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THERE was no shortage of commentators forecasting the imminent demise of whistleblower website WikiLeaks following Monday's announcement by founder Julian Assange that the organisation was halting its flow of leaked documents to concentrate on fund-raising. The urgent funding drive - caused by the banking embargo that has cut off 95 per cent of WikiLeaks funding - combined with publicity surrounding Assange's legal difficulties (including sexual molestation questions he faces in Sweden, as well as US efforts to pursue WikiLeaks for espionage), have overshadowed another, quiet but far-reaching, development. Throughout the turmoil of the past 18 months, one constant has been the exponential growth of WikiLeaks' global support base. Followers of the website's Twitter account have increased nearly tenfold to 1.2 million.
Building on WikiLeaks
Julian Assange shows up at Occupy London wearing an Anonymous mask
Saturday saw over 1,000 cities worldwide swept by Occupy Protests, as the movement has gone global, and London was certainly no exception. London’s financial district attracted over 3,000 protesters, among them none other than Julian Assange, taking part in Occupy London Stock Exchange, or OccupyLSX. Your Anon News posted images of Julian Assange arriving at the protest sporting an Anonymous mask, along with images without, proving that it was in fact the Wikileaks founder. The photographs, snapped by photographer Mike Kemp , tell part of the story of how Assange’s appearance at Occupy London was met. Assange stated that a police officer forced him to remove the mask, and as a consequence, in a seemingly impromptu speech to one group of protesters, Assange spoke about anonymity, saying: Under a new section used, people cannot wear masks in London, they cannot wear facial coverings in London, and that basic anonymity is denied to people.
Alan Moore – meet the man behind the protest mask | Books | The Observer
The comic-book writer Alan Moore is not usually surprised when his creations find a life for themselves away from the printed page. Strips he penned in the 1980s and 90s have been fed through the Hollywood patty-maker, never to his great satisfaction, resulting in both critical hits and terrible flops ; fads for T-shirts, badges and shouted slogans have emerged from characters and conceits he has dreamed up for titles such as Watchmen and From Hell . "I suppose I've gotten used to the fact," says the 58-year-old, "that some of my fictions percolate out into the material world." But Moore has been caught off-guard in recent years, and particularly in 2011, by the inescapable presence of a certain mask being worn at protests around the world. A sallow, smirking likeness of Guy Fawkes – created by Moore and the artist David Lloyd for their 1982 series V for Vendetta .
Saturday's global rally in over 600 towns and cities worldwide was a momentous event. A month ago, the Occupy Wall Street movement managed to pierce the veil of the matrix. The puncture has now become an unsealable rip in the fabric of Empire.
Global Revolution Underway
In his Times column this morning, David Carr wonders about the future of the Occupy Wall Street movement and, specifically, its fate as an ongoing topic of mass-media conversation. “Occupy Wall Street left many all revved up with no place to go,” he writes. Which is a problem, traditional-press-coverage wise, because: “In addition to the 5 W’s — who, what, when, where and why — the media are obsessed with a sixth: what’s next? Occupy Wall Street, for all its appeal as a story, is very hard to roll forward.” That could be true (though “very hard,” of course, is quite different from “impossible”). And it could also be true that the features that may give Occupy, potentially, enduring power as a movement — its malleability, its permissiveness, its ability to act as an interface as well as an event — might also be the forces that, day to day, challenge its ability to convene attention.
Image as interest: How the Pepper Spray Cop could change the trajectory of Occupy Wall Street
Arianna Huffington: Pepper-Spraying Occupy: An Assault on Our Democracy
This weekend, while listening to an NPR story about police using tear gas and rubber bullets to break up a demonstration, I was actually surprised when it turned out the newscaster was talking about Tahrir Square -- I had assumed it was about another brutal response to a peaceful protest here at home. All across the country -- most recently on the campus of UC Davis -- a war is being waged. This isn't a battle over parks and tents and sleeping bags. Though many of our leaders don't seem to realize it, this is a battle about their credibility -- even their legitimacy -- about how they represent us, about whom their real allegiance is to. Their misguided response to the Occupy protests has actually proved the point of the protesters more than any sign or chant could. Sure, you can clear the protesters out from this or that park in the middle of the night, or send in riot-geared police to clear a campus sidewalk, but that doesn't mean you've won.
Occupying History | Becoming Mr. Babypants
I was new to twitter when sometime in April 2011 I got a mention from @usdayofrage. I was so excited someone was reading my tweets, that I followed them immediately. Having lost my job and in the midst of losing my home, I had more than a little rage going on myself.
Occupy Wall Street Moved Out Of Zuccotti A Long Time Ago
Today was perhaps the most emotional day in the two-month-old Occupy Wall Street movement. Coming shortly after dramatic park clearings in cities such as Oakland (for the second time) and Portland, the epicenter of the movement, Zuccotti Park in Manhattan, was trashed, hosed, and disinfected starting about 1 a.m. Tuesday.Zuccotti Park Eviction: NYPD Orders Occupy Wall Street Protesters To Temporarily Evacuate Park [LATEST UPDATES]
Via HuffPost Miami: When an Occupy Miami member offered evicted protestors vacant apartments in a building he owns in Downtown Miami's Overtown neighborhood, it seemed like the perfect solution: the 'Peace City' space would provide headquarters for the movement and shelter a small faction of the group's most vulnerable members. But it hasn't gone well. Other tenants say the building has become a cesspool of drug use and violence while non-resident Occupy Miami members are trying to distance themselves from the 'radicals' -- all while the two factions are wrestling for control over Occupy Miami's social media sites and future plans.
Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez Arrested, Injured at Occupy Wall Street Raid | PolitickerNY
By Hunter Walker 11/15/11 4:07am Share this: Crowd at barricade on Broadway and Pine New York City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez has been arrested at the NYPD raid on Occupy Wall Street.
Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman joined The New York Times in 1999 as a columnist on the Op-Ed Page and continues as professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University. Mr. Krugman received his B.A. from Yale University in 1974 and his Ph.D. from MIT in 1977. He has taught at Yale, MIT and Stanford. At MIT he became the Ford International Professor of Economics. Mr.Last week, we published a chart-essay that illustrates the extreme inequality that has developed in the US economy over the past 30 years. The charts explain what the Wall Street protesters are angry about. They also explain why the protesters' message is resonating with the country at large. Here are the four key points: 1. Unemployment is at the highest level since the Great Depression (with the exception of a brief blip in the early 1980s).
Here Are The Four Charts That Explain What The Protesters Are Angry About...
Occupy Sydney protesters hold firm, vow to stay
Sorry, but this video is not currently available. Video Suggestions: NewsUnion leaders say they feel vindicated by the Occupy Wall Street protests and are doing all they can to keep the movement going. Years before the rallies began, union leaders frequently blamed the banking giants for the country’s economic woes. Labor officials have criticized CEOs’ large compensation packages; pushed for a financial transactions tax; and called for Wall Street bailout funds to be used for small business loans. Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), told The Hill that she found the protesters to be an “incredible inspiration” that have highlighted issues like pay inequality and social injustice. “We have been talking about the increasing inequality in this county for a long time.