FBI knew of plot to kill OWS activists, remained silent. Wearing V For Vendetta Guy Fawkes Masks Declared Illegal In Dubai. The evolution of the V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes mask from a clever element in a comic book and film to a meme and a global symbol of online and offline resistance has been quite remarkable. A highlight of that trend was earlier this year when MPs in the Polish parliament donned the masks in protest against ACTA, spurred on by massive street demonstrations against the treaty that had recently been held across Poland. But if the mask has become a way of empowering and uniting protesters, aligning them with other movements around the world, it also becomes an obvious badge of dissent and rebellion, marking them out as a likely enemy of established power structures.
It was thus probably only a matter of time before simply wearing a Guy Fawkes mask became grounds enough for the police to move in, as here: Police officials in Dubai have warned against wearing a mask that symbolises opposition to state authority during any celebrations connected to National Day and declared it illegal. Pussy Riot continue their fight against Vladimir Putin with new e-book. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alekhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30 were jailed for “hooliganism inciting religious hatred" for performing their song in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in February, which asked the Virgin Mary to help remove Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia's prime minister, Dmitri Medvedev, has recently called for their release. The cover of the new e-book A statement from the Feminist Press, publisher of the e-book, read: "As their trial unfolded, these young women became global feminist icons, garnering the attention and support of activists and artists around the world, including Madonna, Paul McCartney, and Sting, as well as contributors to this book: Yoko Ono, Johanna Fateman, Karen Finley, Justin Vivian Bond, Eileen Myles, and JD Samson. "They were sentenced to two years in prison, and inspired a global movement. Collected here are the words that roused the world.
" Anti-Austerity Protests In Spain And Portugal. Occupy Wall Street One Year Anniversary. Matt Taibbi: Libor Rate-Fixing Scandal "Biggest Insider Trading You Could Ever Imagine" This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We end today’s show with Matt Taibbi.
He’s a contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine. His most recent in-depth piece is "The Scam Wall Street Learned from the Mafia: How America’s Biggest Banks Took Part in a Nationwide Bid-Rigging Conspiracy—Until They Were Caught on Tape. " Matt Taibbi has also been closely following the Libor scandal. Sixteen international banks are accused of rigging a key global interest rate used in contracts worth trillions of dollars.
AMY GOODMAN: Matt Taibbi is with us here in New York. Matt, welcome to Democracy Now! MATT TAIBBI: Good morning. AMY GOODMAN: Explain Libor. MATT TAIBBI: Libor is basically the rate at which banks borrow from each other. MATT TAIBBI: I mean, it’s—I can’t imagine how he could possibly—a sane person could possibly describe this as a victimless crime. MATT TAIBBI: Right. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: —that means you’re paying less. AMY GOODMAN: Matt, on Wednesday, U.S. Startups Head to the Hill to Talk SOPA, PIPA, and STARTUP Act 2.0. Mogwai 'Earth Division' For 'Occupy This Album' (AUDIO) Thankfully, the Occupy Wall Street movement has moved past the drum circles as their main music genre and into a constructed, produced mix of everything. On May 15, a four-disc, 99-song compilation, Occupy This Album, will be released via the organization Music for Occupy.
Yesterday, a five-track teaser was uploaded, including "Earth Divison" a six-minute instrumental track by Mongwai. Mogwai's track, "Earth Division," is a meandering rock epic with a sound that goes right along with the epic movement Occupy Wall Street has become. The song is pretty characteristic of Mogwai's post-rock sound -- droning guitars and heavy bass drum slowly build into the massive climax at the end. The album's producer Jason Samuel gave a hat tip to Matt Pless, a singer-songwriter and protestor in Zucotti Park, who served as inspiration for the album. A portion of the proceeds from Occupy this Album, released on Razor & Tie, will go to the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Listen to Mogwai's "Earth Division": Organizing For Occupation | Foreclosure Auctions. Brooklyn Supreme Court More than 100 Occupy Wall Street-affiliated protesters invaded a courtroom inside the Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday afternoon in an effort to disrupt foreclosure auctions, the Brooklyn Paper reported. Police arrested a total of 37 people, who received summonses for disorderly conduct. As previously reported, this is not the first time such a demonstration has happened. The reason for their gathering centered on their belief that foreclosures are unfair to homeowners. “We are calling for a moratorium on all foreclosures until some accountable and equitable process is developed,” said Walter Hergt, a protest planner with Organizing for Occupation, to the Brooklyn Paper. “The fact is that the banks were bailed out — we find that to be unacceptable.”
Though the arrests did in fact prevent some auctions from proceeding, the paper reported that many auctions did go through, but the number was not specified. Media grows bored of Occupy. As evidenced by the lack of stories about the May Day general strike last week, the mainstream media’s interest in Occupy Wall Street has waned. It’s a shame because, as a new report indicates, Occupy has been central to driving media stories about income inequality in America. Late last week, Radio Dispatch’s John Knefel compiled a report for media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), which illustrates Occupy’s success: Media focus on the movement in the past half year, according to the report, has been almost directly proportional to the attention paid to income inequality and corporate greed by mainstream outlets.
During peak media coverage of the movement last October, mentions of the term “income inequality” increased “fourfold.” Meanwhile: As mentions of “Occupy Wall Street” or “Occupy movement” waned in early 2012, so too have mentions of “income inequality” and, to an even greater extent, “corporate greed.” The Legal Intelligencer Blog: Twitter Contests Subpoena in Occupy Wall Street Case.
