Occupy DC at McPherson Square celebrated their 6 month anniversary by switching sides and marching in support of the 1%. The Black Bloc Infiltrates the march halfway through and refrains from eating any of the 1% ers for lunch. Thank you Food Not Bombs.
This is an in intimate discussion with Lisa Fithian & Jason
Ahmadi conducted Oct 31st 2011 over coffee, early in the morning. None
of us had had much sleep in the previous 6 weeks. Get Lisa's insight on
the history of violent and non violent protest. Also, a detailed
analysis of the potential pitfalls of the Occupy Wall Street movement
and how they can be avoided. organizingforpower.org
While I was waiting for Occupy DC to get evicted I met up with some Occu Hopping folks who interviewed me extensively about the start of OWS, the technology and future of the movement. FluxRostrum's OWS day 1 video
Jeanette Wallis became an activist during the WTO Ministerial Protest in Seattle, WA on December 1, 1999, when she was tear-gassed and chased by riot police in her Capitol Hill neighborhood while walking home from the store. She began organizing because she believed in the right of the people to express their opinions about decisions that affect their lives - and has consequently been tear-gassed, beaten, pepper-sprayed, shot at with rubber bullets, and arrested while defending this right.
Last night at 10 pm, NYU students barricaded themselves into a cafeteria in the student center and refused to leave until the administration met their demands. The students are seeking much more transparency, stabilized tuition and socially responsible investment among other things (details at takebacknyu.com). Although NYPD took up positions inside and outside the building, the NYU administration up until now declined to force the students to leave.
Today, a couple of dozen more students rushed into join their comrades in the cafeteria, bolstering their numbers and morale. An hour later the students broke through some doors onto a balcony to take over more space. Previously, the students had taken a formal stance against violence and against property destruction. Apparently they changed their minds when they decided to enter the balcony, writing on their website, "in the interest of tactical flexibility, we have chosen to revoke the property destruction clause of this statement."
In a remarkable use of social media, you can follow along with events from inside the student occupation at a live blog and on live streaming video.
I-Witness Video was on the scene last night and will continue to monitor events periodically.
A video report on the protests that occurred in connection with the Democrat and Republican National Conventions, Ground Noise & Static is a manifesto. We went to Denver and St. Paul to take the pulse of the movement. Corporate media would cover the platitudes and posturing of the politicians, we were interested in something else, a story hidden in plain sight, captured in the now-classic street chant, “This is what democracy looks like.”
Ground Noise & Static is a joint effort of Franklin López of subMedia.TV and PepperSpray Productions. It is the direct result of a wonderful collaboration with many indymedia-style activists and journalists who all pitched in for the common good and success of their various efforts to tell their “Unconventional” stories.
11 min. ~ Download iPod ~ Bandwidth Challenged embedding options here or U2B report back from "The Peoples Summit" after the second sunburnt day of the gulf coast's people's summit, we here in new orleans are acting like we have months left before bush comes to town, when in fact he is here enjoying the city, comforted by air conditioning and motorcades. we are already witnessing the effects of his Security & Prosperity Partnership: with the mississippi river bridge's on and off ramps blocked, I-10 was made into an express highway, directing flows of traffic and people, conveniently out of his way, inconveniencing everyone else from having access to the city.
The canal street ferry, shuttling internally displaced traffic across the mississippi river, was circled through the day by coast guard boats fully armed and ready to fire mounted machine guns, in full show of force and what bush intends to mean by 'security,' we on the docks agreed was menacing and intimidating. the imminent, historic, and nation-altering meeting about to take place between the leaders of the "free world'' is being met with little, hardly any, noticeable resistance. Due at least in part to the crippled condition of new orleans, where 3 years after the hurricanes people continue to face daily struggles to survive, with no surplus resources, time, or active community members to lend to what would likely be, in any other city in the hemisphere, an equally historic People's protest to the executive meeting.
Civilian resistance and protest to massive free trade agreements seems to be planned for more by bush than by the american public or the "progressive left", and so new orleans is the perfect backdrop for the announcement of the spp: sweeping decisions adversely affecting millions of people are met with a strangled cry, gone unheard by the rest of the nation.
"Understanding who profits and how: NAFTA + and Katrina Profiteering" was a misnomer, a vague power-analysis turned roundcircle discussion, facilitated by the people's institute for survival and beyond. The session was attended by community organizers, international public service workers union representative, mexican trade unions, activists from chiapas, american and canadian youth, citizen journalists and media activists, farmer union representative, social workers, non-profit organizations, and new orleanians, served more as the critical race theory workshop that the Peoples Institute is known for, and not as any attempt for a coordinated approach or discussion on how to challenge bush, calderon and harper at this critical moment.
ironically, at this international summit, facilitators asked that we divide ourselves into national groups to notice similarities between new orleans and wherever we were visiting from, something that would have been manifold more useful to hear from each other, as it was a rare opportunity to hear voices from across the heavily guarded borders. discussion was derailed and became about how we are gate keepers, moving further and further away from any plan of action. the 6 hours were used as an introduction to social inequality, as if people signed up to take a class on the internalization of inferiority/superiority. in fact people came to act together in the face of big brother government.
for all of our talk on giving voices to disenfranchised people around the world, taking queues from these communities, learning from eachother, creating access to decision-making, none of the mexicans who traveled the long distance were asked what they thought should happen at this summit. there was no mention of their very successful strategies for organizing resistance to destructive neo-colonial economic policies. nobody asked "what can we do now that all of our presidents are in town?" instead was the same old, painfully ineffective naval-gazing
speaking with a gentleman from mexico after the looooong winded sessions were over, he asked what the break-out group of americans discussed, and i said they were just talking and not saying much, like americans do. and he laughed, agreeing said i should have been sitting with the mexican delegation because they were discussing that very point.
Going well beyond the Port of New Orleans, Security and Prosperity Partnership plans for "North American Integration" endanger port, trucking, and railroad jobs, as well as investments, incomes, and State revenues all over the country. The SPP is coming to the Big Easy, why should you care? Let's have a look...
Here's what you can expect.
Go to New Orleans and DO SOMETHING Monday, 4/21 9am – 12pm Community Tour of New Orleans & Story Circles in Congo Square 12 – 1:30pm Opening Ceremony & Lunch in Congo Square 2pm – 5pm Understanding Who Profits & How: NAFTA+ and Katrina Profiteering 6pm – 9pm Understanding Who Profits & How: NAFTA+ and Katrina Profiteering
