How To Sustain and Expand the Occupy Wall Street Movement

http://www.thenation.com/article/165117/ten-things-you-can-do-sustain-occupy-movement

All,

Excellent and important advice for grassroots organizers and regular citizens alike. Useful and necessary...

Kofi


Ten Things You Can Do to Sustain the Occupy Movement
The Nation
Editorial
December 13, 2011

[Conceived by Walter Moseley and co-edited by Rae Gomes]

Alice Walker has noted that one of the failures in our collective memory of the 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham is that we have forgotten the names and activist leanings of the four girls—Carole, Denise, Addie Mae and Cynthia—who are often merely reported to be four black girls who died in the bombings. In fact, the burgeoning activists were preparing to give a presentation about civil rights at the church’s annual Youth Day program. Rosa Parks, before she refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, had just finished a course on nonviolent action [1]. To neglect the activist background and intention of these women is to believe falsely that historic moments like the civil rights movement “just happen.” In fact, years of organizing and strategizing bring about their birth. Travis Holloway [2], a poet, political philosopher and activist at Occupy Wall Street, believes this movement has the potential to go beyond mere words and slogans (though, he writes in a recent piece [3], these help), and like the civil rights movement, to effect real change. Along with suggestions from a wide range of activists, here are “Ten Things” to keep the Occupy movement going and build a foundation for long-term change.

1. We are the 99 percent. A movement of the 99 percent must be inclusive in its makeup and its goals. “The issues of the bottom of the 99 percent have to move to the top of the agenda [4],” writes Elias Holtz. Be sure that the movement involves those of all backgrounds, sexual orientations, religious and cultural affiliations and work towards representing the movement through women and people of color. Engage community leaders and ask them what are the most pressing issues they’re facing and fight alongside them. Read organizer Paulina Gonzalez’s experience at Occupy LA [5].

2. Whose streets? Our streets! Crackdowns on encampments means the movement shifts from holding a space to major public events, actions on the street, and horizontal, online organizing forums. Join a working group [6] according to your interest and stay updated on major days of action [7].

3. Imagine all the people. Rallies aren’t the only form of protest. Be creative and don’t forget to surprise. If your opponent is counting on noisy drum circles or big signs, try a silent march or vigil (like the students at UC Davis [8]) or looking like your opponent by walking the streets in business suits [9]. For ideas and inspiration, read Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action [10]. Some ideas include boycotts, mock awards, mock elections, mock funerals, prayer and worship (as a symbolic public act), silence, teach-ins, refusal of public support, etc. Get more creative action ideas from the YesLab [11].

4. This is what democracy looks like. The value of top-down organization is no longer self-evident—not only in government, given the lack of trust in political representatives [12], but also in our everyday jobs and institutions. Consider adopting a horizontal decision-making structure. Here are the principles of workplace democracy [13] and some people who practice it. [14]

5. Occupy the future. Set major, future events now to define the agenda and the permanence of the movement, then use the winter to network in order to better mobilize in the spring. Community organizations, churches and labor have real connections with the community and add support and energy to existing movements. Go to OrganizingUpgrade [15]for ideas on how to build and maintain connections. And don’t let Facebook leave out your grandma.

6. Occupy your life. Everyone has an opportunity to act out the ideals and goals of the Occupiers in his/her everyday life. We may not be able to leave jobs that are inconsistent with our values, but reflecting on our own feelings and opinions can make us stronger and influence others. Check out Occupy Yourself [16]for the holiday season and beyond. Read this article [17]and watch this video [18] to rethink your allegiance to popular brands.

7. Boycott the 1 percent. Take on a corporation or person that in their actions embody the worst of greed Whoarethe1percent [19]. If you are in a non-union workplace, consider the benefits of worker solidarity when confronting unfair wages or work conditions. Many union organizers are willing and prepared to help you form a union with your fellow workers [20].

8. Study. Winter is a time to learn more about economic inequality and real strategies for resistance. Schedule a teach-in [21] at an Occupy event or consider attending one (schedule of NYC teach-ins here [22]). Read “There Are Realistic Alternatives [10]” for a crash course on nonviolent resistance and browse the OWS Library [23].

9. Nonviolent resistance is five parts organizing, four parts media and one part action. One of the major challenges and successes of organizing is to get media to report on an event. Designate a media person whose sole goal is to pitch to reporters, build relationships, update them on actions, and report back to members. Just keep reiterating the main themes of the movement. You may feel like a broken record, but few things are more powerful than an idea whose time has come. Go to Pitching to news outlets [24] for more suggestions.

10. Occupy education. Occupy the DOE [25] was a great way the movement showed it could shift from the streets to strategic action by protesting the lack in the structures that instruct. Identify student loan corporations [26] and colleges with the most atrocious tuition hikes. If you are a public university student, connect and collaborate with other schools within your network to protest tuition hikes that most state schools are undergoing. Go to Occupy Student Debt Campaign [27] to learn more.

A Couple More Things:

11. Exit Strategy Always have one. Be imaginative enough to see possible outcomes of the movement and always have a plan for anything that arises.

12. Occupy “Other Things.” Think we missed out on a fundamental piece of advice or suggested action? Think we were utterly wrong about one of them? Send your suggestions, corrections and slams to nationtenthings@gmail.com [28].

Conceived by Walter Moseley and co-edited by Rae Gomes.



Links:

[1] http://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/index.php/what-is-icnc
[2] http://sbsuny.academia.edu/TravisHolloway/About
[3] http://www.guernicamag.com/blog/3307/travis_holloway_performing_art/
[4] http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/12/next-step-for-the-occupy-movement-uniting-labor-and-the-dispossessed/
[5] http://www.narconews.com/nntv/video.php?vid=43
[6] http://www.nycga.net/
[7] http://www.nycga.net/events/
[8] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8775ZmNGFY8&feature=player_embedded
[9] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Airlinepilotswallstreet.jpeg
[10] http://www.aeinstein.org/organizations/org/TARA.pdf
[11] http://www.yeslab.org/projects
[12] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/world/as-scorn-for-vote-grows-protests-surge-around-globe.html?pagewanted=all
[13] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_democracy
[14] http://workplacedemocracy.com/
[15] http://www.organizingupgrade.com/
[16] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dylan-ratigan/this-thanksgiving-occupy-_b_1110246.html
[17] http://www.alternet.org/rights/152043/10_faux_progressive_companies_..._with_some_dirty_secrets?page=entire
[18] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpAMbpQ8J7g
[19] http://whoarethe1percent.com/
[20] http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/how/
[21] http://www.nycga.net/groups/education-and-empowerment/contact/
[22] http://www.nycga.net/groups/education-and-empowerment/events/
[23] http://www.librarything.com/catalog/OWSLibrary
[24] http://occupywinning.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/pitching-news-outlets1.pdf
[25] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbmjMickJMA&feature=share
[26] http://www.alternet.org/story/153200/meet_5_big_lenders_profiting_from_the_ percent241_trillion_student_debt_bubble_ percent28hint percent3A_you_know_some_of_them_already percent29/
[27] http://www.occupystudentdebtcampaign.org/our-principles/
[28] mailto:nationtenthings@gmail.com

Mike Davis On the Importance of Grassroots Organizing and Mature Radical Activism in the Occupy Wall Street Movement

Occupy Wall Street, October 10. (Photo: DoctorTongs [4])

http://www.truth-out.org/ten-immodest-commandments-lessons-fumbling-and-bungling-lifetime-activism/1321797658

All,

Mike Davis, the legendary longtime radical leftist organizer and prolific author from Los Angeles ("City of Quartz", "Planet of Slums", "In Praise of Barbarians". "Ecology of Fear", "Prisoners of the American Dream", "Magical Urbanism" etc.) offers some very interesting and useful organizational suggestions about the theoretical and practical direction of the Occupy Movement...

