Protest Like an Egyptian: An Occupation of Wall Street | MetroFocus. On Oct. 1, Occupy Wall Street protesters marched onto the Brooklyn Bridge. The protesters, along with several of the country's largest worker's unions, are planning an even larger march on Oct. 5. AP/Stephanie Keith. On Oct. 1, the two-week anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street protest, 700 protesters and one New York Times reporter were arrested in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge. Many other protesters marched over the pedestrian pathway and were not arrested. “Those who took over the Brooklyn-bound roadway, and impeded vehicle traffic, were arrested,” said Paul Browne, chief spokesperson for the NYPD.
While some videos show NYPD officials warning those marching over the roadway they would be arrested, the police have come under criticism for making no apparent effort to stop the protesters from taking the bridge. Over the weekend, it was widely reported that JP Morgan recently made a $4.6 million donation to the NYPD — the largest donation in the department’s history. Felix Salmon misses the point on #Occupy and the global elite. Felix Salmon is a respected and interesting Reuters blogger, and in a recent post entitled American Plutocracy he makes some good points which are exactly in line with what I write about in Treasure Islands. I hope he won’t mind my pasting quite a lot of his blog: Michael Lewis puts his finger on something important:“Ordinary Greeks seldom harass their rich, for the simple reason that they have no idea where to find them.
To a member of the Greek Lower 99 a Greek Upper One is as good as invisible.He pays no taxes, lives no place and bears no relationship to his fellow citizens. As the public expects nothing of him, he always meets, and sometimes even exceeds, their expectations. As a result, the chief concern of the ordinary Greek about the rich Greek is that he will cease to pay the occasional visit. “They are becoming a transglobal community of peers who have more in common with one another than with their countrymen back home.
Indeed. Adbusters: MicahWhite Revolution in America. David Graeber. “The funny thing is,” my Egyptian friend told me, “you’ve been doing this so long, you kind of forget that you can win. All these years, we’ve been organizing marches, rallies … And if only 45 people show up, you’re depressed. If you get 300, you’re happy. Then one day, you get 500,000. And you’re incredulous: on some level, you’d given up thinking that could even happen.” Mubarak’s Egypt was one of the most repressive societies on Earth – the entire apparatus of state was effectively organized around ensuring that what ended up happening could never happen. So why not here? To be honest, most activists I know do go around feeling much like my Egyptian friend used to feel – we organize much of our lives around the possibility of something that we’re not sure we believe could ever really happen.
Will they? Military regimes like Egypt live on fear. There is only one known way to do that, and that is for people to experience it. Death by Advertising. "Let me tell you the story of a man killed by advertising. " So begins Émile Zola's satirical Death by Advertising, a short fiction story published in 1866 that describes the swift decline of Pierre Landry, a naïve believer in all claims of advertisers. What is remarkable about this story is not just that Zola had developed a compelling – and widely read – critique of advertising a hundred and forty years ago, but that within his imagined world we glimpse the beginnings of the mental environment movement.
Pierre Landry is a caricature whose purpose is to show both the absurdity and the dangerous consequences of incessant advertising. He was brought up reading and admiring newspaper and billboard advertising and taught to believe the claims made by advertisers without question. Pierre's purpose in life is to take full advantage of the proclaimed "Golden Age" of industrial progress. To do so, he decides he ought to follow the prescriptions of corporations entirely. A Master Class in Occupation - Chris Hedges' Columns.
A Master Class in Occupation Posted on Oct 31, 2011 By Chris Hedges NEW YORK CITY—Jon Friesen, 27, tall and lanky with a long, dirty-blond ponytail, a purple scarf and an old green fleece, is sitting on concrete at the edge of Zuccotti Park leading a coordination meeting, a gathering that takes place every morning with representatives of each of Occupy Wall Street’s roughly 40 working groups. “Our conversation is about what it means to be a movement and what it means to be an organization,” he says to the circle. I find him afterward on a low stone wall surrounding a flowerbed in the park. “It was a television event when I was 17,” he says of the 2001 attacks. Once he reached New York City he connected with local street people to find “assets.” In those first few days, he says, “it was the radicals and the self-identifying anarchists” who set up the encampment.