By Gina F. RubelSpecial to the Legal Twitter has taken center stage in a battle royale over releasing tweets from an Occupy Wall Street protester last fall according to an article on USAToday.com. Earlier this week, the social media giant based in San Francisco, Calif., filed a motion requesting that a judge quash a subpoena sent from the Manhattan district attorney to produce old tweets, now deleted, that were written by the managing editor of The New Inquiry online magazine, Malcolm Harris.
Harris, an Occupy Wall Street protester, writer and so-called “prankster,” was arrested along with 700 others on the Brooklyn Bridge on Oct. 1, 2011. The prosecution wants to examine Harris’s tweets from the months and weeks leading up to the protest in order to see if Harris was “aware that police had ordered demonstrators not to march across the bridge.” Twitter stepped in after Harris tried to block the subpoena on his own.
Gina F. Standing Up to The Richest Man on Earth - Dustin Slaughter. Why is an international coalition of activists and business interests taking on a respected university - and one of the most powerful men in the world? A protester outside George Washington University. Photo: Dustin Slaughter An honorable degree? “I am concerned that George Washington University – an American icon – is sending the wrong message to Mexicans wanting to come to this country to work hard and build a life,” Jeffrey Brewer, an Occupy D.C. Protester, says to me. “What are George Washington University's values? About 30 protesters (a mix of Occupy participants as well as members of a coalition called Two Countries, One Voice) are outside GW University posing this question to the institution on May 11th, 2012, while a handful meet with administrators inside.
Their questions and anger are valid, considering that this esteemed institution wants to honor a tycoon accused of overcharging poor and working class Mexicans to the tune of $6 billion per year in cell and landline fees. Occupy UNC holds 'alternative' commencement - Local/State. CHAPEL HILL — While Michael Bloomberg was speaking to tens of thousands of graduates and parents Sunday, a smaller celebration held by members of Occupy UNC-Chapel Hill sought to provide a different graduation experience – one they said was more real and less pretentious.
About 100 graduates, professors, parents and children turned out for the “Alternative Commencement” at Forest Theatre. Speakers shared their experiences with Occupy Wall Street and as life-long activists, and sought to provide courage to the graduates to live alternative lives. Charles Eisenstein, a teacher of health arts and sciences at Goddard College and author of “Sacred Economics,” criticized Bloomberg and other corporate and political leaders. “Their version of success that is held up as normal is one that says life is a struggle of everybody against everybody else, and you have to sacrifice what makes your heart sing,” Eisenstein said. “But everything is changing. ... Occupy comes to Long Island - Long Island Political Buzz. The Occupy Movement, which sprung up last year, has returned with renewed force and restored vigor. The questions regarding the movement’s future that came with the winter slow-down of the protests have been answered; the movement is spreading.
The Occupy protesters who began the movement because of the highly unequal distribution of wealth in the United States, corporate welfare and austerity measures hurting the social safety net, have spread out from Wall Street to Long Island. The Occupy Long Island movement has scheduled weekly Occupy events. Every Wednesday in May and June 2012, with the plan of eventually scheduling them “Forever” there will be “War free Wednesday” events where protesters are urged to, “Occupy your Local Train Station during the morning rush hour to educate commuters around the concept of a War Free World and the imminent threat of a war with Iran.” The Occupy Long Island Movement is a smaller offshoot from the Occupy Wall Street movement. 2 Occupy protesters ticketed in Lansing. Occupy Wallstreet and Police Human Torture. JPMorgan Chase loss draws crowd outside annual shareholders meeting in Tampa.
Alberto | Activity. Tom Morello, Outernational, others lead the charge (and sing-alongs) on Chicago’s NATO weekend | Axis of Justice. From Chicago Sun-Times: Throughout the fall of 2011, we heard the questions: “What do the Occupy Wall Street protestors want?” “What are their goals?” “Who speaks for them?” By year’s end, there was another question: “Where’s their music?” The two inquiries are inextricably related. “I had a funny conversation the other day … about the need for new chants,” says Marguerite Horberg, executive director of portoluz, which produces socially conscious art events in Chicago. There are new protest songs out there, some powerful and potent; they’re just not yet as pervasive as baby boomer cultural imperialism has conditioned us to expect from a modern social movement. This weekend, though, some of the best of those new voices will be gathered in Chicago, occupying several events (official and otherwise) to sing their dissent in the shadow of the ballyhooed NATO summit.
OUTERNATIONALwith Graham Czach, Los Vicios de Papa and the Employees • 9 p.m. Hey, Woody Guthrie Outernational relations. My Thoughts on the 99% Spring. Editors note: This was originally published here. Chicago, IL – I came to the event about 15 minutes late and I was worried I had missed the beginning. Luckily they didn’t begin until about 30 minutes after the announced time. The crowd was much older than I expected, mostly folks over 40, and I would have been the youngest person there aside from the other Occupy Chicago organizer that was in attendance. From what I could tell the other attendants were union reps, seasoned crusty activists who had stayed away from Occupy Chicago and a large contingent of Stand Up! We opened with a few hours of educational pieces, lectures from the instructors and a few short movies giving a rundown on the financial crash and the history of Occupy. After a few hours of lectures and videos and some meet-and-greet activities, we had an exercise that you might find in a High School sociology class, though with some twists.
After that we had lunch (Vegan chili!) -Mike Ehrenreich-