Liberal Politics

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How the 99% Won in the Fight for Worker Rights

by Andy Kroll (via TomDispatch)

Twelve hours after Mayor Bloomberg’s cops evicted the Occupy Wall Street encampment from Zuccotti Park, the space had been scrubbed down and repopulated with police and private-security types, up to 150 of them. In essence, since September there had been two occupations in the Wall Street area and the second of them, the massive one the police were running, had now quite literally replaced the first. Odder yet, by mid-afternoon the police, barricaded in the park, were ringed by the returning protesters, awaiting a judge’s decision on whether they could again set up camp. It was as if in a single night the situation had somehow been turned inside out.

As Occupy Wall Street’s website wryly put it: “NYPD Occupying Liberty Square; Demands Unclear.” That caught the strangely high-spirited post-eviction moment. But something else caught my eye that afternoon. The “park” itself, demonstrator-less, filled with bored cops, had morphed into a bare and pitiful space. It wasn’t a park at all, but a thumbnail slab of concrete with lights embedded in it, trees with yellowed leaves, and scattered, plinth-like stone benches, cold as death.

What more reminder did anyone need that the zeitgeist-inspired Occupy Wall Street protesters had brought a mythic quality to a postage-stamp-sized bit of privatized public property? They had made it, tents and all, larger than life, bigger than anything specific that happened there. They had somehow put it on a world stage. If they head elsewhere, that mythic quality goes with them. The police have now, as is their wont, turned the park into something like an open-air prison. It’s the only thing they evidently know how to do, just as they tried to imprison in metal barricades the giant march from Manhattan’s Foley Square across the Brooklyn Bridge on Thursday night — with far less success than expected thanks to the effervescent, surging power of the crowd.

As a crew, the OWS protesters are no slouches. By the afternoon of their park eviction, some were already carrying around signs that said: “You cannot evict an idea whose time has come.” It’s a rousing instant slogan, and who can deny that there are ideas aplenty swirling around in the OWS ether? As for myself, though, I don’t think Occupy Wall Street is an idea. To me, it seems more like an embodied feeling, as hard to pin down, yet powerful and all embracing, as that 99% label.

Along with its hope and high-spiritedness, OWS has, I suspect, caught and crystalized an American feeling of loss, of a world going down (which always has the possibility of the new somewhere inside it). The outrage that it has transformed into activity is over those who are still living high and profiting off that world’s demise — the privateers, looters, subprime hucksters, corporate grifters, Wall Street gamblers, and all those willing to take a buck to shill for them, to make sure in every way that they thrive as other Americans crash and burn.

All of this, by the way, was available for anyone to see in clear, even cartoonish, form in the crony-capitalist version of the occupation of Iraq with its urge to privatize everything, make money off Iraqi suffering while the going was good, and stick the Iraqis with a subprime “reconstruction” program so shoddy that nothing would work and no services would ever be delivered, while the companies hired to reconstruct took home the cash.

As it happened, while few Americans cared what befell the Iraqis, a subprime crook’s version of the occupation of Iraq was heading home. So here’s the truth of it: before anyone decided to “occupy” any park, we wuz occupied! And the truth of now is perhaps this: a feeling embodied is even harder to suppress than an idea, no matter how often you play whack-a-mole with its encampments. A feeling embodied, as TomDispatch associate editor and Mother Jones reporter Andy Kroll makes clear, can have genuine on-the-ground political power. It can deliver the goods. (To catch Timothy MacBain’s latest Tomcast audio interview in which Kroll discusses Occupy Wall Street’s unlikely first political victory click here, or download it to your iPod here.) Tom

How the 99% Won in the Fight for Worker Rights
The Unsung Victors in the Hottest Election of 2011

By Andy Kroll – Posted  at 5:50pm, November 20, 2011.

No headlines announced it. No TV pundits called it. But on the evening of November 8th, Occupy Wall Street, the populist uprising built on economic justice and corruption-free politics that’s spread like a lit match hitting a trail of gasoline, notched its first major political victory, and in the unlikeliest of places: Ohio.