The Occupy movements that have swept across the country fuse the elements vital for revolt. Next item: Let Herman Be Gone. Aaron Peeters: The movement that needs no name. Keith Kahn-Harris recently wrote about the genesis of a movement that is currently underway and represents no less than a “...spectre ...haunting the early 21st century world”. Kahn-Harris observes that this movement possesses the ability to radically transform the world as we know it, and yet he notes, it does not yet recognize itself as a movement. The 'Movement' and the Twilight of Neo-Liberalism: I agree with many of the basic propostions put forward in Naming the Movement, most notably the fact that we are seeing increased discontent in the OECD (read 'Western') countries with a world where social relations and civic institutions are entirely subordinate to profit and economic returns, “...the movement is born out of a sense of frustration (explicit or implicit by turn) with the tendency of the contemporary world to fragment communities, to make education into a purely instrumental exercise, to accord everything a measurable price.
Tecno Brega: part of the movement? Slavoj Zizek: 'Now the field is open' - Talk to Al Jazeera. From the Middle East to the streets of London and cities across the US there is a discontent with the status quo. Whether it is with the iron grip of entrenched governments or the widening economic divide between the rich and those struggling to get by.
But where are those so hungry for change heading? How profound is their long-term vision to transform society? Slovenian-born philosopher Slavoj Zizek, whose critical examination of both capitalism and socialism has made him an internationally recognised intellectual, speaks to Al Jazeera's Tom Ackerman about the momentous changes taking place in the global financial and political system. In his distinct and colourful manner, he analyses the Arab Spring, the eurozone crisis, the "Occupy Wall Street" movement and the rise of China.
Slavoj Zizek's latest book is Living in the End Times (Verso). Naomi Klein: The Most Important Thing in the World. Why Occupy Wall Street? We’ve Got The Lowdown. Photo: (Gusto NYC, Mr. GIF, Spleen Latifa) By now, you’ve no doubt heard a lot of Occupy Wall Street buzz. Maybe you’ve even gotten word that an Occupy Together protest is coming to a downtown near you. With poster board in one hand and a Sharpie in the other, you’re ready to get your march on and support the movement’s mission, which is … erm … well … what exactly? We have the lowdown. But first, let us address an important piece of information. If you have a day job or live outside of NYC, you can show your support by feeding activists an Occu-Pie ( Even protesters need their pizza!) So we know what these guys like for lunch but why are they there? Then you’ve got your grim reaper protesters (“Death to corporate greed”) and your lady-in-a-monster-costume activists (“I am here because of the Monsters on Wall St”).
It’s a mixed bag out there. So why, you ask? Take action Buy an Occu-Pie ... or make a general donation. Occupy Together Is there an event planned near you? Stiglitz: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the1% (may2011) It’s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent. Their lot in life has improved considerably. Twenty-five years ago, the corresponding figures were 12 percent and 33 percent. Economists long ago tried to justify the vast inequalities that seemed so troubling in the mid-19th century—inequalities that are but a pale shadow of what we are seeing in America today. Some people look at income inequality and shrug their shoulders. First, growing inequality is the flip side of something else: shrinking opportunity.
Third, and perhaps most important, a modern economy requires “collective action”—it needs government to invest in infrastructure, education, and technology. Economists are not sure how to fully explain the growing inequality in America. Joseph Stiglitz talks Occupy Wall Street [NBC 10-03-2011] Chris Hedges & Amy Goodman. Bloomberg Says He Seeks Balance Between Right to Protest and 'Right to Be Silent' Marine veteran rant against NYPD brutality - times square. Marine vs. 30 Cops (Marine Wins) 'Occupy Wall Street' CNN interview with Michael Moore DBickford 360-773-1318.
Citizen Radio Watches Occupy Wall Street Grow | News Video. Occupy Wall Street Really 'Becoming A Force' On Monday, Kanye West and Russell Simmons stopped by to show support for the Occupy Wall Street protesters. But they weren't the first hip-hop celebs to lend their time to the cause. Last week, Talib Kweli also made a surprise appearance, which included a performance of his new song "Distractions. " Can't get to New York City? Take our guided tour of the Occupy Wall Street headquarters. Citizen Radio Watches Occupy Wall Street Grow And it was two of the forces behind the podcast "Citizen Radio" who were responsible for bringing Kweli to New York's Zuccotti Park, where the activists have set up camp for nearly a month.