Kofi


Ten Immodest Commandments: Lessons From a Fumbling-and-Bungling Lifetime of Activism Thursday 17 November 2011 by Mike Davis,
The Rag Blog | Op-Ed

A friend in Canada recently asked me if the Sixties’ protests had any important lessons to pass on to the Occupy movement.

I told her that one of the few clear memories that I retain from 45 years ago was a fervent vow never to age into an old fart with lessons to pass on.

But she persisted and the question ultimately aroused my own curiosity. What, indeed, have I learned from my fumbling-and-bungling lifetime of activism?

Well, unequivocally I am a pro at coaxing 1,000 copies of a flyer from a delicate mimeograph stencil before it disintegrates. (I’ve promised my kids to take them to the Smithsonian someday to see one of these infernal devices that powered the civil rights and anti-war movements.)

Other than that, I mainly recall injunctions from older or more experienced comrades that I’ve put to memory as a personal Ten Commandments (like you might find in a diet book or inspirational tract). For what it's worth:

First, the categorical imperative is to organize or rather to facilitate other peoples’ self-organization. Catalyst is good, but organization is better.

Second, leadership must be temporary and subject to recall. The job of a good organizer, as it was often said in the civil rights movement, is to organize herself out of a job, not to become indispensable.

Third, protesters must subvert the media’s constant tendency toward metonymy -- the designation of the whole by a part, the group by an individual. (Consider how bizarre it is, for instance, that we have "Martin Luther King Day" rather than "Civil Rights Movement Day.") Spokespeople should regularly be rotated and when necessary, shot.

Fourth, the same warning applies to the relationship between a movement and individuals who participate as an organized bloc. I very much believe in the necessity of an organic revolutionary left, but groups can only claim authenticity if they give priority to building the struggle and keep no secret agenda from other participants.

Fifth, as we learned the hard way in the 1960s, consensual democracy is not identical to participatory democracy. For affinity groups and communes, consensus decision-making may work admirably, but for any large or long-term protest, some form of representative democracy is essential to allow the broadest and most equal participation. The devil, as always, is in the details: ensuring that any delegate can be recalled, formalizing rights of political minorities, guaranteeing affirmative representation, and so on.

I know it’s heretical to say so but good anarchists, who believe in grassroots self-government and concerted action, will find much of value in Roberts’ Rules of Order (simply a useful technology for organized discussion and decision-making).

Sixth, an "organizing strategy" is not only a plan for enlarging participation in protest but also a concept for aligning protest with the constituencies that bear the brunt of exploitation and oppression.

For example, one of the most brilliant strategic moves of the Black liberation movement in the late 1960s was to take the struggle inside the auto plants in Detroit to form the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. -- (Editor's note: great example!)

Today, "Occupying the Hood" is a similar challenge and opportunity. And the troops occupying the plutocrats’ front yard need to respond unequivocally to the human-rights crisis in working-class immigrant communities.

The immigrant rights protests five years ago were amongst the largest mass demonstrations in U.S. history. Perhaps next May Day we will see a convergence of all movements against inequality on a single day of action.

Seventh, building movements that are genuinely inclusive of unemployed and poor people requires infrastructures to provide for basic survival needs like food, shelter, and healthcare. To enable lives of struggle we must create sharing collectives and redistribute our own resources toward young frontline fighters.

Similarly we must renew the apparatus of movement-committed legal professionals (like the National Lawyers Guild) that played such a vital role in sustaining protest in face of mass repression in the 1960s.

Eighth, the future of the Occupy movement will be determined less by the numbers in Liberty Park (although its survival is a sine qua non of the future) than by the boots on the ground in Dayton, Cheyenne, Omaha, and El Paso. The geographical spread of the protests in many cases equals a diversifying involvement of people of color and trade unionists.

The advent of social media, of course, has created unprecedented opportunities for horizontal dialogue among non-elite activists all over the country and the world. But the Occupy Main Streets still need more support from the better resourced and mediagenic groups in the major urban and academic centers. A self-financed national speakers and performers bureau would be invaluable.

Conversely, it is essential to bring the stories from the heartlands and borders to national audiences. The narrative of protest needs to become a mural of what ordinary people are fighting for across the country, e.g., stopping strip-mining in West Virginia; reopening hospitals in Laredo; supporting dockworkers in Longview, Washington; fighting a fascist sheriffs’ department in Tucson; protesting death squads in Tijuana; or global warming in Saskatoon; and so on.

Ninth, the increasing participation of unions in Occupy protests -- including the dramatic mobilization that forced the NYPD to temporarily back down from its attempt to evict OWC -- is mutually transformative and raises the hope that the uprising can become a genuine class struggle.

Yet at the same time, we should remember that union leaderships, in their majority, remain hopelessly committed to a disastrous marriage with the Democratic Party, as well as to unprincipled inter-union wars that have squandered much of the promise of a new beginning for labor.

Anti-capitalist protesters thus need to more effectively hook up with rank-and-file opposition groups and progressive caucuses within the unions.

Tenth, one of the simplest but most abiding lessons from dissident generations past is the need to speak in the vernacular. The moral urgency of change acquires its greatest grandeur when expressed in a shared language.

Indeed the greatest radical voices -- Tom Paine, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas, Gene Debs, Upton Sinclair, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Mario Savio -- have always known how to appeal to Americans in the powerful, familiar words of their major traditions of conscience.

One extraordinary example was Sinclair’s nearly successful campaign for Governor of California in 1934. His manifesto, "End Poverty in California Now," was essentially the program of the Socialist Party translated in New Testament parables. It won millions of supporters.

Today, as the Occupy movements debate whether or not they need more concrete political definition, we need to understand what demands have the broadest appeal while remaining radical in an anti-systemic sense.

Some young activists might put their Bakunin, Lenin, or Slavoj Zizek temporarily aside and dust off a copy of FDR’s 1944 campaign platform: an Economic Bill of Rights.

It was a clarion call to social citizenship and a declaration of inalienable rights to employment, housing, healthcare, and a happy life -- about as far away from the timid concessionary Please-Just-Kill-Half-the-Jews politics of the Obama administration as might be envisioned.

The fourth-term platform (whatever opportunistic motivations existed in the White House) used the language of Jefferson to advance the core demands of the CIO and the social-democratic wing of the New Deal.

It was not the maximum program of the Left (i.e., democratic social ownership of the banks and large corporations), but certainly the most advanced progressive position ever espoused by a major political party or U.S. president.

Today, of course, an Economic Bill of Rights is both an utterly utopian idea and a simple definition of what most Americans existentially need.

But the new movements, like the old, must at all cost occupy the terrain of fundamental needs, not of short-term political "realism."

In doing so, why not accept the gift of FDR’s endorsement.

