Occupy Wall Street: what is to be done next? | Slavoj Žižek. What to do in the aftermath of the Occupy Wall Street movement, when the protests that started far away – in the Middle East, Greece, Spain, UK – reached the centre, and are now reinforced and rolling out all around the world? In a San Francisco echo of the OWS movement on 16 October 2011, a guy addressed the crowd with an invitation to participate in it as if it were a happening in the hippy style of the 1960s: "They are asking us what is our program.
We have no program. We are here to have a good time. " Such statements display one of the great dangers the protesters are facing: the danger that they will fall in love with themselves, with the nice time they are having in the "occupied" places. In a kind of Hegelian triad, the western left has come full circle: after abandoning the so-called "class struggle essentialism" for the plurality of anti-racist, feminist etc struggles, "capitalism" is now clearly re-emerging as the name of the problem. And is this not our situation till now? American professors attend Occupy Wall Street Conference in Tehran. Occupy Wall Street protest, sleep-out at New York Stock Exchange.
Eric Thayer / Reuters A man walks past demonstrators with Occupy Wall Street sleeping on Wall Street near the New York Stock Exchange on April 17. A demonstrator with the Occupy Wall Street movement sweeps near the steps of Federal Hall, across the street from the New York Stock Exchange on April 17. Andrew Burton / Reuters An Occupy Wall Street protester is arrested in front of Federal Hall, across the street from the New York Stock Exchange, in New York. Yesterday, police forced protesters, who had previously been sleeping on the corner of Wall Street and Nassau Street, to move. An Occupy Wall Street protester stands in a paddy wagon in front of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on April 16. Lucas Jackson / Reuters A member of the Occupy movement plays his guitar while resting on the steps of Federal Hall near the New York Stock Exchange on April 16.
The Occupied Times of London. Why There Cannot be Stakeholders in Occupy. Email Share 29 Email Share Modern politics, as well as development discourse, have grown increasingly fond of the word ‘stakeholders’ in recent years. This, I will argue, is a tactic that serves to divorce people and consequence, as it singles out small groups who are the only considered victims in a situation – and hence makes the larger Society Inc., or Nature Inc., into bodies that have neither stakes nor responsibilities for what happens to this particular group. Consider the following scenario in Dnalgne. Dnalgne is not a country, but a name I have invented for the purposes of this piece. The third group is a bigger problem, which presents two choices: to relocate them, or to leave them be.
The deal is signed. They make some progress. The notion of ‘stakeholder’, then, transforms wider concerns and human beings into entities and groups that can be ‘managed’: controlled, shifted, sold or disposed of. So where is the link with Occupy? Occupy, however, has operated differently. Police arrest six at east London Olympics facility protest camp | UK news. Six people have been arrested in east London as police and bailiffs broke up a protest camp backed by the Occupy movement which opposed the construction of a temporary Olympic facility on a green space. Local people, supported by some of those formerly based at the main Occupy camp next to St Paul's Cathedral, which was broken up six weeks ago, spent a fortnight camping on Leyton Marsh in an attempt to block the building of a basketball practice centre, which would be used for Olympic athletes preparing for matches which will take place at another venue inside the Olympic park in nearby Stratford.
With construction of the training facility held up, the owners of the land, Lee Valley Regional Authority, were granted a possession order in the high court last week. Activists did not mount a defence, saying they feared being held responsible for costs if they were named as individual defendants. Scotland Yard said six people had been arrested for alleged public order offences. Spring Awakening: Occupy London prepares for second wave. Occupy London announces an Open Day on Tuesday 10 April as gets ready for Occupy May. Occupy London Stock Exchange was just the beginning.
Calls you to help make May the beginning of a summer the one per cent will not forget. Occupy London is set to strike back this May as people around the world take to the streets to mark one year since the indignados reclaimed their squares in Spain and Greece, and six months since the Occupy movement went global. The next wave is about to begin. It’s been four years since the financial crisis hit. In the UK, the millionaires’ budget confirmed that the coalition seeks to reward those at the top of society, at the expense of our health service, education and pensions.
The world’s eyes are on London this year with the Jubilee, the Olympics … but we all know that the pageantry and the spectacle can’t hide what’s really happening in the UK as politicians collude with the financial elite. Occupy London is building for its second wave. Occupy London bailiff charged with assault | UK news. A bailiff has been charged with assaulting two people and damaging a photographer's camera during the eviction of an Occupy London site earlier this year.
Keith Beams, from Croydon, is due to appear at Thames magistrates court on 13 April charged with two counts of common assault and one count of criminal damage, a Metropolitan police spokesperson said. The enforcement officer was arrested on 30 January shortly after bailiffs and police moved to evict the Occupy movement's educational hub, the so-called Bank of Ideas, from a disused office in the City of London. About 50 activists were evicted peacefully, but protesters claimed tensions had risen during a subsequent eviction when police and bailiffs moved to clear a squat unrelated to Occupy but located in the same UBS-owned office complex. One of the people who Beams, 45, is alleged to have assaulted was a photographer, Jules Mattsson, whose camera was allegedly damaged. US protesters mark tax day with protest at Ann Romney's birthday party | World news. A team of make-believe baseball players descended on Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday afternoon, using tax day to highlight corporate unaccountability as Ann Romney, wife of Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney, celebrated her birthday at an exclusive party inside.
The so-called Tax Dodgers wore white uniforms, not unlike their LA-based counterparts in the MLB, with "1%" emblazoned on the back of their jerseys, a nod to the nation's highest earners. The satirical sports stars were supported in their efforts by the Loopholes, a team of red-dressed cheerleaders, and their mascot Mitt, a giant walking baseball mitt. A man in a fedora carrying a bag of fake money and a cigar appeared to be the team's manager and described the Dodgers as "the best team corporate money can buy". The demonstration was part of a nationwide day of action coordinated by a coalition of activist organizations working with an umbrella group, 99% Spring, which aimed to pull off 350 protests in 43 states.
Occupy Wall Street: 'It has to go further to really make a difference' | World news. The Guardian spoke to a number of Occupy participants and observers about the movement's trajectory and significance over the last six months. Excerpts from interviews with five of those interviews are included here. Sandy Nurse, José Martín and Malik Rhasaan are longtime Occupy Wall Street participants. Nurse and Martín can often be found at Occupy actions throughout New York City.
Rhasaan is the founder of Occupy the Hood, an affiliated group that works to connect the movement with the needs and concerns of low-income communities and communities of color. Nathan Schneider is an editor for the blog Waging Nonviolence. Lisa Fithian is a seasoned civil disobedience and nonviolence trainer. These responses belong to just a few of the many people that Occupy has affected over the last year.
Six months on, what are you most proud of? We've really managed to lay the foundations for what I see to be a massive, popular social movement in the coming spring and summer months. Occupy promises upsurge as activists prepare for 'summer of discontent' | World news. Zuccotti Park was busy last week. Basking in bright sunshine, construction workers from the nearby Ground Zero building site ate sandwiches on its benches, tourists snapped photos and people in suits strode through on the way to Wall Street.
But the only sign that the small downtown Manhattan square had last year been the centre of a global protest movement that electrified American politics were a trio of police officers who stood watch over the milling lunchtime crowds. But Occupy Wall Street, whose occupation of Zuccotti inspired hundreds of other Occupy groups across the US, is determined to revive itself after a winter of reduced activities and the often violent police removal of its protest encampments in city centres across America. Activists and organisers have vowed to carry out a massive upsurge in activities on a broad range of issues in a bid to revitalise a movement whose "We are the 99%" slogan triggered a national debate on income inequality.
Activists agree.