"I know a lot of these kids are bored," Kilstein told us. The duo have done more than just entertain the young protesters, however. Talib Kweli Speaks On 'Occupy Wall Street' Citizen Radio has been interviewing and broadcasting directly from the Occupy site in downtown Manhattan, talking to a broad spectrum of supporters, from nurses, teachers and electricians. Occupy Wall Street: A Guided Tour. NEW YORK — Although the unseasonably warm weather has been favorable to Occupy Wall Street protesters who have set up shop in Zuccotti Park, the logistics and potential problems of living in a public space are not lost on the occupiers.
Early concerns about basic needs and safety for the demonstrators quickly spawned a democratic system to provide resources for those on the ground who need them. A Tour Of Occupy Wall Street Colin Harris-Mctigue, a volunteer organizer and coordinator of the outreach program for Occupy Wall Street, has been frequenting the park (now deemed "Liberty Park" by protesters) since the movement's first day, on September 17. "There was a loose conglomeration of people, and no one really had any idea of what was going on," Harris-Mctigue explained of the early days on the ground. The infrastructure established by the protesters is a reflection of their ideals: They are demonstrating effective community living and sharing. NYPD Dangerously Uses Horses to Control Crowd at Occupy Wall Street in Times Square (Video) Salman Rushdie: Excellent, thought provoki... OWS 'We Will Not be Co-opted' TheAlyonaShow.
#OCCUPYWALLSTREET WINS! Bloomberg backs down, protestors stay in park. Mashable: *Occupy Wall Street Protesters and Police Clash. Occupy Wall Street, the social media-spawned movement that has gone viral across the U.S., turned violent Friday morning after the New York City mayor's office announced cleanup of Zuccotti Park would begin at 7 a.m. Protesters have held their ground in lower Manhattan since Sept. 17, and though this morning's arrests are not the first, many across the web say the movement is heating up. Word of the cleanup came Thursday afternoon, when Zuccotti Park owner Brookfield Properties stated they would spend Friday cleaning the location, which had become unsanitary.
Following protester outrage that the cleanup would ultimately lead to eviction, Brookfield agreed to delay the park's cleanup until a mutual agreement could be reached. The empowered protesters, confidences boosted for postponing the cleanup, rallied behind the cry, "The people will never be defeated," as they headed toward the stock exchange. Nation Waiting For Protesters To Clearly Articulate Demands Before Ignoring Them. NEW YORK—As the Occupy Wall Street protest expands and grows into a nationwide movement, Americans are eagerly awaiting a list of demands from the group so they can then systematically disregard them and continue going about their business, polls showed this week.
"The protesters need to unify around a shared agenda with precise policy goals so I can begin paying no attention to them whatsoever," said Tulsa, OK poll respondent Kaye Petrachonis, echoing the thoughts of millions across the country. "If they don’t have a clear power structure organized around specific demands first, then I'll never be able to completely tune them out due to a political conflict of interest or an inability to comprehend complex, detailed economic concepts. These people really need to get their act together. " A Movement Too Big to Fail - Chris Hedges' Columns. A Movement Too Big to Fail Posted on Oct 16, 2011 By Chris Hedges There is no danger that the protesters who have occupied squares, parks and plazas across the nation in defiance of the corporate state will be co-opted by the Democratic Party or groups like MoveOn.
The faux liberal reformers, whose abject failure to stand up for the rights of the poor and the working class, have signed on to this movement because they fear becoming irrelevant. Resistance, real resistance, to the corporate state was displayed when a couple of thousand protesters, clutching mops and brooms, early Friday morning forced the owners of Zuccotti Park and the New York City police to back down from a proposed attempt to expel them in order to “clean” the premises. Tinkering with the corporate state will not work. The Occupy Wall Street movement, like all radical movements, has obliterated the narrow political parameters. King was killed in 1968 when he was in Memphis to support a strike by sanitation workers.
Occupy Wall Street NYPD runs over a protester with motorcycle. Occupy Wall Street to a global intifada? On Wednesday, October 5, I joined thousands of others and marched down lower Manhattan to 'occupy Wall Street'. Seeing thousands of people marching peacefully together under the banner of occupying struck me in profound and contradictory ways. The marches and occupation were orderly and disciplined. There was neither a mob mentality, nor a sense of anarchy, nor any violence. No one crushed anyone else, in fact people apologised if they so much as tread over each other's toes. No one smashed windows of the countless Starbucks coffee shops, coporation buildings or banks on the route. Everyone obeyed the flow determined by the New York Police Department (NYPD): Walking on sidewalks behind barricades, congregating in open spaces of parks, and for the most part not standing on streetlights, signs or scaffolding to get a bird's eye view. An impromptu performance evoking an outdoor techno-rave gathered a swaying, clapping crowd.