Links:

[1]http://www.truth-out.org/print/9355
[2] http://www.truth-out.org/printmail/9355
[3] http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/mike-davis-ten-immodest-commandments.html
[4]http://www.flickr.com/photos/drtongs/6234281777/
[5] https://members.truth-out.org/donate
[6] http://www.truth-out.org/printmail
[7]http://www.truth-out.org/mike-davis/1311686759
[8] http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6694/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=2160
[9] http://www.truth-out.org/?q=sixties-berkeley-london-riots-word-our-sponsors/1314046009
[10] http://www.truth-out.org/?q=framing-sixties-exposes-scapegoating-era/1303023600

November 17, 2011: Mass Day of Action Marks Two Month Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street!

http://occupywallst.org/

All,

Like I said before: They think (rather they futilely hope) that they have "deterred" or "crippled" the movement. They have done no such thing! For further details on just how truly strong, organized, and determined the Occupy movement's massive public response to this state violence and disruption is please check out the very important details below. "One monkey don't stop no show" is I believe the traditional vernacular used in such a situation as this. It should thus be further noted that not even a million monkeys could possibly halt or shut us down... PASS THE WORD...

WE ARE THE 99%!!

Kofi


OccupyWallStreet The revolution continues worldwide!
News LiveStream #HowToOccupy Forum Chat User Map NYCGA About Donate Thursday November 17th Day of Action

Shut Down Wall Street! Occupy the Subways! Take the Square!

#OWS calls for nonviolent solidarity on November 17th
Posted 3 hours ago on Nov. 16, 2011, 7:14 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

occupynyc on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

full details here

81 Comments



Mass Day of Action on 2-Month Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street
Posted 7 hours ago on Nov. 16, 2011, 3:27 p.m. EST by

OccupyWallSt






Tomorrow, Thursday November 17th, marks two months since the start of Occupy Wall Street as well as International Students Day. To commemorate this two month anniversary, Occupy Wall Street will take to the streets in celebration and in solidarity with people around the world participating in a massive global day of action in hundreds of cities.

In the wake of Bloomberg’s predawn raid of Occupy Wall Street on Tuesday morning, thousands of people throughout the five boroughs and the greater region will join together to take nonviolent action tomorrow. We will gather to resist austerity, rebuild the economy, and reclaim our democracy. We will no longer tolerate a system that only serves the very rich and powerful. Right now Wall Street owns Washington. We are the 99% and we are here to reclaim our democracy.

Schedule for New York #N17 Actions below. Read More...

80 Comments


From Those Inside Of Central Booking
Posted 5 hours ago on Nov. 16, 2011, 5:24 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

While we've been imprisoned here we've held Assemblies and Mic Checked corrections officers to attend to urgent medical conditions, some of which were the result of police brutality during the raids. There is no food except for bread, no cleanliness, no hygene, no waters, no showers. There are non-occupiers who are suffering here as well.

We do not know what we have been charged with.

We want freedom!

This message was consensed upon by a group of occupiers imprisoned by Billionare Michael Bloomberg and his private army, and relayed to members of the Legal Working Group of #ows.

180 Comments

#N17 Global Day Of Action!
Posted 6 hours ago on Nov. 16, 2011, 4:40 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

Sixty days into the struggle #OccupyWallStreet was violently evicted by the NYPD, who leveled our homes at Liberty Square to the ground. Our movement, however, is stronger than it has ever been. In these sixty days we have brought about a massive awakening, perhaps the largest one in the country since the Civil Rights Movement fifty years ago, and certainly the first global one in modern history. People around the world, from Spain to Australia, from Chile to the U.S. have opened their eyes together to the decadence and injustice of the common system that exploits us. This is what we mean when we say with the deepest significance: you cannot stop an idea whose time has come. Read More...

132 Comments

Mass Day of Action on 2-Month Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street
Posted 7 hours ago on Nov. 16, 2011, 3:27 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt






Tomorrow, Thursday November 17th, marks two months since the start of Occupy Wall Street as well as International Students Day. To commemorate this two month anniversary, Occupy Wall Street will take to the streets in celebration and in solidarity with people around the world participating in a massive global day of action in hundreds of cities.

In the wake of Bloomberg’s predawn raid of Occupy Wall Street on Tuesday morning, thousands of people throughout the five boroughs and the greater region will join together to take nonviolent action tomorrow. We will gather to resist austerity, rebuild the economy, and reclaim our democracy. We will no longer tolerate a system that only serves the very rich and powerful. Right now Wall Street owns Washington. We are the 99% and we are here to reclaim our democracy.

Schedule for New York #N17 Actions below. Read More...

80 Comments

#OWS holds Action Council and Spokes Council Tonight!
Posted 7 hours ago on Nov. 16, 2011, 3:19 p.m. EST by carbonogram

There are two councils happening tonight: Read More...

6 Comments

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg's New York
Posted 7 hours ago on Nov. 16, 2011, 3 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt





32 Comments

100 March on NYPD 1st Precinct to Demand Dignity;
Women in Custody Being Harassed, Police Protocols In Question
Posted 21 hours ago on Nov. 16, 2011, 12:54 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

Message from Protestors to NYPD: If you SEE something, a fellow officer violating protocol, SAY something

Over 100 people, mostly women, marched from Liberty Square to NYPD’s 1st Precinct HQ at 11pm Tuesday night to demand that all women in custody be treated with respect and dignity by the police. The march was organized after our sisters in custody made various complaints of male officers patrolling the women’s cells, unannounced. We were told that male members of the NYPD were specifically making unannounced patrols by the women’s cells, and by the shared women’s toilet (in plain view of all women and officers)--which is a common tactic used to humiliate those in custody.

In the spirit of the Occupy movement, the crowd of 100 gathered in a show of solidarity to demand that the NYPD issue a formal statement that this will be addressed and that there be no more instances of this humiliating tactic being used. There were no arrests at tonight’s solidarity march.

Some chants from the crowd: “All day, all night, occupy women’s rights!” and “Courtesy, professionalism and respect” and “If you see something, say something!”

All those in solidarity are encouraged to call the complaint line and demand Police Commissioner Ray Kelly put an end to this violent behavior. NYPD Internal Affairs: 212.487.7350 or directly NYPD 1st Precinct: 212.334.0611

Linnea Palmer, Occupy Wall Street Press Team, is available for any follow up questions on this particular action. Press@occupywallst.org

176 Comments

This Is What Democracy Looks Like: Huge General Assembly in Progress at Liberty Square
Posted 1 day ago on Nov. 15, 2011, 8:40 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement Persevere

The feeling here at Liberty Square tonight is the feeling of a movement that is rising, building, and making headway.

Following the 1am eviction of Liberty Square early this morning and a long day of legal wrangling, the park was reoccupied late this afternoon. This evening, just after 7pm, the first General Assembly at the reoccupied park began. Using our 'people's mic', we declared together:

"They showed us their power. And we're showing them ours."

We are here because we believe a better world is possible. We are willing to endure mistreatment, if by doing so we can help re-enfranchise the 99% and reclaim our democracy from the stranglehold of Wall Street and the top one percent.

We will push back against billionaire Michael Bloomberg and any politician who wantonly tramples on proud American freedoms: freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the freedom of Americans to peaceably assemble and petition for change.

We will overcome the obstacles placed before us. We will not be deterred. We will persevere. Our message is resonating across America, and our cause is shared by millions around the world. We are the 99%, and we want to live in a world that is for all of us — not just for those who have amassed great wealth and power.

You cannot evict an idea whose time has come.

384 Comments

NYPD Occupying Liberty Square; Demands Unclear
Posted Nov. 15, 2011, 6:51 p.m. EST (1 day ago) by OccupyWallSt



URGENT: EVERYONE TO LIBERTY SQUARE! NOW! WE ARE RE-OCCUPYING!
Posted Nov. 15, 2011, 5:59 p.m. EST (1 day ago) by OccupyWallSt



Judge REJECTS Temporary Restraining Order to Allow Liberty Square Reoccupation
Posted 1 day ago on Nov. 15, 2011, 4:56 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

from the ruling:

The movants have not demonstrated that they have a First Amendment right to remain in Zuccotti Park, along with their tents, structures, generators, and other installations to the exclusion of the owner's reasonable rights and duties to maintain Zuccotti Park, or to the rights to public access of others who might wish to use the space safely. Neither have the applicants shown a right to a temporary restraining order that would restrict the City's enforcement of law so as to promote public health and safety.

