Freedom of Speech and Assembly

Why I Became A Working Class Organizer

October 6, 2013 Paul Jay, www.therealnews.com Organize! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Wars and Militarism, Worker Rights and Jobs

What I really came to--the changes that came about were understanding that if this is a society that can perpetrate this kind of genocidal war on Third World countries such as Vietnam, it really made me want to question a lot of things about the U.S. and about foreign policy and about the U.S. government. So by 1967, I left, graduated from Berkeley, and went to the University of Michigan. I was a part of a program that required going to another disciplinary track. I went into sociology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor was hardly, you know, playing second fiddle to the University of California in terms of activity. So in 1967 I already went to the demonstration at the Pentagon against the draft and wrestled with the question of my 2-S status for practically about a year, and first thought I was going to do a conscientious objector route, did a lot of study of Martin Luther King's writings and also Mahatma Gandhi's writings on nonviolent resistance. And in 1968 was one of those momentous decisions, when I decided to return my draft card to my draft board and made myself subject to two years in prison. So that was one of the decisions.

Three Lessons From The Street

October 1, 2013 Liam Barrington-Bush, www.alternet.org Strategize! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Occupy

If we want to create a world of democracy, transparency, and egalitarianism, we need to start to demonstrate what that looks like in our own work. How do we make decisions? Who does what jobs, and why? How do we treat each other? If we can't manifest our values in our own offices, it seems unlikely that we can do so in our communities, cities, or countries. Yet many social change organizations continue to churn out formulaic reiterations of the organizing systems constructed by Anglo-American industrialists a century and a half ago. At their core is the idea that a few great leaders will create hierarchies led by specialists and experts, and that the rest of us will be given a box (or cubicle) to fit within, to implement the visions of the infallible heroes at the top. My new book, Anarchists in the Boardroom, tells the stories of Argentine worker-run factories, Occupy encampments, and direct actions against tax-dodging corporations to highlight some of the emerging alternatives to our inherited systems of organizing. There is something deeply human about these non-hierarchical systems that seems to bring out the best in us. They allow us to find our own ways of supporting the causes we believe in, rather than slotting us into hierarchies and departments that prescribe how we are meant to do so.

What Do We Need To Build A Movement?

September 30, 2013 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com Strategize! Democracy, Education, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Human Rights, Occupy

We must develop a revolutionary theory that is not reliant on the industrial or agrarian muscle of workers. Most manufacturing jobs have disappeared, and, of those that remain, few are unionized. Our family farms have been destroyed by agro-businesses. Monsanto and its Faustian counterparts on Wall Street rule. They are steadily poisoning our lives and rendering us powerless. The corporate leviathan, which is global, is freed from the constraints of a single nation-state or government. Corporations are beyond regulation or control. Politicians are too anemic, or more often too corrupt, to stand in the way of the accelerating corporate destruction. This makes our struggle different from revolutionary struggles in industrial societies in the past. Our revolt will look more like what erupted in the less industrialized Slavic republics, Russia, Spain and China and uprisings led by a disenfranchised rural and urban working class and peasantry in the liberation movements that swept through Africa and Latin America. The dispossessed working poor, along with unemployed college graduates and students, unemployed journalists, artists, lawyers and teachers, will form our movement. This is why the fight for a higher minimum wage is crucial to uniting service workers with the alienated college-educated sons and daughters of the old middle class. Bakunin, unlike Marx, considered déclassé intellectuals essential for successful revolt.

Americans With Disabilities Action Report

September 29, 2013 Staff, www.adapt.org Resist! Disabilities, Freedom of Speech and Assembly

Americans with disabilities have fought and won many freedoms in our nation, but when times are hard our basic liberties are in jeopardy. But just like Americans of the past, we will not allow our nation to step backward toward oppression and segregation. Wherever you are, join with ADAPT to say "My Medicaid Matters!" On Sunday, September 29th begin following the ADAPT action right here. Each morning the ADAPT Action Report will bring photos, news and commentary directly from activists in the streets. Activists have arrived at the Capitol Hill Holiday Inn for a week of direct action to strengthen the ADAPT thirty-year Campaign to Free Our People! ADAPT's first national action was in 1983 to end the segregation of people with disabilities in this country; starting with the public transit systems that would not put lifts on buses. After the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, the focus of ADAPT turned to ending the institutional bias in Medicaid that segregates people in expensive institutions and nursing homes.