What kind of occupation? Defining occupation Civil disobedience. 'Occupy': A catalyst for change? - Inside Story. Students storm Goldman Sachs building in Milan. M. Hardt A. Negri The Fight for 'Real Democracy ' at the Heart of Occupy Wall Street. The Fight for 'Real Democracy' at the Heart of Occupy Wall Street. Goldman Sachs to Employees: Avoid Occupy Wall Street - US Business Blog. 10-14 A brief history of the 15th of October: where it comes from, what it means and the future of the global uprising. Social media and the Wall Street protests: #Occupytheweb. The 'Last Place Aversion' Paradox. Occupy Wall Street's Greatest Strength Is Neutering It - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics.
Djripley On Occupy Wall Street. Occupy-beweging groeit als een inktvlek. Occupy Wall Street Protests Rock New York City. Mass Arrest Resembles Infamous, Costly Police Tactic, Critics Say. The call to occupy Wall Street resonates around the world | Micah White and Kalle Lasn. Proposal For A New Constitutional Amendment: A Separation of Corporation and State. #occupywallstreet vs Avaaz « halfiranian.com. 10-11 Žižek at Wall Street: “don’t fall in love with yourself” #occupywallstreet #ows. Bartlebyâs Occupation of Wall Street. Occupy Protests’ Seismic Effect. Global protests: Occupy the London Stock Exchange takes over the City. Instant succes. Wall Street Crash | Groupthink. The Fantastic Success of Occupy Wall Street | Immanuel Wallerstein. 'Occupy Wall Street' CNN interview with Michael Moore DBickford 360-773-1318. Micah Sifry: OWS is here to stay. Occupy Your Heart, Then Occupy Wall Street. Hans Achterhuis: Ik kom in opstand, dus wij zijn.
@RobWijnberg fantomeconomy too big to fail, democratie not important enoughto save. VK: Steeds meer Amerikanen steunen Occupy Wall Street. NRC: Democratie en kapitalisme gaan scheiden. Ontferm je over kind Occupy. TheEconomist: OWS~Leaderless, consensus-based participatory democracy and its discontents. Occupy weet het (nog) niet | rutgerlemm.com. Het Grote Media Debat. Globalizing Dissent, From Tahrir Square to Liberty Plaza. Occupy Wall Street and the deradicalized Rawls | The Moral Sciences Club. Thirty Years of Unleashed Greed. People power versus the global economy - Inside Story. Winter is Coming for Occupy Wall Street…But Are They Ready? Occupy first. Demands come later | Slavoj Žižek. MEDIAS #OWS. The Audacity of Occupy Wall Street. Finding Freedom in Handcuffs - Chris Hedges' Columns.
George Monbiot: The 1% are the very best destroyers of wealth the world has ever seen | George Monbiot. David Harvey: The Party of Wall Street Meets its Nemesis. Governing the Occupy Movement through Crime. The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy | Naomi Wolf. Anne Applebaum: Occupy protests undermine democracy. Occupy has succeeded in reframing the debate where Labour has failed. Cenk predicts 2012 will 'be the year of the revolution' - The Young Turks with Cenk Uygur. The Rush to Archive Occupy. Occupation 101: NYU to Offer Two ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Classes. Columbia Uni Offering Course In Occupy Wall Street, With Field Work. Occupy the Classroom: NYU to Offer Classes on Occupy Protests. Why Now? What's Next? Naomi Klein and Yotam Marom in Conversation About Occupy Wall Street. A Eulogy for #Occupy | Wired Opinion.
Game or be gamed: Douglas Rushkoff on prototyping democracy through play. Kalle Lasn – Meme Wars: The Creative Destruction Of Neoclassical Economics. "The Revolution Will Be Hashtagged": The Visual Culture of the Occupy Movement. On Wall Street, a Protest Matures. NYT Biz Writer Checks Out Occupy Wall Street–Based on CEO's Worries. Waarom Occupy wél een succes was - Vonk. Don’t Shoot the Messenger - Nieuw W!J.