Therefore, petitioners application for a temporary restraining order is denied.

click here for full text of ruling

288 Comments

Help Occupy Wall Street, Liberty Square, From New York and Afar
Posted 1 day ago on Nov. 15, 2011, 4:02 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt







Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park), home of Occupy Wall Street for the past two months and birthplace of the 99% movement that has spread across the country, was evicted by a large police force in full riot gear. NOW is the time to help. If you feel as deeply about the Occupy movement as we do, show your support by taking real steps today! We are counting on people all over the country to come out and support us to keep this movement going!

Come to GENERAL ASSEMBLY tonight at 7pm in Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park):

They can kick us out, but they can’t stop us from reassembling. Let’s show them that truth by showing up at Liberty Square with the biggest General Assembly yet! Come to GA tonight at 7pm!

Help the Occupiers Get their stuff back:

Supposedly, all the stuff that was taken by the police from the square will be available for people to pick up at noon EST today. WE NEED PEOPLE TO GO TO MIDTOWN MANHATTAN AND HELP THE OCCUPIERS GET THEIR STUFF BACK TODAY! If you can help gather the stuff, especially if you have a van or can rent a U-Haul for the effort, please call or text 617-406-8299

Support the Occupiers by giving them a place to stay:

Live in New York City? Want to support the Liberty Square arrestees? We are looking for safe spaces where folk who have been arrested can go after they are released to rest, tend their wounds, take a shower, have a meal, etc. If you can offer your house, call Hannah at 802.359.3628. Tell us how many people you can have over, for how long, where you live, and a return number. Thanks!

Medical Needs Supplies:

The medics lost all of their supplies last night along with everyone else. We urgently need all basic medical supplies. Things such as gauze, bandages, bandaids, vitamin C, heat packs, cold packs, gloves, asprin, AND ANY OTHER THINGS THAT YOU CAN THINK MAY BE NECESSARY FOR MEDICAL NEEDS!

Medics ALSO need new tent, headlamps, cots, battery-powered lanterns

Please bring supplies to S.I.S (OWS Shipping and Storage) at 52 Broadway, NYC.

Mailing Address:

118A Fulton St.
PO Box 205
New York, NY 10038

Call assistant Attorney General with the Civil Rights Division:

http://interoccupy.org/CivilRightscomplaint.pdf is a complaint submitted on behalf of the Occupy Movement to the Department of Justice in response to the increasing antagonism of police against peaceful protesters. It was formally submitted to the Department of Justice on 11/10/2011. It is addressed to a Mister Thomas Perez, the assistant Attorney General with the Civil Rights Division. Mr. Perez’s office number is (202) 514-4609. Let us call, tie up his lines, and demand that every citizen has a right to peaceably assemble without the threat of police violence.

Link To Potential Actions

Contact movementbuildingny@gmail.com for potential additions to this list.

63 Comments

OWS Awaits Ruling to Reoccupy
Posted Nov. 15, 2011, 3:49 p.m. EST (1 day ago) by OccupyWallSt



A Call to Occupy
Posted Nov. 15, 2011, 8:23 a.m. EST (1 day ago) by OccupyWallSt



9AM Post-Raid Rally and General Assembly
Posted Nov. 15, 2011, 6:57 a.m. EST (1 day ago) by OccupyWallSt



You can't evict an idea whose time has come.
Posted Nov. 15, 2011, 1:36 a.m. EST (1 day ago) by OccupyWallSt



NYPD IS RAIDING OCCUPY WALL STREET
Posted Nov. 15, 2011, 1:20 a.m. EST (1 day ago) by OccupyWallSt



Poster for N17 Mass Direct Action: Print and Post Freely!
Posted Nov. 14, 2011, 10:53 a.m. EST (2 days ago) by OccupyWallSt



Thousands Rally to Resist Occupy Portland Evictions
Posted Nov. 13, 2011, 2:04 p.m. EST (3 days ago) by OccupyWallSt



Occupy Denver Under Attack: Occupiers Take Streets Facing Tear Gas and Rubber Bullets
Posted Nov. 12, 2011, 7:41 p.m. EST (4 days ago) by OccupyWallSt



Direct Action Training
Posted 5 days ago on Nov. 11, 2011, 4:17 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

Action Preparation & Training for November 17th, November 30th and Beyond. Direct Action Trainings: build affinity team, train to do actions and civil disobediences, meet new allies and friends and have some fun with us.







Monday Nov. 14 and Tuesday Nov. 15 1:30-3:30 and 4:30-6:30. Meet at the Red Cube

Wednesday Nov. 16 5:30-7:30 UFT 52 Broadway 6th Floor

www.occupydaysofaction.com

107 Comments

11.11.11 Veterans Day Concert and Rally for the 99%. Foley Square 1pm.
Posted Nov. 10, 2011, 2:16 p.m. EST (6 days ago) by OccupyWallSt



A victory for the 99% in Ohio
Posted Nov. 9, 2011, 2:56 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Occupy Wall Street and Teamsters to Occupy Sotheby’s Tonight
Posted Nov. 9, 2011, 2:41 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Federal Reserve Global Phonecast
Posted Nov. 9, 2011, 2:19 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Join the "Occupy Your Block" Sidewalk Chalk Campaign
Posted Nov. 8, 2011, 10:22 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Urgent Help: Occupy Edmonton In Need Of Winter Equipment
Posted Nov. 8, 2011, 6:28 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Everyone has the Right to Occupy Space, Safely
Posted Nov. 8, 2011, 4:07 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Planting Change: Guerrilla Gardening and the Occupy Movement
Posted Nov. 8, 2011, 1:35 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Tonight: A Dialogue with Occupy El Bario & OWS
Posted Nov. 7, 2011, 9:02 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Occupy The Highway: The 99% March to Washington
Posted Nov. 7, 2011, 5:30 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Spokes Council Meeting Tonight
Posted Nov. 7, 2011, 5:14 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Dallas Calls for General Strike: Nov. 30th
Posted Nov. 7, 2011, 2:07 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



OWS Teams Up with the Street Vendor Project
Posted Nov. 7, 2011, 9:23 a.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



"End to End for 99%" — 11-mile Neighborhood March of the 99%
Posted Nov. 7, 2011, 9:17 a.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Too Small to Fail: Occupy Mosier
Posted Nov. 6, 2011, 5:27 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Guest Post from an Arrestee of the 99%
Posted 1 week ago on Nov. 6, 2011, 1:29 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

Nature itself is the beautiful expression of order and balance arising out of chaos. Time and time again, nature has demonstrated its ability to naturally grow this order and peace out of the random noise that makes its very basis. The myth of true order comes from human attempts to impose it where it does not naturally occur. While there may be order, its cause is incorrectly perceived.

