality for all. Non-violence becomes a pro-active dynamic, with actions taken that are similar in nature to civil disobedience (in cultures where there is civil law, rather than military rule). Another aspect is that of normalization - the elites want a leader, they want to negotiate, they want to buy off the leaders (or imprison and decapitate them to instil fear). Non-violence disallows normal relations, the goal is to replace the subservient position with one of equality in all areas. In other words, through non-violent resistance, the [Palestinians, Occupy movement….] are not accepting the status quo, are not accepting that the media will be able to present a picture that life continues as normal within the elites’ mode of controlling society.

Non-violent protest can lead to very violent counter-actions. If that happens to the Occupy movement, it will be seen around the world, and the world, once again, will see that what the U.S. claims about freedom and human rights is simply rhetorical fodder to cover up their real interests in power and control of people and resources. If nothing else, the Occupy idea is out - corporate wealth is creating great inequalities within the U.S. (…and Canada, and Mexico, and Europe, and any other nation that supports the globalization of capital and the governance of corporations over sovereign nations).

Ideas cannot be removed once put out. Non-violence is the best way to maintain the message and keep the pressure on in an otherwise violent - threatened or applied - system.



- Jim Miles is a Canadian educator and a regular contributor/columnist of opinion pieces and book reviews for The Palestine Chronicle. Miles' work is also presented globally through other alternative websites and news publications.

[JackRiddler]

.

Oh, for fuck's sake, New York confiscated and "lost" the "Wikileaks" Truck (actually a kind of art work, although don't misunderstand: it was a truck that may be "lost" by the cops). It was always parked next to the encampment.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/2 ... _ref=false

EDITION: U.S.

November 23, 2011

Occupy Wall Street Wikileaks Truck Confiscated, Possibly Lost By NYPD

First Posted: 11/23/11 10:00 AM ET Updated: 11/23/11 10:00 AM ET


Artist and Occupy Wall Streeter Clark Stoeckley's Wikileaks truck has been a fixture of the demonstration downtown since day one, often parked along the edge of Zuccotti Park and puzzling onlookers with its Wikileaks logo and "Top Secret Mobile Collection Unit" emblazoned across its side.

(Although not connected to WIkileaks in any way, Stoeckler has been driving the truck around all summer and filming his travels. Calling it "artivism," a hybrid of art and activism, he hopes his exploits will bring awareness to detention of Private First Class Bradley Manning.)

And now, thanks to the NYPD, the truck's gone missing!

Gawker reports Stoeckley was driving the truck early last Thursday morning when he was pulled over by police, not too far from Zuccotti Park, for having a crooked license plate and not using his lights while his windshield wipers were on.

After not consenting to a search of the vehicle, Stoeckley was arrested for Obstructing Governmental Administration. And when he contacted the towing company that was supposed to have the truck, they said they'd never seen it.

"I think this is over the NYPD's head," he told Gawker. "I want my truck back immediately. It was illegally taken from me and it is illegally being held from me. That is not courtesy, professionalism or respect."

He's currently working with the NYPD to locate the truck which he says also isn't at the city impound.

Stoeckley's lawyer tells Gawker he hopes his client wasn't arrested "unlawfully," simply for "refusing to consent to a search."

The NYPD was likely on edge Thursday as Occupy Wall Street protesters commenced a series of large rallies in celebration of the movement's two month anniversary.

They also had some practice that week confiscating, and promptly losing or destroying, protesters' possessions.

More than a week since the NYPD raided Zuccotti Park and evicted protesters, The Occupy Wall Street Library has yet to recover important Occupy documents and over 4,000 books-- and it's seeming less and less likely that the Department of Sanitation didn't just throw them away. The Occupy Wall Street Library is expected to hold a press conference Thursday to "address the destruction of the OWS People's Library by Mayor Michael Bloomberg during the 11/15 raid."

