This will be a brief newsletter this week because we are both on the road. Margaret is running for US Senate for Maryland, Green Party, and she is touring the state to spread the word about her and meet voters. Kevin has taken a temporary leave of absence from Popular Resistance to work for the Jill Stein campaign as a senior adviser.
Five years ago we organized the occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC with a goal of raising awareness that the problems we face in the US are systemic and that we must build a social movement and the culture of resistance if we are to solve them. We didn’t expect to get involved in electoral politics, but the time has come when majorities of people in the US are sick of the corporate parties and are ready for a change. We believe that there needs to be a political party that reflects the values of the movement and so we are working to build it.
American Autumn
When we organized the occupation of Freedom Plaza under the initial banner of October 2011 (in line with the global revolutionary movements that were using dates), we named it the American Autumn. Dennis Trainor, Jr, another organizer with October 2011, produced a documentary of the Occupy Movement of that time, “American Autumn: An OccuDoc.”
On the fifth anniversary, he is offering a special digital edition of the movie for whatever amount people can donate. See Margaret take on the health care profiteers in this chapter:
If you donate using this link, half of the proceeds will help us continue to build Popular Resistance and half will go towards Dennis’ next documentary.
We don’t often ask for funds because we know that we are all struggling and we don’t use ads on our website, but with the five year anniversary of Freedom Plaza coming up this October 7, we decided to accept Dennis’ generous offer. We hope that you enjoy the special edition of the film.
We’ll be back next week with a full newsletter. Until then, keep doing what you can to stop the machine and build a new world!
In solidarity,
Margaret and Kevin