Occupy

Major Social Transformation Is Closer Than You May Think

January 3, 2014 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Strategize! Occupy, Revolution

The current social movement that exploded onto the national scene with the 2011 Occupy Movement is following the path of successful movements so far. The social movement in 2014 is poised to begin an exciting era of broadening and deepening the growing consensus for social and economic justice. This articles focuses on where we stand — in other words, at what stage of the progression of social movements we find ourselves — and broadly outlines the next steps. Next week, we will look more specifically at the tasks ahead for the movement in 2014 and beyond. By understanding the current stage of development we can better define the work that must be done to achieve success and predict how the power structure and public will react to our actions. Stage 6, “Majority Public Support,” which is where we are right now. During the current phase, the movement seeks to create broad and deep consensus over the issues that have been raised in the “Take-Off.” Our job is to win over the hearts and minds of the American people.

Female Protester Charged With Sexual Assault After Kissing Riot Cop

January 3, 2014 Will Potter, www.greenisthenewred.com Resist! Occupy, Police abuse, Revolution

A young woman who kissed a riot cop’s helmet during a protest in Italy has been charged with sexual assault. Nina De Chiffre is a 20-year-old student who was protesting a planned railway expansion in Northern Italy. At the demonstration, she kissed the police officer’s helmet. The police union filed a complaint, and she has been charged with “sexual violence” and causing “offence to a public official.” Protesters have a long history of such “crimes” in response to militarized police, of course. In addition to kisses, they’ve sometimes given flowers.

Outgoing Top-Cop Ray Kelly: NYPD A ‘Quasi-Military Organization’

January 3, 2014 Staff, www.rt.com Educate! Occupy, Police abuse, Racism

During the last few hours of a lengthy tenure atop the New York Police Department tainted by both scandal and success, outgoing-NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly echoed soon-to-be-ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg with big words about the city’s boys in blue. Bloomberg provoked a fair share of criticism from Big Apple residents in late 2011 when he said, "I have my own army in the NYPD . . . the seventh biggest army in the world.” Two years later and new comments from Commissioner Kelly might make the same sort of splash. The New York Times was questioning what they called Kelly’s “tight control of the department” when he reportedly looked “pained” and told them, “You can’t win.” “Obviously, in a quasi-military organization, you need an ultimate decision maker,” he said.

Looking To 2014: The Emerging Movement For The Next New Deal

January 3, 2014 Richard Kirsch, www.nextnewdeal.net Organize! Finance and the Economy, Occupy, Worker Rights and Jobs

The Great Recession also deepened the three-decade-long trend of families seeing their incomes and lifestyles squeezed by stagnant wages, eroding benefits, and the rising costs of gateways to opportunity. As a result, we are seeing an escalation of the path to the next New Deal: organizing people to demand that we create a 21st century economy of broadly-shared opportunity and prosperity. The past year saw the explosion of organized fast food workers, from a handful of community-supported walk-outs demanding higher wages a year ago to actions involving thousands of workers and supporters in some 130 cities in December. The growing movement earned national as well as local news coverage. Less visible, but deeper, is the emergence of new forms of worker organizing, taking place largely outside of traditional unions and the national labor law, known generally as the workers’ center movement. Domestic workers, through the National Domestic Workers Union, have won passage of laws giving them new labor protections in California and New York. Tomato pickers in Florida, under the banner of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, have won higher wages by building consumer pressure against the supermarkets and restaurant chains that buy the crops they pick. Immigrant and low-wage workers around the country, at workers’ centers that are part of the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, have resisted wage theft and won basic protections in day labor and construction. The examples go on and are analogous to the emergence of the labor movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Occupy Oakland Holds Two New Year’s Eve Protests

January 1, 2014 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Occupy, Police abuse

The Contra Costa Times reports that group of over 100 participated in a march organized by Occupy Oakland from Frank H. Ogawa Plaza to the North County Jail and back, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the shooting of Oscar Grant by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle. A few citations were handed out but no arrests were made according to police. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that two protests were planned for New Year's Eve by Occupy Oakland. They wrote that the first protest was a vigil to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the killing of Oscar Grant: "On New Year’s Day, there will be a vigil from noon to 4 p.m., at the Fruitvale BART Station to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant by a BART police officer. The event is being billed as a celebration with live music and a guest appearance by Ryan Coogler, director of the movie 'Fruitvale Station.'" On New Year's Eve night Occupy Oakland "put out the call to gather at Frank Ogawa Plaza at 9:30 p.m. New Year’s Eve for a march to the North County Jail on Sixth Street downtown." People were "encouraged to bring 'friends, noisemakers, fireworks' to 'bring the noise to inmates.'"