You might have missed OWS’s win amid the recent wave of Occupy crackdowns. Police raided Occupy Denver, Occupy Salt Lake City, Occupy Oakland, Occupy Portland, and Occupy Seattle in a five-day span. Hundreds were arrested. And then, in the early morning hours on Tuesday, New York City police descended on Occupy Wall Street itself, fists flying and riot shields at the ready, with orders from Mayor Michael Bloomberg to evict the protesters. Later that day, a judge ruled that they couldn’t rebuild their young community, dealing a blow to the Occupy protest that inspired them all.

Instead of simply condemning the eviction, many pundits and columnists praised it or highlighted what they considered its bright side. The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein wrote that Bloomberg had done Occupy Wall Street a favor. After all, he argued, something dangerous or deadly was bound to happen at OWS sooner or later, especially with winter soon to arrive. Zuccotti Park, Klein added, “was cleared… in a way that will temporarily reinvigorate the protesters and give Occupy Wall Street the best possible chance to become whatever it will become next.”

The New York Times’ Paul Krugman wrote that OWS “should be grateful” for Bloomberg’s eviction decree: “By acting so badly, Bloomberg has Read more…

Narcotics Agents Listed

PLEASE  READ the FIRST TWO paragraphs of the above.  Ardently, we STILL believe this:  Communication leads to understanding, understanding leads not only to peaceful co-existence, but is the most productive path to a society that respects and serves the needs of all of its members to its own greatest good.

Now, please, go to our Facebook Page to discuss this further.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/173751580168

Why We Appear

More than 40 years ago(!) – ‘Why We Appear’ – told why we were ‘established’.  Now, we are back by popular demand (the endemic and systemic call for what we do…. a call by the broadest spectrum of the public since the cultural upheaval of the 60’s).

This is NOT a statement  on our ‘philosophy’ on WHY and HOW culture changes, WHY it did back then, WHY it is now – but THAT statement IS coming.  Stay tuned… the revolution has a reason, the process has begun, it’s history is here; use it to take your next step.  And CLICK our rss button NOW so that you, first, will know what that might be.

LA Free Press, 1964 Why We Appear (1 of 4)

LA Free Press, 1964 Why We Appear (2 of 4)

LA Free Press, 1964 Why We Appear (3 of 4)

LA Free Press, 1964 Why We Appear (4 of 4)

The Meaning of the Occupy Wall Street Movement by Don Coorough

So the mainstream media has you convinced that the Occupy Wall Street movement is nothing more than a bunch of neo-hippies, clowns, anarchists, socialists and fascists with nothing to say, no agenda and no plan for how to make things better. The media tells you this movement blames corporations for all the ills of the world when really it is government that has failed. The media claims that the movement is dominated by anti-capitalist sentiments which will rob Americans of their freedom. The very same mainstream media then provides stills and video taken out of context to prove their point.

Well, as Malcolm X once said, “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” He was right when he said it, and the comment applies even more appropriately today. Let’s just extend it to television, too.

The people of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the extensions of that which spring up in new cities across the country seemingly every day, believe in the power of their voice and the power of the collected will of humanity. They know that history supports them in their beliefs and aims. The people of India stood up to the English Empire and used non-violence in concert with the force of their will to throw off the yoke of English colonial dominion and win home rule. The people of Eastern Europe stood up as a unified, non-violent mass against the repression of the Soviet Union and tore down the Berlin Wall as they liberated themselves from dictatorship. The people of the Soviet Union followed that lead and used the same force of will along with non-violent, civil disobedience to end 74 years of communist autocracy in Russia and the other SSRs. Most recently, the people of Egypt stood up to privilege, power, repression and military might with non-violent masses demanding self-determination and a government that reflected their will and desire. They are now in the process of working out their future together.

The people of the Occupy Wall Street movement represent another example of people who are not afraid to empower themselves, people who believe in right over wrong, hope over dismay, fairness over greed, and humanity over bank accounts. They have spontaneously arisen like a force of nature. Their numbers continue to swell like the ocean’s rising tide. They are not afraid to stand up to nefarious corporate greed. They believe in the power of the people, and know that, truly, there is no greater force in the world than masses of people gathering together in their own interest, non-violently, expressing a loving message of inclusion, hope, peace, equality, economic fairness and equal justice under the law.