By definition, imposed order is unstable. It must be forcibly maintained in order to continue to exist. People are as a whole intelligent enough to devise such structures but not intelligent enough to override our most fundamental sense of natural order. As a whole, our species' attempt to engineer its own order has been slowly successful. We created kingdoms, handing ourselves to a monarch. This is an extreme deviation from natural order, because there are in that case only a handful of people globally who matter. It leaves the commoner entirely outside the global order. Out of our natural human desire to move towards natural order, we devised a new structure of governments commonly known as republics. These were closer to something which we could naturally live at ease with. The commoner, despite not having a direct say in the larger global order was in some way involved, or at least believed this to be so. More recently, through the rapid development of communications technologies which allow any one commoner's voice to find itself suddenly amplified and repeated around the world in moments we have grown into an entirely new method of global order. As trivial as much of the social networking conversation is, through social networking borders have fallen, lines have blurred, and a kind of collective consciousness representing its participants equally has arisen from it. However, we find ourselves in a unique situation. The people have moved on from the easily corruptible pseudo-free societies of the past, yet the forces enforcing those societies have attempted to simply ignore this transition. Through force, violence, and illegitimate law which passed without the consent of the commoner, they have attempted to extinguish the phoenix, the collective society which has arisen from the ashes of the republics.

Government by definition creates order, whether natural or imposed. A government exists within the borders of some defined region, and exists to represent the people of that region. Therefore, by definition the only possible government is that which exists by the consent of those who represent the people. A government which is operating without that consent is no longer a valid government. It is a criminal enterprise which exists to serve only itself. It in this case has moved from an entity which serves and fears the people to an entity which is served by and is feared by the people. For the people to accept such a criminal takeover of their land is a violation of their core drives, it is a violation of the natural progression from imposed global order towards natural order on a global scale. In the case where a criminal takeover has occurred, it is not only the natural right, but the obligation of that region's people to raise themselves in great numbers against that criminal enterprise which seeks to exploit them. Fundamental human dignity demands it unambiguously. It is unfortunate, but an unavoidable conclusion that yesterday's republics have on a grand scale violated their purpose and made the transition from representatives of the people towards criminal slave enterprise which holds the people in bondage, extracting value and joy from them, forever unhappy with their current holdings. The organs and systems which we the people devised not long ago to serve and represent us have been hijacked by a select few individuals, making the commoner irrelevant despite numerous legal guarantees and protections against this. The methods used in these criminal takeovers vary and are too numerous to list in the context of this document, but they are well documented by many members of the newly arisen collective consciousness.

There are many and varied voices which have erupted from captivity which suggest methods by which we the people can reclaim our rightful place as our own rulers and each other's subject at once. In order to reclaim our human dignity and make progress towards natural order, a collective state where the people live in harmony with one another in naturally organized chaos, it is useful to examine the birth of the republics which today have become something grotesque and unrecognizable. Attempt after attempt was made to force monarchs to dictate the will of their subjects, but these attempts were made in ignorance of the fact that the very nature and structure of the kingdoms was not compatible with what the people desired. Facing a global order which could not advance any farther and had reached the end of its useful lifespan, individuals began to realize the increasingly undeniable fact that an entirely new order had to be devised to replace the old kingdoms. We have reached a similar point today. Society's process of collective consciousness and consensus has advanced beyond the point that the republics can follow. In response to this, a select few have hijacked the republics in order to bring them backwards while the people march forwards. As difficult as it is to accept, the time has indeed come to tearfully say goodbye to the republics. They are artifacts of a beautiful age, yet in their age have become irrelevant to the progress of society, and in fact have become a snarling, grotesque weight which fights progress at every turn.

The form of the global order's replacement is not mine to decide. It is not yours, it is not your neighbor's. The global order's form is for the globe to decide collectively. For this reason, my identity will not be disclosed. I will present no idea for the future's form other than the fact that society has advanced beyond the point where the republics can exist in their current form. Go forth, and reclaim your dignity. If you fear the republics, imagine this. You are no longer represented in the republics. Therefore, their laws, their edicts, their decrees have no legitimate authority over you. They are just as illegitimate as if I attempted to dictate the terms of your life from behind my keyboard. They have become little more than bullies with guns, and if there is anything the Arab Spring has taught us, it is that guns are utterly useless against an idea.

Solidarity,
(this space intentionally left blank)
(Ed.: We'd also like to remind people who read this, especially if you're working with your local occupation, that you can submit content at content@occupywallst.org)

401 Comments

Sunday: Global Uprisings--Egypt, Tunisia, Iran & Activists @ OWS
Posted Nov. 6, 2011, 12:35 a.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



The 99% visit Governor Walker
Posted Nov. 4, 2011, 10:16 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Transforming Harm & Building Safety: Confronting Sexual Violence At Occupy Wall Street & Beyond
Posted Nov. 4, 2011, 7:22 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Occupy Wall Street: Improving Quality of Life for the 99%
Posted Nov. 4, 2011, 2:53 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Don't Be Big Banks' Puppet; No Immunity Deal for Crooks
Posted Nov. 4, 2011, 11:28 a.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Occupy Wall Street to Mayor Bloomberg: Get Your Facts Straight; Stop the Fear Mongering
Posted Nov. 4, 2011, 12:42 a.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Eviction Defense!
Posted Nov. 3, 2011, 7:25 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Stephen Colbert's Plot to Co-opt Occupy Wall Street Foiled by Ketchup and Justin
Posted Nov. 3, 2011, 12:55 p.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Liberty Square Adopts a Spokes Council
Posted Nov. 3, 2011, 10:21 a.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



The People vs. Goldman Sachs - Trial and March!
Posted Nov. 3, 2011, 12:08 a.m. EST (1 week ago) by OccupyWallSt



Rule of Law vs. the Forces of Order
Posted Nov. 2, 2011, 7:52 p.m. EST (2 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



General Strike Shuts Down Oakland. Watch Live!
Posted Nov. 2, 2011, 1:22 p.m. EST (2 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Call To Action - Join The Month Of Global Uprising
Posted Nov. 1, 2011, 7:28 p.m. EST (2 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



A New World
Posted Nov. 1, 2011, 5:30 p.m. EST (2 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Military Veterans Join the 99% on Wall Street
Posted Nov. 1, 2011, 2:27 p.m. EST (2 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Occupy Oakland Calls For City-Wide General Strike, Nov 2
Posted Oct. 30, 2011, 9 p.m. EST (2 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Urgent: Winter Donation Needs
Posted Oct. 29, 2011, 10:54 p.m. EST (2 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Enacting the Impossible (On Consensus Decision Making)
Posted 2 weeks ago on Oct. 29, 2011, 9:55 p.m. EST by David-Graeber






TO THE VILLAGE: With a large college and high school student contingent, occupiers from all over the city have repeatedly marched to Washington Square where at least two general assemblies have convened. PHOTO: Stephen O’Byrne

On August 2, 2011 at the very first meeting of what was to become Occupy Wall Street, about a dozen people sat in a circle in Bowling Green. The self-appointed “process committee” for a social movement we merely hoped would someday exist, contemplated a momentous decision. Our dream was to create a New York General Assembly: the model for democratic assemblies we hoped to see spring up across America. But how would those assemblies actually operate?

The anarchists in the circle made what seemed, at the time, an insanely ambitious proposal. Why not let them operate exactly like this committee: by consensus.

It was, in the least, a wild gamble, because as far as any of us knew, no one had ever managed to pull off something like this before. Consensus process had been successfully used in spokes-councils  —  groups of activists organized into separate affinity groups, each represented by a single “spoke” — but never in mass assemblies like the one anticipated in New York City. Even the General Assemblies in Greece and Spain had not attempted it. But consensus was the approach that most accorded with our principles. So we took the leap.

Three months later, hundreds of assemblies, big and small, now operate by consensus across America. Decisions are made democratically, without voting, by general assent. According to conventional wisdom this shouldn’t be possible, but it is happening  —  in much the same way that other inexplicable phenomena like love, revolution, or life itself (from the perspective of, say, particle physics) happen.