Stratfor Monitors and Studies Social Movements

December 31, 2013 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Occupy, Revolution, Stratfor

The Corporate and Security State Recognizes Movements Are a Threat to the Power Structure Stratfor is a private intelligence agency that works for business interests and government. It tracks and analyzes a lot of issues – the economy, military conflict, politics, energy and security. Recently it has also been monitoring, analyzing and reporting on social movements. Their interests in movements show their concern that revolts have been growing and are having an impact around the world. The involvement of Stratfor in undermining social movements became more evident thanks to important leaks by Jerry Hammond that were published by Wikileaks as The Global Intelligence Files. From these leaks we learned how corporations and the government were attacking Julian Assange and Wikileaks, as well as their infiltration, monitoring and surveillance of protesters on behalf of corporations and the government, especially those involved in the Occupy movement. The Wikileaks documents also showed us how corporations and government attack movements in a divide and conquer strategy that isolates those seeking transformational change (who they define as “radicals”).

Where Will Global Revolt Kick Off Next?

December 30, 2013 Paul Mason, www.theguardian.com Resist! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Occupy, Revolution

If you read the Economist Intelligence Unit's latest attempt to guess where it will kick off next, it becomes clear how hard this is to do with conventional thinking. For the unit it is places with high inequality, heavy corruption, economic crisis and a collapse in trust. So Nigeria (the biggest economy in Africa), Egypt and Argentina all figure high on the red list of countries where there is a "very high risk" of conflict threatening the political order, with Brazil, South Africa and China merely "high risk". Though an advance on the straight-line thinking that linked revolts simply to the post-2008 economic crisis, I still think this misses something. When people ask me where it is going to kick off next, I say: "In people's heads."

Everyday Rebellion: Interview With Filmmakers Arash And Arman Riahi

December 30, 2013 Yosef Brody, www.truth-out.org Educate! Occupy, Revolution

Have we entered a golden age of global activism? Uprisings have been sprouting regularly for several years, grabbing headlines and changing political agendas at the highest levels. What, if anything, do these various movements have in common? The inspired new documentary from the Riahi Brothers, Everyday Rebellion, answers this question by focusing on method. The film lovingly examines contemporary global nonviolence in its diversity and creativity, building on recent academic research showing that nonviolent resistance movements have been twice as effective in the past century in achieving their stated goals compared with violent resistance movements. Experts in nonviolence research and philosophy reinforce stories at the grass roots as the film brings us into streets and homes, crisscrossing continents and causes. The Riahi Brothers, who were born in Iran and raised in Austria, paint gracefully with a broad brush. They deal head-on with the harsh realities of human life, but the tone never strays too far from hopeful and optimistic. If one image characterizes Everyday Rebellion, it is probably the extended shot of a balloon dancing amid city traffic, somehow managing to avoid getting crushed.

#WakeUp2014 is Theme of Occupy the Rose Parade

December 30, 2013 Lauren Steiner, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Finance and the Economy, Food and Agriculture, Fracking, Housing, Occupy, TPP

Occupy the Rose Bowl! In 2013 millions lost their homes to foreclosures, thousands suffered water and air pollution and other ill effects of fracking and more Americans are about to see their jobs outsourced, their wages reduced and their environmental and food safety regulations abolished by a secret trade deal poised to be fast tracked by Congress. The newly formed Awake Coalition plans to Occupy the Rose Parade with the theme #WakeUp2014. We don’t believe Americans can achieve the kind of change necessary to improve the live of the 99% by dreaming. We need awareness, strategy and action.

Technology Research Firm Predicts Occupy On A Larger Scale

December 29, 2013 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Create! Finance and the Economy, Occupy, Worker Rights and Jobs

Gartner has issued a report: Gartner Top Predictions 2014: Plan for a Disruptive, but Constructive Future. The report mentions the future of the protest and resistance movement and its impact on IT businesses. They see "a bartering based (sub) society" and the resurrection of "initiatives like Occupy Wall Street but on a much larger scale." Gartner "flags" for the near-term that: "A larger-scale version of Occupy Wall Street-type movement will begin by the end of 2014, indicating that social unrest will start to foster political discussion." And, they also flag: "By 2015, traditional paid jobs will be replaced by bartering-based systems and voluntary roles in such areas as patient care." They warn companies not to be seen as the "culprit" that is "driving these labor effects." They warn that there could be a "backlash in the form of buyer strikes, labor unrest and increased scrutiny of owner and executive compensation." They urge executives to change their mindset "to start thinking in terms of participating instead of winning, giving the idea of sustainability a whole new meaning." Further, the warn that "the old economic mechanics and models are leading to undesired effects and consequences (in participation, allocation and enumeration). . . ."

