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Freedom of Speech and Assembly

Occupy Phila. Protesters Sue City Hall For Eviction & Arrests

November 14, 2013 Joseph A. Slobdzian, www.philly.com ,
Twenty-six Occupy Philadelphia protesters sued the city in federal court Wednesday, contending that their arrests two years ago after police and city workers dismantled their encampment in front of City Hall violated their First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, maintains that the arrests of the 26 in the predawn hours of Nov. 30, 2011, were without probable cause. That was proved, the suit contends, by the acquittals of all 26 in April 2012 on charges of failure to disperse, obstructing the highway, and criminal conspiracy. The suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages as well as injunctive relief involving the city's handling of the Occupy demonstrators. Named as defendants in the lawsuit are Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, Capt. William V. Fisher, six specific police officers, and up to 25 unidentified officers who were on the scene at the time of the arrests. Their attorney Paul J. Krasner called the 26 protesters "American heroes who effectively fought economic inequality for the 99 percent and whose thanks from their government was this bogus arrest." Hetznecker said the arrests struck at the "very heart of our democracy."

Moyers: Two Paths To Positive Resistance

November 13, 2013 Staff, www.billmoyers.com , , ,
Between them, doctors Jill Stein and Margaret Flowers have been arrested nine times. In the face of injustice and government by the one percent, rather than look the other way and stick to practicing medicine they chose a different approach. At first they took separate paths. Margaret Flowers fought for single payer health insurance. She works for the organization Physicians for a National Health Program and is a contributor to PopularResistance.org, a website advocating nonviolent direct action against injustice. Jill Stein advocated for campaign finance reform in her home state of Massachusetts, working in 1998 with others in her community to pass the Clean Election Law. She co-founded the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities in 2003 and represented the Green-Rainbow Party for governor in 2002, for State Representative in 2004 and for Secretary of State in 2006. She was the Green Party candidate for president in 2012. Now Stein and Flowers are both members of the Green Shadow Cabinet, a group of 100 prominent men and women offering alternative policy and speaking out in an organized voice against a dysfunctional government. Stein serves as president and Flowers as secretary of health.

A Veteran, Activist, And Teacher: Guilty Until Proven Innocent

November 12, 2013 ColHopkins, www.colbyhopkins.com , ,
David is a veteran who served his country, a teacher who serves his students, a son who cares for his elderly father, a father who works tirelessly to make a life for his children, and a citizen who only wants to utilize his rights and freedoms as an American. But he is still unable to return to work for 12-18 months because the DOE is appealing its case. Even though David had initially won, the witch-hunt against him continues. In a gross injustice by the NYC DOE, he has been presumed guilty until proven innocent over and over again. Now, being unable to work for almost two years, David is struggling to provide for his daughter and two-year-old son.

Parents Of The Revolution

November 11, 2013 Staff, www.parentsoftherevolution.com , ,
Parents of the Revolution follows a group of activist parents in the Occupy Wall Street movement who believe that it's their democratic duty to teach their kids to speak out against injustice. Are they heroes who are bringing up their kids with a civic conscience or agitators who are using their children as human shields? In late October, 2011, a month into Occupy Wall Street’s takeover of Zuccotti Park in New York City’s financial district, a new movement erupts amidst the excitement and turmoil with police––Parents of Occupy Wall Street. Started by Kirby Desmarais, a gutsy and resourceful 26-year-old mom and independent music manager, the group is meant to be an outlet for families to get more involved in Occupy Wall Street. In fact, Kirby organizes a “family sleepover” in Zuccotti Park, which draws over 500 kids and parents with sleeping bags in tow, ready for a night of protesting.

“Grand Alliance” Needed To Save Post Office

November 10, 2013 Staff, www.apwu.org , ,
In an impassioned speech before more than 1,000 union members, the newly-elected national president of the American Postal Workers Union, Mark Dimondstein, issued a call for a “grand alliance” to save the USPS as a public postal service and to protect postal jobs. To succeed, postal workers must build a movement, he said. “When the Flint sit-down strikers occupied a General Motors plant in the 1930s, labor law reform was won. When women took to the streets to demand the right to vote, they won. When courageous civil rights workers fought segregation with sit-ins and boycotts, the 1964 Civil Rights Act followed,” Dimondstein said. “History shows that movements move Congress. Movements create legislative victories, not the other way around,” he said. “We must build a grand alliance between the people of this country and postal workers,” he proclaimed.