Those protesters looking to recover property from the raid must go to a DOS storage center on 12th Ave. and 57th street, where the press is not allowed inside,


One protester, Issac Wilder, still can't find a bag with over $5,000 in cash confiscated by police. Wilder also can't find the Freedom Tower, a device that provided wi-fi to the protest, and while inside the storage center, he took photos of laptops completely destroyed during the raid.

Related, but even worse -- book destruction.

http://peopleslibrary.wordpress.com/201 ... onference/

Library Press Conference
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: press@occupywallst.org

For this event: William Scott, 412-390-6510

Occupy Wall Street Librarians Address Bloomberg for Destroying Books

Over 4k Books, Documents, Were Trashed by NYPD & Dept. of Sanitation in Raid

OWS Library Staff Recovers Books and Supplies, Less Than One-Fifth is Usable

What: Press conference to address the destruction of the OWS People’s Library by Mayor Michael Bloomberg during the 11/15 raid.

*Photo Opportunity* All of the recovered, destroyed books will be at the press conference.

Where: 260 Madison Ave, 20th Floor, between 38th and 39th St

When: Wednesday, November 23, at 12:00 noon

Who: Norman Siegel will host and moderate. Speakers: Gideon Oliver of the National Lawyers Guild, Hawa Allan a Fellow at Columbia Law School, and Occupy Wall Street Librarians from the People’s Library. Law professors from Columbia, members of the American Library Association, various writers and others have been invited.


So far, the People’s Library has received 1,099 books back from the Dept. of Sanitation after last week’s raid (some of which were not library books to begin with), and out of these, about 800 are still usable. About 2,900 books are still unaccounted for, and less than one-fifth of the original collection is still usable. These numbers may change slightly when the People’s Library gets an exact count of the recent (and final) retrievals from Sanitation, but not considerably.

“The People’s Library was destroyed by NYPD acting on the authority of Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the night of the raid. In addition to all our supplies, laptops, and tent, they threw roughly 4,000 books into garbage trucks and dumpsters that were adjacent to the park, as well as assorted rare documents that were associated with OWS,” says William Scott, an Occupy Wall Street Librarian.

Watch video of the NYPD and Dept. of Sanitation destroying the OWS People’s Library tent and throwing away all the books. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTkUjQwHf4I

Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to more than 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally. For more visit www.occupywallst.org

[2012 Countdown]

Fat Mike and Eric Melvin of NOFX come out to occupy San Francisco to play a few songs and show their support

[Project Willow]

Forgive you for what, PW,

Swearing, using the word conscious when I meant conscience, and in my haste and fury, completely screwing up my description of what for me is the emblematic scene of Obama's presidency, when he stood in front of the Bill of Rights (not the Constitution) and announced that he would continue Bush's policy of indefinite detention (suspension of habeas corpus for enemy combatants).

Dissociation + menopause sometimes equals: "He did that thing there, that thing a few years ago that made me so mad, yeah that thing, because I'm conscious!" Oh, dear.

Otherwise, Sim.

[Nordic]

Forgive you for what, PW,

Swearing, using the word conscious when I meant conscience, and in my haste and fury, completely screwing up my description of what for me is the emblematic scene of Obama's presidency, when he stood in front of the Bill of Rights (not the Constitution) and announced that he would continue Bush's policy of indefinite detention (suspension of habeas corpus for enemy combatants).

Dissociation + menopause sometimes equals: "He did that thing there, that thing a few years ago that made me so mad, yeah that thing, because I'm conscious!" Oh, dear.

Otherwise, Sim.

time to post that photo of that sign "things are fucked up and bullshit" when you feel that way. i love that sign.

[Julia W]

Poor thing.

I did read about this but didn't post as I wanted to wait for Holden's update concerning medical records that verify the miscarriage was caused by the pepper spray incident.

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/11/21/pregant-woman-blasted-with-pepper-spray-by-spd-reportedly-miscarries

Thanks for this PW, I believe I should have waited, too.