Support Movement Analysis: Real Democracy Requires Independent Media

December 28, 2013 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Democracy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Media, Occupy, Revolution

We often use the Popular Resistance website to raise money for organizations, campaigns, artists and art collectives and others who are working in the resistance movement. In the article below we are urging support for ROAR Magazine. One of the critical fronts of struggle for developing a mass movement that can challenge the current power structure is media. Independent media, citizens media and social networks are keys to challenging the corporate mass media. Understanding our movement and constantly evaluating where we are going and how we get there are essential. ROAR is consistently strong in its analysis of the resistance movement around the world. They have excellent writers who put forward analysis you do not read anywhere else. We urge you to support their fundraising campaign on indiegogo.

Homeless Couple Gets A Home On Christmas Eve

December 27, 2013 Scott Keyes, thinkprogress.org Create! Homelessness, Occupy

For many couples, the thought of living together in a 96-square-foot house sounds awful. But for Chris Derrick and Betty Ybarra, it’s a Christmas miracle. That’s because Derrick and Ybarra have spent the better part of a year braving Madison, Wisconsin’s often-harsh climate without a roof over their head. They’ll spend this Christmas in their own home, thanks to more than 50 volunteers with Occupy Madison, a local Wisconsin version of the original Occupy Wall Street group in New York. The group, including Derrick and Ybarra, spent the past year on an innovative and audacious plan to fight inequality in the state’s capital: build tiny homes for the homeless. In a city where an average home for sale costs nearly $300,000, many low-income individuals simply can’t afford somewhere to live. Indeed, in January of this year, a citywide count found 831 homeless people living in Madison, a 47 percent increase in the past 3 years.

The 8 Stages Of Successful Social-Political Movements

December 26, 2013 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Strategize! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Occupy

Long-time political activist and social change agent Bill Moyer, who developed the Movement Action Plan Model of how successful progressive movements evolve makes his last public presentation in this video six weeks before he died at the age of 69. Moyer worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference on poverty campaigns, and also worked to stop the Vietnam War and nuclear energy, worked with the American Indian Movement, as well as on housing and disarmament, among other causes over his 40 year career in social movements. In this last public presentation he summarized the insights of a lifetime of experience about how social movements grow and succeed, as well as his vision of a new culture emerging through the cracks of a declining empire. Moyer’s work is heartening for social justice activists because it shows how movements grow, recede and change their functions at different stages and that this is a natural process. By knowing the stage of development we can better define the work that is needed to achieve success; and predict how the power structure and public will react to our actions.

The Value Of Radicals

December 19, 2013 Amy Huva, www.vancouverobserver.com Strategize! Climate Change, Environment, Occupy

I have the utmost respect for people who are willing to put themselves in harm’s way to try and shift the conversation. It takes incredible guts to get on a Greenpeace boat in the Arctic and be willing to be arrested by the Russian coast guard, and face years in prison because the Russians are angry someone pointed out the insanity of Arctic drilling. It takes amazing tenacity and some serious creativity to bid at an auction to prevent land being drilled for oil and gas as Tim DeChristopher did, or create a fake press release stating that ANZ Bank in Australia was divesting from coal as Australian Jonathan Moylan did. Even closer to home, it takes some steely nerves to camp out on a rail line to prevent coal exports in White Rock. When professors, scientists, and even investment managers are either getting themselves arrested defending the climate, or are urging people to do so, you know the conversation is changing. No one ever won social change by sitting down nicely and asking the people with the power to share more please, but through the radical actions of brave people who are willing to risk so much for the future of our climate, the conversation can and will change.

Walmart Trying To Profit From Occupy Movement

December 18, 2013 Irene Plagianos, www.dnainfo.com Educate! Occupy, Walmart, Worker Rights and Jobs

Walmart has a gift idea for 99 percent of the people on your Christmas list: posters of Occupy Wall Street. The mega chain — one the world's biggest corporations, which has come under fire from Occupy Wall Street for unfair labor practices — has become an unlikely promoter of panoramic posters featuring scenes of the movement’s Lower Manhattan encampment. Walmart now sells the posters online at Walmart.com. OWS supporters spent months encamped in Lower Manhattan in a bid to call attention to economic inequality and corporate greed in the capitalist system before being ousted by the NYPD and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Walmart's massive color posters, which show two Occupy Wall Street scenes at Zuccotti Park, are priced at $52.25 for the larger 36-by-12-inch image, or $42.75 for the 27-by-9-inch size — and can make it to your doorstep in time for Christmas, according to the website. Occupy Wall Street is currently raising its own funds for Walmart workers who are striking in protest of substandard working conditions at the chain — by selling an anti-Walmart shirt for $25.

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