So, you ask, “What do they want? What is their coherent message?”

Let me provide you with a video of Keith Olbermann delivering the statement of grievances of the people in the Occupy Wall Street movement which was agreed upon by 90% of them. The link to the video is followed by a link to a document containing the language read by Keith.

http://www.facebook.com/notes/occupy-tucson/statement-of-concerns-approved-by-ny-general-assembly-by-consensus/185878491488210

Now, let me give you a link to a list of 8 specific demands for actions Congress should undertake to improve conditions in the United States.

http://coupmedia.org/occupywallstreet/occupy-wall-street-official-demands-2009

These are coherent statements with real insight into what is wrong and how things went wrong. These statements include specific means by which the wrongs can be rectified. Their hope, like mine, is for a better America that will be more responsive to the needs of the people. These links explain their vision better than a brief summary by me, since nothing is lost in the translation. Their dream, like mine, is for a return to the idea that this nation shall become what Abraham Lincoln once defined it as, “A nation of the people, by the people and for the people.”
The United States is not a corporation. It is not a private commodity. It is not a product or service. This nation is a collection of people who seek to be treated with respect and courtesy, and who believe that, because this is supposed to be a representative government, the politicians elected to perform the sacred duty of representing the wishes of the people must understand the nature of that role. The people of this country want their representatives to stop talking at us, stop telling us they know better than we what the right course of action is. The 99%, as the members of the movement call themselves, want politicians to stop being run by corporate interests, occurring because of exorbitant campaign contributions and the perks that come from lobbyists. Politicians, take your balls out of the corporate wallets who buy you, and act in accordance with the Constitution! Remember, real authority and true legitimacy for any government flows from the people, and only the people.

This, my friends, is what the Occupy Wall Street movement stands for and what the people in that movement want.

OCCUPY 4:20 – Medical Cannabis Patients & Advocates Join The Occupy Movement

OCCUPY 4:20 –

Protest Failed Drug War, Prosecution of Patients as a Waste of Federal Resources

LOS ANGELES – October 11, 2011 – When medical cannabis patients and supporters finished their rally at the federal building on Friday, October 7, 2011, the same day U.S. Attorneys announced their escalated attack on medical cannabis collectives and cooperatives, the protesters made their way to Los Angeles City Hall to see how the ‘occupation’ was going.

“When Occupy LA activists saw our signs, they cheered,” states Degé Coutee, Executive Director of Patient Advocacy Network, an LA-based non-profit organization advocating for patients’ rights. One sign read ‘Cannabis Is Medicine Not Criminal’ while others read ‘Patient, Not Criminal.’

“We chanted ‘No More Drug War’ and they got it,” continues Coutee. “Twenty years ago is was much more difficult to get anti-war activists to acknowledge Drug War atrocities. Now everyone knows someone whose been effected by the Drug War. Everyone knows someone whose used cannabis therapeutically.”

So, Patient Advocacy Network launched Occupy 4:20, a nationwide movement of cannabis supporters protesting the failed Drug War and the federal attack on states with medical cannabis laws while calling for cannabis legalization.

*********************

The Patient Advocacy Network is an LA-based charitable 501 (c) (3) organization founded by patient-activists in 2006.  Since then PAN has provided several hundred workshops to medical cannabis patients and their providers throughout California on compliance issues, law enforcement encounters and how to effectively engage the democratic process.  PAN works with numerous elected officials to educate the legislature on cannabis issues: scientific, social and legal.  PAN advocates for patients’ rights and the end of marijuana prohibition.

Events:  To be held in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Philadelphia. Details will be announced here.

Contact Points:

Degé Coutee, Executive Director -Patient Advocacy Network at (323) 334-5282

patientadvocates@riseup.net.

Information:  www.CannabisSavesLives.org,  http://panorg.blogspot.com/

Twitter:  @Occupy420 @PAN4Compassion.

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Est. 1964 Re-Incarnated by Public Demand

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