Upcoming Book: An Activist Armed With A Camera

November 9, 2013 Jenna Pope, www.indiegogo.com , , , ,
One of the great photojournalists to come out of the Occupy Movement is Jenna Pope, she is crowd-funding her book. We urge you to support Jenna's efforts. "In February of 2011, the massive protests against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker awoke me from my slumber and changed my life completely. I immersed myself within the front lines of the fight for justice and equality, and I haven't looked back even once. Fast forward two years and nine months and I am now living in New York City, traveling all over the US and internationally to stand with others who are striving for a better world. In the process, I have been arrested, pepper sprayed, tear gassed, hit with water cannons, and shot at with plastic bullets. I have slept on planes, trains, and buses, outside in the rain and snow, and on strangers' couches. And, everywhere I go, I have my camera in my hands. It has been an exciting, intense, and unpredictable journey where I am constantly being inspired by the people and movements I capture through the lens of my camera."

Judge: Idaho Occupy Rules Unconstitutional

November 8, 2013 John Miller, www.ap.org ,
A federal judge rejected some rules governing protests on Idaho property surrounding the Capitol in Boise, concluding that neither a seven-day limit on rallies nor allowing state officials discretion to waive restrictions for some groups but not others meets constitutional free-speech muster. The "Occupy Boise" protests that prompted this 2-year-old litigation vacated the old Ada County Courthouse's grounds last spring. Along the way, there have been victories and defeats for the state and the activists who sued, including a decision upholding Idaho's ban on overnight camping on the Capitol Mall. Published late Friday, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill's latest decision further clarifies how activists can — and can't — use property on the Capitol Mall to deliver their messages. In his 39-page filing, Winmill decided a seven-day limit on protests ran afoul of free-speech protections. Furthermore, he said, letting the Department of Administration waive regulations for so-called "state events" might invite discrimination against groups or messages officials didn't like.

Are We About To Lose Internet Freedom?

November 8, 2013 Marvin Ammori, www.wired.com ,
Net neutrality is a dead man walking. The execution date isn’t set, but it could be days, or months (at best). And since net neutrality is the principle forbidding huge telecommunications companies from treating users, websites, or apps differently — say, by letting some work better than others over their pipes — the dead man walking isn’t some abstract or far-removed principle just for wonks: It affects the internet as we all know it. Once upon a time, companies like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and others declared a war on the internet’s foundational principle: that its networks should be “neutral” and users don’t need anyone’s permission to invent, create, communicate, broadcast, or share online. The neutral and level playing field provided by permissionless innovation has empowered all of us with the freedom to express ourselves and innovate online without having to seek the permission of a remote telecom executive.

Photos: Walmart Workers Escalate To Civil Resistance

November 8, 2013 Kathleen Miles, www.huffingtonpost.com ,
Surrounded by about 100 police officers in riot gear and a helicopter circling above, more than 50 Walmart workers and supporters were arrested in downtown Los Angeles Thursday night as they sat in the street protesting what they called the retailer's "poverty wages." Organizers said it was the largest single act of civil disobedience in Walmart's 50-year history. The 54 arrestees, with about 500 protesting Walmart workers, clergy and supporters, demonstrated outside LA's Chinatown Walmart. Those who refused police orders to clear the street after their permit expired were arrested without incident. Those who fail to post $5,000 bail would be jailed overnight, Detective Gus Villanueva, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman, told The Huffington Post. Their primary demand to Walmart: pay every full-time worker at least $25,000 a year.

Naomi Wolf: When Protest is Effective and When it is Not

November 7, 2013 Naomi Wolf, www.PopularResistance.org , ,
A portion of a presentation by Naomi Wolf about her research on protests -- when they are effective and when they are not.  She describes how we have to stop the normal course of business or as she says "stop traffic."  She also points out how protest is being regulated to ineffectiveness.  The permit process, the First Amendment Zones and the police regulating where protest is allowed.  Wolf points out it is important to violate those rules, break the law and expand our rights to Freedom of Speech, Right to Association and right to petition the government for grievances.  Looking at history in the U.S. and around the world, protest that works does not obey the limits of the law or allow police to regulate them.  The express their human right to speak out and assemble whether or not they operate within the law. They go out and stop traffic by blockading buildings, pipeline builders or frackers seeking to drill, they sit-in as part of a strike or take over the office of a president of a university, or they go into the street to march, whether or not allowed or use so many other tactics that stop business as usual.