The direct democratic process adopted by Occupy Wall Street has deep roots in American radical history. It was widely employed in the civil rights movement and by the Students for a Democratic Society. But its current form has developed from within movements like feminism and even spiritual traditions (both Quaker and Native American) as much as from within anarchism itself. The reason direct, consensus-based democracy has been so firmly embraced by and identified with anarchism is because it embodies what is perhaps anarchism’s most fundamental principle: that in the same way human beings treated like children will tend to act like children, the way to encourage human beings to act like mature and responsible adults is to treat them as if they already are.

Consensus is not a unanimous voting system; a “block” is not a No vote, but a veto. Think of it as the intervention of a High Court that declares a proposal to be in violation of fundamental ethical principles — except in this case the judge’s robes belong to anyone with the courage to throw them on. That participants know they can instantly stop a deliberation dead in its tracks if they feel it a matter of principle, not only means they rarely do it. It also means that a compromise on minor points becomes easier; the process toward creative synthesis is really the essence of the thing. In the end, it matters less how a final decision is reached—by a call for blocks or a majority show hands—provided everyone was able to play a part in helping to shape and reshape it.

We may never be able to prove, through logic, that direct democracy, freedom and a society based on principles of human solidarity are possible. We can only demonstrate it through action. In parks and squares across America, people have begun to witness it as they have started to participate. Americans grow up being taught that freedom and democracy are our ultimate values, and that our love of freedom and democracy is what defines us as a people—even as, in subtle but constant ways, we’re taught that genuine freedom and democracy can never truly exist.

The moment we realize the fallacy of this teaching, we begin to ask: how many other “impossible” things might we pull off? And it is there, it is here, that we begin enacting the impossible.



This article was written by David Graeber for the Occupied Wall Street Journal.

351 Comments

#ows and #occupythehood March In Solidarity With Those Foreclosed On By Criminal Banks
Posted Oct. 28, 2011, 5:39 p.m. EST (2 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Occupy Wall St. And Allies Rally & March United for Civil Rights
Posted Oct. 27, 2011, 8:46 p.m. EST (2 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



#ows Takes The Streets In Solidarity With #occupyoakland
Posted Oct. 27, 2011, 2:53 p.m. EST (2 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Occupy The DOE
Posted Oct. 27, 2011, 12:53 p.m. EST (2 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Tonight: Vigils Across America for Scott Olsen, Marine Veteran Critically Injured by Police Projectile at #OccupyOakland
Posted Oct. 27, 2011, 12:13 p.m. EST (2 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Deliver Your Message To The 1%
Posted Oct. 27, 2011, 12:08 p.m. EST (2 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



We are all Scott Olsen: Occupy Oakland #OWS
Posted Oct. 26, 2011, 8:53 p.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



#ows Response To Government Violence At #occupyoakland | Solidarity March At 9PM From Liberty Square
Posted Oct. 26, 2011, 3:47 p.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Solidarity with Oakland | Exposing Police Lies
Posted Oct. 26, 2011, 3:14 p.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Occupy Wall Street Takes On Health Insurance Industry
Posted Oct. 26, 2011, 1:28 p.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



The 1% have Addresses. The 99% have Messages.
Posted 3 weeks ago on Oct. 25, 2011, 6:43 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt




Solidarity Statement From Cairo
Posted Oct. 25, 2011, 2:39 p.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Protect Occupy Baltimore
Posted Oct. 25, 2011, 2:10 p.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Occupied Wall Street Journal's New Site
Posted Oct. 25, 2011, 4:13 a.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Drumming and the Occupation
Posted Oct. 24, 2011, 6:57 p.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



"Where Do We Go From Here?"
Posted Oct. 23, 2011, 9:32 p.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Occupy Chicago Being Dispersed / Arrested By Police Presently
Posted Oct. 23, 2011, 2:31 a.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



STOP & FRISK HAS GOT TO GO! Solidarity with #occupyharlem.
Posted Oct. 22, 2011, 6:35 p.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Occupy Columbus Circle
Posted Oct. 21, 2011, 5:18 p.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Demands Working Group
Posted Oct. 21, 2011, 3:01 p.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



As We Gather Together
Posted Oct. 21, 2011, 12:55 p.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Occupy Wall Street Survey
Posted 3 weeks ago on Oct. 21, 2011, 9:48 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

Please take some time to fill out our survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VSN6VW9

65 Comments

Stop The Spectra Pipeline | Meet-Up at Liberty Square at 5 P.M. For Die-In at P.S. 41
Posted Oct. 20, 2011, 2:15 p.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Parents for Occupy Wall Street Family Sleepover
Posted Oct. 20, 2011, 12:13 p.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



America Supports #OWS
Posted 3 weeks ago on Oct. 20, 2011, 11:06 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

Supplies and Support Pour into Occupy Wall Street from Every Corner of the US

Occupiers Launch Tumblr Website Today: Gallery of Personal Notes of Support from Farmers, Veterans, Grandparents and "Knitters for Occupy Wall St"

http://occupywallstreetcarepackages.tumblr.com/

Liberty Square, NY — Today we want to spotlight the tens of thousands of people from across the United States and around the world who are supporting the Occupy Wall Street movement by contributing blankets, clothing, food, money, and other needed supplies. The support has truly been overwhelming.

Over one month ago, hundreds, and then thousands, gathered in Liberty Square to protest unprecedented consolidation of wealth and power, plummeting household income, skyrocketing school debt, and a broken political system. In the weeks since, hundreds of thousands have rallied and occupied in cities and towns around the world. And people from every corner of the United States have sent donations of tarps, home baked pies, hand-knit mittens, and pizzas — with personal notes of solidarity and support.

OWS has compiled notes from supporters on a Tumblr site called Occupy Wall St. Care Packages:

http://occupywallstreetcarepackages.tumblr.com/

This new site features only a tiny fraction of the thousands of packages and letters of support we have received. It includes messages like this one from Elora and Monte, supporters who live on a farm in West Virginia:

"We stand ready to help #OWS in any way we can, from out here 'Just Off the One-Lane Road...' And we are so grateful for all of you involved in this defense of America. We firmly believe this is "it." If we can't grab this democracy this time, we'll sink and it will be a long time before we will have this opportunity again. Thank you for taking time from your busy life to be there and to email us. Whatever we can do, we are pleased to be a part of this incredible Movement."

We know from history that social movements grow when they have a broad base of support. We are thankful that this movement has attained such a dramatic level of support in a short amount of time. We are hopeful that this people's movement will continue to grow.