Forever Young: Staughton Lynd

September 29, 2013 Andy Piascik, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights

He talks of how deeply he misses dear friend Howard Zinn, who died several years ago. He talks of driving through Mississippi late at night, hopelessly lost, just days after civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner had been abducted and murdered. He talks of his remarkable life’s work with great humility and not at all wistfully, but in search of lessons it might hold, especially for the young. A teacher extraordinaire, he is guided by the principle that a teacher is also a student and all students teachers. Lynd has seen more than his share of colleagues come and go. Some flamed out after a brief period of frantic busyness; others moved on to different lives and nice-paying gigs. Still going strong, Lynd offers long-term commitment (“long distance running,” as he calls it) and accompaniment – professionals living alongside workers and the unrepresented and contributing much-needed skills to the struggle for freedom - as alternatives.

Protesters Are Dodging Sudan’s Internet Shutdown With A Phone-Powered Crowdmap

September 28, 2013 Amanda Sperber, www.motherboard.vice.com Organize! Africa, Democracy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights

"Since Wednesday afternoon, Sudan's internet has been sporadically shut off amid a fifth day of protests against President Omar al Bashir’s regime. Despite the attempt to cut off communications and limit organization and reporting on the ground, a group of tech-savvy people based in Khartoum have developed a map for recording key data about the protests that's powered by cell networks. Called the Abena crowd map, the map is the product of Mohammed Hashim Saleh and Abeer Khairy, engineers both, and Ahmed Hassan, the co-founder of Khartoum Geeks. In the short amount of time the internet was on yesterday, they deployed the map, which follows events on the ground in Sudan with direct reports."

Tunisia’s Ruling Islamists To Step Down, Pave Way For Vote

September 28, 2013 Tarek Amara, www.reuters.com Resist! Democracy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Middle East, Tunisia

"Tunisia's Islamist-led government agreed on Saturday to resign after talks with secular foes to form a caretaker administration and prepare for elections to safeguard the democratic transition in the country where the Arab Spring uprisings began[...]The crisis, which erupted in July after the killing of an opposition leader by suspected Muslim militants, has eroded an already fragile financial outlook and unnerved the North African country's international lenders. Tunisia's powerful UGTT labor union, mediating between the sides, proposed three weeks of negotiations after which the Islamist Ennahda would yield to an non-partisan administration with a date for parliamentary and presidential elections."

Thousands Protest In Bahrain Over Opposition Leader Arrest

September 28, 2013 Staff, www.rt.com Resist! Bahrain, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Middle East

"Large crowds of Bahrainis have protested west of the country’s capital, Manama, over the arrest of a prominent opposition figure, just hours after another rally ended with clashes with police. The former deputy speaker of parliament, Khalil Marzooq, was arrested Sept. 17 on charges of "inciting and advocating terrorism." The activist’s detention came after he spoke at a rally, saying, “We support peaceful movements, and we transparently state… that we are not part of the violent groups or their actions"

Stop Watching Us: Rally Against Mass Surveillance

September 28, 2013 Staff, StopWatching.Us Resist! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, NSA

"On Sat., Oct. 26, thousands of people from across the political spectrum will unite in Washington, D.C., to say: Enough is enough. Stop watching us. StopWatching.Us — a diverse coalition of more than 100 public advocacy organizations and businesses, including the ACLU, Access, Demand Progress, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, the Free Press Action Fund, FreedomWorks, Mozilla, the National Libertarian Party, reddit, Restore the Fourth, Thoughtworks, and RootsAction.org — is organizing the biggest protest of the NSA’s surveillance programs to date. Will you join us?"

Time to Speak Up Against the NSA’s Mass Spying

September 28, 2013 Staff, www.eff.org Resist! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, NSA

This summer, some of our worst fears and suspicions about the NSA have been confirmed. We now have evidence that the NSA is actively undermining the basic security of the Internet. It iscollecting millions and millions of phone records of individuals not suspected of any crime. It issurveilling journalists. The NSA’s overreaching surveillance is creating a climate of fear and chilling free speech. Its addiction to secrecy makes real accountability impossible. But there’s a movement forming to change all of this. And we're about to take the next step. On the weekend of October 26 — the 12th anniversary of the signing of the USA PATRIOT Act — thousands of people from across the political spectrum will unite in Washington, D.C. to take a stand against unconstitutional surveillance. Please join EFF in D.C. for a day of grassroots training and citizen lobbying on October 25th and a historic rally and petition delivery on October 26th.