NY Judge Renews “Order of Protection” Barring Drone Protesters From Base

November 7, 2013 Candice Bernd, www.truth-out.org , , ,
Gideon renewed the OOPs until April 30, 2014, or until the conclusion of the protesters' trial on charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct. The trial has been scheduled for December 12 in a DeWitt court. One of the 17 has entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors. The rest are awaiting trial. Many of the protesters believe the OOPs are being used to suppress their First Amendment rights. "We're nonviolent activists, so for a commander of a base to get an Order of Protection against us is, of course, ludicrous," said Ed Kinane, one of the 17 arrested. "Especially when you consider that it's a barbed-wire enclosure, guarded by men with guns who have been trained to kill and blow up things." "The purpose [of the OOPs], it would certainly seem, is to suppress our First Amendment rights to express dissent and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Beware the Peddlers of Despair, They Want To Dis-Empower You

November 4, 2013 Dady Chery, www.newsjunkiepost.com ,
It is important to relate the truth of things: that real power comes from the people and not from its supposed rulers. Imagine for a moment, that a master is flogging a slave and insisting that the slave works nearly to death. And in response the slave says: “No!” Who has the power? In Haiti, we have always known who this is. It is whenever people lose their fear and decide enough is enough that historical advances get made. Think of the US labor movement. No rent-a-cop Pinkertons, no military, however technologically advanced, stands a chance against a resolutely uncooperative populace. Non-cooperation may take many forms. We can all do more, but every day, the world over, people refuse to work for empire by striking, working for family or community, and learning to grow more, make more, and share more; they starve the empire by bearing fewer children, living in smaller houses, walking instead of driving, and foregoing the things that have to be transported over vast distances at a high cost in fossil fuels; they preserve wildness by planting trees, saving rivers, protecting animals.

Occupy Wall Street: What Just Happened?

November 1, 2013 Ian Wilder, www.onthewilderside.com , ,
"Is Occupy Wall Street dead? The short answer is “No.” Occupy is very much alive. At least that is Ian’s short answer. Kimberly and I have recently been debating the meaning of Occupy, now that there is some distance from its inception. Kimberly became an early supporter of Occupy – using our website onthewilderside.com to herald its start as a true movement back to shared values. She quickly recognized the need to use our site to help counter the corporate spin."

Hedges: “Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart Have Destroyed Satire”

October 29, 2013 Dennis Trainor, Jr., www.acronymtv.wordpress.com , , , , , ,
In this wide ranging interview, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Christopher Hedges talks with Acronym TV's Dennis Trainor Jr about Class War, Non violence, The Great Gatsby, and about the lost art of Satire. "Satire becomes destroyed in essence in the hands of figures like Colbert, John Stewart and others," Hedges asserts. "They will attack the excesses or the foibles of the system, but they are never going to expose the system itself because they are all millionaires, they are commercially supported. You have very few people (George Carlin was one) who will stand up and do it. If you do that, it is tough to make a living. Carlin maybe being the exception. But if you really use Satire the way Swift used Satire, to expose the English barbarity in Ireland because culture, like everything else in the society has been completely corporatized."

From Gandhi To Occupy: The Story Of Peaceful Protest

October 27, 2013 Jamie Merrill, www.independent.co.uk , , , ,
From battles to end racial segregation to local struggles to protect rare habitats, the captive crew of the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise is following in a rich tradition of peaceful protest. But according to one of Britain’s foremost experts in civil disobedience, the nature of protest is changing. David Mead of the University of East Anglia’s Law School said that over the past 30 years there has been a radical shift towards protest and campaigns aimed at rogue corporations, not governments. “The mass protest march isn’t quite dead, but it’s very much secondary,” said the author of The New Law of Peaceful Protest. “Instead, protesters are more likely to engage with particular groups or organisations they dislike, whether they are polluting firms, oil companies or arms manufacturers.” Brian Fitzgerald, the head of mobilisation at Greenpeace International, agreed. “Corporations can be more responsive to pressure than many governments. Brent Spar and the campaign against Shell in the 1990s was a great early example of this. It was Shell that buckled over sinking the Brent Spar oil rig in the North Sea, not the UK government.
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