88 Comments

10 a.m. All Hands on Deck for Square Reorganizing!
Posted Oct. 20, 2011, 12:31 a.m. EST (3 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



OWS Snapshot
Posted Oct. 19, 2011, 3:30 p.m. EST (4 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



70% of #OWS Supporters are Politically Independent
Posted Oct. 19, 2011, 2:11 p.m. EST (4 weeks ago) by OccupyWallSt



Occupy Wall Street Marks One Month
Posted Oct. 17, 2011, 8:20 a.m. EST (1 month ago) by OccupyWallSt



From Tahrir Square to Times Square: Protests Erupt in Over 1,500 Cities Worldwide
Posted Oct. 16, 2011, 1:08 a.m. EST (1 month ago) by OccupyWallSt



October 15th - Global Day Of Action
Posted Oct. 15, 2011, 6:12 p.m. EST (1 month ago) by OccupyWallSt



The 1% Have Addresses. The 99% Have Messages
Posted Oct. 15, 2011, 11:43 a.m. EST (1 month ago) by OccupyWallSt



October 15th Call to Action
Posted Oct. 14, 2011, 11:08 p.m. EST (1 month ago) by OccupyWallSt



#OWS VICTORY: The people have prevailed, gear up for global day of action
Posted Oct. 14, 2011, 8:51 a.m. EST (1 month ago) by OccupyWallSt



Parents bring Children to #ows tonight
Posted Oct. 14, 2011, 6:29 a.m. EST (1 month ago) by OccupyWallSt



EMERGENCY CALL TO ACTION: Keep Bloomberg and Kelly From Evicting #OWS
Posted 1 month ago on Oct. 13, 2011, 2:14 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

EMERGENCY #OWS EVICTION DEFENSE:
Prevent the forcible closure of Occupy Wall Street

Tell Bloomberg: Don't Foreclose the Occupation.

NEED MASS TURN-OUT, SHOW UP NO LATER THAN 6 A.M.

This is an emergency situation. Please take a minute to read this, and please take action and spread the word far and wide.

Occupy Wall Street is gaining momentum, with occupation actions now happening in cities across the world.

But last night Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD notified Occupy Wall Street participants about plans to “clean the park”—the site of the Wall Street protests—tomorrow starting at 7am. "Cleaning" was used as a pretext to shut down “Bloombergville” a few months back, and to shut down peaceful occupations elsewhere.

Bloomberg says that the park will be open for public usage following the cleaning, but with a notable caveat: Occupy Wall Street participants must follow the “rules”.

NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has said that they will move in to clear us and we will not be allowed to take sleeping bags, tarps, personal items or gear back into the park.

This is it—this is their attempt to shut down #OWS for good.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION

1) Call 311 (or +1 (212) NEW-YORK if you're out of town) and tell Bloomberg to support our right to assemble and to not interfere with #OWS.

2) Come to #OWS TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT to defend the occupation from eviction.

For those of you who plan to help us hold our ground—which we hope will be all of you—make sure you understand the possible consequences. Be prepared to not get much sleep. Be prepared for possible arrest. Make sure your items are together and ready to go (or already out of the park.) We are pursuing all possible strategies; this is a message of solidarity.

Click here to learn nonviolent tactics for holding ground.



Occupy Wall Street is committed to keeping the park clean and safe—we even have a Sanitation Working Group whose purpose this is. We are organizing major cleaning operations today and will do so regularly.

If Bloomberg truly cares about sanitation here he should support the installation of portopans and dumpsters. #OWS allies have been working to secure these things to support our efforts.

We know where the real dirt is: on Wall Street. Billionaire Bloomberg is beholden to bankers.

We won't allow Bloomberg and the NYPD to foreclose our occupation. This is an occupation, not a permitted picnic.

1257 Comments

How To Hold Your Ground
Posted Oct. 13, 2011, 2:12 p.m. EST (1 month ago) by OccupyWallSt



GOOD NEIGHBOR POLICY
Posted 1 month ago on Oct. 13, 2011, 2:10 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

Following respectful and good-faith dialogue with members of the local community which has been rebuilding since the trauma of 9/11, Occupy Wall Street hereby announces the following Good Neighbor Policy:

OWS has zero tolerance for drugs or alcohol anywhere in Liberty Plaza;

Zero tolerance for violence or verbal abuse towards anyone;

Zero tolerance for abuse of personal or public property.

OWS will limit drumming on the site to 2 hours per day, between the hours of 11am and 5pm only.

OWS encourages all participants to respect health and sanitary regulations, and will direct all participants to respectfully utilize appropriate off-site sanitary facilities.

OWS will display signage and have community relations and security monitors in Liberty Plaza, in order to ensure awareness of and respect for our guidelines and Good Neighbor Policy.

OWS will at all times have a community relations representative on-site, to monitor and respond to community concerns and complaints.

Occupy Wall Street October 13, 2011

Note: In conjunction with local community members and their representatives, OWS is also working to establish off-site sanitary facilities such as port-a-potties.

113 Comments

Mr. Auctioneer! New Yorkers Call for Moratorium on Foreclosures. Organizing for Occupation and Occupy Wall Street visit the courts!
Posted Oct. 13, 2011, 2:13 a.m. EST (1 month ago) by anonymous



October 15th Global Day Of Action
Posted Oct. 12, 2011, 3:57 p.m. EST (1 month ago) by OccupyWallSt



#OWS Stands In Solidarity With 100 Arrested At Occupy Boston
Posted Oct. 11, 2011, 11:52 a.m. EST (1 month ago) by OccupyWallSt



Sign Language
Posted Oct. 9, 2011, 10:38 p.m. EST (1 month ago) by OccupyWallSt



Today Liberty Plaza had a visit from Slavoj Zizek
Posted Oct. 9, 2011, 6:04 p.m. EST (1 month ago) by OccupyWallSt



#ows Second General Assembly Of Manhattan Meets At 3PM In Washington Square Park - Anti-Flag To Play Set In Solidarity at Liberty Square
Posted Oct. 8, 2011, 1:30 a.m. EST (1 month ago) by OccupyWallSt



AFT fully endorses Occupy Wall Street
Posted Oct. 6, 2011, 4:48 p.m. EST (1 month ago) by OccupyWallSt

On the Creative Clarity and Vision of the Occupy Wall Street Movement

Occupy Wall Street, November 6th. (Photo: [clint] [4])

http://www.truth-out.org/originality-occupy-wall-street/1321203807

All,

An excellent analysis by Mr. Wolff of the OWS movement. I thoroughly agree...

Kofi

The Originality of Occupy Wall Street
13 November 2011
by Richard D. Wolff, RDWolff.com [3] | Op-Ed

The political movements of the left that I have participated in over many decades were almost always focused on or prioritized particular issues (wars, civil liberties, civil rights, poverty, collective bargaining, etc.) and/or particular subsections of the population (African-Americans, women, gay people, immigrants, etc.). The authorities almost always took advantage of that focus to separate and isolate the movement from society generally. They were often successful. Even when the authorities failed to provoke general hostility to the movement, they were able to prevent the development of more than a general sympathy for it.

In the short history of OWS and its spread to date, I am struck by its impressive insistence on remaining a movement around a very general and inclusive critique of an unjust economy (99% against 1%) that has corrupted much of US politics and culture. The net result is a built-in systemic critique, sometimes explicit (remarkably often named as capitalism) and almost always implicit. The hesitation to choose among and focus on specific demands reflects the wisdom of maintaining the broad, systemic critique. The taboo against systemic critique – a legacy of post-war anti-communism – seems to be broken. Nonetheless, the struggle to select and prioritize specific demands needs to take time and great care, especially if that struggle is to be accomplished without losing the invaluable systemic critique and demand for change. Most other movements of the left could not accomplish that to their detriment and often destruction.

In its short history, OWS seems already well along in discovering and instituting a new kind of leadership system and organization. The task is daunting and its accomplishment has likewise eluded most left movements in the past. The polarities to avoid are (1) purely horizontal collectives lacking the coordination and shared focus without which massive duplications and wastes of energy and effort breed disorientation and demoralization, and (2) conflict-ridden power concentrations that dissipate and de-energize general initiative and enthusiasm. Here too, interesting explorations of how to navigate between these polarities are underway in OWS. The US left is littered with the debris of movements that crashed on these polarities and/or atrophied from settling into one or the other.