“Swarmwise” A Tactical Manual For Changing The World

September 28, 2013 Rick Falkvinge, falkvinge.net Strategize! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government

After four years of work, the leadership book “Swarmwise” is finally published. It is a book filled to the brim with the experience from leading the Swedish Pirate Party from zero into the European Parliament, spreading the movement to 70 countries, and most importantly, beating the competition on less than one percent of their budget – being over two orders of magnitude more cost-efficient. It is available as a paperback and a PDF, with more formats to come. Yesterday afternoon, I hit the “publish” button, and as of this morning, the book is available on Amazon (US, UK, DE, FR). It is also available as a PDF for free sharing (download). This is the culmination of four years of work, after I decided to write down and share my experiences with forming, leading, and winning with a swarm-style community.

Status Of The Resistance Movement: Growing, Deepening, Succeeding

September 26, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, /www.truth-out.org Resist! Energy, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Food and Agriculture, Fracking, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, NSA, Occupy, Wars and Militarism, Worker Rights and Jobs

So much has been accomplished by Occupy and other social justice movements in the past two years that it is incredible the corporate media and their pundits do not report on what is happening around them. Despite the lack of corporate media coverage, the movement is deepening, creating democratic institutions, stopping some of the worst policies from being pushed by the corporate duopoly and building a broad-based diverse movement. This is not to say things are getting better for the 99%; in fact, quite the opposite is happening. Big business government continues to funnel money to the top while robbing most Americans of the little wealth they had. More Americans are being impacted by the unfair economy and realize that their struggle is not their fault but is the reality of living in a system with deep corruption and dysfunction. Economic injustice is the compost creating fertile ground for the movement to grow.

Egyptian Arrested for Naming Donkey After General

September 24, 2013 Mariam Rizk, www.freedetainees.org Educate! Civil Rights, Egypt, Freedom of Speech and Assembly

The state news agency says a farmer in southern Egypt has been arrested after putting the military chief’s name and an army-style cap on his donkey while riding it through town. MENA news agency said that Omar Abul-Magd was arrested late Friday in Qena province for allegedly insulting Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who led the popularly-backed coup against President Mohammed Morsi. Since Morsi’s ouster, authorities have cracked down on critics of the powerful military. Earlier this week, a military court ordered five pro-Morsi protesters to serve up to three years in prison for chanting against the army. Three were tried in absentia.

California College Tells Student He Can’t Hand Out Copies Of Constitution

September 20, 2013 Techdirt.com, www.techdirt.com Educate! Civil Rights, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government

The latest example of confined and controlled speech comes to us courtesy of Modesto Junior College. As FIRE.org reports, a student found his exercise of free speech shut down on one of the worst days of the year for a college to assert its negative attitude towards the First Amendment. In a stunning illustration of the attitude taken towards free speech by too many colleges across the United States, Modesto Junior College in California told a student that he could not pass out copies of the United States Constitution outside the student center on September 17, 2013—Constitution Day. Captured on video, college police and administrators demanded that Robert Van Tuinen stop passing out Constitution pamphlets and told him that he would only be allowed to pass them out in the college’s tiny free speech zone, and only after scheduling it several days or weeks ahead of time.

Seattle Activists Fear Another Informant In Their Midst

September 13, 2013 Martin Michaels, www.mintpressnews.com Strategize! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Surveillance

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, numerous student groups and anti-war organizations claim police have been spying on them. Surveillance of student groups and anti-war protesters is nothing new, but the instances of alleged unconstitutional surveillance keep piling up in an era of anti-terrorism police work. Domestic surveillance has been made more easy for authorities through the creation of fusion centers, allowing authorities to aggregate resources and compile anti-terrorism intelligence. According to the Department of Homeland Security website, there are now 53 primary fusion centers and 25 recognized fusion centers across the U.S. In a recent case from Seattle, community members claim that a third-degree convicted sex offender named Robert Childs has attempted to infiltrate and spy on activist groups in Seattle, Wash. according to reports by Seattle weekly newspaper the Stranger.

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