OWS is rooted in the mass disaffection felt about the basic political economy of the US. Those dominating economics, politics and culture seem determined to keep the society moving in just those directions that will deepen that disaffection and thereby strengthen OWS. Income and wealth inequality, alienation from politics, deteriorating job, educational and retirement opportunities all conspire to recruit for OWS. The increased stresses and strains of personal life and relationships do likewise. OWS has already managed to exert combined political and personal attractions on a broad public.

Since 2007, the US has been engaged in this sequence of social events: a capitalist crisis, a trickle-down economic recovery program (that helped the top but never trickled down to anyone else), and an austerity program to pay for that trickle down program. Europe experienced a parallel engagement. However, Europe had much more viable and in-tact labor unions and anti-capitalist political parties and party factions. They enabled the mobilization of Europeans against austerity programs and in some cases also against the trickle-down policies and crisis-ridden capitalism that produced austerity programs. They also reaffirmed and reinforced existing organizational patterns that did not attract much of the new energy emerging on the left.

In contrast, the US has taken longer to react and respond. Yet therein lies an important dialectic of opposites. Precisely because the US has long-declining and therefore weak labor unions and no significantly influential anti-capitalist parties, opposition to the crisis-trickle-down-austerity sequence takes much longer to form and mobilize. People in the US have to rebuild old shells of organization from the bottom up or build altogether new organizations. Yet with this difficulty comes a certain distance from and relative freedom to consider, evaluate and pick carefully among the many old habits, presumptions, organizational forms and styles that have demonstrated their strengths and weaknesses in and for left movements.

In Europe, those oppositional forces that seek to start afresh and independent of the older movements – for example, the various “indignant” groupings – slip quickly into disunity and tension with the existing left organizations. This weakens and divides the left just when the opposite is needed most. In the US, OWS may well be able to avoid that problem precisely because of the old left’s long period of decline and demoralization.

The stunning growth and social influence of OWS in its few weeks of existence augur well for its survival and maturation.


Links:

[1] http://www.truth-out.org/print/8973
[2] http://www.truth-out.org/printmail/8973
[3] http://rdwolff.com/content/originality-occupy-wall-street
[4] http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintw/6320547357/
[5] http://www.truth-out.org/printmail
[6] http://www.truth-out.org/content/richard-d-wolff
[7] http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6694/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=2160
[8] https://members.truth-out.org/donate
[9] http://www.truth-out.org/?q=lessons-original-occupation-madisons-sheriff-dave-mahoney/1319735448
[10] http://www.truth-out.org/?q=occupy-obama-could-turn-heat-democracy/1319313907

Major Evidence of How the Occupy Wall Street Movement Has Changed the Direction of American Politics

(Photo: Robert Stolarik / The New York Times)

http://www.truth-out.org/ten-ways-occupy-movement-changes-everything/1321111931

All,

Facts on the ground...

Kofi


Ten Ways the Occupy Movement Changes Everything
10 November 2011
by Sarah van Gelder, David Korten and Steve Piersanti
YES! Magazine [3] | News Analysis

Before the Occupy Wall Street movement, there was little discussion of the outsized power of Wall Street and the diminishing fortunes of the middle class.

The media blackout was especially remarkable given that issues like jobs and corporate influence on elections topped the list of concerns for most Americans.

Occupy Wall Street changed that. In fact, it may represent the best hope in years that “we the people” will step up to take on the critical challenges of our time. Here’s how the Occupy movement is already changing everything:

1. It names the source of the crisis.
Political insiders have avoided this simple reality: The problems of the 99% are caused in large part by Wall Street greed [4], perverse financial incentives, and a corporate takeover of the political system. Now that this is understood, the genie is out of the bottle and it can’t be put back in.

2. It provides a clear vision of the world we want.
We can create a world that works for everyone [5], not just the wealthiest 1%. And we, the 99%, are using the spaces opened up by the Occupy movement to conduct a dialogue about the world we want.

3. It sets a new standard for public debate.
Those advocating policies and proposals must now demonstrate that their ideas will benefit the 99%. Serving only the 1% will not suffice, nor will claims that the subsidies and policies that benefit the 1% will eventually “trickle down.”

4. It presents a new narrative.
The solution is not to starve government or impose harsh austerity measures that further harm middle-class and poor people already reeling from a bad economy. Instead, the solution is to free society and government from corporate dominance

5. It creates a big tent.
We, the 99%, are people of all ages, races, occupations, and political beliefs. We will resist being divided or marginalized. We are learning to work together with respect.[6]. A functioning democracy is our best shot at addressing critical social, environmental, and economic crises.

6. It offers everyone a chance to create change.
No one is in charge; no organization or political party calls the shots. Anyone can get involved, offer proposals, support the occupations, and build the movement. Because leadership is everywhere and new supporters keep turning up, there is a flowering of creativity and a resilience that makes the movement nearly impossible to shut down.

7. It is a movement, not a list of demands.
The call for deep change [7]—not temporary fixes and single-issue reforms—is the movement’s sustaining power. The movement is sometimes criticized for failing to issue a list of demands, but doing so could keep it tied to status quo power relationships and policy options. The occupiers and their supporters will not be boxed in.

8. It combines the local and the global.
People in cities and towns around the world are setting their own local agendas, tactics, and aims. What they share in common is a critique of corporate power and an identification with the 99%, creating an extraordinary wave of global solidarity.

9. It offers an ethic and practice of deep democracy and community.
Slow, patient decision-making in which every voice is heard translates into wisdom, common commitment, and power. Occupy sites are set up as communities in which anyone can discuss grievances, hopes, and dreams, and where all can experiment with living in a space built around mutual support.

10. We have reclaimed our power.
Instead of looking to politicians and leaders to bring about change, we can see now that the power rests with us [8]. Instead of being victims to the forces upending our lives, we are claiming our sovereign right to remake the world.

Like all human endeavors, Occupy Wall Street and its thousands of variations and spin-offs will be imperfect. There have already been setbacks and divisions, hardships and injury. But as our world faces extraordinary challenges—from climate change to soaring inequality—our best hope is the ordinary people, gathered in imperfect democracies, who are finding ways to fix a broken world.

This article is adapted from the book, This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement [9]edited by Sarah van Gelder and the staff of YES! Magazine [10] and published November 2011 by Berrett-Koehler Publishers [11].




Links:

[1] http://www.truth-out.org/print/8958
[2] http://www.truth-out.org/printmail/8958
[3] http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/ten-ways-the-occupy-movement-changes-everything
[4] http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/wall-street-occupiers-the-future-is-in-your-hands
[5] http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/occupywallstreet
[6] http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/people-vs-corporations
[7] http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/sarah-van-gelder-pbs-newshour-interview
[8] http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/the-most-important-thing-in-the-world
[9] http://store.yesmagazine.org/this-changes-everything
[10] http://www.yesmagazine.org/
[11] http://www.bkconnection.com/ProdDetails.asp?ID=9781609945879&PG=1&Type=RLMa&PCS=BKP
[12] http://www.truth-out.org/printmail
[13] http://www.truth-out.org/sarah-van-gelder/1303574087
[14] http://www.truth-out.org/david-korten/1311104389
[15] http://www.truth-out.org/steve-piersanti/1321111739
[16] http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6694/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=2160
[17] https://members.truth-out.org/donate
[18] http://www.truth-out.org/?q=stunning-victory-occupy-wall-street-has-already-achieved/1319637976
[19] http://www.truth-out.org/?q=making-safer-spaces-occupy-wall-street-addresses-questions-security-zuccotti-park/1320679533